Abstract
Autesserre, Séverine (2010) The Trouble with the Congo: Local Violence and the Failure of International Peacebuilding. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 344 pp. ISBN 9780521156011.
Séverine Autesserre’s book on the Congo peacebuilding effort has already been awarded more than one academic award, and deservedly so. It is relevant, timely, and carefully researched; and the topic has received surprisingly little rigorous attention in the literature. Drawing from more than 330 interviews and extensive field research, Autesserre develops a case study of the largely unsuccessful international intervention in the DRC from 2003 to 2006. The main proposition in the book is that the international effort failed due to a lack of understanding of the complex local context and conflicts. Need for a micro-level focus is not a new insight per se, but the argumentation and the evidence brought to bear are more detailed and compelling than most existing accounts. Autesserre emphasizes grassroots rivalries over land, resources, and political power that motivated widespread violence. When international actors interpreted continued fighting as the consequence of national and regional tensions alone, they vastly underestimated the complex local conflicts. Intervening in these conflicts was also seen as outside the legitimate mandate of the UN. Hence, the dominant peacebuilding culture precluded action on local conflicts, ultimately stifling the international efforts to end the killings. We cannot know to what extent the specifics of the trouble with the Congo mirror troubles elsewhere, but the mere scale of the Congo conflict makes the lessons important in their own right. Furthermore, as peacebuilding culture is international, the findings are likely to be important for reorienting future interventions to increase success rates. Hence, it should be standard reading for those interested in international peacebuilding in the DRC, Africa, and elsewhere, for both researchers and policymakers.
Ragnhild Nordås
Bergsmo, Morten, ed. (2012) Thematic Prosecution of International Sex Crimes. Beijing: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher. 452 pp. ISBN 9788293081319.
In March 2012, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first trial judgement, which not only legitimized the existence of the ICC as a judicial body, but also confirmed the ‘very idea of thematic prosecution’ (p. 2). This anthology, the first of its kind, serves as a forum for critical discussion about the suitability of thematic prosecution (prioritizing certain types of crimes over others). Thematic Prosecution of International Sex Crimes outlines the philosophical and moral justifications for thematizing the investigation and prosecution of sex crimes, and to a certain extent, crimes against children. The question the anthology confronts is ‘whether the sexual offences can be properly isolated or taken out from the broader criminal conduct’ (p. 305), compelling the authors to evaluate the utility of thematizing investigations. After laying the theoretical foundation, the anthology sketches prosecutorial approaches, addressing varying criminalities at local, national, and international jurisdictions, and dissecting the complexities of the multifarious nature of victimization. Due to the challenges that international courts face – limited jurisdiction, scarce resources and personnel, and external influences – Kai Ambos argues that criminal justice processes are always selective (p. 293). However, as Christopher Mahony’s criticism suggests, international courts may be ‘more about prosecuting victor’s justice and administering’ regime change, rather than elevating the status of previously disregarded global norms, undermining the very purpose of thematic prosecution (p. 81). The challenge going forward will be to contextualize crimes of sexual violence within broader systems of inequality and violence, while realizing that ‘sexual violence crimes may have been just one aspect of the larger gendered nature or outcomes of a particular episode in a conflict or mass violation’ (Valerie Oosterveld, p. 192).
Amanda H Blair
Bergsmo, Morten; Alf Butenschøn Skre & Elisabeth J Wood, eds (2012) Understanding and Proving International Sex Crimes. Beijing: Torkel Opsahl Academic EPublisher. 894 pp. ISBN 9788293081296.
