Observers of Iran have often ascribed the main cause of the revolution to economic problems under the Shah's regime. This book, first published in 1990, on the other hand focuses on the political and social factors which contributed of the Pahlavi dynasty. Mehran Kamrava looks at the revolution in detail as a political phenomenon, making use of extensive interviews with former revolutionary leaders, cabinet ministers and diplomats to show the central role of the political collapse of the regime in bringing about the revolution. He concentrates on the internal and the international developments leading to this collapse, and the social environment in which the revolution's leaders emerged.

Despite the decline in the number of military coups since the 1960s and 1970s, Militaries continue to be crucial political actors in many world regions. Their impact on the democratic development of nations, however, has been mixed. On the one hand, coups against democratically elected leaders in Mali (2012), Egypt (2013), and Thailand (2014) have spelled doom for these countries' nascent democratic regimes and have ushered in new periods of military dominance in politics. The cases of Portugal (1974), the Philippines (1986), and Tunisia (2011), on the other hand, show that the military's decision not to defend authoritarian leaders against mass protests contributed crucially to the fall of dictatorships and facilitated transitions to democracy. This volume addresses the military's ambivalent role as "midwife" or "gravedigger" of democracy and highlights the often multi-layered and complex relationship between militaries' political behaviour and democratization. The chapters were originally published in a special issue of Democratization.

Burgess addresses the role of religion in the massive political changes that took place in Eastern Europe in 1989, focusing particularly on the role played by the East German Church in that country's bloodless revolution.

This illuminating volume examines how the 1963 bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama developed as a trauma of culture. Throughout the book, Gill asks why the "four little girls" killed in the bombing became part of the nation's collective memory, while two black boys killed by whites on the same day were all but forgotten. Conducting interviews with classmates who attended a white school a few blocks from some of the most memorable events of the Civil Rights Movement, Gill discovers that the bombing of the church is central to interviewees' memories. Even the boy killed by Gill's own classmates often escapes recollection. She then considers these findings within the framework of the reception of memory and analyzes how white southerners reconstruct a difficult past.

Wars from Within brings together an international and multidisciplinary group of academics and practitioner-researchers specializing in the study of insurgent movements in order to provide a deeper understanding of the violent manifestations of insurgencies in different parts of the world. In doing so, the book adopts both a functional and regional approach. Firstly, thematic chapters discuss the typology of insurgencies (ethnopolitical, religious and ideological), past and potential responses to them, as well as the impact of advance communication technology on insurgent activity. The book then presents a series of case studies assessing the successes and failures of managing contemporary insurgencies. These are drawn from European, Asian and Middle Eastern insurgencies, as well as the global al-Qaeda network that typifies the post-9/11 challenge posed by internationally operating terrorist organizations. The case studies highlight factors and conditions that trigger, escalate, de-escalate and ultimately end insurgent campaigns. The book concludes with an assessment of how the international community at large has responded and should respond to insurgencies in the future.

The revolutionary movements in late tsarist Russia inspired a reaction by groups on the right. Although these groups were ostensibly defending the status quo, they were in fact, as this book argues, very radical in many ways. This book discusses these radical rightist groups, showing how they developed considerable popular appeal across the whole Russian Empire, securing support from a wide cross-section of society. The book considers the nature and organisation of the groups, their ideologies and polices on particular issues and how they changed over time. The book concludes by examining how and why the groups lost momentum and support in the years immediately before the First World War, and briefly explores how far present day rightist groups in Russia are connected to this earlier movement.

Debates about the legacy of colonialism in France are not new, but they have taken on new urgency in the wake of recent terrorist attacks. Responding to acts of religious and racial violence in 2005, 2010, and 2015 and beyond, the essays in this volume pit French ideals against government-sponsored revisionist decrees that have exacerbated tensions, complicated the process of establishing and recording national memory, and triggered divisive debates on what it means to identify as French. As they document the checkered legacy of French colonialism, the contributors raise questions about France and the contemporary role of Islam, the banlieues, immigration, race, history, pedagogy, and the future of the Republic. This innovative volume reconsiders the cultural, economic, political, and social realities facing global French citizens today and includes contributions by Achille Mbembe, Benjamin Stora, Francoise Verges, Alec Hargreaves, Elsa Dorlin, and Alain Mabanckou, among others.

