Suchergebnisse

For quarter of a century now the British Army has been involved in a bloody and protracted conflict in Northern Ireland. This book looks at the roots of the current struggle and of British military intervention, setting both in the longer perspective of the Anglo-Irish Troubles. It is, however, more than a chronicle of military strategies and sectarian strife: it seeks to place the use of the army within the context of the wider British experience of dealing with political violence, and to address the broader issue of how democratic states have responded to both ethnic conflict and the threat.

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Cold Wars: Themes and Trajectories -- Debating the Cold War: Historiographical Thoughts -- The Cold War and the New Wars on Terror: Three Resonances -- The Cold War as History -- The Importance of History to International Relations -- 2 Casting Long Shadows: Revolution to War -- Russia and the Revolution -- Competing Visions after World War I -- Mixing Ideology and Power: The Geopolitics of Revolution and Counter-Revolution -- Reflections -- 3 Wars and Empire -- The Impact of Operation 'Barbarossa' -- Roosevelt and Stalin: Another 'Brutal Friendship'? -- Spheres of Influence, Ideological and Political -- Shocks and Turning Points -- The Decay of the Grand Alliance -- 'Bipolarity' and the Creation of the 'Cold War' -- 4 Far From Hegemony? Uncertainties and Constraints in the Early Cold War -- The Marshall Plan -- The Soviet Response -- Berlin - the First Crisis -- The Origins of the Cold War: Beyond Europe -- The Enemies within -- 'Police Action' in Korea -- An Era of Perpetual Crisis -- Reflections -- 5 The Shape of the Cold War -- Mirror Images? -- Europe in the High Cold War -- Resistance and Repression -- China: the Personal and the Political -- Khrushchev and Nuclear Weapons -- The Tipping Point? The Cuban Missile Crisis -- Cold War Frameworks -- 6 Reflections on the Origins of the Cold War -- Shapes -- The Cold War Crystallizes -- The End of the Beginning -- 7 The Cold War Then and Now: Landscapes and Shadows -- The Importance of History -- Ideology -- Structures and Agents -- Modern Resonances -- A Wider View? -- Guide to Further Reading -- Bibliography -- Index.

Nicholas Rengger spent much of his career thinking and writing on the phenomenon of war. Eschewing any optimistic view that war could be abolished he also challenged the application of Just War theory to explain and justify the use of military force after the events of 9/11. His intellectual interactions with Jean Bethke Elshtain highlighted his growing unease with those in International Relations who sought to render palatable the use of torture, extraordinary rendition and technological 'fixes' in the pursuit of Western interests.

In our current troubled times, terrorism and the threat of attacks on liberal states preoccupies both policymakers and much of the scholarly community. Four important books are reviewed here. These works represent the evolution of thinking on terrorism over the last three turbulent decades. Revisiting earlier thinking and bringing debates up to date about how to understand and respond to violent threats allows us to ponder what we 'now know' and may not know about terrorism and liberal states.

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Government and Opposition and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2017.36 ; In our current troubled times, terrorism and the threat of attacks on liberal states preoccupies both policymakers and much of the scholarly community. Four important books are reviewed here. These works represent the evolution of thinking on terrorism over the last three turbulent decades. Revisiting earlier thinking and bringing debates up to date about how to understand and respond to violent threats allows us to ponder what we 'now know' and may not know about terrorism and liberal states.