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Books > Social sciences > Warfare & defence > Other warfare & defence issues > War crimes
Keenie Meenie Services - the most powerful mercenary company you've
never heard of - was involved in war crimes around the world from
Sri Lanka to Nicaragua for which its shadowy directors have never
been held accountable. Like its mysterious name, Keenie Meenie
Services escaped definition and to this day has evaded sanctions.
Now explosive new evidence - only recently declassified - exposes
the extent of these war crimes, and the British government's tacit
support for the company's operations. Including testimonies from
SAS veterans, spy chiefs and diplomats, we hear from key figures
battle-hardened by the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Iranian
Embassy siege. Investigative journalist Phil Miller asks, who were
these mercenaries: heroes, terrorists, freedom fighters or war
criminals? This book presents the first ever comprehensive case
against Keenie Meenie Services, providing long overdue evidence on
the crimes of the people who make a killing from killing.
"Never again " the world has vowed time and again since the
Holocaust. Yet genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other mass atrocity
crimes continue to shock our consciences --from the killing fields
of Cambodia to the machetes of Rwanda to the agony of Darfur.
Gareth Evans has grappled with these issues firsthand. As
Australian foreign minister, he was a key broker of the United
Nations peace plan for Cambodia. As president of the International
Crisis Group, he now works on the prevention and resolution of
scores of conflicts and crises worldwide. The primary architect of
and leading authority on the Responsibility to Protect ("R2P"), he
shows here how this new international norm can once and for all
prevent a return to the killing fields.
"The Responsibility to Protect" captures a simple and powerful
idea. The primary responsibility for protecting its own people from
mass atrocity crimes lies with the state itself. State sovereignty
implies responsibility, not a license to kill. But when a state is
unwilling or unable to halt or avert such crimes, the wider
international community then has a collective responsibility to
take whatever action is necessary. R2P emphasizes preventive action
above all. That includes assistance for states struggling to
contain potential crises and for effective rebuilding after a
crisis or conflict to tackle its underlying causes. R2P's primary
tools are persuasion and support, not military or other coercion.
But sometimes it is right to fight: faced with another Rwanda, the
world cannot just stand by.
R2P was unanimously adopted by the UN General Assembly at the
2005 World Summit. But many misunderstandings persist about its
scope and limits. And much remains to be done to solidify political
support and to build institutional capacity. Evans shows,
compellingly, how big a break R2P represents from the past, and
how, with its acceptance in principle and effective application in
practice, the promise of "Never again " can at last become a
reality.
Niedersachsen, August 1961. Der Klassenlehrer Walter Wilke wird in
seiner Dorfschule aus dem Unterricht abgeholt und spater in einem
der ersten grossen Prozesse uber deutsche Verbrechen in Osteuropa
verurteilt. In seinem kleinen Ort wird uber die Sache nicht
gesprochen. Spater kehrt der Mann zuruck und lebt bis zu seinem Tod
1989 zuruckgezogen im Dorf. Seine Frau, mit der er uber Jahre in
Bigamie gelebt hatte, ist die beliebte Landarztin. Jurgen Guckel,
mehrfach ausgezeichneter Gerichtsreporter, geht einer Spur nach.
Einer Geschichte, die ihn seit der Schulzeit beschaftigt, denn
Walter Wilke war sein erster Lehrer. Guckel rekonstruiert einen
einzigartigen Lebensweg: Walter war in Wahrheit Artur Wilke, der
die Identitat seines gefallenen Bruders angenommen hatte. Artur
selbst war studierter Theologe und Archaologe, im Dritten Reich der
SS beigetreten, nachweislich an Massenerschiessungen von Juden
beteiligt, galt als gefurchteter Partisanen-Jager und wurde nach
dem Krieg dann Volksschullehrer. Sein Name ist mit grauenhaften
Kriegsverbrechen verbunden, doch zur Rechenschaft gezogen wurde er
fur seine Taten im Partisanenkampf nie. Das Buch zeichnet nicht nur
eine spektakulare deutsche Biografie im 20. Jahrhundert nach die
Entwicklung eines Intellektuellen zum Tater und die Verneinung
jeglicher persoenlicher Schuld, das Wegsehen der Gesellschaft. Es
zeigt auch auf, wie schwierig das Erinnern ist, wie unterschiedlich
Erlebtes bewertet wird und wie schwer die Erarbeitung historischer
Wahrheit letztlich ist. Auch nach der Sichtung mehrerer zehntausend
Seiten Gerichtsakten und anderer Dokumente bleiben scheinbar
einfache Fragen offen. Eine wahre Geschichte uber Bigamie und
Theologie, Verbrechen und Vertuschung, uber die deutsche
Nachkriegsgesellschaft und uber eine familiare Tragoedie.
