Book Notes

Arias, Enrique Desmond & Daniel M Goldstein, eds (2010) Violent Democracies in Latin America. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. vii + 324 pp. ISBN 9780822346388.

The paradox of violent democratization in Latin America is taken up in this fine interdisciplinary collection. The book at its core concerns ‘violent pluralism’, or the way that ‘states, social elites, and subalterns employ violence in the quest to establish or contest regimes of citizenship, justice, rights, and a democratic social order’ (p. 4). This process, it is argued, is not necessarily the result of institutional failures, but is deeply embedded in processes of both historical and contemporary state formation and political development, and has seen power become ‘diffused from centralized political institutions’ (p. 244). Chapters take up different country case studies – such as the Colombian armed conflict or urban gang violence in Brazil – to explore the idea that violence is ‘built into’ state formation processes rather that being a result of state failure and poor law enforcement. The impression conveyed is that violence can have both positive and negative functions, is used by both legitimate and illegitimate groups, and is itself both ordering and disordering. The editors’ introductory chapter highlights this, arguing that violence is ‘not merely concentrated in the state or in “deviant” groups and individuals who contravene otherwise accepted norms’, and that ‘instead of viewing violence as indicative of democratic failure … (it) is critical to the foundation of Latin American democracies, the maintenance of democratic states and the political behavior of democratic citizens’ (p. 5). Presciently, they also observe that ‘violence is a mechanism for keeping in place the very institutions and policies that neoliberal democracies have fashioned … as well as an instrument for coping with the myriad problems that neoliberal democracies have generated’ (p. 5). In considering how politics and violence become and remain entwined, this is a well-researched and nuanced contribution.

Kristian Hoelscher

Bolognani, Marta & Stephen M Lyon, eds (2011) Pakistan and Its Diaspora: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. xi + 263 pp. ISBN 9780230110939.

This ambitious edited volume seeks to straddle the divide between social scientific investigations of social processes in a country in the global South and processes of migration from such a country. It is a timely and thought-provoking contribution to the study of both Pakistani society and migration from Pakistan. Within migration studies, the transnational turn since the 1990s would suggest that studies including the perspectives of both sending and receiving contexts are commonplace. Yet, more often than not, research tends to focus more on migrant transnationalism and less on the societal processes in which transnationalism is embedded. Through its investigation of four specific themes: public space, Kashmir, religious leadership and women, this edited volume adds to our understanding of the interconnections between broad societal developments in Pakistan and parallel developments in the diaspora. At times these developments may be seen as intertwined and complementary; at other times the spatial distance and contrasting contexts affect these processes to produce different outcomes. The chosen themes seem relevant to the exploration of interconnectedness of Pakistan and its diaspora, though as a consequence of seeking to bridge investigations at the national, subnational and local levels, the focus of the volume as a whole comes across as somewhat unevenly balanced. The title of the book suggests a global approach to the Pakistani diaspora, but the collection covers almost exclusively the UK Pakistani diaspora, framed within its particular post-colonial history. This results in a narrower coverage of Pakistan and its diaspora than might have been expected. Overall, however, the book comes across as a valuable piece both for those studying migration from Pakistan and for those more interested in societal developments in Pakistan as such.

Marta Bivand Erdal

Bremmer, Ian (2012) Every Nation for Itself: Winners and Losers in the G-Zero World. New York: Portfolio/Penguin. viii + 229 pp. ISBN 9781591844686.

