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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Peace studies
The Armenian Genocide has lately attracted a lot of attention, despite the Turkish government's attempts at denial. It has been developed into a central obstacle to Turkey's entry into the European Union. As such it attracts the highest political and public attention. What is largely ignored in the debate, however, is the fact that Armenians were not the only victims of the Young Turk's genocidal population policies. What is still largely forgotten is the murder, expulsion and deportation of other ethnic groups like Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds and Arabs by the Young Turks. This not only increases the number of victims, but also changes the perspective on the foundation of modern Turkey and as such on modern Turkish history more generally. The Thematic Issue of the JGR, the republication of which is proposed here, is the first publication, which addresses these wider issues. It contributes not only to our understanding of the Young Turks' population and extermination policies in all its complexities and so helping to bring the forgotten victims' stories "back" into genocide scholarship, but to our understanding of modern Turkey more generally. It is an indispensable tool for everybody interested in one of the great historical controversies of our time. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Genocide Research.
The book begins with an agenda-setting introduction which will provide an overview of the central question being addressed, such as the circumstances associated with the move towards a political settlement, the parameters of this settlement and the factors that have assisted in bringing it about. The remaining contributions will focus on a range of cases selected for their diversity and their capacity to highlight the full gamut of political approaches to conflict resolution. The cases vary in:
This book ranges over the world's major geopolitical zones, including Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe and will be of interest to practitioners in the field of international security. This book was published as a special issue of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics.
Towards Relational Sociology argues that social worlds comprise networks of interaction and relations. Crossley asserts that relations are lived trajectories of iterated interaction, built up through a history of interaction, but also entailing anticipation of future interaction. In addition, he demonstrates how networks comprise multiple dyadic relations which are mutually transformed through their combination. On this conceptual basis he builds a relational foundation for sociology. Over the course of the book, three central sociological dichotomies are addressed - individualism/holism, structure/agency and micro/macro ? and utilised as a foil against which to construct the case for relational sociology. Through this, Crossley is able to argue that neither individuals nor ?wholes? - in the traditional sociological sense - should take precedence in sociology. Rather sociologists should focus upon evolving and dynamic networks of interaction and relations. The book covers many of the key concepts and concerns of contemporary sociology, including identity, power, exchange and meaning. As such it is an invaluable reference tool for postgraduate students and researchers alike.
With the departure of the Soviet and Cubans from Southern Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa no longer comprises a part of the West's core strategic interest. America's experience in Somalia illustrated the folly of addressing with force what was essentially a humanitarian problem derived from the utter failure of the economic development of the third world. The human tragedy in Rwanda highlighted the seemingly interminable demands for external aid. And Liberia has depicted the gruesome realities of human failure in the only African land with at least historic (but non-colonial) ties to the US. This book provides a thorough examination of one dimension of peacekeeping in Africa: ECOMOG'S role in the attempt to bring peace to Liberia and the impact of this operation on the region.
Neoliberal economics have emerged in the post-Cold War era as the predominant ideological tenet applied to the development of countries in the global south. For much of the global south, however, the promise that markets will bring increased standards of living and emancipation from tyranny has been an empty one. Instead, neoliberalisation has increased the gap between rich and poor and unleashed a firestorm of social ills. This book deals with the post-conflict geographies of violence and neoliberalisation in Cambodia. Applying a geographical analysis to contemporary Cambodian politics, the author employs notions of neoliberalism, public space, and radical democracy as the most substantive components of its theoretical edifice. He argues that the promotion of unfettered marketisation is the foremost causal factor in the country's inability to consolidate democracy following a United Nations sponsored transition. The book demonstrates Cambodian perspectives on the role of public space in Cambodia's process of democratic development and explains the implications of violence and its relationship with neoliberalism. Taking into account the transition from war to peace, authoritarianism to democracy, and command economy to a free market, this book offers a critical appraisal of the political economy in Cambodia.