The inclusion of sex and gender-based crimes into international criminal and humanitarian law signifies a global shift from historical impunity to the recognition of the gravity of international sex crimes. Understanding and Proving International Sex Crimes outlines the development of sex crimes in international law, utilizing three perspectives: historical, legal/evidentiary, and sociological. The authors challenge scholars to go beyond the exceptional nature of violence captured by the International Criminal Tribunals of Yugoslavia and Rwanda (ICTY and ICTR) in order to develop a more nuanced understanding of the perceived ‘widespread or systematic’ use of sexual violence in armed conflict. The anthology also includes a comprehensive digest of sex crime cases from the ICTY, ICTR, and the Special Court for Sierra Leone, which will prove to be an invaluable tool for researchers. From a sociological perspective, Elisabeth J Wood emphasizes the variation of wartime sexual violence, highlighting cases in which the prevalence of sexual violence is relatively low, and suggesting a re-evaluation of current approaches to sexual violence research. Moreover, Alejandra Azuero Quijano and Jocelyn Kelly provide a further example of such variation, comparing the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Colombia. Quijano and Kelly argue that even though DRC and Colombia have two different profiles of violence, the same meta-narrative is used to describe sexual violence in each armed conflict: that bestial male combatants perpetrate widespread and systematic forms of sexual violence against helpless women and girls (pp. 457–458). Going forward, the challenge for researchers and prosecutors will be to better assess gendered patterns of violence and variation of perpetration, instead of merely showcasing the violence against women and girls during armed conflict.
Amanda H Blair
Brown, Nathan J, ed. (2011) The Dynamics of Democratization: Dictatorship, Development, and Diffusion. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. viii + 332 pp. ISBN 9781421400099.
This edited volume deals with various aspects of the dynamics of democratization, mainly revolving around two questions: what causes democracy to emerge and survive; and what mechanisms are required to promote democracy. Brown has gathered a diverse team of experts who offer in-depth analyses of the complex nature of democratization, both regionally and globally, using a mixture of quantitative methods and careful comparative case studies. The book is divided into three sections. The first traces the connection between democracy and autocracy. The authors challenge the predominant claims in the literature that the ‘third wave’ of democratization resulted in the rise of hybrid regimes which share elements of both democracy and dictatorship. Rather, they argue that processes of democratization led countries either toward a consolidated liberal democracy or back into authoritarianism, an insight which might force many to rethink their understanding of democratization and standard conceptions of regime types. The second section focuses on the relationship between political system and economic development, concluding that development does not generate democracy but does contribute to the stability of existing democracies. The book’s final section discusses the consequences of deliberative democracy, and warns that democratic gains might encounter monumental backlash as democracy thrives only on stable institutions which require decades of nurturing and societal acceptance. This volume makes four important contributions: (1) the complex process of democratization is not one-dimensional; (2) democratization cannot be understood without probing the nature of authoritarianism; (3) complications exist between economic patterns and democracy; and (4) international activism can draw attention towards democracy, but cannot ensure stable democratization. For its diverse and succinct debate, this volume is highly recommended to both academic and non-academic readers.
Surinder Mohan
Brown, Michael E; Owen R Coté Jr, Sean M Lynn-Jones & Steven E Miller, eds (2011) Do Democracies Win Their Wars? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. xxix + 294 pp. ISBN 9780262515900.
Do democracies win a large proportion of wars they fight against autocracies? This edited volume deals with this puzzle by stimulating a vigorous debate between proponents and critics of the ‘democratic victory’ proposition. Scholars on both sides present their arguments pointedly with debates covering conceptual argument, evidence, logic, data, and methodology. Advocates of the democratic victory theory offer four explanations for why democracies seem disproportionately more likely to win the wars they fight: first, democracies initiate wars when they are likely to win; second, their militaries are more effective; third, they can allocate greater resources for national security because their societies support such policies; and fourth, they form strong alliances with other democracies against dictatorships. Critics contest that this logic rests on shaky foundations. According to them, democracies’ war selection mechanism ‘does not explain why they often prevail once they are in [wars]’, but rather that it ‘explain(s) why democracies may avoid some challenging wars’ (p. 74). They further argue that claims regarding democracies’ ability to formulate overwhelming coalitions and their military effectiveness are conceptually and empirically incoherent: most alliances are mixed and autocratic militaries are sometimes superior. Despite the somewhat confrontational nature of the book, these essays do not resolve the debate as the data are marred with several inadequacies that rendered critical propositions untestable. On the other hand, this volume’s inconclusive end suggests that the debate requires much more impressive findings before being resolved, which, of course, necessitates a broad range of new research endeavors that could rigorously probe various aspects of the linkage between regimes and war outcomes. While enjoyable, the book is perhaps better suited for academics than non-specialized readers.