The unrelenting economic crisis and the decline of short-lived post-Cold War US dominance has propelled the global system a long mile further towards a drifting and restless multipolarity. Bremmer takes the lack of leadership as the central feature of the current international relations, defining this state with the catchy label ‘G-Zero world’. He argues that it was the fiasco of the 2009 UN Climate summit in Copenhagen that signaled the arrival of an unruly world, destroying expectations for a revival of US leadership, for a greater influence from the EU and Japan, for a stronger role of ‘rising powers’ like China and India, and for consensual empowering of international institutions. This erosion of every kind of authority opens space for conflict, and it is easy to find corroborative evidence for his proposition that ‘as sure as death and taxes, the lack of international leadership will move governments to use oil, gas, metals, minerals, and even commodities like grain as instruments of foreign policy’ (p. 32). This unrestrained pursuit of parochial interests, however, makes the risks for most actors far too high, and while Bremmer concedes that the present state of affairs is transitional rather than a new norm, he suggests that ‘it will probably take another calamity, or at least the credible threat that one is imminent, to give birth to a new international order’ (p. 151). He refuses to speculate about this calamity but outlines possible outcomes by examining cooperation or conflict between the USA and China and the strengths and weaknesses of other powers. There is plenty to disagree with in this concise and opinionated book, but it certainly makes a great read.

Pavel Baev

Briquet, Jean-Louis & Gilles Favarel-Garrigues, eds (2010) Organised Crime and States: The Hidden Face of Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. x + 250 pp. ISBN 9780230622869.

This volume traces linkages between emerging transnational criminal networks and political actors. It discusses both the composition and consequences of such groups, debating the extent to which the emergence of new ‘mafia empires’ leads to the ‘corruption of markets and government institutions, and undermining (of) the material and moral foundations of liberal democracies’ (p. 1). The chapters use a series of country case studies to look at different forms illegal actors take, from the historically rooted ‘family-style’ mafias, to newly emergent and independent criminal gangs, and groups operating extralegally within the state security apparatus. The book therefore rightfully notes the heterogeneous forms that violence entrepreneurs can take, and how this influences how they associate with legitimate actors. The chapters show a range of interactions, from illegal groups that become fully integrated into elite circles to those held at arm’s length while serving some symbiotic function. Chapters by Gayer on the Pakistan Rangers and Massicard on politico-criminal configurations in Turkey show how illegal groups can become enlisted to act at the behest of state agents to control territories, enforce rule of law or serve other ostensibly ‘positive’ functions; they also show that on the basis of this ‘legitimization’ by the state, these groups can develop and expand their own ‘extra-professional’ criminal activities. Duffy’s chapter on the criminalization of the state in Belize also highlights that transnational criminality does not always have debilitating effects, but can also actively support the expansion of illegality and the integration of ‘shadow’ and ‘legitimate’ states. The book does well to highlight the complexity of the issues at hand, acknowledging that ‘the borders between the licit and the illicit in the exercise of power … are extremely permeable’ (p. 11).

Kristian Hoelscher

Bryant, Rebecca (2010) The Past in Pieces: Belonging in the New Cyprus. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 207 pp. ISBN 9780812242607.

How did the reopening of access and the renewed exposure to each other of the divided populations of Cyprus affect their interpretations of the past and, by extension, their expectations for the future? Rebecca Bryant, who this reviewer knows as a fine scholar, provides us with an empirical account – sobering, some would say depressing – of this crucial question. She has conducted empirical fieldwork on the village of Lapithos, now situated in the non-recognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), which prior to 1974 was a mixed village with a Greek majority. She started by engaging many of those who had fled Lapithos in the turmoil of Turkey’s military invasion, then moved to the village itself. Here she spent months getting to know the locals and their accounts of the past, while receiving as guests her informants now residing in the south who came to examine the village, its people, and their own houses and land. Accounts differ, as do expectations of the future. Yet, having read Bryant’s account, the inevitable conclusion is that whereas the sealed border allowed the cultivation of dreams about relocation and future coexistence, such dreams were shattered by the direct encounters that followed the 2003 reopening of the gates. This is an important book for anyone who wants to understand Cyprus. But the book deserves a much wider readership, challenging common assumptions about reconciliation and coexistence, and displaying how solid anthropological work can inform policy in unique ways.

