Download or read book Politics Most Unusual written by Damian Cox and published by Springer. This book was released on 2008-12-11 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How has 9/11 and the declaration of the 'global war on terror' changed our conceptions of politics? How has it affected our understanding of democracy, personal freedom and government accountability? In answering these and other questions, the authors engage in a comprehensive and critical analysis of politics in the age of terrorism.
Download or read book Terrorism Versus Democracy written by Paul Wilkinson and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assesses the major trends and developments in terrorism since the Cold War; Evaluates the options open to democratic governments in combating terrorism; Exposes prevalent myths and half-truths surrounding terrorists and 'freedom fighters'; Good reviews expected; Paul Wilkinson is Britains' leading author on terrorism, appearing often on Channel 4 News; In this major new book the author examines both the new terrorist networks and those that have been around for decades. He also provides US with some much needed criteria for distinguishing between terrorists and freedom fighters, and an explanation of the uses of terrorism as a political, social, criminal and religious weapon. Wilkinson also links the use of terrorism to a wider repertoire of struggle, as it is often used as an adjunct to guerrilla warfare or even full-scale conventional military conflict such as in the Russo-Chechen wars. We are warned against the complacent view that worldwide terrorism is in decline. Over 90% of terrorist attacks are purely internal, thus the annual statistics on international terrorism are dangerously misleading. We are not provided with a magic formula for governments to use, each conflict call
Download or read book Democracy Sovereignty and Terror written by Adam Roberts and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-11-14 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'For those of us who have to live with terrorism, when we leave home in the morning there is no guarantee that we will come back.' Thus Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, foreshadowed his own assassination in 2005. He was an astute and brave thinker and practitioner on many key issues in international politics. Long before 9/11 he warned Western democracies that they were too passive about the activities on their soil of foreign terrorist movements and their front organizations. He was a strong advocate of democracy and human rights, conducting the first-ever Amnesty investigation into the problems of a particular country - Vietnam. He was uniquely effective in countering the propaganda campaigns of the separatist Tamil Tigers in his native Sri Lanka - the movement which ultimately took his life. This definitive work explores the continuing relevance of his ideas for the modern world. Democracy, Sovereignty and Terror presents Kadirgamar's distinctive voice in his major speeches. It also offers a convincing picture, by those who knew him, of a scholar-statesman who was both a realist and an idealist. He showed that these approaches can be combined in both thought and action.
Download or read book The Case For Democracy written by Natan Sharansky and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2009-02-23 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Natan Sharansky believes that the truest expression of democracy is the ability to stand in the middle of a town square and express one's views without fear of imprisonment. He should know. A dissident in the USSR, Sharansky was jailed for nine years for challenging Soviet policies. During that time he reinforced his moral conviction that democracy is essential to both protecting human rights and maintaining global peace and security. Sharansky was catapulted onto the Israeli political stage in 1996. In the last eight years, he has served as a minister in four different Israeli cabinets, including a stint as Deputy Prime Minister, playing a key role in government decision making from the peace negotiations at Wye to the war against Palestinian terror. In his views, he has been as consistent as he has been stubborn: Tyranny, whether in the Soviet Union or the Middle East, must always be made to bow before democracy. Drawing on a lifetime of experience of democracy and its absence, Sharansky believes that only democracy can safeguard the well-being of societies. For Sharansky, when it comes to democracy, politics is not a matter of left and right, but right and wrong. This is a passionately argued book from a man who carries supreme moral authority to make the case he does here: that the spread of democracy everywhere is not only possible, but also essential to the survival of our civilization. His argument is sure to stir controversy on all sides; this is arguably the great issue of our times.
Download or read book Democracy at Risk written by Jennifer L. Merolla and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-10-15 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do threats of terrorism affect the opinions of citizens? Speculation abounds, but until now no one had marshaled hard evidence to explain the complexities of this relationship. Drawing on data from surveys and original experiments they conducted in the United States and Mexico, Jennifer Merolla and Elizabeth Zechmeister demonstrate how our strategies for coping with terrorist threats significantly influence our attitudes toward fellow citizens, political leaders, and foreign nations. The authors reveal, for example, that some people try to restore a sense of order and control through increased wariness of others—especially of those who exist outside the societal mainstream. Additionally, voters under threat tend to prize “strong leadership” more highly than partisan affiliation, making some politicians seem more charismatic than they otherwise would. The authors show that a wary public will sometimes continue to empower such leaders after they have been elected, giving them greater authority even at the expense of institutional checks and balances. Having demonstrated that a climate of terrorist threat also increases support for restrictive laws at home and engagement against terrorists abroad, Merolla and Zechmeister conclude that our responses to such threats can put democracy at risk.