This underground classic tells the story of oil-rich Azerbaijan's first years of independence from Moscow. Goltz's vivid, personal account, filled with memorable portraits of individuals in high places and low, carries the reader from the battlefront to the oilfield, the voting booth to the negotiating table, always with an astute sense of how it all fits into the geopolitical firmament.

In its first years as an independent state, the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan was a prime example of post-Soviet chaos -- beset by coups and civil strife, and losing the Karabakh war of secession, with a fifth of its territory occupied by Armenian troops. Azerbaijan may be endowed with vast oil reserves, but it also bestrides one of the greatest ethnic, religious, and political faultlines in the world.

Thomas Goltz became an accidental witness to Azerbaijan's inglorious history-in-the- making when he was detoured into Baku in mid-1991 -- and decided to stay. This record of his years there alternates in style between tragedy and farce. Throughout, the intensity of immediate experience is balanced by an acute awareness of contemporaneous events in Karabakh and Nakhjivan, Georgia and Armenia, Russia and Chechnya, Iran and Turkey, Washington and Houston.

This book examines key cases of terrorist violence to show that the invention of terrorism was linked to the birth of modernity in Europe, Russia and the United States, rather than to Tsarist despotism in 19th century Russia or to Islam sects in Medieval Persia. Combining a highly readable historical narrative with analysis of larger issues in social and political history, the author argues that the dissemination of news about terrorist violence was at the core of a strategy that aimed for political impact on rulers as well as the general public. Dietze's lucid account also reveals how the spread of knowledge about terrorist acts was, from the outset, a transatlantic process. Two incidents form the book's centerpiece. The first is the failed attempt to assassinate French Emperor Napoleon III by Felice Orsini in 1858, in an act intended to achieve Italian unity and democracy. The second case study offers a new reading of John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859, as a decisive moment in the abolitionist struggle and occurrences leading to the American Civil War. Three further examples from Germany, Russia, and the US are scrutinized to trace the development of the tactic by first imitators. With their acts of violence, the "invention" of terrorism was completed. Terrorism has existed as a tactic since then and has essentially only been adapted through the use of new technologies and methods.

The triumph of the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War was the first great crack in the system of international relations established by the victorious Allies. The presence of a powerful anti-Western Soviet regime not only undermined the liberal values binding the signatories and member states of the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations, but also helped to stimulate the rise of aggressive fascist dictatorships in Germany and Italy. Consequently, the failure of the Allies to intervene effectively against the Bolsheviks helped pave the way for both World War II and the human catastrophe of Soviet totalitarianism. Stillborn Crusade is a reinterpretation of the causes and consequences of that failure. In sharp contrast with previous researchers, Ilya Somin argues that the West's failure resulted not from constraints limiting the options of policymakers, but from ideological misconceptions, particularly those flowing from the "liberal" and "realist" theories of international politics. The liberal view, based on the right of national self-determination, was espoused by Woodrow Wilson, and David Lloyd George. While unsympathetic to Bolshevism, they remained wedded to preconceived ideas on revolution, intervention, and the efficacy of force. The realists thought that the opposing Whites might constitute a greater threat to Western interests; they discounted the role of ideology in Soviet foreign policy. Against these views, Somin sets the position of Winston Churchill, who repeatedly and unsuccessfully urged decisive action when the Soviet regime was militarily vulnerable. As a consequence of British and American policy failures, the entire course of European and world history was radically altered for the worse. Stillborn Crusade also considers why earlier scholars, most notably George F. Kennan and William Appleman Williams, have ignored the issues raised here, even though they and others have not hesitated to criticize Western leaders for similar errors in other instances, especially in the case of Nazi Germany. Somin links the errors of 1918-20 to broader issues relating to the morality, feasibility, and desirability of Western, especially American, intervention in foreign civil conflicts. As a volume with important lessons for our own time, Stillborn Crusade will be of interest to historians, political scientists, and foreign policy analysts.