Kristian Berg Harpviken

Chiozza, Giacomo & H E Goemans (2011) Leaders and International Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. xi + 240 pp. ISBN 9781107660731.

For a long time, scholars theorized about the motivations of leaders who initiate international conflicts. In this book, Giacomo Chiozza and H E Goemans open a new avenue for research into how leaders act to stay in power, and offer powerful explanations for international conflicts beyond rational-choice explanations. The book argues that leaders consider a broad range of private costs and benefits, especially ‘the manner and consequences of losing office’ (p. 5). For explaining why and when leaders decide to initiate international conflicts, the authors develop three mechanisms at the leader level. In the first, fight for survival, leaders who face a high risk of being forcibly removed from power might use international conflict to decrease the domestic challenges to power. Second, gambling for survival, suggests that victory in international conflict ‘gives legitimacy or resources that enable the leader to defeat his domestic enemies’ (p. 196). Third, peace through insecurity, identifies a mechanism whereby leaders who ‘need fear only a regular removal from office have dis-incentives to initiate conflict’ (p. 45). Utilizing the Archigos dataset with information on leaders during the period 1875–2004, the authors conduct case-study analysis of the history of Central America during 1840–1918, in order to examine the three mechanisms mentioned above. However, the book explains only less than half of the international intraregional crises during 1840–1918. In addition, the book follows a simple coding rule to identify the effectiveness of a leader, but in many cases, the coding rule may be rather more contentious. Thoroughly researched, clearly structured and carefully explained, the book deserves to be widely read, especially by all scholars and students of comparative politics and international affairs.

Kai Chen

Cooley, Alexander (2012) Great Games, Local Rules: The New Great Power Contest in Central Asia. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press. xiv + 252 pp. ISBN 9780199929825.

The tired ‘Great Game’ cliché has been applied so perfunctorily to the turbulent political developments in the former Soviet South that a learned reader might be turned away by the title – but she shouldn’t. In the book, the author does indeed examine the controversial interactions between Russia, the United States and China during the ‘long decade’ of 2001–11, which is still dragging on as long as the coalition forces remain in Afghanistan. Though instead of recycling the well-tested (and patently useless) geopolitical propositions, he argues that in Central Asia an experiment is being staged which is leading to ‘the emergence of distinctly novel, innovative, and even unique regional institutions and practices’ (p. 5). The parameters of this experiment are set by the incoherence and diversity of economic and security interests of the three external powers, so that they engage in far more complex triangular relations than a traditional ‘my win is your loss’ type of competition. Even more importantly, the five ‘Stans’ that comprise the region – now in the third decade of sovereign existence – have become so adept at playing on contradictions between and vulnerabilities of the patrons that they are able to advance their particular agendas far more successfully than the trio of ‘great powers’. The point that ‘the rise of multiple regional patrons is empowering targeted governments to buck external pressures for political reforms and greater democratization’ (p. 174) is right on target, perhaps with the reservation that the pressures from Russia and China go in a rather different direction. Finally, at the end of this concise book there is a proposition, albeit tantalizingly short, that the results of the experiment are applicable to other regions, particularly in the post-Arab spring context.

Pavel Baev

Faruqi, Daanish, ed. (2011) From Camp David to Cast Lead: Essays on Israel, Palestine, and the Future of the Peace Process. Lanham, MD: Lexington. xi + 173 pp. ISBN 9780739144565.

It is rather difficult to sum up this edited volume other than by resorting to the book’s subheading: Essays on Israel, Palestine, and the Future of the Peace Process. The heading itself is misleading, as very few of the essays help tie a narrative from Camp David to Cast Lead. Although there are some essays of a certain quality within the volume, the collection itself has the feel of a ramshackle compilation. Why, for instance, the opening essay “Who are the Palestinians?” by Henry Pachter is included is unclear. It was originally written (and published) in 1975. It might have been interesting and provocative at the time, but today it is neither, and it contains details that we today know are erroneous. Also, it is odd to read essays that have been insufficiently edited –for instance, past events are related in the present tense. As well as being oddly composed – one often wonders how the various essays relate to one another – the volume contains too many essays whose ideas are not adequately developed. Many of the essays contain interesting thoughts, but they lack the length and the empirical evidence to develop these ideas fully. The editor would probably have done a better job by including half the number of essays and doubling the length of those included. Not all is bleak news, however. Sara Roy, for instance, has a high quality contribution and I recommend her essay ‘Gaza’s diminishing landscape’. Too many of the other essays unfortunately simply give the reader a taste of what could have been.