Download or read book The State of Exception and Militant Democracy in a Time of Terror written by Afshin Ellian and published by . This book was released on 2012-12-01 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: International Studies Library Which measures may a state undertake when its very existence is threatened? Can it suspend the democratic legal order, may it prohibit undemocratic political parties, can it withhold fundamental constitutional rights from those who intend to abuse them? Or, in case of an external threat, may the state use force in anticipatory self-defense? In addressing these issues, two legal-philosophical doctrines play a crucial role, namely: the state of exception and militant democracy. Unlike other books, this book offers an interdisciplinary approach to both doctrines by a variety of international scholars. The state of exception and militant democracy are viewed from a legal-philosophical, legal-positivist and sociological perspective, thereby creating a broad perspective on how states actually deal and how they should deal with diverse threats to their (democratic) existence. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abbreviations Chapter I: Introduction: The State of Exception and Militant Democracy in a Time of Terror - Afshin Ellian and Gelijn Molier Chapter II: The State of Exception in a Time of Terror - Afshin Ellian Chapter III: Dutch Counterterrorism: An Exceptional Body of Legislation or Just an Inevitable Product of the Culture of Control? - Maartje van der Woude Chapter IV: Framing the Exception. Securitization in the Netherlands - Beatrice de Graaf and Renee Frissen Chapter V: On Emergency-Proof Human Rights and Emergency-Proof: Human Rights Procedures - Jan-Peter Loof Chapter VI: The State of Exception and Necessity under International Law - Gelijn Molier Chapter VII: The Foundations of Militant Democracy - Paul Cliteur and Bastiaan Rijpkema Chapter VIII: 'Militant Democracy' and State of Emergency in Germany - Markus Thiel Chapter IX: Democracy, Freedom of Speech and the Twin Challenges of the Exception - Quoc Loc Hong Bibliography Index About the Editors Afshin Ellian is professor of Social Cohesion, Citizenship and Multiculturalism at the Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of the Law at Leiden University, has published extensively on terrorism and radical Islam. Gelijn Molier is a lecturer at the Leiden Law Faculty, Department of Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence. His main field of research pertains to the law of peace and security, in particular questions relating to the legitimacy of the use of force in international relations.
Download or read book Democratic Development Political Terrorism written by William J. Crotty and published by Upne. This book was released on 2005 with total page 584 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely collection of original essays examines the global link between democratic development and political terrorism, delving into the difficult questions, challenges, far-reaching consequences, and uncertainties of dealing with terrorism on an international scale.
Download or read book Terror and Territory written by Stuart Elden and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today's global politics demands a new look at the concept of territory. From so-called deterritorialized terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda to U.S.-led overthrows of existing regimes in the Middle East, the relationship between territory and sovereignty is under siege. Unfolding an updated understanding of the concept of territory, Stuart Elden shows how the contemporary "war on terror" is part of a widespread challenge to the connection between the state and its territory. Although the importance of territory has been disputed under globalization, territorial relations have not come to an abrupt end. Rather, Elden argues, the territory/sovereignty relation is being reconfigured. Traditional geopolitical analysis is transformed into a critical device for interrogating hegemonic geopolitics after the Cold War, and is employed in the service of reconsidering discourses of danger that include "failed states," disconnection, and terrorist networks. Looking anew at the "war on terror"; the development and application of U.S. policy; the construction and demonization of rogue states; events in Lebanon, Somalia, and Pakistan; and the wars continuing in Afghanistan and Iraq, Terror and Territory demonstrates how a critical geographical analysis, informed by political theory and history, can offer an urgently needed perspective on world events.
Download or read book The Challenges of Democracy in the War on Terror written by Maximiliano E. Korstanje and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book unravels the role of democracy after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and reflects important debates surrounding the security of Muslim communities in the years to come. It looks at the problems of torture, violence and the legal resources available to contemporary democracies to confront terrorism. While terrorism is often regarded as one of the major threats to the West and the nation-state, this book explores the notion that a disciplined sense of terror is what keeps society working. The strengths and limitations of liberalism are examined, as well as the ethical dilemma of torture and human right violations in the struggle against terrorism. This book carefully dissects the origin of the nation-state and how it keeps society united. The author offers a creative and unique approach to democracy and worldwide terrorism, exploring the consequences for the nation-state. This book looks at the connections between terrorism, mobility, consumption, torture and fear. It will be of interest to researchers as well as postgraduate and postdoctoral students within the fields of Human Geography, Politics, Media and International Relations.
