Suchergebnisse

"This book applies a systematic framework to explain the course, aftermath, and long-term lessons of the of the US intervention in Iraq. The work follows the rise and fall of violence and progress in building a new Iraq state across the 2003-2023 period. There are four sections. The first outlines an approach able to breakdown the basic components of complex, violent, internal conflicts. The second applies that framework to the period of US military occupation and presence, 2003-2011. The third examines the period after US withdrawal specifying the legacy of US military intervention, addressing the rapid takeover and slow defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq, and explaining the continued power of militias and the persistence of a weak Iraqi state. The fourth section concludes with general lessons gleaned from the Iraq experience, a consideration of political and cultural forces constraining US policymakers from learning those lessons, and informed speculation on the nature of future American military interventions"--

Conflicts involve powerful experiences. The residue of these experiences is captured by the concept and language of emotion. Indiscriminate killing creates fear; targeted violence produces anger and a desire for vengeance; political status reversals spawn resentment; cultural prejudices sustain ethnic contempt. These emotions can become resources for political entrepreneurs. A broad range of Western interventions are based on a view of human nature as narrowly rational. Correspondingly, intervention policy generally aims to alter material incentives ('sticks and carrots') to influence behavior. In response, poorer and weaker actors who wish to block or change this Western implemented 'game' use emotions as resources. This book examines the strategic use of emotion in the conflicts and interventions occurring in the Western Balkans over a twenty-year period. The book concentrates on the conflicts among Albanian and Slavic populations (Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, South Serbia), along with some comparisons to Bosnia

Leading anthropologists and political scientists are brought together in this volume to debate the problem of comparison, taking up a variety of topics from nationalist violence and labour strikes to ritual forms and religious practices. The contributors criticise conventional forms of comparative method, and introduce new comparative strategies, ranging from abstract model building to ethnographically based methods. They represent a wide variety of theoretical positions, from rational choice theory to interpretivism, and the issues are clarified in the cut and thrust of debate. This will be an excellent case book for courses on comparison across the social sciences