Between the Wires tells for the first time the history of the Janowska camp in Lviv, Ukraine. Located in a city with the third-largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe, Janowska remains one of the least-known sites of the Holocaust, despite being one of the deadliest. Simultaneously a prison, a slave labor camp, a transit camp to the gas chambers, and an extermination site, this hybrid camp played a complex role in the Holocaust.
Based on extensive archival research, Between the Wires explores the evolution and the connection to Lviv of this rare urban camp. Waitman Wade Beorn reveals the exceptional brutality of the SS staff alongside an almost unimaginable will to survive among prisoners facing horrendous suffering, whose resistance included an armed uprising.
This integrated chronicle of perpetrators, victims, and bystanders follows the history of the camp into the postwar era, including attempts to bring its criminals to justice.
The UN outlawed genocide in 1948, and the United States launched a
war on terror in 2001; yet still today, neither genocide nor
terrorism shows any sign of abating. This book explains why those
efforts have fallen short and identifies policies that can prevent
such carnage. The key is getting the causation analysis right.
Conventional wisdom emphasizes ancient hatreds, poverty, and the
impact of Western colonialism as drivers of mass violence. But far
more important is the inciting power of mass, ideological hate
propaganda: this is what activates the drive to commit mass
atrocities, and creates the multitude of perpetrators needed to
conduct a genocide or sustain a terror campaign. A secondary causal
factor is illiberal, dualistic political culture: this is the
breeding ground for the extremist, "us-vs-them" ideologies that
always precipitate episodes of mass hate incitement. A two-tiered
policy response naturally follows from this analysis: in the short
term, several targeted interventions to curtail outbreaks of such
incitement; and in the long term, support for indigenous agents of
liberalization in venues most at risk for ideologically-driven
violence.
The author argues that a part of the history of nation building in
Iraq through addressing its political characters, different
communities, agreements and pan Arab ideology, including the Baath
ideology and its attempts to seize power through nondemocratic
methods. It is an attempt to approach the essence of the exclusion
mentality of the ruling elite in order to understand the process of
genocide against the Kurdish people, including all existing
religious minorities. This essence of the process has been
approached in the framework of the civilizing and de-civilizing
process as a main theory of the German sociologist, Norbert Elias.
Thus, this book may be considered as one of the comprehensive books
to present a study of state-building in Iraq, along with
identifying some of the political figures that had an essential
impact on the construction. On the other hand, it is a
comprehensive study of the genocide, in the sense of searching for
the causes and roots of the genocide. The Anfal campaigns took
place in 1988, but the process started as far back as the end of
the sixties and the beginning of the seventies of the last century.
When the tyrannical Saddam Hussein was captured in 2003, the war in
Iraq was in a precarious position. A provisional government had
been assembled, but the Iraqi government was not yet recognized as
sovereign. They were now expected to put their most infamous
citizen on trial for war crimes. Called into duty at this moment
was Rear Admiral Greg Slavonic, who was tasked with facilitating
U.S. media presence at the arraignment which would establish the
judicial framework for future tribunals. Admiral Slavonic was party
to the historic US-Iraqi Transfer of Sovereignty and then as the
senior military officer in the Iraqi courtroom where he was one of
fifteen individuals to witness the historic event. As the senior
military officer in the room with fifteen other observers, he
managed a challenging pool of media jockeying for access for this
once in a career story and plus served as advisor to the Iraqi
judge on various media issues. Slavonic's first-hand narrative of a
unique moment in military history features never-before-seen
transcripts of Saddam Hussein's trial. For the first time, readers
can read how Saddam responded to his charges, along with eleven of
Hussein's closest advisors and cabinet members who were arraigned
that day, and several charged with war "crimes against humanity".
This would be the last time all twelve men would be together again
who were responsible for the deaths of over several million fellow
Iraqi citizens. This book expands our examination of difficult wars
and chronicles the legal reckoning and downfall of a tyrant.
Politics, Violence, Memory highlights important new social
scientific research on the Holocaust and initiates the integration
of the Holocaust into mainstream social scientific research in a
way that will be useful both for social scientists and historians.