This volume suggests a model of collective memory that distinguishes between two conceptual logics of memory fragmentation: vertical fragmentation and horizontal fragmentation. It offers a series of case studies of conflict and post-conflict collective memory, shedding light on the ways various actors participate in the production, dissemination, and contestation of memory discourses. With attention to the characteristics of both vertical and horizontal memory fragmentation, the book addresses the plurality of diverging, and often conflicting, memory discourses that are produced within the public sphere of a given community. It analyzes the juxtaposition, tensions, and interactions between narratives produced beyond or below the central state, often transcending national boundaries. The book is structured according to the type of actors involved in a memory fragmentation process. It explores how states have been trying to produce and impose memory discourses on civil societies, sometimes even against the experiences of their own citizens, and how such efforts as well as backlash from actors below and beyond the state have led to horizontal and vertical memory fragmentation. Furthermore, it considers the attempts by states’ representatives to reassert control of national memory discourses and the subsequent resistances they face. As such, this volume will appeal to sociology and political science scholars interested in memory studies in post-conflict societies.
In the context of gun proliferation and persistent gun violence in the United States, a controversial security strategy has gained public attention: bulletproof fashion. This book examines concerns about security focusing on armored clothing and accessories for civilians. Available for children and adults, such ballistic products include colorful backpacks, elegant suits, sports jackets, feminine dresses, trendy vests, and medical lab coats. These products are paradigmatic of a "fashion of fear"-the practice of outfitting the body with apparel aimed at maximizing personal security. This fashion encourages the emergence of both a fortress body and an armored society. Sutton also explores the wider social factors influencing the bulletproof fashion phenomenon, including the inequalities associated with neoliberalism and the militarization of civilian life. The book sheds light on the role of emotions in relation to discourses and perceptions of security, and encourages feminist and sociological studies to pay attention to the linkages between security, bodies, and dress. It is ideal for students and scholars interested in security and gun violence, culture and politics, neoliberalism and consumption, and bodies and emotions.
This book is composed of interconnected essays which reflect on challenging new issues related to diplomacy, communication, and peace. This book begins by drawing out some of the challenges for diplomacy that arise from modern theories of semantics and of strategic communication, as well as those posed by the need for secrecy, and by the activities of agents of influence. It then proceeds to examine important issues in contemporary diplomacy, including refugee diplomacy, humanitarian diplomacy, sovereignty, norms, and consular activities. It concludes with an exploration of dilemmas that confront attempts to promote peace through multilateral means, such as the limitations of peacemaking diplomacy, the difficulty of promoting democratic governance, and the problems associated with dealing with morally repugnant actors. The book is grounded in the conception of diplomacy as a social practice with multiple players, and recognises that 'the state' has many different elements, and that 'state actors' live in worlds shaped not just by their relations with other states, but also by their own complex domestic politics. This book will be of much interest to students of diplomacy, foreign policy, and International Relations.
This book analyzes the origins and organizational structure of Islamic State (IS), examining its military triumphs and success in securing new recruits via social media. From its base in Iraq and Syria, IS has spread globally with 17 regional affiliates from Indonesia to Nigeria and sleeper cells in at least 60 countries, capable of atrocities like the Paris attack. To understand the threat of IS, this book explores its organizational structure and underlying ideology, and implications for Western efforts to attack the leadership of IS. The ways IS has grown by swiftly adapting its military strategy, developing creative forms of funding and efforts to win hearts and minds of locals are identified. The author highlights how the competing individual national interests between the Western military alliance and local partners have served to strengthen IS. With its ideology spreading ever further, this book warns of the looming violent confrontation between democratic and Islamist forces. This volume speaks to academics in international relations, security studies and strategic studies, policy-makers and interested parties.
Bringing together both contemporary and historical Just War concepts, Peter Lee shows that Blair's illusion of morality evaporated quickly and irretrievably after the 2003 Iraq invasion because the ideas Blair relied upon were taken out of their historical context and applied in a global political system where they no longer hold sway.