Jørgen Jensehaugen

Dudouet, Veronique; Hans J Giessmann & Katrin Planta (2012) Post-War Security Transitions: Participatory Peacebuilding After Asymmetric Conflicts. London & New York: Routledge. xii + 280 pp. ISBN 9780415680806.

This volume addresses postwar security transitions from a global perspective and should kindle the minds of researchers studying war, peace and security studies. It discusses nine cases where armed movements have successfully demobilized and become integrated in conventional postwar political structures. From the urbanized gruella movement of the M19 in Columbia to the South African ANC’s underground networking and struggle against the apartheid government, several of the contributions here are authored by former contenders for power who act as ‘insider experts’ for the book. The introductory chapter highlights that non-state actors are identified purely in a political sense, and presents five novel research questions which are addressed in case studies that draw the volume together. The book successfully integrates these cross-cutting themes, allowing the reader to see how certain well-developed and well-executed forms of war-to-peace transition can instil a restored sense of security for multiple groups of stakeholders. In the book’s concluding chapter, the authors draw together findings in an in-depth cross-case comparative analysis. This is a commendable achievement and the editors should be praised for maintaining a comprehensive link to key themes throughout the book despite case studies coming from diverse contexts and backgrounds, both politically and culturally. Overall the book leaves the reader with an excellent understanding of how successes and limitations of issues such as peace negotiations, security sector integration, socio-economic inclusion and state reform are regarded by a range of stakeholders in post-conflict contexts.

Priyanka Vij

Kissinger, Henry A (2011) On China. London: Penguin. 586 pp. ISBN 9781846143465.

Dr Kissinger excelled as a political scientist at Harvard and Secretary of State under US Presidents Nixon and Ford. As an architect of the rapprochement between China and the USA in the early 1970s, he influenced relations of both states with the Soviet Union, and possibly the outcome of the Cold War. On China shows his insights into Chinese foreign policy and bilateral relations with the USA. For students of China working in English, his book is as important as studies by Benjamin I Schwartz and Jonathan D Spence. It describes the 1970s in detail, but its last chapters on China since Jiang Zemin and the future may intrigue even more. The author suggests that the Pacific has arrived at a critical juncture, facing a Kantian choice between perpetual peace ‘by human insight or by conflicts and catastrophes’. His hope that the USA and China will ‘merge their efforts’ to build a ‘Pacific Community’ (pp. 528, 530) is less surprising than his fear of how China will use its rising power and how well the USA will ‘retain its competitiveness and its world role’. Although Kissinger uses the term ‘global well-being’, we are left uncertain as to the crux of his fear. He writes that ‘[e]very great achievement was a vision before it became a reality’, that it ‘arose from commitment, not resignation to the inevitable’ (p. 530). This begs the question whether Kissinger is committed to a world-embracing vision of an international community of equal regions and states. Or is there – behind his dramatic Kantian juncture – primarily a concern for continued USA leadership? The sheer brilliance of a Kissinger will no longer unify and motivate minds in East Asia, Europe and elsewhere, as much as voices saturated by concern for that ‘global well-being’.

Morten Bergsmo

Moran, Daniel, ed. (2011) Climate Change and National Security: A Country-Level Analysis. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. 310 pp. ISBN 9781589017412.

