Customer Reviews

Paradise Poisoned: Learning About Conflict, Terrorism and Development from Sri Lanka's Civil Wars

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John Richardson's *Paradise Poisoned* is far and away the most comprehensive study of civil violence in Sri Lanka ever undertaken. In its narrative sweep, mastery of detail, conceptual acuity and analytic range, it will never be surpassed. Indeed, no other study of civil violence anywhere rivals Richardson's in these several respects.

For those of us who have seen Sri Lanka from the inside, Richardson's large claim is beyond challenge: the country's descent into violence had no single overriding cause. Richardson assembled vast amounts of data (helpfully displayed in innumerable graphs and tables) on every conceivable contributing cause. His background in the analysis of dynamic systems gave him the best imaginable tools for mapping tangled developments over many decades. His conclusions are always compelling, strikingly so when he catalogs the beneficiaries of violent conflict.

One by one, the ten imperatives Richardson puts forward for preventing civil violence in developing societies may seem like common sense. His exhaustive, fully integrated study of the Sri Lankan experience massively substantiates every one of them. Taken together and taken seriously, they are represent our best chance for a better, safer world.

Nicholas Onuf
Professor Emeritus
Florida International University

John Richardson's *Paradise Poisoned* is an important, timely, and groundbreaking book. The product of more than 18 years of work, it is a carefully researched account of Sri Lanka's fall from a beautiful island paradise and international development "success story", to a headline-grabbing example of a nation torn apart by terrorism and deadly civil conflict.

Drawing both on an innovative methodology and his long-standing work in the fields of international development and conflict, Professor Richardson demonstrates how Sri Lanka's tragic story clearly exposes a world-wide issue that has long been hiding in plain sight--that international development programs, conflict, and terrorism are intimately linked, and often in very negative ways. This is obviously a highly important and policy-relevant finding that is rarely discussed or analyzed in a rigorous manner--the only other book I can recall is Peter Uvin's work on Rwanda (Aiding Violence, 1998). Other important authors, like Mary Anderson (Do No Harm, 1999) offer valuable advice to practitioners on how to reduce conflict in the field, but Richardson and Uvin's more structural analyses expose how contemporary international development policies, put in place by well-meaning leaders and the international community, can be a factor that leads to deadly conflict in the first place.

The book has many lessons, but for me the most important is this profound critique of contemporary development wisdom, and Richardson's carefully documented case study makes it impossible to ignore his findings, or write them off as a simplistic superficial analysis based on preconceived conclusions. Quite the contrary, Richardson's approach is highly sophisticated, and his innovative systems methodology enables him to clarify how deadly conflict arises not from a single cause, but from a complex interaction of a number of critical factors that, acting together, help to explain the fall of Sri Lanka from apparent success to disastrous failure.

The practical policy lessons to be drawn are many, and reach well beyond the Sri Lanka case. Perhaps the most important lesson is that development policies need to be examined with an additional lens that clarifies the ways in which well-intended programs can exacerbate this complex set of factors that undo the development goals and lead to violent and persistent conflict and terrorism. Professor Richardson's useful book goes a long way in this direction by pointing out some of the most critical reference points for this new perspective. It is essential reading, both as a cautionary tale, and as an important source for anyone concerned with discovering specific ways to improve international development policy and reduce global violence.

Steven Arnold, University of Washington (formerly Director, International Development Program, American University)

Terrifically disappointing multinational-corporatism-capitalist (MCC) propaganda piece. The author's premise seems to come down to this--people can only be free and happy in shadows of MCC. Phrases (no kidding!) like "What went wrong--*too much democracy*" actually appear throughout the book. Trade unions are vehicles of "thuggery," etc etc etc. Honest to god, I'm basically speechless after wading through the book. An establishment, corporatist "take" on how/why people get what they deserve when they dare to reject free marketry (and are then deliberately hobbled by those in a position to behave in a moral, responsible, socially conscious manner)....much like Cuba is held up to Americans as ostensible proof of socialism's abject failure, rather than what happens when a country is cut off/isolated and left to die, rather than respected and engaged. An excellent example of the logical fallacy of false-dilemna.

Although at times I found this book to be a little repetitive, the premises posed ring true, I can't help but continue thinking about them. When I started dating a Sri Lankan man, I wanted to learn more about the conflict (objectively). I later married him and lived in Sri Lanka for some time. I found myself often considering the arguments posed in this book and feeling that they were validated by my own experiences there.

Now a few years later, post-war, I again find myself thinking of this book as I follow the conflicts in Egypt. This book provides us (Americans) much to think about as we consider our own and external conflicts around the world.