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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Peace studies
This ground-breaking book examines how and why the much-vaunted Oslo Peace Accords between the Israelis and Palestinians collapsed. The author analyzes the players on both sides of the accords, pointing out the attitudes and actions that serve to undermine peace and promote conflict. On the one hand, she criticizes the Islamist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad for not tolerating the idea of any true long-term peace with Israel. On the other hand, she scrutinizes the factions for and against Oslo that developed within Israeli government circles, and she calls into question the ability of Israeli intelligence to correctly assess the Palestinian negotiators. By means of such examination, this book poses a fundamental question: Can Islamic fundamentalism ever accept the existence of Israel or will it short-circuit any prospect of peace between majority-Muslim states and their non-Muslim counterparts?
Although each state is unique it is possible to identify certain common problems and issues with respect to defence governance and management. Governance and Management of Defence is a unique introduction to all the key principles of governance and management through the clear identification of these commonalities. The leading contributors that this volume brings together also show that if individuals are keen to reform practices within their defence establishments they need to be aware of the many constraints and obstacles that may challenge their endeavours. Each contributor is an acknowledged expert in their field and identifes examples of good practice from across the world and the steps taken to implement that practice. This new volume work supports teaching with accessible prompts for reflective activity. The editors recognize that many readers will not be native English speakers, so plain English is used throughout with international examples and case studies to make all the topics and themes clearly relevant and understandable. This is the ideal introductory text for any course that deals with management within the defence sector This book will be of great interest to all students of armed forces and defence management, politics and strategic and military studies.
The history of United Nations peacekeeping is largely one of failure. This book puts a case for augmenting "ad hoc" peacekeepers with competent contract labour; and within the constraints of a new legal regime, supporting future operations with well-trained contractors who might subdue by force those who inflict gross human rights abuses on others.
While conscientious objection in the twentieth century has been well documented, there has been surprisingly little study of its long history in America's early conflicts. Peter Brock, one of the foremost historians of American pacifism, seeks to remedy this oversight by presenting a rich and varied collection of documents, many drawn from obscure sources, that shed new light on American religious and military history. These include legal findings, church and meeting proceedings, appeals by non-conformists to government authorities, and illuminating excerpts from personal journals.One of the most striking features to emerge from these documents is the critical role of religion in the history of American pacifism. Brock finds that virtually all who refused military service in this period were inspired by religious convictions, with Quakers frequently being the most ardent dissenters. A dramatic, powerful portrait of early American pacifism, Liberty and Conscience presents not only the thought and practice of the objectors themselves, but also the response of the authorities and the general public.
When the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) was founded just over a century ago the practice of referring disputes to international tribunals was un usual. Instead, arbitration, with its procedural emphasis on party-autonomy, was seen as the only acceptable way for sovereign states to settle their differences peacefully. War and neutrality, as Professor Shabtai Rosenne explains in his in troduction to this most welcome publication of extracts from the proceedings of the International Peace Conferences, were regarded as inevitable realities of in ternational relations as late as the mid-twentieth century. Moreover, a perma nent tribunal with international jurisdiction would not have stood much chance of either success, or survival, at the end ofthe nineteenth century. The First International Peace Conference in 1899 adopted the 1899 Conven tion for the Pacific Settlement of International Disputes, the objectives of which were international disarmament and the strengthening of international dispute settlement as an alternative to war. The 1899 Convention alsocreated the PCA in an effort to institutionalize dispute resolution through a third party mechanism."
This edited collection offers a comprehensive examination of theory, research, and practice in crisis (hostage) negotiation from the perspectives of communication, law enforcement, psychology, sociology, and criminology. The volume identifies promising conceptual frameworks for the development of research on crisis negotiation. This book is also useful to crisis negotiation trainers and leaders in law enforcement who are searching for insight beyond anecdotal stories and who recognize the need for more rigorous application of behavioral science to the practice of crisis negotiation.