The EU's self promotion as a ?conflict manager? is embedded in a discourse about its ?shared values? and their foundation in a connection between security, development and democracy. This book provides a collection of essays based on the latest cutting edge research into the EU's active engagement in conflict management. It maps the evolution of EU policy and strategic thinking about its role, and the development of its institutional capacity to manage conflicts. Case studies of EU conflict management within the Union, in its neighbourhood and further afield, explore the consistency, coherence, and politicization of EU strategy at the implementation stage. The essays examine the extent to which the EU can exert influence on conflict dynamics and outcomes. Such influence depends on a number of changing factors: how the EU conceptualizes conflict and policy solutions; the balance of interests within the EU on the issue (divided or concerted) and the degree of politicization in the EU's role; the scope for an external EU role; and the value attached by the conflict parties to EU engagement ? a value that is almost wholly bound to their interest in a membership perspective (or other strong relationship to the EU) rather than to ?shared values? as an end in themselves. This book was based on a special issue of Ethnopolitics.
With a Foreword by Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice-President of the European Commission Like conflict prevention and crisis management, 'peacebuilding' forms an integral part of the European Union's external policy efforts to break the cycle of conflict, insecurity and poverty. A concept developed in the context of the United Nations, the EU's Lisbon Treaty mentions 'post-conflict stabilisation' among the tasks which the EU is set to perform in the implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy. The Union's advance in this field has been universally welcomed by peacebuilding actors, especially since the EU's ongoing contributions in financial, technical and logistical terms in post-conflict areas have been couched in an increasing number of European Security and Defence Policy missions. The proliferation of the EU's institutional and operational mechanisms to build peace in post-conflict environments has led to a whole series of new policy and legal questions, which are addressed by leading practitioners and academics in this unique compilation. Specific to this book: * Contributions take into account the final text of the Lisbon Treaty and the lessons learned from more than twenty military and civilian operations * Addresses policy and legal potential and limits, and outlines the parameters for future decision-making and capacity-building * Combines thematic contributions with concrete case studies, and offers insights into how the EU's peacebuilding tools are implemented in practice
This book studies India's evolving naval engagements with other nations of the Indian Ocean region. It traces the growth of the Indian Navy and discusses its role as an instrument of meeting national objectives, particularly for furthering foreign policy. The volume analyses themes such as Indian Navy's (IN) transition from a brown water to blue water force, Indian maritime debates and doctrines, naval 'bridge-building' missions, and Sino-Indian maritime competitions. It examines Indian Navy's regional roles within the broader framework of its diplomatic objectives in particular regions and looks at how keen regional states are to accept India as a crisis manager and would allow it to build a regional maritime security architecture. The author also discusses state control over naval diplomatic roles and investigates if Indian Navy can effectively hedge extra-regional, mainly Chinese, involvement in the Indian Ocean. An important study of India's naval prowess, this book will be indispensable to students and researchers of political science, international relations, maritime and naval studies, strategic studies, geopolitics, defence studies, conflict studies, diplomacy, Indian Ocean studies, South Asian studies and those interested in India-China maritime rivalry.
Covers the global range of historical and contemporary genocide case-studies Includes previously unpublished talks, and media interviews from one of the top scholars in the field of genocide studies.
Violence, war and internal conflicts have assumed a new intensity with the decline of the Cold War. There are over 32 civil wars going on today. The world may well witness 100 million refugees in the year 2000 as a direct result of internal wars. This volume consists of case studies and theory-orientated papers dealing with Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. Taken together, they spell out implications of wide general interest, providing a comparative basis for a systematic approach to conflict transformation. The author has also written "Conflict Resolution in Uganda" and "Ethnic Conflicts and Human Rights".
