The diversity of Kurdish communities across the Middle East is now recognized as central to understanding both the challenges and opportunities for their representation and politics. Yet little scholarship has focused on the complexities within these different groups and the range of their experiences. This book diversifies the literature on Kurdish Studies by offering close analyses of subjects which have not been adequately researched, and in particular, by highlighting the Kurds' relationship to the Yazidis. Case studies include: the political ideas of Ehmede Xani, "the father of Kurdish nationalism"; Kurdish refugees in camps in Iraq; the perception of the Kurds by Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire and the Turks in modern Western Turkey; and the important connections and shared heritage of the Kurds and the Yazidis, especially in the aftermath of the 2014 ISIS attacks. The book comprises the leading voices in Kurdish Studies and combines in-depth empirical work with theoretical and conceptual discussions to take the debates in the field in new directions. The study is divided into three thematic sections to capture new insights into the heterogeneous aspects of Kurdish history and identity. In doing so, contributors explain why we need to pay close attention to the shifting identities and the diversity of the Kurds, and what implications this has for Middle East Studies and Minority Studies more generally.

An encyclopedia of the Mexican-American War, including excerpts from eyewitness accounts that highlight the day-to-day reality of marching and fighting.

Years after 9/11, the Global War on Terror is still not over. The deepening crisis in Iraq has been accompanied by rising violence in Asia, as the bombings in Indonesia show. The 18 specialists and policymakers who have contributed to this book assess how the security scenario in the Asia Pacific has changed in response to these events. The Asia Pacific is rent by communal conflicts that have generated local jihads, which fuel regional and global jihads. This book assesses state responses to terrorism, paying attention to neglected factors such as money laundering, the emerging role of the EU, the growing fear of the US and increasing concern about the way anti-terrorist legislation curtails civil liberties. With the benefit of extensive fieldwork and access to unique sources in many languages, the contributors analyze key features of the local security scenarios. Pakistan's precarious situation is explored here from many angles, including Islamic militancy, the role of the military and the peace process with India. Again, domestic failures support regional and global terror. Regional anti-terrorist collaboration is also hampered by South-east Asia's counter-terrorism dilemmas, setbacks in the Philippine-US security relationship, the Asian arms race, and growing fears of the US National Missile Defence system and how this system will be perceived by China. The history of state sponsored terrorism and millenarian ideology are crucial to these regional scenarios. The latter, in the particular form of Japan's Aum Shinrikyo movement, reminds us that militant Islamists are not uniquely destructive. An important addition to the literature on terrorism and security, this in-depth and comprehensive analysis of a complex and increasingly unstable region will be welcomed by political scientists, scholars, policymakers, and those seeking a better understanding of whether the Global War on Terror has changed the security architecture of the Asia Pacific in a positive way.

This book focuses on an even more urgent and "inconvenient truth" than global warming. At the nuclear precipice, humanity's choices are catastrophe or transformation. This book explores the present nuclear predicament, and how to step away from the precipice and assure humanity's future. It examines the intersections between international law and national policies; and between nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism and nuclear disarmament. The book offers a way out if policy makers of leading countries can summon the vision and political will to move in a new direction.

Duck punch, cover block and knee strike. Boxing, wrestling and Ju-Jitsu. Gameplan, lines of attack and final disengagement. If you can't take flight, you're going to have to fight. Extreme Unarmed Combat is an authoritative handbook on an immense array of close combat defence techniques, from fistfights to headlocks, from tackling single unarmed opponents to armed groups, from stance to manoeuvring. Presented in a handy pocketbook format, Extreme Unarmed Combat's structure considers the different fighting and martial arts skills you can use before looking at the areas of the body to defend, how to attack without letting yourself be hurt and how to incapacitate your opponent. With more than 300 black-&-white illustrations of combat scenarios, punches, blocks and ducks, and with expert easy-to-follow text, Extreme Unarmed Combat guides you through everything you need to know about what to do when you can't escape trouble. This book could save your life.

This title recounts the massacre at Sant'Anna di Stazzema and examines its after effects. During the Nazi occupation of Italy, SS officers were charged with destroying anti-Fascist and anti-Nazi partisans. Paolo Pezzino not only reconstructs the events, but deals with the 'forgetting' of the massacre.