Based on original empirical research, this book explores retributive and gender justice, the potentials and limits of agency, and the correlation of transitional justice and social change through case studies of current dynamics in post-violence countries such Rwanda, South Africa, Cambodia, East Timor, Columbia, Chile and Germany.
This book aims to initiate among students and other readers critical and interdisciplinary reflections on key problems concerning development, gender relations, peace and environment, with a special emphasis on North-South relations. This volume offers a selection of the author's research in different parts of the world during 50 years of contributing to an interdisciplinary scientific debate and addressing social answers to urgent global problems. After the author's biography and bibliography, the second part analyses the development processes of several countries in the South that resulted in a dynamic of underdevelopment. The deep-rooted gender discrimination is also reflected in the destructive exploitation of natural resources and the pollution of soils, water and air. Since the beginning of the Anthropocene in the mid-20th century, the management of human society and global resources has been unsustainable and has created global environmental change and multiple conflicts over scarce and polluted resources. Peace and development policies aiming at gender equity and sustainable environmental management, where water and food are crucial for the survival of humankind, focus on systemic alternatives embedded in a path of sustainability transition. * This book reviews multiple influences from Europe, Africa and Latin America on a leading social scientist and activist on gender, development and environment aiming at a world with equity, sustainability, peace and harmony between nature and humans.* This pioneer volume analyses social and environmental conflicts and peace processes in Latin America, with a special focus on Mexico, by addressing the development of under-development, global environmental change, poverty, nutrition and the North-South gap.* This volume focuses on environmental deterioration with a special emphasis on food and water and proposes systemic changes towards a sustainability transition with peace, regional development and gender equity.* This pioneering work offers alternative approaches to regional development, food sovereignty and holistic development processes from a gender perspective.
It may seem a strange notion to give the private sector a role in conflict prevention or resolution, but multinational corporations (MNCs) do have some characteristics that make them good partners in a well-designed strategy for peace and stability. By focusing on their core competencies, their presence in a conflict region can help to provide prosperity for rebuilding society and its institutions, and improved respect for human rights. This book is not a song of praise for MNCs in general. There is a litany of examples of companies that feel no shame in profiting from conflicts by trading weapons or illegal resources, that prolong war by supporting one or other of the parties, or that are only in a war-torn country because the lawlessness suits them well. Even companies that refrain from such criminal activities cannot be envisaged as potential peace-builders if they profit unscrupulously from cheap labour or cheap subcontractors. Instead, this book is about corporations that are disposed to ethical, responsible entrepreneurship: companies that balance their desire for profit with compliance with international business and human rights standards and with a genuine investment in local workers, environmental protection, social development and stability. Worldwide about 60,000 MNCs work in over 70 conflict regions. They operate in regions where social unrest is harshly repressed, where outright fighting takes place, or where civil war has recently ended. Whatever the attitude of multinationals and whatever their area of business, they influence conflicts or are themselves influenced by conflicts. Even if they do not directly invest in or trade with a conflict region, they always risk being associated with those conflicts. The Profit of Peace examines how multinationals can use their core business competencies to promote peace and stability in conflict regions and what role - if any - business has in diplomacy. To investigate these questions the authors interviewed CEOs and high-level managers of multinationals working in 'challenging' countries such as Afghanistan, Burma and Rwanda. The interviewees provided extraordinarily candid views on both the practical and ethical issues that occur when operating under extremely volatile circumstances. The lessons learned by these managers make the book invaluable for any manager working for a large company in a region of unrest. Two vital elements emerged. Firstly, the ability to manage cultural differences is a key factor for success. Without a keen sense of the differences in management styles, in perceptions of ethics and morality, and in the values behind political opinions, every peace effort is doomed to fail. Secondly, ethically correct decisions do not necessarily lead to ethically correct results. It was not the objective of the authors to judge which of the parties in conflict regions are right or wrong. Rather, they wanted to find out what kind of attitude at the end of the day contributes most effectively to conflict prevention or stabilisation of a region. In other words, in this book corporate responsibility is measured by the results and not by the intentions. All of the CEOs interviewed for this book were well aware of the fact that their companies operating in conflict regions would always influence the conflict one way or another. This awareness in itself is quite extraordinary, and it shows that the indifferent comment "business is business" by and large belongs to a past era. Also extraordinary was that the managers allowed such a frank look into their sanctuary, since this candour makes them all the more vulnerable to criticism. Through the information from the interviewees and from other managers who have experience in conflict regions, the book outlines the ingredients for an approach that can best lead to a solution of conflicts and to greater stability. It will only be in the long run that we will be able to establish how successful the new profession of 'business diplomat' can be, but in the meantime the daily practices of MNCs show that they can work on 'the profit of peace'. This book is based on investigative journalism and contains many examples of best practices worldwide. It will be essential reading for practitioners, policy-makers and students involved with corporate social responsibility, peace studies, development studies and stakeholder management.