Surinder Mohan
Demenchonok, Edward, ed. (2010) Philosophy after Hiroshima. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars. 548 pp. ISBN 9781443812986.
What role should philosophy play in understanding war and peace? Is it to understand war and pragmatically identify the sources of peace on these terms; or to formulate an ideal of peace as a basis for eradicating war? A tension between these approaches runs throughout the history of philosophy, as reflected in the distinctions between realism and idealism, and between the ‘just war’ and ‘perpetual peace’ traditions. This anthology mainly contributes to the latter, explicitly treading in the footsteps of Immanuel Kant’s vision of a cosmopolitan peace. Since the end of the Cold War, this tradition has been dominated by ‘liberal peace theory’, identifying political and economic liberalization as the way to a lasting peace. Philosophy after Hiroshima partly challenges and partly enriches this perspective by distancing itself from the idea of expanding the liberal peace through political clout and military force. At first sight, this looks like yet another rejection of war and imperialism in defense of peace and dialogue. But this common thread runs through a rich collection of original pieces that revive the ethics of peace. It starts from a timely revisiting of arguments against military interventionism, nuclear weapons and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Then it turns to political implications of this critique, with a primary focus on US foreign policy. The essential problem when prescribing a turn away from war is how to relate to political conflict and cultural diversity. This question is addressed through a series of chapters on forgiveness, tolerance, rhetoric, Daoism and international law. The final section explicitly addresses the potential of philosophy as a source of peace in international politics, and ends with a convincing proposal of a ‘philosophy of the possible’.
Kristoffer Lidén
Emmers, Ralf, ed. (2011) ASEAN and the Institutionalization of East Asia. London & New York: Routledge. 234 pp. ISBN 9780415614344.
Ralf Emmers’s book, ASEAN and the Institutionalization of East Asian Cooperation, is an edited volume with a tight focus and good division of labour between excellent authors. It looks at the role of ASEAN in the institutionalization of East Asia’s security cooperation by first focusing on how ASEAN itself has managed to institutionalize its norms, practices and authority in its own approach to security. From there, the book proceeds to the role of ASEAN in East Asia’s security institutionalization, the role of ASEAN-based security institutions in the regulation of big power politics in East Asia, and finally, the alternatives to ASEAN-based security institutions. Emmers’s book presents an interesting collection of the mainstream arguments about the role of ASEAN in East Asian security architecture and security norms. The fact that it is written by the ‘usual suspects’ in the field makes the volume, on the one hand, valuable and authoritative, but also a bit predictable. The predictability is further increased by the fact that the book keeps up the illusion that scholars must more or less ‘represent’ their national approaches to security. The book would also have benefited from a greater dialogue between its chapters. In particular, chapters that criticized East Asian regionalism as meaningless and ineffective dialogue could have been more interesting had they directly engaged the counter-argument presented in chapters that claimed that the dialogue process in itself produces process-related value, such as trust and common norms and world-views. The book, though, is highly recommended for those interested in regionalization, institution building and the interesting case of small ASEAN countries leading the big powers in East Asia.
Timo Kivimäki
Gel’man, Vladimir & Cameron Ross, eds (2010) The Politics of Sub-National Authoritarianism in Russia. Burlington, VT: Ashgate. 248 pp. ISBN 9780754678885.