Daniel Moran’s edited volume is a meaningful contribution to the literature on security implications of climate change. In 21 chapters, dedicated to different countries and regions around the globe, various authors discuss how effects of a changing climate can and may affect national security. The variety and complexity of such interactions and how they play out in the local, regional and global context is well captured in the book. While traditional sources of unrest and state destabilization in parts of Africa or Asia may be intensified by the additional threats of extreme weather events, food insecurity and water scarcity, the security consequences for institutions in the European Union or Russia are of a different kind. Each chapter benefits from the country expertise of its authors, who discuss potential political, social, economic and military challenges in a detailed and up-to-date manner. The applications of various concepts of security give the reader a precise understanding of possible consequences of the world heating up, and these go beyond the alarmist claims by the neo-Malthusian literature on environmental security. The potential for environmental threats to affect state cooperation and joint efforts of adaptation, however, are underrepresented in most studies. Nonetheless, the book’s individual chapters are an excellent first read for anyone who is interested in studying climate security of specific states or at the regional level.

Gerdis Wischnath

Sommers, Marc (2012) Stuck: Rwandan Youth and the Struggle for Adulthood. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. xxiv + 281 pp. ISBN 9780820338910 (pbk).

The international image of post-genocide Rwanda is one of a phoenix rising from the ashes. An African ‘tiger economy’ with high economic growth rates, stable government with a majority of women in parliament, and, most recently, rapidly declining fertility, it appears as a postwar reconstruction success story. Sommers’s important book points to a different development. While not denying the official, positive narrative, albeit reminding us of the authoritative traits of the Rwandan government, Sommers shows how large groups of youth, particularly young urban males, are excluded from participation in this development. Based on years of extensive fieldwork including interviews with government officials, international organizations and not least Rwandan youth themselves, he paints a bleak picture. A housing crisis and lack of economic opportunities despite the overall economic progress are creating a situation of ‘waithood’ – a term borrowed from studies of the Middle East and North Africa to describe youth whose entry into adulthood is severely delayed and obscured. In Rwanda, a country which is still among the most youthful and most rapidly urbanizing in the world, young men are struggling with social conventions, in particular traditional notions of masculinity, that are leaving them in a status limbo as ‘youthmen’, unable to marry until they can provide for a family. Sommers has produced an important book that deals with an issue pertaining to many processes of postwar reconstruction and development in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. His careful analysis underscores the importance of addressing the challenges and needs of youth in postwar contexts for achieving stability and sustainable development.

Henrik Urdal

Spaaij, Ramón (2012) Understanding Lone Wolf Terrorism: Global Patterns, Motivations and Prevention. Dordrecht: Springer. viii + 119 pp. ISBN 9789400729803.

Though lone wolf terrorism has posed potential threats to the world, the existing countermeasures have been so far unable to handle this kind of terrorism. A senior research fellow of La Trobe University and the University of Amsterdam, Ramón Spaaij has written a compelling book that offers invaluable insights into lone wolf terrorism, and provides detailed exploration of this kind of terrorism often little noted within academic circles. The book analyzes the key dimensions of lone wolf terrorism, which covers the who, why, how, when and where of this phenomenon, in addition to advancing more mainstream explanations of terrorism. Drawing on the data of the European Commission’s Sixth Framework Program project Transnational Terrorism, Security and the Rule of Law, the author studies five qualitative case studies, lists nearly 200 cases of lone-wolf terrorism committed over the past four decades, and explains the motivations of lone wolf terrorists from a variety of ideological, religious and political perspectives. Compared with group-actor terrorists, lone wolf terrorists prefer firearms and explosives, and principally target civilians. Concerning the countermeasures to lone wolf terrorism, the author highlights that any long-term resolutions to this kind of terrorism should be based on ‘democratic principles and respect for human rights’ (p. 101). However, the author could have incorporated new elements or actors into the agenda of understanding lone wolf terrorism, such as considering former child soldiers, who have prior experience in actual combat and suffer certain traumas from these experiences. Overall, the publication is essential reading for researchers, scholars and students interested in terrorism and international security.

