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Can Democracy be Designed?
Constitution-making for democracy has always been a highly political and contested process. It has never been more ambitious, or more difficult, than today as politicians and experts attempt to build democratic institutions that will foster peace and stability in countries torn by violent conflict. The extended investigation out of which this book has grown has ranged across three continents. It has examined such apparently intractable cases as Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sri Lanka and Fiji, as well as apparent 'success stories' like South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. Three groups of questions are explored: * How and by whom were democratic institutions (re)designed? * How have they functioned in pract...
State Formation and Conflicts in Sri Lanka
This book explores how the history of postcolonial Sri Lanka suggests a new paradigm for understanding state-formation as an ever-shifting and evolving process. The Sri Lankan state has formed under the pressure of multiple conflicts: around capitalist transition on the one hand, and the deteriorating relationship between the state and Tamil minority populations on the other. Sunil Bastian demonstrates the way these conflicts have overlapped, with international support for the introduction of neoliberal policies – from Japan, the West and institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF – helping to prop up a state engaged in armed ethnic conflict. State Formation and Conflict in Sri Lanka explores the role played by these two forces in the nation's recent economic crises.
Liberal Peace In Question
The present book uses Sri Lanka’s failed attempt at negotiating peace with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, to examine the politics of state and market reforms towards liberal peace. Sri Lanka is seen as a critical case that demonstrates key characteristics and shortcomings of liberal peace, vividly demonstrated by internationally facilitated elite negotiations and donor-funded neoliberal development.
Ethnic Conflict
As ethnic groups clash, the international community faces the challenge of understanding the multiple causes of violence and formulating solutions that will bring about peace. Allowing for greater insight, Jesse and Williams bridge two sub-fields of political science in Ethnic Conflict—international relations and comparative politics. They systematically apply a "levels of analysis" framework, looking at the individual, domestic, and international contexts to better explore and understand its complexity. Five case study chapters apply the book’s framework to disputes around the world and include coverage of Bosnia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. Never losing sight of their analytical framework, the authors provide richly detailed case studies that help students understand both the unique and shared causes of each conflict. Students will appreciate the book’s logical presentation and excellent pedagogical features including detailed maps that show political, demographic, and cultural data.
Rethinking Democracy Promotion in International Relations
This book traces and conceptualises the changing notion of democracy and demonstrates how democracy promotion finds itself at the heart of contemporary international discourses and policies. Democracy promotion is widely considered to constitute a hypocritical and failed ‘grand international narrative’ of the 1990s and has allegedly been replaced by other, more pressing and academically more captivating concerns, such as conflict management, statebuilding and climate change. This book challenges this position and argues that the core notions of democracy promotion, such as empowerment, inclusion and responsiveness, are a key concern of contemporary international policymakers. Drawing on ...
A Thirst for Empire
Introduction: A soldiers' tea party in Surrey -- Part I. Anxious relations -- "A China drink approved by all physicians" : setting the early modern tea table -- The temperance tea table : making a sober consumer culture in the nineteenth century -- "A little opium, sweet words, and cheap guns" : planting a global industry in Assam -- Packaging China : advertising food safety in a global marketplace -- Part II. Imperial tastes -- Industry and empire : manufacturing imperial tastes in Victorian Britain -- The planter abroad : building foreign markets in the fin-de-siecle -- "Every kitchen an empire kitchen": the politics of imperial consumerism -- "Tea revives the world" : selling vitality during the Depression -- "Hot drinks means much in the jungle" : tea in the service of war -- Part III. Aftertastes -- Leftovers? : an imperial industry at the end of empire -- "Join the tea set" : youth, modernity, and the legacies of empire during the swinging sixties
Security and Development
The new contributions in this book, by acknowledged leaders in the field, examine the delivery of effective aid under fire, and securing the peace in environments where governance is fragile. They bridge the cultural divide between the security and development professions at a time of unprecedented global economic integration, geopolitical turbulence, and novel threats to international peace and security. More than a billion people live in countries where governance is weak, poverty is rampant, and economies are depressed. Failed and frail states provide ideal breeding grounds for civil strife, criminality, and "new wars" that target civilians, use children as combatants, and commit massive ...
The Politics of Reconstruction and Development in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s conflict and peace processes have gained global attention during recent years. This book presents a comprehensive insight into the politics of reconstruction and development in Sri Lanka, focussing on the ceasefire which was negotiated between the Government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2002 and which lasted until 2006. Based on extensive empirical fieldwork, the book provides a unique ethnographic account of this specific historical period of peace. It explains how development was shaped by interplay and cooperation, but also by the disparities and conflicts between a variety of local and intervening actors, including local organizations ...
Rethinking the Liberal Peace
This book presents a critical analysis of the liberal peace project and offers possible alternatives and models. In the past decade, the model used for reconstructing societies after conflicts has been based on liberal assumptions about the pacifiying effects of 'open markets' and 'open societies'. Yet, despite the vast resources invested in helping establish the precepts of this liberal peace, outcomes have left much to be desired. The book argues that failures in the liberal peace project are not only due to efficiency problems related to its adaptation in adverse local environments, but mostly due to problems of legitimacy of turning an ideal into a doctrine for action. The aim of the boo...
Sri Lanka in the Modern Age
Since the late 1970s civil war has left Sri Lanka in an almost permanent state of crisis; conventional histories of the country by liberal and Marxist scholars in the last two decades have thus tended to focus on the state’s failure to accommodate the needs and demands of the minorities. The entire history of the twentieth century has been tied to this one key issue. Sri Lanka in the Modern Age offers a fresh perspective based on new research. Above all, the author has written a history of the peoples of Sri Lanka rather than a history of the nation-state.