Adam J. Levine analyzes the origins of the Cuban Missile Crisis, with a particular focus on Nikita Khrushchev's motives and the response of the Kennedy administration. Levine's account presents a different portrayal of the events than popularly told, shedding light on John F. Kennedy's decision-making practices and personal behavior while out of public eye.

Detecting the Bomb examines how the United States developed the seismic component of the U.S. Atomic Energy Detection System. What led leaders of Western and Eastern nations to the realization that a nuclear test ban could be of mutual interest? Why did the USSR insist that underground explosions could be adequately distinguished from earthquakes and safely monitored without verification systems on their territory, and why did the United States vigorously disagree? Dr. Romney will answer these questions while laying out the principles of scientific detection and reliable discrimination. One of the nation's leading seismologists, Dr. Romney describes the development of methods for detecting nuclear explosions, and their effect on nuclear test ban negotiations from the late 1950s to the mid 1960s. Carl Romney cites important details from early scientific studies, and explains how seismology formed the crux of the diplomatic debate in the early nuclear age.

Is it possible that the soldiers of mass atrocities-Adolph Eichmann in Nazi Germany and Alfredo Astiz in Argentina's Dirty War, for example-act under conditions that prevent them from recognizing their crimes? In the aftermath of catastrophic, state-sponsored mass murder, how are criminal courts to respond to those who either gave or carried out the military orders that seem unequivocally criminal? This important book addresses Hannah Arendt's controversial argument that perpetrators of mass crimes are completely unaware of their wrongdoing, and therefore existing criminal laws do not adequately address these defendants. Mark Osiel applies Arendt's ideas about the kind of people who implement bureaucratized large-scale atrocities to Argentina's Dirty War of the 1970s, and he also delves into the social conditions that could elicit such reprehensible conduct. He focuses on Argentine navy captain Astiz, who led one of the most notorious abduction squads, to discover how he and other junior officers could justify the murders of more than ten thousand suspected "subversives." Osiel concludes that legal stipulations labeling certain deeds as manifestly illegal are indefensible. He calls for a significant change in the laws of war to preserve both justice and the possibility of dialogue between factions in such sharply divided societies as Argentina. Osiel's proposals have profound implications for future prosecutions of Pinochet's lieutenants, Milosevic's henchmen, the willing executioners of Rwanda and East Timor, and other perpetrators of state-endorsed murder and torture.

A collection of prisoner of war and concentration camp survivor stories from some of the toughest World War II camps in Europe and the Pacific, this book details the daring escapes and highlights the fundamental aspects of human nature that made such heroic efforts possible. Levine takes a comprehensive approach, including evasion efforts by those fleeing before the enemy who never reached formal prisoner of war camps, as well as escapes from ghettoes and labor camps.

Levine pays particular attention to dramatic escapes by small boat. Many are not widely known, although some were made over vast distances or in fantastically difficult conditions from enemy-occupied areas. Accounts include attempts at freedom from both German and Japanese prisoner of war camps, stories that reveal much about the conditions prisoners endured. Some of these escapes are far more amazing than the famed Great Escape from Stalag Luft III. German and Austrian prisoners also recount their amazing flights from India to Tibet and Burma. This study challenges some ideas about behavior in extreme situations and casts interesting light on human nature.

Command responsibility, or executive accountability, assumes that leaders are responsible for the actions of their subordinates. If subordinates misbehave, violate basic moral laws, transgress international law, or thwart international standards of behavior, their leader may be called before to justice. Standards that set the boundaries of human action have been evolving for many millennia, with some degree of precision arriving after the post-World War II international war crimes prosecutions. The United Nations and other organizations have helped codify the international law under which commanders may be held responsible. This book explores the factor that have moved civilization closer to a standard approach to rule of law and the accountability of leaders for the actions of those they command.

