This book sheds light on the causes and consequences of ethnic cleansing in the twentieth century Balkans with particular reference to the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In providing a thorough and consistent analysis of large-scale episodes of ethnic cleansing in modern Balkan history, Politics of Ethnic Cleansing fills an important gap in existing conflict and peace studies literature. Offering a top-down interpretation of the expulsion of ethno-national minorities as a means of state-building, the analysis rests on a fresh, multidimensional approach, which provides an eclectic discussion of nationalism, politics, and security. This book establishes an agenda for policy-making and future research by making specific proposalsfor clearing up the present ambiguities in international humanitarian law related to ethnic cleansing, rethinking humanitarian intervention with a view to restoring the long-term viability of the target states, and repudiating the argument for forced homogenization as a conflict resolution strategy

This volume introduces 'postgenocide' as a novel approach to study genocide and its effects after mass killing has ended. It investigates how the material violence of genocide translates into contests over memory, remembrance, and laws, and the re-imagining of political community. Contributions come from academics across a broad range of disciplines, including law, political science, sociology, and ethnography Chapters in this volume explore the various permutations of genocide harms, and scrutinise the efficacy of genocide laws and the prospects for their enforcement. Others engage with socio-political responses to genocide, including efforts to reconciliation, as well as genocide's impacts on victims' communities. Contributions examine the reconstruction of genocide narratives in the display of victims' objects in museums, galleries, and archives.This book brings together cutting edge research from a variety of disciplines, to address formerly overlooked themes and cases, exploring what a diversity of perspectives can bring to bear on genocide scholarship as a whole.

The 2008 attacks on Mumbai were carried out by a Pakistani militant group known as Lashkar i-Taiba, termed a 'non-state actor' by Pakistan's president, Asif Zardari. In most cases, violent non-state actors (VNSAs) rise as a state fails, resorting to organized attacks as a brutally effective method for advancing their political aims and other goals. Currently operating in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Somalia, and Sudan, VNSAs can take the form of national liberation movements confronting an occupying force; insurgents engaged in protracted political and military struggles that eat at the power and legitimacy of a ruling government; terrorists who use threats or violent acts to effect political change; irregular yet recognizable armed forces working within an ungoverned area or failing state; and mercenary militias, such as those used by Shell, or army-loaded units, such as those used in the Niger Delta. The essays in this volume map the relationship between VNSAs and the state, following the political, economic, and social processes that contribute to the emergence of these groups and how VNSAs in turn use these processes to trigger a crisis of the state. Contributors locate the point in which violence becomes desirable to the non-state actor and whether this alters the purpose of the relationship between VNSAs and the state, and they track the influence that the former can have in reshaping the governments they tear down. One of the first resources to describe these groups in full, this volume explains the internal structure of VNSAs, their recruitment strategies and leading ideologies, the characteristics and partnerships that allow them to adapt and prosper, and the fundamental similarities and differences between groups.

This book sheds light on the causes and consequences of ethnic cleansing in the twentieth century Balkans with particular reference to the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. In providing a thorough and consistent analysis of large-scale episodes of ethnic cleansing in modern Balkan history, Politics of Ethnic Cleansing fills an important gap in existing conflict and peace studies literature. Offering a top-down interpretation of the expulsion of ethno-national minorities as a means of state-building, the analysis rests on a fresh, multidimensional approach, which provides an eclectic discussion of nationalism, politics, and security. This book establishes an agenda for policy-making and future research by making specific proposalsfor clearing up the present ambiguities in international humanitarian law related to ethnic cleansing, rethinking humanitarian intervention with a view to restoring the long-term viability of the target states, and repudiating the argument for forced homogenization as a conflict resolution strategy