by Gabriela Polit Dueñłas and Maria Helena Rueda (2011)
"This volume includes contributions of scholars from various fields--the social sciences, journalism, the humanities and the arts--whose work offers insightful and innovative ways to understand the devastating and unprecedented forms of violence currently experienced in Latin America. As an interdisciplinary endeavor, it offers an array of perspectives that contribute to ongoing debates in the study of violence in the region"-- "This volume addresses a situation now perceived among the most pressing issues faced by Latin America in our times: the proliferation of increasingly complex forms of violence, a reality with multiple ramifications, marking the socio-political landscape of the region in decisive ways. With contributions by scholars from various fields (the social sciences, journalism, and the humanities), this book examines not only the manifestations and the effects of violence but also the social acts that surround it and make it meaningful. Violence appears here as a natural yet dramatic manifestation of how individuals organize themselves in contemporary Latin America"--
David Savage
"Dancing with the devil is a UN police officer's memoir of the independence ballot in East Timor. With compassion and humour, David Savage tells the simple truth about the horrific events he witnessed, and the triumph of a quiet, resilient people."--BOOK JACKET.
Ewan Morris
"National symbols have long been highly contentious in Ireland, and they remain so today. While there have been a number of studies which have examined the role of symbols in the contemporary conflict in Northern Ireland, as yet there has been no detailed study of debates about national symbols in twentieth-century Ireland. This book fills that gap, outlining the historical background to the continuing controversy about national symbols in Ireland and shedding new light on the deep political divisions which have marked Irish society throughout this century. It focuses on the crucial period from 1922 to 1939 which saw the creation and consolidation of new governments in the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland."--Jacket.
Donald M. Snow
Although no longer the site of surrogate competition between rival political-economic systems, the "Third World" is the main focus of instability in the post-Cold War world. Wars of secession, bloody ethnic conflicts, chaotic violence in failing states, domestic and international terrorism, essentially criminal insurgencies with no political objective - all are flourishing wherever "world peace" has left a vacuum. In Distant Thunder, Donald M. Snow traces the dynamics of disorder in the new international environment and the ways in which U.S. policy will need to adapt to new realities.
Steven Wilkinson
"Why does ethnic violence break out in some places and not others? More important, why do some governments try to prevent antiminority riots while others do nothing, or even actively encourage attacks? This book answers these questions through a detailed study of Hindu-Muslim riots in India, as well as case studies of Ireland, Malaysia, and Romania. It shows how electoral incentives at two levels interact to explain both where violence breaks out and, more importantly, why some states decide to prevent mass violence and others do not. While developing this electoral incentives model, the author shows why several alternative explanations for ethnic violence - focusing on town-level social and economical factors, the weak capacity of the Indian state, or India's alleged lack of "consociational power sharing"--Cannot explain the observed variation in Hindu-Muslim riots."--Jacket.