This comprehensive reference, an expanded edition of Revolutions in Eastern Europe, provides a general introduction and broad historical background of Eastern and Central European countries from the First World War onwards, focusing on the development of independent countries and the establishment of Soviet-backed dictatorships, as well as their subsequent experience of political pluralism and external relations and alignments in post 1989 Europe. Each country is covered in an individual chapter, giving a factual account of their revolutions and upheavals and an assessment of their underlying causes.

This collection of research papers explores the impact of the Arab uprisings on the politics and political economy of foreign aid provision in the MENA region. Contributions focus on the foreign assistance policies and strategies of key donors (United States, Europe, Gulf countries and Turkey), and on the relationship between donors and recipients of foreign aid in a select set of MENA cases (Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine and to a lesser extent Morocco). Despite widespread rhetoric among lead donors pledging to support the transformational potential of the Arab uprisings, the contributions find a more complex pattern in foreign aid provision since 2011. Among Arab donors, who have played a significant role as providers of aid to states most affected by mass protests, trends in foreign assistance reflect the competing priorities of donors, and their willingness to politicize aid provision in pursuit of their strategic interests. Among Western donors, authors find a high degree of continuity. Chapters that focus on Western donors seek to account for continuity on the part of Western governments and the EU at a moment of profound transformational potential. Two factors, bureaucratization and securitization, capture most of the explanations provided, which take into account a variety of local dimensions as well. Contributions also discuss the changing assistance environment, namely the globalization of foreign assistance, the complex bureaucratic arrangements presiding over the delivery of European and US aid, and the role of regional and international non-democracies in the provision of foreign assistance. This book was published as a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

For Central America, the last third of the twentieth century was a time of dramatic change in which most countries shifted from dictatorships to formal political democracy. The process of transition in most Central American countries was made possible only through violent conflict-costing over 350,000 lives-which either toppled the dictatorships or forced them to negotiate transition to a more democratic system. Repression, Resistance, and Democratic Transition in Central America shows how revolt and revolution serve as the motors of political change in this region. The book systematically examines the various ways in which democratic transition has taken place-all of which have been distinct from countries in South America, where democratization was relatively sudden and peaceful. Written by leading scholars, Repression, Resistance, and Democratic Transition in Central America examines the major forces shaping change in the region and provides the recent political history of all six Central American countries: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama. Each country's particular transition adds to the reader's understanding of democratization in the late twentieth century. Democracy is viewed in broad terms, allowing the contributors to focus on each country's unique development, along with presentation of the major themes in the social, political, and economic history of these nations. These cases raise questions about the behavior and values of elites and masses in the transition to and in the deepening of democracy. As this book reveals, external actors-particularly the United States, the Organization of American States and the United Nations-had a significant impact on political conversion. The relationship between neoliberalism and democracy is also addressed. This new text is ideal for courses in Latin American history and politics, as well as courses focusing on the transition to democracy in Latin America.

Originally published in 1937, C. L. R. James's World Revolution is a pioneering Marxist analysis of the history of revolutions during the interwar period and of the fundamental conflict between Trotsky and Stalin. James, who was a leading Trotskyist activist in Britain, outlines Russia's transition from Communist revolution to a Stalinist totalitarian state bureaucracy. He also provides an account of the ideological contestations within the Communist International while examining its influence on the development of the Soviet Union and its changing role in revolutions in Spain, China, Germany, and Central Europe. Published to commemorate the centenary of the Russian Revolution, this definitive edition of World Revolution features a new introduction by Christian Hogsbjerg and includes rare archival material, selected contemporary reviews, and extracts from James's 1939 interview with Trotsky.

