Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence

Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence
Author: Damian Grenfell
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2008-07-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134082428

Rethinking Insecurity, War and Violence: Beyond Savage Globalization? is a collection of essays by scholars intent on rethinking the mainstream security paradigms. Overall, this collection is intended to provide a broad and systematic analysis of the long-term sources of political, military and cultural insecurity from the local to the global. The book provides a stronger basis for understanding the causes of conflict and violence in the world today, one that adds a different dimension to the dominant focus on finding proximate causes and making quick responses Too often the arenas of violence have been represented as if they have been triggered by reassertions of traditional and tribal forms of identity, primordial and irrational assertions of politics. Such ideas about the sources of insecurity have become entrenched in a wide variety of media sources, and have framed both government policies and academic arguments. Rather than treating the sources of insecurity as a retreat from modernity, this book complicates the patterns of global insecurity to a degree that takes the debates simply beyond assumptions that we are witnessing a savage return to a bloody and tribalized world. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of international relations, security studies, gender studies and globalization studies.

Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention in the 21st Century

Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention in the 21st Century
Author: Aiden Warren
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 2017-06-02
Genre: Law
ISBN: 1474423833

Since the end of the Cold War, humanitarian interventions have continued to evolve and respond to a wide range of political crises. These insightful essays focus on the challenges associated with interventions when facing conflict and human rights violations, unmitigated systematic violence, state re-building, human mobility and dislocation. Each chapter is linked to the rest through three defining themes that permeate the book: the evolution of humanitarian interventions in a global era; the limits of sovereignty and the ethics of interventions; and the politics of post-intervention: (re)-building and humanitarian engagement. The authors incorporate a variety of case studies including Kosovo, Timor-Leste, Syria, Libya and Iraq, and examine the complexity of interventions across their different dimensions, including relevant doctrines such as R2P, 'Use of Force' and Human Security.

War, Peace and Progress in the 21st Century

War, Peace and Progress in the 21st Century
Author: Mark T. Berger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1317983416

The history of development is one marked by insecurities, violence, and persistent conflict. It is not surprising, therefore, that development is now thought of as one of the central challenges of world politics. However, its complexities are often overlooked in scholarly analysis and among policy practitioners, who tend to adopt a technocratic approach to the crisis of development and violence. This book brings together a wide range of contributions aimed at investigating different aspects of the history of development and violence, and its implications for contemporary efforts to consolidate the development-security nexus. From environmental concerns, through vigilante citizenship, to the legacies of armed conflicts during and after decolonization, the different chapters reconstruct the contradictory history of development and critically engage contemporary responses and their implications for social and political analyses. In examining violence and insecurity in relation to core organising principles of world politics the contributors engage the problems associated with the nation state and the inter-state system and underlying assumptions of the promises of progress. The book offers a range of perspectives on the contradictions of development, and on how domination, violence and resistance have been conceived. At the same time it exemplifies the relevance of alternative methodological and conceptual approaches to contemporary challenges of development. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

Insecure Gulf

Insecure Gulf
Author: Kristian Coates Ulrichsen
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2015
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190241578

Examines both the traditional and the new challenges that the Gulf states face

Understanding Civil Wars

Understanding Civil Wars
Author: Edward Newman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2014-04-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134715358

This volume explores the nature of civil war in the modern world and in historical perspective. Civil wars represent the principal form of armed conflict since the end of the Second World War, and certainly in the contemporary era. The nature and impact of civil wars suggests that these conflicts reflect and are also a driving force for major societal change. In this sense, Understanding Civil Wars: Continuity and change in intrastate conflict argues that the nature of civil war is not fundamentally changing in nature. The book includes a thorough consideration of patterns and types of intrastate conflict and debates relating to the causes, impact, and ‘changing nature’ of war. A key focus is on the political and social driving forces of such conflict and its societal meanings, significance and consequences. The author also explores methodological and epistemological challenges related to studying and understanding intrastate war. A range of questions and debates are addressed. What is the current knowledge regarding the causes and nature of armed intrastate conflict? Is it possible to produce general, cross-national theories on civil war which have broad explanatory relevance? Is the concept of ‘civil wars’ empirically meaningful in an era of globalization and transnational war? Has intrastate conflict fundamentally changed in nature? Are there historical patterns in different types of intrastate conflict? What are the most interesting methodological trends and debates in the study of armed intrastate conflict? How are narratives about the causes and nature of civil wars constructed around ideas such as ethnic conflict, separatist conflict and resource conflict? This book will be of much interest to students of civil wars, intrastate conflict, security studies and international relations in general.