With Moscow’s dominance spanning from the Soviet era, the Kremlin’s grasp over Russia’s periphery remains quite strong. Yet Russia is a country of 83 federal subjects, which is unusual in that it predetermines the importance of reconstructing and renegotiating relations between the center and its regions. This edited volume covers a wide range of issues related to subnational authoritarianism in Russia, including power-sharing, liberalism, recentralization, regional elections, the role of newly emerging NGOs, property, and economic dependency. Though somewhat descriptive, the book is generally analytical in nature and contains some basic statistical analysis. Importantly, the authors attempt to construct theoretical frames in order to conduct their analysis, instead of merely borrowing theories from already published works. Some of the chapters feature discussions, while others present simple quantitative analyses, though all are well grounded in the existing literature, and this variety of approaches allows for certain issues to be highlighted that would be overlooked otherwise. When considering the particular historical, geographic, economic, and political determinants, some of the regions, such as Tatarstan and Bashkortostan, have been more rebellious than others. One cannot deny the fact that the authors are detail-oriented in supporting their arguments, especially when it comes to the case studies. The book even mentions German settlers in Siberia and the Middle Volga region, who ‘employed their links with European powers to curb the imperial authorities’ interference with their promised self-governance’ (p. 44). Overall, this work will be an excellent read for those who recognize that Russia is not limited to Moscow but stretches out to its numerous regions, and for those who wish to learn more about subnational politics in Russia.
Ararat L Osipian
Guelke, Adrian (2012) Politics in Deeply Divided Societies. Cambridge: Polity. viii + 178 pp. ISBN 9780745648491.
Guelke’s book presents a fine overview of the challenges and potential solutions for societies characterized by deep divisions based on class, religion, language, race, or ethnicity. Following a brief introduction, Guelke starts with a discussion of what a deeply divided society is, which divisions characterize such societies, and how they are distinguished from other societies. He defines deeply divided societies as those where ‘conflict exists along a well-entrenched fault line that is recurrent and endemic and that contains the potential for violence between the segments’ (p. 30). In the remaining chapters Guelke elaborates on different approaches to deal with such divisions within society, with chapters focusing on: violence, order and justice; policing; integration; partition and population transfer; power sharing; and external mediation. Guelke does not present new theory or research, but rather provides a summary of the existing research on politics in deeply divided societies. Additionally, he illustrates these theories with examples from recent history, in particular focusing on Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland and South Africa. Guelke’s aim with this book seems not to be to argue in favour of a handful of solutions he suggests work best for divided societies, but rather to describe the various options available. Unfortunately, in such a short volume there is not space to cover the whole body of relevant literature on divided societies and some important perspectives are left out. Roeder & Rothchild’s work on power dividing, for example, is not included. As a literature review, Guelke’s book may not provoke anybody or inspire new research, but the book provides a fine introduction and overview for readers not familiar with the topic.
Helga Malmin Binningsbø
Hehir, Aidan (2012) The Responsibility to Protect: Rhetoric, Reality and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. ix + 301 pp. ISBN 9780230289185
With this book, Aidan Hehir provides a clear demarcation between blurred concepts that entangle the doctrine of responsibility to protect and the age-old notion of humanitarian intervention. He carefully traces the evolution of the doctrine while pointing out the ambiguity that surrounds its interpretations, and the book offers a thought provoking analysis of the inconsistencies in the action of the Security Council in the fulfillment of its responsibility to protect. Hehir provides an enlightening and gripping account of how individualistic agendas of different member states of the Security Council determine how the doctrine is applied. A detailed analysis of the political, economic and strategic interests of each of the five members leading up to the intervention in Libya leaves the reader stunned as one comes to understand that humanitarian intervention under the doctrine of responsibility to protect is merely one of the many rationales that states may choose to use to justify their actions in breaching the sovereignty of other states. The author also underlines that the objective of the book is to contribute towards building a pro-intervention constituency, and proposes an alternate institutional arrangement within the United Nations as a viable regulator for such action. He also suggests an independent judicial body be established to respond to particular intrastate humanitarian crises with the assistance of a standing independent UN military force. Though such a proposal could possibly be implemented in the future, it is likely that it would have to stand up to severe international criticism. Overall, the book is an interesting read for those interested in contemporary international politics with a taste for international law.
Priyanka Vij
Jones, Lee (2012) ASEAN, Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 280 pp. ISBN 9780230319264.