First published in 1984, this book provides the first full study of the carefully planned rising of south Wales miners and ironworkers in 1839 and of its collapse at the confrontation with soldiers of the 45th regiment of Newport. It examines not only the rising itself, but the factors that made it, if not inevitable, then likely. It argues that while the workers' movement was an immediate response to the grim circumstances of the workplace, it was also deeply rooted in the centuries-old Welsh experience of repression. This title will be of particular interest to students of Victorian political and social history and well as the history of Wales.

The French Revolution: A History in Documents explores the rapidly evolving political culture of the French Revolution through first-hand accounts of the revolutionary (and counterrevolutionary) actors themselves. It demonstrates how radical Enlightenment philosophy fused with a governmental crisis to create a moment of new political possibilities unlike any the world had previously seen. In so doing, the French and their allies generated a template for revolutionary possibility from which virtually all subsequent political movements - liberalism, abolitionism, socialism, anarchism, conservatism, feminism and human rights included - derived inspiration. As well as providing an invaluable general introduction, vital contextual notes and thematic bibliographies, Micah Alpaugh selects a fascinating range of pieces, drawing on Parisian, provincial, colonial, and even international voices. From Enlightened dissent to apologias for terror, from declarations of human rights to accounts of slave rebellions, from passionate arguments for democratization to the authoritarian pronouncements of Napoleonic rule, this book presents the French Revolution's evolution in all its awesome complexity. In addition to classic texts, Alpaugh includes many lesser-known sources, a number of which are translated into English here for the first time. This unique collection of 13 visual sources and over 90 documents, incorporating perspectives from across class, gender, race and nationality, provides you with insights into the fervent debates, pronouncements and proposals that spawned modern politics.

Jewish life was changed fundamentally as Jews joined the Bolshevik movement and populated the front lines of the revolutionary struggle. Andrew Sloin's story follows the arc of Bolshevik history but shows how the broader movement was enacted in factories and workshops, workers' clubs and union meetings, and on the Jewish streets of White Russia. The protagonists here are shoemakers, speculators, glassmakers, peddlers, leatherworkers, needleworkers, soldiers, students, and local party operatives who were swept up, willingly or otherwise, into the Bolshevik project. Sloin stresses the fundamental relationship between economy and identity formation as party officials grappled with the Jewish Question in the wake of the revolution.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 has often been presented as a complete break with the past, with everything which had gone before swept away, and all aspects of politics, economy, and society reformed and made new. Recently, however, historians have increasingly come to question this view, discovering that Tsarist Russia was much more entangled in the processes of modernisation, and that the new regime contained much more continuity than has previously been acknowledged. This book presents new research findings on a range of different aspects of Russian society, both showing how there was much change before 1917, and much continuity afterwards; and also going beyond this to show that the new Soviet regime established in the 1920s, with its vision of the New Soviet Person, was in fact based on a complicated mixture of new Soviet thinking and ideas developed before 1917 by a variety of non-Bolshevik movements.

This book traces the role of the UGTT (the Tunisian General Labour Union) during Tunisia's 2011 revolution and the transition period that ensued - Tunisia being the Arab country where trade unionism was the strongest and most influential in shaping the outcomes of the uprising. The UGTT; From its role as the cornerstone of the nationalist movement in the colonial era, has always had a key place in Tunisian politics: not so much a labour union but as an organisation that has always linked social struggles to political and national demands. Examining the role played by the UGTT in Tunisia's revolution and more generally in the restructuring of the Tunisian political arena during the three years following the popular uprising. This book asks searching questions such as; how did UGTT interact with the popular uprising that led to the departure of Ben Ali? What was the role played by the UGTT in the "political transition" leading to the adoption on January 26, 2014 of the first democratic constitution in the country's history? How successful was the UGTT in neutralizing the risk of self- implosion caused by the different political and social crises? And what are the challenges that the UGTT faces in the new political landscape? This volume will be of key reading interest to scholars and researchers of social movements, labour movements, organizational studies, political transitions and Arab revolutions and also likely to be of interest to practitioners especially among activists, unionists and advocates within civil society.

