The Post-Conflict Environment: Investigation and Critique

In case studies focusing on contemporary crises spanning Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, the scholars in this volume examine the dominant prescriptive practices of late neoliberal post-conflict interventions—such as statebuilding, peacebuilding, transitional justice, refugee management, reconstruction, and redevelopment—and contend that the post-conflict environment is in fact created and sustained by this international technocratic paradigm of peacebuilding. Key international stakeholders—from activists to politicians, humanitarian agencies to financial institutions—characterize disparate sites as “weak,” “fragile,” or “failed” states and, as a result, prescribe peacebuilding techniques that paradoxically disable effective management of post-conflict spaces while perpetuating neoliberal political and economic conditions. Treating all efforts to represent post-conflict environments as problematic, the goal becomes understanding the underlying connection between post-conflict conditions and the actions and interventions of peacebuilding technocracies.

Politics & Social Sciences

Monk, Daniel Bertrand

Mundy, Jacob

Social Sciences

University of Michigan Press

Imaginative Geographies of Algerian Violence: Conflict Science, Conflict Management, Antipolitics (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)

The massacres that spread across Algeria in 1997 and 1998 shocked the world, both in their horror and in the international community's failure to respond. In the years following, the violence of 1990s Algeria has become a central case study in new theories of civil conflict and terrorism after the Cold War. Such "lessons of Algeria" now contribute to a diverse array of international efforts to manage conflict―from development and counterterrorism to the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and transitional justice. With this book, Jacob Mundy raises a critical lens to these lessons and practices and sheds light on an increasingly antipolitical scientific vision of armed conflict. Traditional questions of power and history that once guided conflict management have been displaced by neoliberal assumptions and methodological formalism. In questioning the presumed lessons of 1990s Algeria, Mundy shows that the problem is not simply that these understandings―these imaginative geographies―of Algerian violence can be disputed. He shows that today's leading strategies of conflict management are underwritten by, and so attempt to reproduce, their own flawed logic. Ultimately, what these policies and practices lead to is not a world made safe from war, but rather a world made safe for war.

History

Africa

Stanford University Press

The massacres that spread across Algeria in 1997 and 1998 shocked the world, both in their horror and in the international community's failure to respond. In the years following, the violence of 1990s Algeria has become a central case study in new theories of civil conflict and terrorism after the Cold War. Such "lessons of Algeria" now contribute to a diverse array of international efforts to manage conflict―from development and counterterrorism to the Responsibility to Protect doctrine and transitional justice. With this book, Jacob Mundy raises a critical lens to these lessons and practices and sheds light on an increasingly antipolitical scientific vision of armed conflict. Traditional questions of power and history that once guided conflict management have been displaced by neoliberal assumptions and methodological formalism. In questioning the presumed lessons of 1990s Algeria, Mundy shows that the problem is not simply that these understandings―these imaginative geographies―of Algerian violence can be disputed. He shows that today's leading strategies of conflict management are underwritten by, and so attempt to reproduce, their own flawed logic. Ultimately, what these policies and practices lead to is not a world made safe from war, but rather a world made safe for war.

