Terror, Insurgency, and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts [Hardcover]

Marianne Heiberg (Editor), Brendan O'Leary (Editor), John Tirman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2007 | ISBN-10: 0812239741 | ISBN-13: 978-0812239744 | Edition: annotated edition

The wave of civil wars, terror attacks, and insurgencies over the last half century has redefined our notion of protracted conflicts. While the American news media have devoted primary coverage to the threat posed by al-Qaeda since 9/11, other insurgent groups have arisen and gained momentum across the map, and much less attention has been devoted to explaining what governmental policies bring such insurgencies to an end.

The result of a multiyear project, Terror, Insurgency, and the State assembles the findings of scholars who conducted extensive field research with rebel groups and governments. This comparative analysis documents the aim of long-standing insurgent groups such as the Tamil Tigers, the IRA, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, Basque Country and Liberty, and the People's Liberation Army of the Communist Party of Nepal, as well as the more recently visible Hizballah and Hamas. These groups represent varying kinds of insurgency. Several strive for national liberation or territory. They are either secessionists who contend with a central government that they regard as hostile, or irredentists who seek to reunify a divided homeland. Others, with rural and peasant bases, emphasize economic inequalities, class struggle, and socialism. At least three known factions are explicitly Islamist, with a religious agenda and a paramilitary organization.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An important collection of case study examinations of . . . longstanding insurgencies in Spain, Columbia, Indonesia, Lebanon, Israel, Ireland, India, Sri Lanka, Peru, Turkey, and Napal. . . . The book's individual chapters give superb background information. . . . These case studies provide excellent substantive foundations for comparative analysis. The authors make numerous realistic and constructive recommendations for policy makers. . . . Highly recommended."—Choice

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Marianne Heiberg (1945-2004) was Senior Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and an expert on ethnic conflicts and peacekeeping operations in the Middle East. She served as Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East and as Special Advisor to the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for its Culture for Peace program. Brendan O'Leary is Lauder Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program in Ethnic Conflict at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author, coauthor, or coeditor of fifteen books, including The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. John Tirman is Executive Director of the Center for International Studies at MIT and has served as an advisor to the U.S. State Department and several NGOs. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of ten books on international affairs and U.S. foreign policy, including The Maze of Fear: Security and Migration After 9/11 and Multilateralism Under Challenge? Power, International Order, and Structural Change.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press; annotated edition edition (May 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812239741
• ISBN-13: 978-0812239744
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,616,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My focus on the "human element" of war goes back several years. Most of my books have engaged the causes and consequences of war for the innocent people caught up in conflict. This is a neglected topic in academic research and gets little attention in the news media. Somehow, the ordinary people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, and other venues of war don't seem to count for much. The topic is not only important politically and morally -- for how we shape war policies -- but is fascinating (often heart-rending) as stories. Millions of people have been killed in U.S. wars (and other wars, of course), many more millions have been made homeless, destitute, and damaged. Yet we seem as a society to care very little for these people. It's an enormous puzzle, really, why so many civilians suffer in war and why we do so little about that.

I recall one of the best war documentaries ever, "Hearts and Minds," which was about the Vietnam War. Near the end, a Vietnamese man was sobbing over the rubble of his home, which had been bombed by the U.S., asking why his village, which had no military value, was destroyed, and his family destroyed with it. "Tell Nixon she was only a little girl," he cried about his young daughter, "a little schoolgirl." You see this and you must wonder, How could this possibly happen?

So I have set out to explore how and why ordinary people are buffeted by war. Much of my work at MIT is focused on these kinds of questions. The "terrible swift sword" of war strikes all around, even the innocent, particularly the innocent. This -- and the hope to prevent it -- is my life's work.

For a fuller and more conventional bio, see http://www.johntirman.com/bio.html