The tools of reason offer the best hope for the international community to confront the increasing incidents of hate throughout the world. A historically informed, normative examination of the elements of the crime of genocide provides an excellent case study of how the law, reason's handmaiden, enhances understanding and improves practical ways of dealing with global injustices. How should we confront hate? As political activists, we could resort to fighting hate with hate. As concerned citizens, we could consciously ignore or actively protest hate. As committed educators, we could put the implements and survivors of hate on display. As committed scholars, we could resuscitate the idea of evil. As humanitarian jurists, we could put individual hate-mongers on trial. Part I of this book makes a case for making the maximum use of reason to deal with hate. This means that we should actively debate those who promote hate. Further, as a close look at the history of applying law to incidents of hate and violence illustrates, the courtroom proves to be an excellent place to demonstrate the virtues of applying the tools of reason, not to global evils, but to the grave injustices of the world. In Part II, Simon demonstrates the power of legal analysis in enhancing our understanding of genocide, probably the worst injustice imaginable. A close examination of each purported element of the crime of genocide redirects misguided turns taken by international jurists. Contrary to a more realistic perspective adopted at the Nuremberg trials, jurists have mistakenly modeled international criminal law on national criminal law, which focuses on individual responsibility. However, the cases of grave injustices throughout the 20th century amply demonstrate the primary collective responsibility underlying incidences of genocide. The failure to prosecute criminal organizations for genocide has and will continue to have disastrous results. While the Nuremberg tribunal at least disbanded the responsible Nazi organizations, current war crimes tribunals have allowed organizations responsible for the Rwandan genocide to continue to wreak havoc throughout Central Africa. If the international community cannot forge a common understanding of genocide, then it has little hope of establishing an international legal order or a global ethics.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Middle Eastern states spent more than $600 billion expanding their military forces. They acquired thousands of tanks, advanced fighter aircraft, ballistic missiles, chemical weapons, and - in some cases - nuclear devices. These potent arsenals make the Middle East the tinderbox of world affairs. In this book, foreign policy analyst Yahya Sadowski shows that the arms race cannot be sustained in the 1990s. Declining oil prices, overpopulation, economic mismanagement, and foreign policy adventures - such as the 1991 Gulf War, which cost local states another $600 billion - have sapped the economies of the Middle East. Facing dwindling incomes and rising expenses, growing numbers of Middle Easterners now favor diverting funds away from military expenditures and concentrating them on economic development programs. Sadowski argues that arms control programs for the Middle East should be designed to reinforce and exploit these economic pressures for demilitarization. He examines the strengths and weaknesses of various arms control proposals, such as the U.S. call for a cartel of weapons exporters and a Jordanian plan to liquidate the foreign debt of states that curb military expenditures.

Theodor Meron is probably the world's most important author on issues of international humanitarian law. This book is a collection of his essays on war crimes and related areas, together with a new concluding chapter, from which the book takes its title, which brings together the themes explored in the essays.

Journey Out of Darkness is a poignant collection of portraits, in words and photographs, of 19 former prisoners of war who bravely endured captivity in Nazi Germany in World War II. Through these men, one can learn essential truths about the POW experience during that war—truths that counter many popular myths and misconceptions. The men featured here gather every week in offices of the Veterans Administration in Boston and Brockton, Mass. to talk about their experiences and find comfort in each other. In their eighties and nineties, they are unique individuals with unique wartime experiences, but also representative of the more than 120,000 American POWs held in Nazi Germany. They are men who fought a double war, in combat and then as POWs. Using both oral histories and photographs to tell their stories, LaCroix and Meyer humanize a terrifying aspect of war, redefining how we think about these men as POWs, survivors, patriots, and members of the Greatest Generation. Journey Out of Darkness is a poignant collection of portraits, in words and photographs, of 19 former prisoners of war who bravely endured captivity in Nazi Germany during World War II. Through these men, one can learn essential truths about the POW experience during that war—truths that counter many popular myths and misconceptions. The 19 men featured here gather every week in offices of the Veterans Administration in Boston and Brockton, Mass., to talk about their experiences and find comfort in each other. In their eighties and nineties, they are unique individuals with unique wartime experiences, but also representative of the more than 120,000 American POWs held in Nazi Germany. They are men who fought a double war, in combat and then as POWs. Together, their photos and their stories go beyond typical first-person accounts. Until the men in this book began meeting in VA support groups, few had spoken of their POW experiences. Some were told by the military not to talk; others were coerced by military intelligence into signing non-disclosure papers called security certificates. With little exception, they received no recognition for enduring as POWs, even as they struggled with traumatic memories and shame for having been held captive, for losing power over their fate, and for surviving combat when friends died. These portraits also illuminate another little-known story: the plight of Jewish-American POWs. Two of the men featured in the book were Jews who concealed their religious identities from the SS. LaCroix and Meyer have crafted a powerful exploration of the struggles of these brave veterans. Using both oral histories and photographs, Journey Out of Darkness humanizes a terrifying aspect of war, redefining how we think about these men as POWs, survivors, patriots, and members of the Greatest Generation.