Until recently social scientists largely ignored the Holocaust
despite the centrality of these tragic events to many of their own
concepts and theories. In Politics, Violence, Memory the editors
bring together contributions to understanding the Holocaust from a
variety of disciplines, including political science, sociology,
demography, and public health. The chapters examine the sources and
measurement of antisemitism; explanations for collaboration,
rescue, and survival; competing accounts of neighbor-on-neighbor
violence; and the legacies of the Holocaust in contemporary Europe.
Politics, Violence, Memory brings new data to bear on these
important concerns and shows how older data can be deployed in new
ways to understand the "index case" of violence in the modern
world. -- Cornell University Press
Hypocrisy and Human Rights examines what human rights
pressure does when it does not work. Repressive states with
absolutely no intention of complying with their human rights
obligations often change course dramatically in response to
international pressure. They create toothless commissions, permit
but then obstruct international observers' visits, and pass
showpiece legislation while simultaneously bolstering their
repressive capacity. Covering debates over transitional
justice in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and other countries, Kate Cronin-Furman investigates
the diverse ways in which repressive states respond to calls for
justice from human rights advocates, UN officials, and Western
governments who add their voices to the victims of mass atrocities
to demand accountability. She argues that although international
pressure cannot elicit compliance in the absence of domestic
motivations to comply, the complexity of the international system
means that there are multiple audiences for both human rights
behavior and advocacy and that pressure can produce valuable
results through indirect paths.
Most accounts of the Holocaust focus on trainloads of prisoners
speeding toward Auschwitz, with its chimneys belching smoke and
flames, in the summer of 1944. This book provides a hitherto untold
chapter of the Holocaust by exploring a prequel to the gas
chambers: the face-to-face mass murder of Jews in Galicia by
bullets. The summer of 1941 ushered in a chain of events that had
no precedent in the rapidly unfolding history of World War II and
the Holocaust. In six weeks, more than twenty thousand Hungarian
Jews were forcefully deported to Galicia and summarily executed. In
exploring the fate of these Hungarian Jews and their local
coreligionists, A Summer of Mass Murder transcends conventional
history by introducing a multitude of layers of politics, culture,
and, above all, psychology-for both the victims and the
executioners. The narrative presents an uncharted territory in
Holocaust scholarship with extensive archival research, interviews,
and corresponding literature across countries and languages,
incorporating many previously unexplored documents and testimonies.
Eisen reflects upon the voices of the victims, the images of the
perpetrators, whose motivation for murder remains inexplicable. In
addition, the author incorporates the long-forgotten testimonies of
bystander contemporaries, who unwittingly became part of the
unfolding nightmare and recorded the horror in simple words. This
book also serves as a personal journey of discovery. Among the
twenty thousand people killed was the tale of two brothers, the
author's uncles. In retracing their final fate and how they were
swept up in the looming genocide, A Summer of Mass Murder also
gives voice to their story.
In To Save Heaven and Earth, Jennie E. Burnet considers people who
risked their lives in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsi to try and
save those targeted for killing. Many genocide perpetrators were
not motivated by political ideology, ethnic hatred, or prejudice.
By shifting away from these classic typologies of genocide studies
and focusing instead on hundreds of thousands of discrete acts that
unfold over time, Burnet highlights the ways that complex decisions
and behaviors emerge in the social, political, and economic
processes that constitute a genocide. To Save Heaven and Earth
explores external factors, such as geography, local power dynamics,
and genocide timelines, as well as the internal states of mind and
motivations of those who effected rescues. Framed within the
interdisciplinary scholarship of genocide studies and rooted in
cultural anthropology methodologies, this book presents stories of
heroism and of the good done amid the evil of a genocide that
nearly annihilated Rwandan Tutsi and decimated the Hutu and Twa who
were opposed to the slaughter. -- Cornell University Press
Politics, Violence, Memory highlights important new social
scientific research on the Holocaust and initiates the integration
of the Holocaust into mainstream social scientific research in a
way that will be useful both for social scientists and historians.
Until recently social scientists largely ignored the Holocaust
despite the centrality of these tragic events to many of their own
concepts and theories. In Politics, Violence, Memory the editors
bring together contributions to understanding the Holocaust from a
variety of disciplines, including political science, sociology,
demography, and public health. The chapters examine the sources and
measurement of antisemitism; explanations for collaboration,
rescue, and survival; competing accounts of neighbor-on-neighbor
violence; and the legacies of the Holocaust in contemporary Europe.
Politics, Violence, Memory brings new data to bear on these
important concerns and shows how older data can be deployed in new
ways to understand the "index case" of violence in the modern
world.