This edited volume explores how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming international conflict in cyberspace. Over the past three decades, cyberspace developed into a crucial frontier and issue of international conflict. However, scholarly work on the relationship between AI and conflict in cyberspace has been produced along somewhat rigid disciplinary boundaries and an even more rigid sociotechnical divide – wherein technical and social scholarship are seldomly brought into a conversation. This is the first volume to address these themes through a comprehensive and cross-disciplinary approach. With the intent of exploring the question ‘what is at stake with the use of automation in international conflict in cyberspace through AI?’, the chapters in the volume focus on three broad themes, namely: (1) technical and operational, (2) strategic and geopolitical, and (3) normative and legal. These also constitute the three parts in which the chapters of this volume are organised, although these thematic sections should not be considered as an analytical or a disciplinary demarcation. This book will be of much interest to students of cyber-conflict, artificial intelligence, security studies and International Relations.
In response to the increased interest in peacekeeping and the 40th anniversary of the first UN peacekeeping operation, the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and the International Peace Academy (IPA) agreed to co-sponsor a workshop entitled, "The UN and Peacekeeping: Results, Limitations and Prospects: the Lessons of 40 Years of Experience" in Oslo, Norway on 12-14 Dec 1988.;The idea behind the workshop was to bring together a select group of peacekeeping practitioners, diplomats, and academicians with particular interest in this area in order to evaluate the historical experiences of peacekeeping and to critically analyse its present potentials and problems.;The editors brought together a group of professionals, with first-hand experience in areas of peacekeeping. The Chairman was Sir Brian Urquhart, the former Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, who has been associated with peacekeeping from its inception. The list of other participants is included in this publication.;This publication includes the papers presented at the Oslo workshop and the reflections of the Chairman. The workshop participants agreed on the agenda for further research, whic
This book argues that the existing scholarship on asymmetric conflict has so far failed to take into account the role of socio-cultural disparities among belligerents. In order to remedy this deficiency, this study conceptualizes socio-cultural asymmetry under the term of asymmetry of values. It proposes that socio-cultural values which are based upon the codes of retaliation, silence, and hospitality - values which are intrinsic to honor cultures, yet absent from modern institutionalized cultures - may significantly affect violent mobilization and pro-insurgent support in that they facilitate recruitment into and support for insurgent groups, while denying such support to incumbent forces. Utilizing Russia's counterinsurgency campaigns in the First and Second Chechnya Wars as an empirical case study, this study explains how asymmetry of values can have an effect on the dynamics of contemporary irregular wars.
From the terrorist attacks of 9/11 to the assassination of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh to the London transportation bombings, dramatic events of recent years have generated security concerns about Muslim communities in the West. These have added an additional layer to the tensions surrounding Muslim immigrant integration and have generated heated discussions about how governments should address such challenges. This collection assembles leading scholars to address four central themes related to the interactions between Muslims and states in contemporary Europe and North America. Its authors investigate the timing of Muslims? emergence as a perceived security risk; they review the variety of actions undertaken in response to the new concerns; they assess the effectiveness of different kinds of policies in managing the security and social challenges that governmental actors observe; and they identify relevant Muslim sub-groups and their highly divergent views on recent developments. This book thus serves as a foundation for understanding an issue of critical importance and as a touchstone for advancing public, policy, and scholarly debate about Muslim-state interactions. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
As one of South Asia's oldest democracies Sri Lanka is a critical case to examine the limits of a liberal peace, peacebuilding and external engagement in the settlement of civil wars. This book is based on nine years of research, and more than 100 interviews with those affected by the war, NGOs, and local and international elites engaged in the peace process. A critical assessment of peacebuilding and the impact of economic recovery programmes on the peace process in Sri Lanka Timely analysis - coming one and a half years after the war ended in Sri Lanka. Based on over nine years of detailed research and over 100 interviews A critical assessment of the liberal peace thesis Addresses gap in the literature on peacebuilding - assessing the impact of peacebuilding-type programmes on the ground and challenging the widespread assumption that these activities link to peace. Includes a first-hand account of the situation in Sri Lanka during the ceasefire in the war-affected district of Manner
This book analyses the politics of the humanitarian disarmament community-a loose coalition of activist and advocacy groups, humanitarian agencies and diplomats-who have successfully achieved international treaties banning landmines, cluster munitions and nuclear weapons, as well as restricting the global arms trade. Two campaigns have won Nobel Peace Prizes. Disarmament has long been a dirty word in the international relations lexicon. But the success of the humanitarian disarmament agenda shows that people often choose to prohibit or limit certain violent technologies, for reasons of security, honour, ethics or humanitarianism. This edited volume showcases interdisciplinary research by scholars and practitioners seeking to understand the dynamics and impact of the new global activism on weapons. While some raise concerns that humanitarian disarmament may be piecemeal and depoliticizing, others see opportunities to breathe new life into moribund arms control policymaking. Foreword by 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jody Williams.