Based on a wide variety of unusual and only recently available sources, this book covers the entire Cultural Revolution decade (1966-76) and shows how the Cultural Revolution was experienced by ordinary Chinese at the base of urban and rural society. The contributors emphasize the complex interaction of state and society during this tumultuous period, exploring the way events originating at the center of political power changed people's lives and how, in turn, people's responses took the Cultural Revolution in unplanned and unanticipated directions. This approach offers a more fruitful way to understand the Cultural Revolution and its historical legacies. The book provides a new look at the student Red Guard movements, the effort to identify and cultivate potential "revolutionary" leaders in outlying provinces, stubborn resistance to campaigns to destroy the old culture, and the violence and mass killings in rural China.

One of the largest political protests in contemporary Korean history, the May 1980 Kwangju Uprising still exerts a profound, often contested, influence in Korean society. Through a deft combination of personal reflections and academic analysis, Contentious Kwangju offers a comprehensive examination of the multiple, shifting meanings of this seminal event and explains how the memory of Kwangju has affected Korean life from politics to culture. The first half of the book offers highly personal perspectives on the details of the uprising itself, including the Citizens' Army, the fleeting days of Kwangju citizen autonomy, the activities of American missionaries, and the aftermath following the uprising's suppression by government forces. The second half provides a wide-ranging scholarly assessment of the impact of Kwangju in South Korea, from democratization and the fate of survivors to regional identity and popular culture, concluding with an examination of Kwangju's significance in the larger flow of modern Korean history. In keeping with the book's title, the essays offer competing interpretations of the Kwangju Uprising, yet together provide the most thorough English-language treatment to date of the multifaceted, sweeping significance of this pivotal event.

How do rebel groups decide how to recruit members? To answer this question, Obayashi classifies recruitment techniques of rebel groups into two types, coercion and inducement, and develops a theory of rebel recruitment that simultaneously addresses agency problems inside rebel groups and the rebel-state contest over information. Important themes such as desertion, counterinsurgency strategies including amnesties and civil war termination are also examined to further understand the dynamics of rebellion and violent disorder. The theory is applied to examine the changes in conflicts involving the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka and the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda.

Identity plays an important part in terms of how we imagine our relationship with the state and governing bodies. If we know who we are, then we can know and articulate what we want as political actors. This book examines the relationship between identity and political dissent in the context of the Arab and non-Arab Middle East by focusing on recent uprisings and protests in the region. The case studies here - Iran, Palestine, Israel, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan - highlight a number of dynamics and different forms of resistance. These examples show how political identities are multiple, not static and that they are too complex to be reduced to superficial dichotomies of Islamism vs. secularism or Sunnism vs. Shi'ism. Through examining the relationship between everyday grassroots politics and the question of identity, as well as elite identity discourses, this volume presents a textured analysis of the region's dynamic political communities. This book explores how different identities must be navigated, negotiated and how they intersect at a time of dramatic change in the Middle East.

On January 25, 2011, the world's eyes were on Egypt's Tahrir Square as millions of people poured into the city center to call for the resignation of president Hosni Mubarak. Since then, few scholars or journalists have been given the opportunity to reflect on the nationwide moment of transformation and the hope that was embodied by the Egyptian Revolution. In this important and necessary volume, leading Egyptian academics and writers share their eyewitness experiences. They examine how events unfolded in relation to key social groups and institutions such as the military, police, labor, intellectuals, Coptic Christians, and the media; share the mood of the nation; assess what happened when three recent regimes of Egyptian rule came to an end; and account for the dramatic rise and fall of the Muslim Brotherhood. The contributors' deep engagement with politics and society in their country is evident and sets this volume apart from most of what has been published in English about the Arab Spring. The diversity of views brought together here is a testament to the contradictions and complexities of historical and political changes that affect Egypt and beyond.