War and Peace in Southern Africa: Crime, Drugs, Armies, and Trade [Hardcover]

Robert I. Rotberg (Editor), Greg Mills (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1998

The new South Africa, as well as the surrounding southern region, is finally free of apartheid and colonial rule. Civil wars have ended; democracy is everywhere. Economically, South Africa and the region are beginning to grow more rapidly than ever before. But serious impediments to sustainable growth and effective participatory government remain. President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress won a strong victory in South Africa's 1994 elections and has governed with skill and ambition ever since. Nevertheless, crime rates have soared, as have the number of illegal and conventional small arms, car hijackings, trade in drugs, illegal immigrants, and all manner of attacks on the political and social stability of the state. This book puts these serious societal problems in perspective and provides fresh answers and recommendations. The book includes chapters on crime rates and criminal syndicates, the proliferation of conventional arms, illegal populations movements, drug trafficking, the South African army, and a concluding chapter on African armies and regional peacekeeping. The contributors are Jacklyn Cock, University of the Witwatersrand; Robert Gelbard, Assistant Secretary of State for Drug Enforcement and Legal Affairs; Jeffrey Herbst, Princeton University; Mark Malan, Mark Shaw, and Hussein Solomon, Institute for Security Studies; Katherine Marshall, the World Bank; Steven Metz, U.S. Army War College; Greg Mills and Glenn Oosthuysen, South African Institute of International Affairs; C.J.D. Venter, South African Police Service; and Joan Wardrop, Curtin University, Australia. Copublished with the World Peace Foundation

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Copublished with the World Peace Foundation

About the Author

Robert I. Rotberg, president of the World Peace Foundation and coordinator of Southern African Programs at the Harvard Institute for International Development, is the editor of Haiti Renewed: Political and Economic Prospects (WPF, 1997) and Vigilance and Vengeance: NGOs Preventing Ethnic Conflict in Divided Societies (Brookings/WPF, 1996) and coeditor of From Massacres to Genocide: The Media, Public Policy, and Humanitarian Crises (Brookings/WPF, 1996).

The contributors are Jacklyn Cock, University of the Witwatersrand; Robert Gelbard, Assistant Secretary of State for Drug Enforcement and Legal Affairs; Jeffrey Herbst, Princeton University; Mark Malan, Mark Shaw, and Hussein Solomon, Institute for Security Studies; Katherine Marshall, the World Bank; Steven Metz, U.S. Army War College; Greg Mills and Glenn Oosthuysen, South African Institute of International Affairs; C.J.D. Venter, South African Police Service; and Joan Wardrop, Curtin University, Australia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: Brookings Inst Pr (May 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815775849
• ISBN-13: 978-0815775843
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,757,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Dry, but highly informative, August 30, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War and Peace in Southern Africa: Crime, Drugs, Armies, and Trade (Paperback)

First of all, it must be said that this book is not titled correctly; it is about crime and punishment, rather than war and peace. The book takes the form of eleven individual essays that were written for the World Peace Foundation. In these essays, the authors take a look a various aspects of criminal activity in southern Africa, analyzing how it has evolved since the end of the Apartheid government in South Africa, and what can and should be done about the skyrocketing crime rates that are pandemic in the entire region.

Overall, I found these essays to be highly informative - I had no idea how bad things had become in recent years. Apparently, for many nations, the road to democracy passes through crime and violence.

Now, having been written for an academic audience, these essays are rather on the dry side, so you must be prepared. But, that said, they do shed a great deal of light on a growing problem that is already spilling out of southern African and into the rest of the world. I highly recommend this book.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book for those looking into Research on S. Africa..., March 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: War and Peace in Southern Africa: Crime, Drugs, Armies, and Trade (Paperback)

This book was very informative to read. It puts South Africa in a new light. The difficult transition from racial discrimination to a new governmental style can be seen in the crime rates and statistical information given. Parts of the book may be hard to understand if you never have read up on the subject before, but because of international input, many sides of the situation are looked at.

This author has also codeveloped a book about genocide and if you like this book you will like that one as well. I am a college student with a minor in history and I found that his writing style is excellent. I recommend this book, but do a little research first to get the full effect of it.