In July 1995, the Bosnian Serb Army commanded by General Ratko Mladic attacked the enclave of Srebrenica, a UN "safe area" since 1993, and massacred about 8,000 Bosniac men. While the responsibility for the massacre itself lays clearly with the Serb political and military leadership, the question of the responsibility of various international organizations and national authorities for the fall of the enclave is still passionately discussed, and has given rise to various rumors and conspiracy theories. Follow-up investigations by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and by several commissions have dissipated most of these rumors and contributed to a better knowledge of the Srebrenica events and the part played by the main local and international actors. This volume represents the first systematic, comparative analysis of those investigations. It brings together analyses from both the external standpoint of academics and the inside perspective of various professionals who participated directly in the inquiries, including police officers, members of parliament, high-ranking civil servants, and other experts. Evaluating how institutions establish facts and ascribe responsibilities, this volume presents a historiographical and epistemological reflection on the very possibility of writing a history of the present time.

Isabelle Delpla is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University Montpellier III. Her research focuses on international ethics and justice and the relationships between philosophy and anthropology. She has conducted fieldwork in Bosnia with victim associations, Hague witnesses, and convicted war criminals.

Xavier Bougarel is Researcher at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. He is currently researching the wars of the 1990s and their aftermath in the former Yugoslavia and the transformations of Islam in the post-Communist Balkans.

Jean-Louis Fournel is Professor at the University of Paris VIII. His research focuses on the history of warfare, political thought, and the rhetoric of the Italian Renaissance. Between 1997 and 2001, he directed several European cooperation programs with universities in Bosnia- Herzegovina. In 1994, while the city was under siege, he co-organized the initiative for a sister relationship between his university and that of Sarajevo.

Traces the development of the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and examines the organization's efforts for nuclear disarmament.

This book is the first comprehensive biography of Lemkin based on his papers. It highlights the role of culture in Lemkin's campaign for a Genocide convention and his use of the concept in historical research. It throws fresh light on the attempt by the British government to block the convention. This book is the first complete biography of Raphael Lemkin, the father of the United Nations Genocide Convention, based on his papers; and shows how his campaign for an international treaty succeeded. In addition, the book covers Lemkin's inauguration of the historical study of past genocides.

Does the lethal use of drones pose any new or difficult moral problems? Or is the controversy over these weapons merely a distraction from deeper questions regarding the justice of war and the United States' bellicose foreign policy? Opposing Perspectives on the Drone Debate pulls no punches in answering these questions as five scholars square off in a lively debate over the ethics of drones and their contentious use in a point-counterpoint debate. The contributing authors are some of the foremost thinkers in international affairs today, spanning the disciplines of philosophy, sociology, political science, and law. Topics debated range from the US's contested policy of so-called "targeted killing" in Pakistan's tribal regions to fears over the damaging effects such weaponry has on our democratic institutions to the more abstract moral questions raised by killing via remote control such as the duty to capture over kill.

Combining both legal and empirical research, this book explores the statutory aspects and practice of Gacaca Courts (inkiko gacaca), the centrepiece of Rwanda's post-genocide transitional justice system, assessing their contribution to truth, justice and reconciliation. The volume expands the knowledge regarding these courts, assessing not only their performance in terms of formal justice and compliance with human rights standards but also their actual modus operandi. Scholars and practitioners have progressively challenged the idea that genocide should be addressed exclusively through 'westernised' criminal law, arguing that the uniqueness of each genocidal setting requires specific context-sensitive solutions. Rwanda's experience with Gacaca Courts has emerged as a valuable opportunity for testing this approach, offering never previously tried homegrown solutions to the violence experienced in 1994 and beyond. Due to the unprecedented number of individuals brought to trial, the absence of lawyers, the participative nature, and the presence of lay judges directly elected by the Rwandan population, Gacaca Courts have attracted the attention of researchers from different disciplines and triggered dichotomous reactions and appraisals. The tensions existing within the literature are addressed, anchoring the assessment of Gacaca in a comprehensive legal analysis in conjunction with field research. Through the direct observation of Gacaca trials, and by holding interviews and informal talks with survivors, perpetrators, ordinary Rwandans, academics and the staff of NGOs, a purely legalistic perspective is overcome, offering instead an innovative bottom-up approach to meta-legal concepts such as justice, fairness, truth and reconciliation. Outlining their strengths and shortcomings, this book highlights what aspects of Gacaca Courts can be useful in other post-genocide contexts and provides crucial lessons learnt in the realm of transitional justice. The primary audience this book is aimed at consists of researchers working in the areas of international criminal law, transitional justice, genocide, restorative justice, African studies, human rights and criminology, while practitioners, students and others with a professional interest in the topical matters that are addressed may also find the issues raised relevant to their practice or field of study. Pietro Sullo teaches public international law and international diplomatic law at the Brussels School of International Studies of the University of Kent in Brussels. He is particularly interested in international human rights law, transitional justice, international criminal law, constitutional transitions and refugee law. After earning his Ph.D. at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Dr. Sullo worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg as a senior researcher and as a coordinator of the International Doctoral Research School on Retaliation, Mediation and Punishment. He was also Director of the European Master's Programme in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA) in Venice from 2013 to 2015 and lastly he has worked for international NGOs and as a legal consultant for the Libya Constitution Drafting Assembly on human rights and transitional justice.