Download or read book Democracy and terrorism written by and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Terrorism Democracy and Human Security written by Ronald Crelinsten and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-03-15 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the relationship between terrorism and counterterrorism and how it operates within the broader context of communication, control, power, and democratic governance at the national, international, and transnational level. A culmination of decades of research on the challenges that liberal democracies face in dealing with terrorism, this work provides an innovative framework that maps out the broader context in which terrorism and counterterrorism interact and co-evolve – the terrorism–counterterrorism nexus. In a series of models moving from local to global perspectives, the framework places this nexus within the broader context of social, cultural, political, and economic life. This framework provides a tool for maintaining situational awareness in a multi-tiered, networked world where geography and history are splintering into a rainbow of perspectives and locales, revealing the contested nature of space and time themselves. This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, terrorism studies, communication studies, and international relations, as well as security professionals.
Download or read book Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship written by Sigal R. Ben-Porath and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Varieties of Sovereignty and Citizenship, scholars from a wide range of disciplines reflect on the transformation of the world away from the absolute sovereignty of independent nation-states and on the proliferation of varieties of plural citizenship. The emergence of possible new forms of allegiance and their effect on citizens and on political processes underlie the essays in this volume. The essays reflect widespread acceptance that we cannot grasp either the empirical realities or the important normative issues today by focusing only on sovereign states and their actions, interests, and aspirations. All the contributors accept that we need to take into account a great variety of globalizing forces, but they draw very different conclusions about those realities. For some, the challenges to the sovereignty of nation-states are on the whole to be regretted and resisted. These transformations are seen as endangering both state capacity and state willingness to promote stability and security internationally. Moreover, they worry that declining senses of national solidarity may lead to cutbacks in the social support systems many states provide to all those who reside legally within their national borders. Others view the system of sovereign nation-states as the aspiration of a particular historical epoch that always involved substantial problems and that is now appropriately giving way to new, more globally beneficial forms of political association. Some contributors to this volume display little sympathy for the claims on behalf of sovereign states, though they are just as wary of emerging forms of cosmopolitanism, which may perpetuate older practices of economic exploitation, displacement of indigenous communities, and military technologies of domination. Collectively, the contributors to this volume require us to rethink deeply entrenched assumptions about what varieties of sovereignty and citizenship are politically possible and desirable today, and they provide illuminating insights into the alternative directions we might choose to pursue.
Download or read book Democracy Incorporated written by Sheldon S. Wolin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-29 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Democracy is struggling in America--by now this statement is almost cliché. But what if the country is no longer a democracy at all? In Democracy Incorporated, Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive--and where elites are eager to keep them that way. At best the nation has become a "managed democracy" where the public is shepherded, not sovereign. At worst it is a place where corporate power no longer answers to state controls. Wolin makes clear that today's America is in no way morally or politically comparable to totalitarian states like Nazi Germany, yet he warns that unchecked economic power risks verging on total power and has its own unnerving pathologies. Wolin examines the myths and mythmaking that justify today's politics, the quest for an ever-expanding economy, and the perverse attractions of an endless war on terror. He argues passionately that democracy's best hope lies in citizens themselves learning anew to exercise power at the local level. Democracy Incorporated is one of the most worrying diagnoses of America's political ills to emerge in decades. It is sure to be a lightning rod for political debate for years to come. Now with a new introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, Democracy Incorporated remains an essential work for understanding the state of democracy in America.
Download or read book Democracy Sovereignty and Terror written by Adam Roberts and published by I.B. Tauris. This book was released on 2012-08-20 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'For those of us who have to live with terrorism, when we leave home in the morning there is no guarantee that we will come back.' Thus Lakshman Kadirgamar, Sri Lanka's Foreign Minister, foreshadowed his own assassination in 2005. He was an astute and brave thinker and practitioner on many key issues in international politics. Long before 9/11 he warned Western democracies that they were too passive about the activities on their soil of foreign terrorist movements and their front organizations. He was a strong advocate of democracy and human rights, conducting the first-ever Amnesty investigation into the problems of a particular country - Vietnam. He was uniquely effective in countering the propaganda campaigns of the separatist Tamil Tigers in his native Sri Lanka - the movement which ultimately took his life. This definitive work explores the continuing relevance of his ideas for the modern world. Democracy, Sovereignty and Terror presents Kadirgamar's distinctive voice in his major speeches. It also offers a convincing picture, by those who knew him, of a scholar-statesman who was both a realist and an idealist. He showed that these approaches can be combined in both thought and action.