Review\nJacob Mundy and Stephen Zunes have done a great service in putting together this book, the most comprehensive coverage of the Western Sahara conflict in the English language in a quarter-century. ― From the Foreword by George McGovern, former US Senator and 1972 Democratic Presidential nominee\nIn this thoughtful and impressive analysis, Stephen Zunes and Jacob Mundy provide valuable insights on the importance of enabling the people of the Western Sahara to determine their own future through a democratic referendum. ― Senator Edward Kennedy\nA well-researched, well-written and all-encompassing book on one of the most intractable, but for the most part forgotten conflicts of our times. ― Anna Theofilopoulou, former official and special advisor (1997–2004) to UN Secretary-General’s personal envoy to Western Sahara James Baker\nZunes and Mundy have written the definitive book on the Western Sahara. ― Africa Studies Review\nAn exhaustive and illuminating study. ― Political Geography\nThe book will not only become a standard reference on the conflict but also an important case study for students of conflict management, international relations, and political science as a whole. ― Middle East Policy\nZunes and Mundy disentangle this complex history with skill. ― Foreign Affairs\nA must read for policy makers and students of northwestern Africa as well as for international human rights activists. Summing Up: Highly recommended. ― Choice\nOne of the most comprehensive scholarly works on the conflict of Western Sahara. ― Journal of North African Studies\nFull of interesting information and little-known details. ― International Journal of Middle East Studies\nThe Western Sahara conflict has proven to be one of the most protracted and intractable struggles facing the international community. Pitting local nationalist determination against Moroccan territorial ambitions, the dispute is further complicated by regional tensions with Algeria and the geo-strategic concerns of major global players, including the United States, France, and the territory’s former colonial ruler, Spain. Since the early 1990s, the UN Security Council has failed to find a formula that will delicately balance these interests against Western Sahara’s long-denied right to a self-determination referendum as one of the last UN-recognized colonies. The widely-lauded first edition was the first book-length treatment of the issue in the previous two decades. Zunes and Mundy examined the origins, evolution, and resilience of the Western Sahara conflict, deploying a diverse array of sources and firsthand knowledge of the region gained from multiple research visits. Shifting geographical frames—local, regional, and international—provided for a robust analysis of the stakes involved. With the renewal of the armed conflict, continued diplomatic stalemate, growing waves of nonviolent resistance in the occupied territory, and the recent U.S. recognition of Morocco’s annexation, this new revised and expanded paperback edition brings us up-to-date on a long-forgotten conflict that is finally capturing the world’s attention.\nBook Description\nA comprehensive look at the Western Sahara conflict.

Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, Second Edition (Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution)

Zunes, Stephen

Syracuse University Press

Libya (Hot Spots in Global Politics)

Libya is teetering on the edge of collapse, having become a new haven for terrorist organizations and an epicenter of the refugee crisis. Few could have imagined that the uprising against the longstanding regime of Mu‘ammar Al-Gaddafi would expose a polity deeply fractured by internal divisions. Fewer still could have predicted the intractability of the conflicts that emerged in the wake of this revolution. Jacob Mundy’s Libya is the first book to explain the political, security, and humanitarian crises that have engulfed Libya – Africa’s largest oil-exporting country – since the Arab Spring of 2011. Examining the roots of the anti-Gaddafi revolution and the failures that resulted in the country’s descent into chaos, Mundy identifies new centers of power that coalesced in the wake of the regime’s collapse. The more these rival coalitions vied for political authority and control over Libya’s vast oil wealth, the more they reached out to external actors who were playing their own “great game” in Libya and across the region. In the face of such a multifaceted crisis, the future looks grim as the international community seems unable to bring peace to this divided and conflict-ridden nation.

Polity

Libya is teetering on the edge of collapse, having become a new haven for terrorist organizations and an epicenter of the refugee crisis. Few could have imagined that the uprising against the longstanding regime of Mu‘ammar Al-Gaddafi would expose a polity deeply fractured by internal divisions. Fewer still could have predicted the intractability of the conflicts that emerged in the wake of this revolution. Jacob Mundy’s Libya is the first book to explain the political, security, and humanitarian crises that have engulfed Libya – Africa’s largest oil-exporting country – since the Arab Spring of 2011. Examining the roots of the anti-Gaddafi revolution and the failures that resulted in the country’s descent into chaos, Mundy identifies new centers of power that coalesced in the wake of the regime’s collapse. The more these rival coalitions vied for political authority and control over Libya’s vast oil wealth, the more they reached out to external actors who were playing their own “great game” in Libya and across the region. In the face of such a multifaceted crisis, the future looks grim as the international community seems unable to bring peace to this divided and conflict-ridden nation.

Profound Light: Overcoming Childhood and Adolescent Trauma

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Outskirts Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mundy, Jacob. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mundy, Jacob

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mundy, Jacob. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Post-Conflict Environment: Investigation and Critique

The Post-Conflict Environment: Investigation and Critique

Imaginative Geographies of Algerian Violence: Conflict Science, Conflict Management, Antipolitics (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)

Imaginative Geographies of Algerian Violence: Conflict Science, Conflict Management, Antipolitics (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures)

Western Sahara: War, Nationalism, and Conflict Irresolution, Second Edition (Syracuse Studies on Peace and Conflict Resolution)

Libya (Hot Spots in Global Politics)

Libya (Hot Spots in Global Politics)

Profound Light: Overcoming Childhood and Adolescent Trauma