Small arms and light artillery are the primary weapons of most armed conflicts. International responses have been shaped by the view that they are abundantly available and easily accessible to all on a global illicit market. This book argues that the arming of conflict is complexly structured and highly dynamic. It uncovers and describes the construction and interaction of structures and dynamics at global and regional levels, which shape the arming patterns of both state and non-state actors.
This book explores how creative ways of resolving social conflicts emerge, evolve, and subsequently come to be accepted or rejected in inter-group relations. Creativity and Conflict Resolution explores a subject with which political communities involved in social conflict have always grappled: creative ways of imagining and actualizing visions of conflict resolution. This is an ambitious question, which concerns human communities at many different levels, from families, regional-independence movements, and national governments, to inter-state alliances. The author argues that unconventional viability lies at the heart of creativity for transcending seemingly intractable inter-communal conflicts. More specifically, conflict resolution creativity is a social and epistemological process, whereby actors involved in a given social conflict learn to formulate an unconventional resolution option or procedure. Demystifying the origin of unthinkable breakthroughs for conflict resolution and illuminating theories of creativity based on 17 international case studies, this book will be of much interest to students of conflict resolution, peace and conflict studies, human security and IR. Tatsushi Arai is an Assistant Professor of Conflict Transformation at the SIT Graduate Institute in Vermont, USA. He has a PhD in Conflict Resolution from George Mason University, Washington DC, and extensive practical experience in the field.
Sharing Security is a unique and comprehensive study of a key yet often neglected feature of modern international society. It begins by assessing how political theory can contribute to an understanding of international burdensharing. It then analyses in turn why some Western states contribute more than others to common defences, the European Union budget and overseas development aid. It highlights the particular burdensharing problems involved in global regimes, focusing on the UN's continuing financial crisis and the costs of combating global warming. It argues that today's burdensharing disparities continue to be shaped by the particular character of the international settlement at the end of the Second World War.
This collective work analyzes the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, providing a coherent picture of Ukraine and Eastern Europe in the period 2013-2020. Giving voice to different social groups, scholarly communities and agencies relevant to Ukraine's recent history, The War in Ukraine's Donbas goes beyond simplistic media interpretations that limit the analysis to Vladimir Putin and Russian aims to annex Ukraine. Instead, the authors identify the deeper roots linked to the autonomy and history of Donbas as a region. The contributions explore local society and traditions and the alienation from Ukraine caused by the events of Euromaidan, which saw the removal of the Donetsk-based president Viktor Yanukovych. Other chapters address the refugee crisis, the Minsk Accords in 2014 and the impact of the new president Volodymyr Zelensky and his efforts to bring the war to an end by negotiations among Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany. The book concludes with four proposals for a durable peace in Donbas: territorial power-sharing; the conversion of rebels into legitimate political parties; amnesty for all participants of the armed conflict; and a transitional period of several years until political institutions are fully re-established. |
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