Lee Jones’s book is refreshing reading in the otherwise rather commonsensical and atheoretical literature of Southeast Asian security studies. It gives an important contribution to the study of the normative order of the region. The book presents a class-based analysis that suggests that instead of ASEAN interstate norms deserving a focus as stable, independent factors of regional politics, one should look at sovereignty and non-interference principles as fluid products of a social struggle between transnational classes. Instead of being derived from some consistent ethnical code they are an ideological component of the hegemony of the ruling classes. As proof, Jones presents cases that, on the one hand, show that the norm of non-interference has not been applied consistently. On the other hand, the cases show that these principles have been applied and modified for the purpose of preventing radical threats to the capitalist elite coalitions and internal order of Southeast Asia. The book is refreshing as it challenges many of the conceptual and theoretical premises of much of the Southeast Asian security studies. It offers a new, plausible way of seeing international relations as transnational class relations. However, as often in interpretative studies and holistic explanations, the reader is left with many counter-arguments to the interpretations presented in the book. How, for example, could ASEAN expand to Indo-China and how could ASEAN elites fight the pro-IMF influence of Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim if ASEAN was an anti-communist alliance and if its norms were simply the hegemonic ideology of the capital owners? Some of the interpretations could certainly have been substantiated by showing some quantitative evidence instead of just referring to singular cases that support the interpretation. Despite this, the book is a must read.
Timo Kivimäki
Louis, W Roger & Avi Shlaim, eds (2012) The 1967 Arab–Israeli War: Origins and Consequences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xvii + 327 pp. ISBN 9780521174794.
In 2001 Avi Shlaim and Eugene Rogan edited a volume on the 1948 Arab–Israeli War titled The War for Palestine. This was an important publication in which area specialists wrote separate chapters for the various actors involved. Now W Roger Louis and Avi Shlaim have edited a very similar volume on the 1967 Arab–Israeli War. Once again some of the most prominent experts of the field have contributed with chapters covering their areas of expertise. To mention some, Avi Shlaim has written chapters on Jordan and Israel, David W Lesch has written on Syria, Rashid Khalidi has written on its effects on Arab nationalism and Charles D Smith has written on the role of the United States. This gives the reader an all-round insight into the historic events that led up to the 1967 War, the war itself and its political aftermath. The chapters are well written and well argued, making this book an important contribution in the 1967 literature. However, it is disappointing to note how few of the authors have relied on primary sources. In many chapters the references are only to older publications, interviews and printed source collections, and as such the claim that ‘the authors make good use of recently declassified material’ is generally an overstatement. This makes the book less of a landmark than it should have been, despite some honorable exceptions. Worth mentioning are Charles D Smith’s ‘The United States and the 1967 War’, Rami Ginat’s ‘The Soviet Union: The Roots of War and a Reassessment of Historiography’ and W Roger Louis’s ‘Britain: The Ghost of Suez and Resolution 242’, which all rely heavily on primary sources.
Jørgen Jensehaugen
Marten, Kimberly (2012) Warlords: Strong-Arm Brokers in Weak States. Ithaca, NY & London: Cornell University Press. xiii + 262 pp. ISBN 9780801450761.
Perhaps only ‘terrorist’ is a more loaded term in political discourse than ‘warlord’. Indeed one journalist’s warlord is another expert’s security-provider, while an NGO activist may see him as a valuable partner in distributing humanitarian aid. Marten defines her warlords as not necessarily a product of wars but as quintessential ‘stationary bandits’, who control a chunk of territory inside a failing state by means of force and patronage (p. 3). Unlike their predecessors in medieval Europe and early 20th-century China, theorized by Mancur Olson and Charles Tilly, modern era warlords are not budding state-builders, because they come to exist due to critical weaknesses of state institutions and work relentlessly on perpetuating this state failure. Striking informal bargains with feeble state bureaucracies, warlords operate in legal limbo but not in isolation, seeking to convert the interests of concerned (but rarely altruistic) neighbours and international actors into resources for their patronage networks. The set of cases scrutinized in the book, which took eight years to write counting from the field research in Afghanistan in 2004, includes Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Area; Georgia, with the particular focus on Ajara; Chechnya, still brutally ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov; and the Sunni provinces of Iraq, in which a network of groups known as Sons of Iraq operate. Comparisons are stimulating rather than compelling, and Marten rather unconventionally presents her conclusions as hypotheses – no less than 11 of them – with the bottom line pointing to the risks of empowering warlords. Convenient and tactically beneficial as it may be, delegating sovereignty to warlords inevitably leads to economic stagnation and social degradation of the enclaves under their control and so produces a net strategic loss for every best-intentions intervention.