From Empires to Imperialism

From Empires to Imperialism
Author: Boris Kagarlitsky
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2014-06-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317668715

Translated from the original Russian, this book analyzes the economic development of leading European empires and the United States of America. The author exposes the myths of the spontaneous emergence of the market economy and the role of government as a disincentive towards private initiative, when for centuries the state power has been carrying out a "coercing to the market" with all its strength. This book presents a somewhat epic depiction of the development of Western hegemonic powers within the capitalist world system, from the struggles of the late Middle Ages to the rise and crisis of the American Empire. It both develops and questions some of the traditional assumptions of the world-system theory, arguing that it was very much the political form of the state that shaped capitalism as we know it and that, though the existence of a hegemonic power results from the logic of the system, hegemony is often missing in reality. A major work of historical Marxist theory, this book is essential reading for students of international political economy, globalisation and the crisis of capitalism. This book is also ideal for students of politics, history, economics and international relations.

Paramilitary Groups and the State under Globalization

Paramilitary Groups and the State under Globalization
Author: Jasmin Hristov
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2021-12-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000530868

This book examines the phenomenon of paramilitarism across Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, offering a nuanced perspective while identifying key patterns in the way paramilitary violence is implicated in processes of capital accumulation, state-building, and the reproduction of social power. Paramilitary violence, a key modality of coercion in the era of globalization, has been pursued by states and dominant classes in the Global South, to reproduce or extend their power over subaltern groups. Paramilitary groups are responsible for atrocities, including extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture, rape, and forced displacement. The book integrates empirically rich investigations into an emergent theory of political violence, capturing the relationship between parastatal armed actors, capital, and the state. The analysis sheds light on globally relevant phenomena such as the end of the Cold War, the shifting role of US hegemony, and evolving nature of the nation-state. The book is suitable for academics, graduate and upper-year undergraduate students, and policy-makers in development, human rights, and violence prevention. Given its interdisciplinary subject, it appeals to scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including political science, sociology, political anthropology, development, peace and conflict, security and terrorism, international relations, and global studies.

Conflict Management in Kashmir

Conflict Management in Kashmir
Author: Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2018
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108423892

This work studies the world's most multifaceted and complex political turmoils - Kashmir, using the protracted social conflict theory.

A New Era?

A New Era?
Author: Sue Ingram
Publisher: ANU Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2015-09-17
Genre:
ISBN: 192502251X

Timor-Leste has made impressive progress since its historic achievement of independence in 2002. From the instability that blighted its early years, the fledgling democratic country has achieved strong economic growth and a gradual reinstatement of essential social services. A decade on in 2012, Presidential and Parliamentary elections produced smooth political transitions and the extended UN peacekeeping presence in the country came to an end. But significant challenges remain. This book, a product of the inaugural Timor-Leste Update held at The Australian National University in 2013 to mark the end of Timor-Leste’s first decade as a new nation, brings together a vibrant collection of papers from leading and emerging scholars and policy analysts. Collectively, the chapters provide a set of critical reflections on recent political, economic and social developments in Timor-Leste. The volume also looks to the future, highlighting a range of transitions, prospects and undoubted challenges facing the nation over the next 5–10 years. Key themes that inform the collection include nation-building in the shadow of history, trends in economic development, stability and social cohesion, and citizenship, democracy and social inclusion. The book is an indispensable guide to contemporary Timor-Leste.

Global Ideologies and Urban Landscapes

Global Ideologies and Urban Landscapes
Author: Manfred Steger
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2013-09-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317985745

How do political ideologies and urban landscapes intersect in the context of globalization? This volume illuminates the production of ideologies as both discursive and spatial phenomena in distinct contributions that ground their analysis in cities of the Global North and South. From Sydney to Singapore, Hong Kong to Hanoi, Las Vegas to Macau, conventional public spaces are in decline as sites of ideological dissent. Instead, we are witnessing the colonisation of urban space by market globalism (today’s dominant global ideology) and securitised surveillance regimes. Against this backdrop, how should we interpret the proliferation of metaphors that claim to communicate the essence of global transformation? In what ways do space and language work together to normalise the truth claims of powerful ideological players? What kinds of social forces mobilise to contest the cooptation of language and space and to pose alternative local and global futures? This volume poses these questions against the collapse of old geographical scales and cartographic techniques for identifying the contours of civil society. The city acts as an entry point to a new spatial analytics of contemporary ideological forces. This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.