You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This book is about the process and, more generally, about the opportunities that peace research and the teaching of conflict resolution can offer academic diplomacy. As such the book is both an empirical and a theoretical project. While it aims at being the most comprehensive analysis of the conflict in West Kalimantan, it also launches a new theoretical approach, neo-pragmatism, and offers lessons for the prevention of conflicts elsewhere. While being based on the classical pragmatist theories of truth and explanation, the approach developed in this book incorporates the complications to social science theory caused by the 'discovery' of socially constructed realities, and concepts such as speech acts. Yet, instead of just theorizing speech acts and social constructs, the theoretical mission is to offer pragmatic, detailed, concrete prescriptions of what to do to deconstruct realities that threaten peace by the means available for research and scholars of peace.
Timo Kivimaki investigates the reasons behind, and consequences of, military operations by Western powers. It focuses on those interventions aimed at protecting civilians from terror, dictators and criminals in fragile states. In doing so it contributes to the cosmopolitan, feminist and post-colonial literature on humanitarian interventions.
Title first published in 2003. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and October 12, 2002 in the United States and on Bali, we may be witnessing the most sweeping shift in US foreign policy since the beginning of the cold war. America is again committed to leading the world in a battle against a global enemy. The US relationship with Indonesia - the country with the world’s largest Islamic population - could prove to be of decisive importance for the success of its new global mission. Timo Kivimäki’s analysis of the dynamics and background of the US-Indonesian relationship will be essential reading for all concerned with American Foreign Policy, Asian studies, peace studies and conflict resolution and negotiation.
The annual number of battle deaths from interstate and intra-state conflicts in East Asia has declined by 95% since 1979. During the past three decades, East Asia has been more peaceful than Europe, the Americas or any continent, in terms of battle deaths per capita. When generating theories on peace and war, studies almost never look at the experiences of East Asia. Yet the region by focusing on a commitment to development, is a social reality that is less paranoid, less militaristic and more cooperative. Since 1979 there has been a commonly accepted rule to keep domestic issues domestic so that external military interference, that often caused the majority of battle deaths, was not needed....
Not only is the South China Sea of strategic importance; it is also rich in oil and other natural resources. As such, it is the subject of overlapping territorial disputes between several East and Southeast Asian countries as well as the scene of military tensions and potentially dangerous conflicts. But disputes over the South China Sea are much more complex than simply issues of military security. Environmental values, economic security and political developments are also involved. Spanning the full complexity of the situation, this volume: * covers its historical and legal background * analyses its environmental, economic, military and political dimensions * assesses the potential for containing and resolving disputes as well as transforming the structures of conflict in the region.
This book reveals why the UN is more successful than unilateral great powers in protecting civilians from violence, and focuses on the discourse, development and consequences of UN peacekeeping. Analysing statistics of state fragility and fatalities of violence, it reveals that the UN has managed to save tens of thousands of lives with its peacekeeping: a surprising statistic given the media consensus about the UN’s powerlessness and inefficiency. Using computer-assisted discourse analysis of resolutions from the UN Security Council, 1993-2019, the book offers data that describe the character and development of UN approach to the protection of civilians from violence. It then links the dat...
Knowledge can create peaceful realities in addition to serving as an intellectual tool for peace-making. This is why pragmatist assessment of social science should avoid looking exclusively at the instrumental value of different paradigms. This book investigates the realities that positivism, anti-determinism, symbolic interactionism, social constructivism and critical theory create, and the tools they offer for a peace researcher and a peace practitioner. In essence, Paradigms of Peace looks at what social science can give to the humanity's search for peace and then offers an agenda for peace research.Using constructivist pragmatist metatheory to guide the assessment of the merits of different social science approaches to peace, this book suggests completely new ways of looking at the theory of peace and war. Difficult theoretical and philosophical constructs are presented but always supplemented with real-life examples, making it practical and relevant to both a research and policy-making level.Perfect for students and professionals of international relations, political science, peace and reconciliation studies, conflict and war studies and history.
The annual number of battle deaths from interstate and intra-state conflicts in East Asia has declined by 95% since 1979. During the past three decades, East Asia has been more peaceful than Europe, the Americas or any continent, in terms of battle deaths per capita. When generating theories on peace and war, studies almost never look at the experiences of East Asia. Yet the region by focusing on a commitment to development, is a social reality that is less paranoid, less militaristic and more cooperative. Since 1979 there has been a commonly accepted rule to keep domestic issues domestic so that external military interference, that often caused the majority of battle deaths, was not needed....
Preferential trade agreements have become common ways to protect or restrict access to national markets in products and services. The United States has signed trade agreements with almost two dozen countries as close as Mexico and Canada and as distant as Morocco and Australia. The European Union has done the same. In addition to addressing economic issues, these agreements also regulate the protection of human rights. In Forced to Be Good, Emilie M. Hafner-Burton tells the story of the politics of such agreements and of the ways in which governments pursue market integration policies that advance their own political interests, including human rights. How and why do global norms for social j...
In this book, Ariel Ahram offers a new perspective on a growing threat to international and human security—the reliance of 'weak states' on quasi-official militias, paramilitaries, and warlords. Tracing the history of several "high profile" paramilitary organizations, including Indonesia's various militia factions, Iraq's tribal "awakening," and Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Basij corps, the book shows why and how states co-opt these groups, turning former rebels into state-sponsored militias. Building on an historical and comparative empirical approach that emphasizes decolonization, revolution, and international threat, the author offers a new set of policy prescriptions for addressing this escalating international crisis—with particular attention to strategies for mitigating the impact of this devolution of violence on the internal and international stability of states.