Pavel Baev
Midlarsky, Manus I (2011) Origins of Political Extremism: Mass Violence in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. New York: Cambridge University Press. 429 pp. ISBN 9780521700719.
This is an ambitious study both in terms of the thesis and the evidence marshaled to support it. Building on his 2005 book, The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century, Midlarsky reassesses the history of this period to distill the etiology of what he calls extremism. He defines his dependent variable as ‘the will to power by a social movement in the service of a political program typically at variance with that supported by existing state authorities, and for which individual liberties are to be curtailed in the name of collective goals, including the mass murder of those who would actually or potentially disagree with that program’ (p. 7). Examples include exponents of fascism, communism, radical Islamism, and extreme nationalism at the core of which is anti-liberalism. His proposed causal mechanism is emotion-based rather than rational, as extremism is driven by fear of reverting to a former subordinate position in the international system and perceptions of injustice, anger, and blame, as well as humiliation and shame. Methodologically, this is a manifestly difficult hypothesis to test, not least because the key concept of extremism is underspecified. The author vacillates in whether to code the dependent variable based on the extremeness of the actor’s political preferences or his actions, which are conceptually distinct. Ultimately, Midlarsky fails to offer a rigorous, compelling explanation of either outcome.
Max Abrahms
Mueller, John & Mark G Stewart (2011) Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits, and Costs of Homeland Security. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 268 pp. ISBN 9780199795765.
The USA has spent in excess of $1,000,000,000,000 on homeland security measures after 9/11. This timely book evaluates their cost effectiveness. To find the net benefit of terrorism countermeasures we need to multiply the ex ante risk of a successful attack, the likely losses from an attack, and the ex post reduction in risk. The authors review each of these components, and their calculations indicate that homeland security spending is very unlikely to be cost effective, even under very generous assumptions. For example, assuming very high losses from a terrorist attack of $100 million – an estimate of likely costs of the 2010 Times Square plot, if successful – and an optimistic risk reduction of 0.45, homeland security spending would have needed to have averted no fewer than 1,667 attacks per year to justify the annual US homeland security costs of $75 billion. The authors take issue with the claim that terrorism is some existential threat at a scale that can justify any amount of preventive spending. Noting the few successful attacks after 9/11 and arguing that the fear of terrorism seems out of proportion to likely risks, they present a compelling case for a refocused approach, focusing on mitigation of the consequences of attacks. Readers may disagree with the aspects of the analysis; for example, extreme value distributions suggest that the risk of severe attacks could be higher than the authors claim, given the observed data. Yet, their analysis is transparent, and it is incumbent on the critics to provide alternative analyses. This book should be required reading for policymakers and terrorism scholars.
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch
Power, Maria, ed. (2011) Building Peace in Northern Ireland. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. xvi + 238 pp. ISBN 9781846316593.