Kai Chen

Kjosavik, Darley Jose & Paul Vedeld, eds (2011) The Political Economy of Environment and Development in a Globalised World: Essays in Honor of Nadarajah Shanmugaratnam. Trondheim: Tapir. 394 pp. ISBN 9788251927864.

What is ‘development’ and who is it for? Initially working under the heading of post-Cold War studies (as the interaction between developing states, resources, environment, and peace and conflict studies was lumped under), Shanmugaratnam was an early advocate of the development versus environment question, engaging with (and later deconstructing) the notion of ‘sustainable development’, questioning the implications of neoliberal globalization, development and peace before the ‘liberal peace’ paradigm was standardized. This volume is as much a celebration of our broadened understanding of environmental studies from the natural sciences to the political and economic as it is praise for the 30-year canon of one of the field’s key figures. Although perhaps too critical for some tastes, this volume’s political leanings don’t detract from the inherent (and important) political questions raised by the chapters, all of which draw upon seminal works by Shanmugaratnam over the previous 25 years. Multidisciplinary by design, the volume’s contributors come from political ecology, environment and development studies, human geography and other fields that today typify the linkages that we now see as natural. Guided by Shanmugaratnam’s writings, lectures and experiences in Sri Lanka in particular, the collected chapters go beyond traditional political economy and include notable engagements with discourses on the nature of freedom, emancipation and development (Poul Wisborg) and how the oft-questioned ‘liberal peace’ paradigm of Western development aid can exacerbate unintended tyrannies from liberal orthodoxies of peace, security and development (Kristian Stokke, Ingrid Nyborg). Running through the works is a core philosophy underpinning Shanmugaratnam’s legacy that encourages scholars and researchers to use insights and be inspired by activism to be politically active in shaping the institutes, agendas and the world within which we engage.

Jason Miklian

Wittner, Lawrence S (2012) Working for Peace and Justice: Memoirs of an Activist Intellectual. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press. 268 pp. ISBN 9781572338579.

Lawrence Wittner is the dean of the peace movement historians. He has published extensively on the US peace movement and on the international nuclear disarmament movement. He is also a life-long activist in civil rights, labor issues, democratic socialism, and peace. He has been able to maintain a superb record of academic publishing while also spending a great deal of time on activist pursuits. He has been careful not to let his activism interfere with his professional integrity as a historian. Nevertheless, he has been delighted to document, using declassified archives, that concern about the influence of the peace movement has influenced official policy. Thus, he comes across as less pessimistic than many other peace activists, who grow disillusioned because of the failure to discern any results of their labors. His book is filled with fascinating anecdotes of university life – ‘C. Wright Mills … would show up for only about a third of his class sessions, [he] would roar up to campus on his motorcycle, read a powerful section from one of his new books and then depart, leaving students uncertain about when they would see him again’ (pp. 48–49) – about Jewish family life, and about the victories and the frustrations of activists well to the left of the two main parties. Hopefully, readers of this well-written and humorous book will be inspired to look up his masterful three-volume history of the world nuclear disarmament movement (Stanford University Press, 1994, 1997, 2003) or at least the one-volume summary (2009).

Nils Petter Gleditsch

Authors of Book Notes in this issue:

Pavel Baev – PRIO

Morten Bergsmo – Visiting Professor, Peking University Law School & Visiting Fellow, Stanford University

Kai Chen – College of Public Administration, Zhejiang University

Marta Bivand Erdal – PRIO

Nils Petter Gleditsch – PRIO

Kristian Berg Harpviken – PRIO

Kristian Hoelscher – University of Oslo & PRIO

Jørgen Jensehaugen – NTNU

Jason Miklian – PRIO

Henrik Urdal – PRIO

Priyanka Vij – Sciences Po & PRIO

Gerdis Wischnath – PRIO