This book analyzes the civil war in Yemen and how intervening external actors have shaped the trajectory of the conflict. The work examines the conflict in Yemen as a testing ground for expectations about the autonomy and control of proxies by external patrons and the direct consequences for civilian victimization and duration of war. Like other proxy wars, the international dimensions of the war made the conflict in Yemen subject to the geopolitical interests of intervening powers. The longstanding power rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Middle East supremacy resulted in a competitive intervention in Yemen, where the initial belligerents of the civil war-the Houthi and the Hadi regime-were used as proxies by Tehran and the Gulf coalition led by Riyadh, respectively. Their intervention ultimately translated into a prolonged and destructive conflict. The often contradictory and self-interested patronage strategies by the coalition's two central patrons, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, undermined their broader goal of containing Iran. However, Iran's support for the Houthis enabled them to bait and bleed the Gulf coalition. Lastly, in an effort to balance against Iran, the United States underwrote the military campaign of the Gulf states with military hardware and personnel, thereby further prolonging the conflict and humanitarian disaster. This book concludes that intervention by external patrons both protracted the civil war and made it far more destructive for the civilian population. This book will be of much interest to students of proxy wars, Middle Eastern conflict, and security studies in general.
This book develops a novel approach to peace and conflict studies, through an original application of the philosophy of Jacques Derrida to the post-conflict politics of Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Based on new readings of the peace agreements and the post-conflict political systems, the book goes beyond accounts that present a static picture of 'fixed divisions' in these cases. By exploring how formal electoral politics and the informal political spheres of artistic, cultural, judicial and protest movements already contest the politics of division, the book argues that the post-conflict political systems in Northern Ireland and Bosnia and Herzegovina are in a process of deconstruction. The text adds to the Derridean lexicon by developing the idea of a 'deconstructive conclusion', which challenges historical understandings of conflicts at the same time as challenging their consequences in the present. The study provides a critical contribution to peacebuilding and International Relations literature, by demonstrating how Derridean concepts can be utilised to provide fresh understandings of conflict and post-conflict situations, as well as allowing for political interventions to be made into these processes.
Israel is a Jewish state in a Muslim Middle East. How can it
survive in that region? This book answers this question by
analyzing the dangers and threats that Israel faces today.
Clashes over environmental issues often leave government agencies, industry and activists locked in unproductive political or legal combat. Increasingly, players from all sides are conceding that there must be some other way of resolving environmental conflicts. This book examines that proposition by examining how and why conflicts occur and whether approaches to conflict resolution based on consensus building could be more widely applied. It differs from existing books by covering both environmental mediation and public participation and by analysing detailed case studies from the UK, the US and the Netherlands. In addition, the book explores official resistance to the wider use of consensus building, arguing that government agencies that have resisted participation and mediation cannot be dismissed as the problem but have to be part of the solution. The concluding chapter suggests general principles for effective partnership working concerning the remits, resources and the timescales within which agencies operate.
In an age of unprecedented world-wide prosperity, forty per cent of
Africa's 600 million people exist on less than US $1 per day, and a
third of its 53 states are affected by conflict.