In To Save Heaven and Earth, Jennie E. Burnet considers people who
risked their lives in the 1994 Rwandan genocide of Tutsi to try and
save those targeted for killing. Many genocide perpetrators were
not motivated by political ideology, ethnic hatred, or prejudice.
By shifting away from these classic typologies of genocide studies
and focusing instead on hundreds of thousands of discrete acts that
unfold over time, Burnet highlights the ways that complex decisions
and behaviors emerge in the social, political, and economic
processes that constitute a genocide. To Save Heaven and Earth
explores external factors, such as geography, local power dynamics,
and genocide timelines, as well as the internal states of mind and
motivations of those who effected rescues. Framed within the
interdisciplinary scholarship of genocide studies and rooted in
cultural anthropology methodologies, this book presents stories of
heroism and of the good done amid the evil of a genocide that
nearly annihilated Rwandan Tutsi and decimated the Hutu and Twa who
were opposed to the slaughter. -- Cornell University Press
Terrortimes, Terrorscapes: Continuities of Space, Time, and Memory
in Twentieth-Century War and Genocide investigates interconnections
between space and violence throughout the twentieth century, and
how such connections informed collective memory. The
interdisciplinary volume shows how entangled notions of time and
space amplified by memory narratives led to continuities of
violence across different conflicts creating "terrortimes" and
"terrorscapes" in their wake. The volume examines such continuities
of violence with the help of an analytical framework built around
different themes. Its first part, spatial and temporal continuities
of violence, looks at contested spaces and ideas of national,
ethnic, or religious homogeneity that are often at the heart of
prolonged conflicts. The second part, on states and actors,
addresses the role of states as enablers of violence, asymmetric
power dynamics, and the connection between imperialism and genocide
in Africa. Imagination and emotion-the focus of the third
part-explores utopian visions and their limits that instigate or
hinder, and the mobilization of emotion through propaganda.
Finally, the fourth part shows how the recollection of the past
sometimes triggers new terrortimes. Departing from an understanding
of violence limited to certain areas and time frames, this volume
describes continuities of violence as overlapping fabrics woven
together from notions of space, time, and memory.
Terrortimes, Terrorscapes: Continuities of Space, Time, and Memory
in Twentieth-Century War and Genocide investigates interconnections
between space and violence throughout the twentieth century, and
how such connections informed collective memory. The
interdisciplinary volume shows how entangled notions of time and
space amplified by memory narratives led to continuities of
violence across different conflicts creating "terrortimes" and
"terrorscapes" in their wake. The volume examines such continuities
of violence with the help of an analytical framework built around
different themes. Its first part, spatial and temporal continuities
of violence, looks at contested spaces and ideas of national,
ethnic, or religious homogeneity that are often at the heart of
prolonged conflicts. The second part, on states and actors,
addresses the role of states as enablers of violence, asymmetric
power dynamics, and the connection between imperialism and genocide
in Africa. Imagination and emotion-the focus of the third
part-explores utopian visions and their limits that instigate or
hinder, and the mobilization of emotion through propaganda.
Finally, the fourth part shows how the recollection of the past
sometimes triggers new terrortimes. Departing from an understanding
of violence limited to certain areas and time frames, this volume
describes continuities of violence as overlapping fabrics woven
together from notions of space, time, and memory.
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.
In The Experiential Ontology of Hannah Arendt, Kim Maslin examines
Hannah Arendt's political philosophy through a Heideggerian
framework. Maslin argues that not only did Arendt grew beyond the
role of naive and beguiled student, but she became one of
Heidegger's most astute critics. Well acquainted with and deeply
respectful of his contributions to existential philosophy, Arendt
viewed Heidegger's work as both profoundly insightful and
extraordinarily myopic. Not contented to simply offer a critique of
her mentor's work, Arendt engaged in a lifelong struggle to come to
terms with the collective implications of fundamental ontology.
Maslin argues that Arendt shifted to political philosophy less to
escape her own disappointment at Heidegger's personal betrayal, but
rather as an attempt to right the collective flaws of fundamental
ontology. Her project offers a politically responsive, hence
responsible, modification of Heidegger's fundamental ontology. She
suggests that Heidegger's allegedly descriptive and non-normative
insight into the nature of being is necessarily incomplete, and
potentially irresponsible, unless it is undertaken in a manner
which is mindful of the collective implications. As such, Maslin
shows how Arendt attempts to construct an experiential ontology
that transforms Heidegger's fundamental ontology for use in the
public sphere.
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