Although the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 was a momentous occasion in Northern Ireland’s current peace process, it marked just one step in that process to bring about a peaceful society. Relative political stability through consociationalism (its merits and weaknesses notwithstanding) hardly reflects the reality of sectarianism that became entrenched in times of violence and continues to be tackled at the grassroots within and between communities. Peacebuilding is a multilayered task and Maria Power’s edited volume makes two very important contributions to scholarship and policymaking in this regard. Firstly, it presents the first collective assessment of the efforts of ‘peacebuilding organisations’ in civil society in Northern Ireland. The array of themes and topics to emerge from this international group of scholars exposes the complexity of peacebuilding. Examinations of the roles of central social institutions (schools and churches), groups (women, former political prisoners, ex-paramilitaries), governmental and funding bodies are clear and compelling. Overall, it is apparent that no potential contributor to peace and stability in Northern Ireland is immune from competing discourses that continue to characterize this divided society. Power’s collection thus makes a second significant contribution. Appearing more than a decade since the Agreement and at a time when Northern Ireland seldom makes international headlines, these essays draw attention to the challenges of conflict transformation in attaining comprehensive peace once documents are signed and handshakes are photographed. In reference to community development workers, Atashi states that they must now ‘conform to the demands of peace instead of conflict’ (p. 213). A similar onus is on scholars to continue to detail peacebuilding efforts, and this collection is a fine example to follow.
Sarah McMonagle
Robertson, Graeme B (2011) The Politics of Protests in Hybrid Regimes: Managing Dissent in Post-Communist Russia. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. xvii + 285 pp. ISBN 9780521118750.
The author can consider himself lucky getting a small ironic wink from the muse of political science, who allowed his book to be published on the eve of a major explosion of political protests in Russia caused by the crudely falsified parliamentary elections in December 2011. The research is based on solid data for the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s and aspires to draw from it not only empirical conclusions on the eroding stability in Russia but also theoretical propositions applicable to other ‘hybrid regimes’. Robertson sees no need in subcategorization of such regimes, stating that they are many and varied and arguing that hybridity is ‘deliberately designed to extract the benefits of competition while minimizing the likelihood of loss of control’ (p. 12). The idea that ‘hybrid regimes tend to feature hybrid protests’ (p. 4) might appear pedestrian, but it is developed into a model based on three factors: the organizational ecology of the regime (a somewhat dubious term for the character of civic and social organizations and the conditions under which they operate), state mobilization strategies and elite competition. The model yields some interesting results that underpin the argument that Vladimir Putin had to undertake major innovations in managing the protests of the 2000s in order to make his regime defeat-proof and arrived at ‘a new postmodern form of authoritarianism that became a model for authoritarians in hybrid regimes in many countries’ (p. 201). This innovative upgrade has proven quite efficient in minimizing labour unrest, but experienced a major setback in manipulating the parliamentary elections – and is now struggling to contain the revolt of urban middle classes.
Pavel Baev
Scheuerman, William E (2011) The Realist Case for Global Reform. Cambridge: Polity. 219 pp. ISBN 9780745650296.
William Scheuerman’s aims are twofold in this provocative and well-constructed monograph. He wants first to change our views about how to view Realist international relations theory. He also wants to show that an appropriate emphasis on ‘Progressive Realism’ will give reason to think far more seriously about world government as a long-term goal. Scheuerman, a Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, argues that the dominant structural Realism, focused on state power in an anarchic global system, should be complemented – or perhaps supplanted – by Progressive Realism. The latter remains clear-sighted about the importance of state interests and power, but it also sees supra-state institutional reform as a genuine possibility. Scheuerman mines this vein of Realism from the mid-20th-century work of especially Morgenthau, Carr and Niebuhr. All could be seen as skeptics compared with their World Federalist contemporaries, he notes, but each was open to the possibility of global institutional change. They diverged from the Federalists especially in emphasizing the importance of establishing global community before global institutions could be considered. Building on their insights, Scheuerman explores reform possibilities up to a full world state, including a chapter devoted to objections against it. The book offers a plausible and compelling revisionist history of mid-century Realism. It is on somewhat shakier ground in treating some other approaches, particularly when several distinctive arguments are lumped together in a sort of straw-person ‘cosmopolitanism’ (Ch. 4). It also employs a conception of compliance that may rely too heavily on raw coercive power in making the case for a strong, centralized world state. Overall, however, The Realist Case for Global Reform represents an important contribution to recent theorizing about ultimate global institutional possibilities.