The book traces the end of hostilities and the often acrimonious, sometimes naive, but always laboured negotiations towards peace and elections in Mozambique. There is careful examination of the many international factors involved from the covert intervention of South Africa, the reaction of one African state, the role of the United Nations and that of humanitarian and religious groups. The lessons for conflict resolution and peacekeeping for Africa and beyond are discussed.
From Dictatorship to Democracy was a pamphlet, printed and distributed by Dr Gene Sharp and based on his study, over a period of forty years, on non-violent methods of demonstration. Now in its fourth edition, it was originally handed out by the Albert Einstein Institution, and although never actively promoted, to date it has been translated into thirty-one languages. This astonishing book travelled as a photocopied pamphlet from Burma to Indonesia, Serbia and most recently Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, with dissent in China also reported. Surreptitiously handed out amongst youth uprisings the world over - how the 'how-to' guide came about and its role in the recent Arab uprisings is an extraordinary tale. Once read you'll find yourself urging others to read it and indeed want to gift it.
The present book is about instability and conflict in the Middle East at a time when many still believe that peace between the Arabs and Israel will bring an end to all problems in the region. Maybe that is due to the fact that the Arab-Israeli conflict has dominated much of the discussions about the area over the past fifty years. Insufficient attention has therefore been devoted to other important issues that may not be quite as eye-catching or newsworthy. This is exactly what the book is aiming to offer.
Gestures of Conciliation examines the ideas, assumptions and theories that underpin how leaders of parties in intractable conflicts begin and sustain a process of peacemaking by offering to their adversaries 'olive-branches' - in more modern terms symbolic gestures, concessions, tension-reducing moves or confidence-building measures. It discusses means of overcoming political and psychological barriers to accurate communication, trust-building, domestic consensus formation, and 'ripe' conditions for conciliation, suggesting practical guidelines for accommodation.
This book presents a new approach for studying peace beyond the absence of war. As war ends, the varying nature of the peace that ensues has been the object of much debate. Through in-depth case studies, including Cyprus, Cambodia, South Africa, Abkhazia, Transnistria/Russia, Colombia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Myanmar, the book illustrates how conceptualising 'relational peace' provides a framework that can be applied across cases and actors, different levels of analysis, a variety of geographical contexts and using different temporal perspectives and types of data. This novel framework enables improved empirical studies of peace. The book contributes nuanced understandings of peace in particular settings and demonstrates the multifaceted nature of peaceful relations - what is termed 'relational peace practices' - making important contributions to the field of studying peace beyond the absence of war. -- .
Whether in international military interventions or routine policing activities the use of force raises a host of questions about appropriateness, necessity and proportionality. Recently attention has focused on the possibility of so-called non-lethal weapons to provide greater legitimacy to the use of force by minimizing injury.
Most studies of international negotiations take successful talks as
their subject. With a few notable exceptions, analysts have paid
little attention to negotiations ending in failure. The essays in
"Unfinished Business" show that as much, if not more, can be
learned from failed negotiations as from successful negotiations
with mediocre outcomes. "Failure" in this study pertains to a set
of negotiating sessions that were convened for the purpose of
achieving an agreement but instead broke up in continued
disagreement.
After decades of striving to prevent international conflict, major armed conflicts in the 1990s have taken place within national boundaries. After the series of national independence wars in the 1950s and 1960s and frequent geopolitical wars in the 1970s and 1980s, a category of 'wars of the third kind' prevailed. The aim of this book is to consider the root causes of recent internal conflicts, and to develop long-term conflict prevention strategies from here. New insights suggest the central role of politico-economic inequalities in ethnic, religious and cultural conflict. The United Nations system has just started to adjust to this new reality of conflict and make long-term conflict prevention a priority issue on international agendas. Whereas development practitioners should principally conceive their work through a conflict prevention lens, there is a shift in focus to United Nations agencies that deal with the economic characteristics of conflict. The unbroken significance of a sustainable industrial development process in developing countries, may allow the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) a particular vantage point and role in the long-term prevention of conflict. |
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