"Treating Weapons Proliferation" is a chilling exploration of the dynamics of weapons proliferation and nonproliferation. Through an analogy with the disease of cancer, the book walks the reader through the history of the phenomenon, its growing complexities and changing dimensions, its causes and consequences, and the various policy responses currently available to address it. Taking stock of the nature and challenges of such responses, the book shows that there is no all-encompassing cure for weapons proliferation at the present time, only treatments of relative and contextual effectiveness. Simply put, weapons proliferation, like cancer, has no single cure, but it is a condition that can often be treated, sometimes successfully.

In 1947 German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring was tried and convicted of war crimes committed during World War II. He was held responsible for his troops having executed nearly 9,000 Italian citizens--women, children, elderly men--in retaliation for partisan attacks. His conviction, however, created a real dilemma for the United States and western Europe. While some sought the harshest punishments available for anyone who had participated in the war crimes of the Nazi regime, others believed that the repatriation of alleged war criminals would help secure the allegiance of a rearmed West Germany in the dangerous new Cold War against the Soviet Union.

Kerstin von Lingen's close analysis of the Kesselring case reveals for the first time how a network of veterans, lawyers, and German sympathizers in Britain and America achieved the commutation of Kesselring's death sentence and his eventual release--reinforcing German popular conceptions that he had been innocent all along and that the Wehrmacht had fought a "clean war" in Italy. Synthesizing the work of contemporary German and Italian historians with her own exhaustive archival research, she shows that Kesselring bore much greater guilt for civilian deaths than had been proven in court--and that the war on the southern front had been far from clean.

Von Lingen weaves together strands of the story as diverse as Winston Churchill's ability to mobilize support among British elites, Basil Liddell Hart's need to be recognized as an important military thinker, and the Cold War fears of the "Senators' Circle" in the United States. Through this rich narrative, she shows how international politics shaped the trial's proceedings and outcome--as well as the memory and meaning of the war for German citizens--and sheds new light on the complex interplay between the combatants' efforts to "master the past" and the threatening state of international relations in the early Cold War.

In analyzing the efforts to clear Kesselring's name, von Lingen shows that the case was about much more than the fate of one convicted individual; it also underscored the pressure to wrap up the war crimes issue--and German guilt--in order to get on with the business of bringing a rearmed Germany into the Western alliance. Kesselring's Last Battle sheds new light on the "politics of memory" by unraveling a twisted thread in postwar history as it shows how historical truth is sometimes sacrificed on the altar of expediency.

"War and Social Welfare: Reconstruction after Conflict" addresses the issues of rebuilding social assistance and pension programs in the wake of war. Arguing that post-conflict reconstruction missions need to pay greater attention to comprehensive social policy formation, the book makes normative and functional claims that social welfare programs articulate the core aspects of citizenship. "War and Social Welfare "uses the case of Kosovo to examine the interaction of international and local political actors in their efforts to rebuild social assistance and pension programs after the 1999 NATO airstrikes. Based extensive field research, as well as the author's experience as a humanitarian field officer in Kosovo in 1999 and 2000, "War and Social Welfare "looks closely at the design and implementation of social policy at both the national and local level.