Luis Cabrera
Visser, Reidar (2010) A Responsible End: The United States and the Iraqi Transition. Charlottesville, VA: Just World Books. 300 pp. ISBN 9781935982036.
This book is a revised compilation of the author’s blog entries on Iraqi affairs during the period 2005–10. In 2005, Iraqis voted for the first full-term government and parliament since the US-led invasion of the country. Visser provides a detailed view of the domestic parliamentary politics that took place over the next five years, which ended the US combat mission and left an Iraq ‘more internally divided, ungovernable and prone to regional influences than at any point since the end of the Gulf War in 1991’ (p. 11). The 2010 election was riddled with the same identity politics that characterized the 2005 election, and Visser seeks to explain why. While Iraqi parliamentarians failed to move towards more progressive politics, US policymakers, according to Visser, had a deeply flawed understanding of the Iraqi political landscape, often supporting the least moderate, centrifugal and pro-Iranian factions. Together with Western intellectuals they were also ‘talking the country to pieces’ (p. 22) by insisting that Iraq is an historical anomaly, an artificial entity in need of a tripartitional federal model for its presumably ethno-sectarian constituents: Shiite Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds (described with little sympathy here). Visser should be taken seriously. He is one of the exceptionally few international experts who studied Iraq prior to 2003 and he masters the Arabic language. Yet for all his competence he cites few Iraqi academics in his well-researched and well-written critique of Western neo-imperialism and self-declared Western experts. He does write that ‘no compliment has meant more to me during these years than the fact of having an Iraqi readership’ (p. 301). There is some irony to that.
Erlend Paasche
Özerdem, Alpaslan & Sukanya Podder, eds (2011) Child Soldiers: From Recruitment to Reintegration. London: Palgrave Macmillan. xxi + 235 pp. ISBN 9780320241961.
A staple diet of literatures engaging with child soldier issues has been the topic of how to ensure the success of post-conflict peacebuilding. Strong assertions have been made that it is the last part of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process that remains most complex. Almost an unending process, reintegration involves stages variously described as rehabilitation, repatriation, reinsertion, resettlement, reconciliation, reunification, reconstruction and reintegration. The strength of this edited volume in addressing this topic is the extensive empirical skill of contributors in analyzing their data using incisive conceptual and theoretical paradigms. Its novelty lies in its contention that reintegration cannot be viewed narrowly as a post-conflict stage but must be understood as part of an uninterrupted continuum flowing from in-group experience and recruitment methodologies. Various chapters underline the diversity which produces varying cross-cultural trajectories of recruitment and in-group experiences that makes one-size-fits-all approaches to DDR ineffective, and even counterproductive. The book exposes how reintegration processes often view child soldiers as identical actors, overlooking variations in gender, age, disability, ethnicity and rank. It shows how loyalties, bonds and identities among child soldiers continue to be potent ties throughout their reintegration. The book also debunks Western cultural assumptions underwriting concepts and models of DDR that overlook unique socio-cultural and political determinants: certain regimes do not wish to confess to the existence of child soldiers; others marginalize girls as camp-followers, or have very different traditions of adolescence rituals. Furthermore, the finality of the DDR process is challenged, as longitudinal studies show ex-combatants reviving ‘resolved’ conflicts. In challenging such ideas, the book provides a range of data and strong analysis useful for improving reintegration policies and practices.
Swaran Singh
Authors of Book Notes in this issue:
Max Abrahms – Johns Hopkins University
Pavel Baev – PRIO
Helga Malmin Binningsbø – PRIO
Amanda H Blair – University of Chicago
Luis Cabrera – University of Birmingham
Kristian Skrede Gleditsch – University of Essex & PRIO
Jørgen Jensehaugen – Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Timo Kivimäki – University of Helsinki
Kristoffer Lidén – PRIO
Sarah McMonagle – University of Hamburg
Surinder Mohan – University of Delhi
Ragnhild Nordås – PRIO
Ararat L Osipian – Vanderbilt University
Erlend Paasche – PRIO
Swaran Singh – Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Priyanka Vij – Sciences Po & PRIO