Download or read book Terror in the Balance written by Eric A. Posner and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 2007-01-04 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Terror in the Balance, Posner and Vermeule take on civil libertarians of both the left and the right, arguing that the government should be given wide latitude to adjust policy and liberties in the times of emergency. They emphasize the virtues of unilateral executive actions and argue for making extensive powers available to the executive as warranted. At a time when the 'struggle against violent extremism' dominates the United States' agenda, this important and controversial work will spark discussion in the classroom and intellectual press alike.
Download or read book Jihad vs McWorld written by Benjamin Barber and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2010-04-21 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jihad vs. McWorld is a groundbreaking work, an elegant and illuminating analysis of the central conflict of our times: consumerist capitalism versus religious and tribal fundamentalism. These diametrically opposed but strangely intertwined forces are tearing apart--and bringing together--the world as we know it, undermining democracy and the nation-state on which it depends. On the one hand, consumer capitalism on the global level is rapidly dissolving the social and economic barriers between nations, transforming the world's diverse populations into a blandly uniform market. On the other hand, ethnic, religious, and racial hatreds are fragmenting the political landscape into smaller and smaller tribal units. Jihad vs. McWorld is the term that distinguished writer and political scientist Benjamin R. Barber has coined to describe the powerful and paradoxical interdependence of these forces. In this important new book, he explores the alarming repercussions of this potent dialectic for democracy. A work of persuasive originality and penetrating insight, Jihad vs. McWorld holds up a sharp, clear lens to the dangerous chaos of the post-Cold War world. Critics and political leaders have already heralded Benjamin R. Barber's work for its bold vision and moral courage. Jihad vs. McWorld is an essential text for anyone who wants to understand our troubled present and the crisis threatening our future.
Download or read book Wild Materialism written by Jacques Lezra and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Blends a discussion of terror with radical democracy in a way that is thoroughly original ...an important book on a large and crucial topic."---Marc Redfield, Claremont Graduate University "Wild Materialism is a theoretical event. Not only is it one of the most brilliant, rigorous, and transformative books since DeMan's Allegories of Reading or Jameson's Political Unconscious, in it we witness what Althusser would call `an unexpected birth' Like other wild children, when Lezra had to think the political-philosophic condition of present democracy, he had to work through and past the critical impasses of biopolitics, sovereignty, radical democratic theory, and post-politics, to inventively refigure an ethic of terror as fright. This fearless book not only revisits political theology's primal scenes, but through its unique standpoint of Spanish Republicanism it offers a haunting and haunted metareflection on exile and its experiences. Here at last is the affirmative secular response to the challenges of a post-9/11 present, where, as Lezra so effectively argues, only wounded sovereighty, weak concepts, unbounded events, and defective social universals might save us."---Diane Rubenstein, Carnell University Wild Materialism speaks to three related questions in contemporary political philosophy. How, if different social interests and demands are constitutively antagonistic, can social unity emerge out of heterogeneity? Does such unity require corresponding universals, and, if so, what are they, where are they found, or how are they built? Finally, how must the concept of democracy be revised in response to economic globalization, state and nonstate terrorism, and religious, ethnic, or national fundamentalism? Polemically rehabilitating the term terror, Lezra argues that it can and should operate as a social universal. Perched perilously somewhere between the private and the public domains, terror is an experience of unboundable, objectless anxiety. It is something other than an interest held by different classes of people; it is not properly a concept (like equality or security) of the sort universal claims traditionally rest on. Yet terror's conceptual deficiency, Lezra argues, paradoxically provides the only adequate, secular way to articulate ethical with political judgments. Social terror, he dramatically proposes, is the foundation on which critiques of terrorist fundamentalisms must be constructed. Opening a groundbreaking methodological dialogue between Freud's work and Althusser's late understanding of aleatory materialism, Lezra shows how an ethic of terror, and in the political sphere a radically democratic republic, can be built on what he calls "wild materialism."
