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INCOREinitiative on conflict resolution and ethnicity

e ruary

Not only does this issue of theEthnic Conflict Research Digestcontainmore reviews than previous issues, it alsocontains thought pieces by two leadingthinkers on conflict analysis. KeithWebb from the University of Kent atCanterbury gets all metaphysical byasking Why are we here? His questionthough, is directed at the discipline ofPeace and Conflict Studies rather thanhumanitys place on the planet. DennisSandole from ICAR at George MasonUniversity puts forward a design forpeace and security in Post-Cold WarEurope. Both pieces are intended to sparkdebate. As with previous issues of the

Digest, your views on the style andcontent of theDigestare very welcome.

Roger Mac Ginty - Editor

Edited by

Roger Mac Ginty

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eith Webbntroductory Essay: Why are we here? 2-4

Shapiro ed: -reviewed by I Jacksonhallenging Boundaries 4

W Zartman ed: -reviewed by L Hancockeacemaking in International Conflict : 5

Bookman: -reviewed by T Ambrosiohe Demographic Struggle for Power 5

Huth: -reviewed by PA Paultanding Your Ground 6

A Lake ed: -reviewed by T Ambrosiohe International Spread of Ethnic Conflict 6

Kumar ed: -reviewed by P Bradleyostconflict Elections, Democratization and International

ssistance

7

C Davies: -reviewed by A Jakobssonhen Men Revolt and Why 7-8

Hutchinson ed: -reviewed by U Hanssonthnicity 7

Nonneman: -reviewed by AV Amirauxuslim Communities in the New Europe 8-9

L Espositi ed: -reviewed by R Linserolitical Islam 9

Lawrence: -reviewed by L Talhattering the Myth 9-10

S Moussalli: reviewed by B Hamberslamic Fundamentalism 10

Fredi: -reviewed by J Tierneyhe Silent War 10-11

Lipsitz: -reviewed by E Joycehe Possessive Investment inWhiteness 11

Post ed: -reviewed by J Garlandace and Representation 11-12

Back: -reviewed by W Wigfall-Williamsew Ethnicities and Urban Culture 12

Golsan: -reviewed by K Korosec Holmesascisms Return 12

Barkan ed: -reviewed by A Klotzorders, Exiles and Diasporas 13

Cohen & F Deng: -reviewed by DCJDakas

asses in Flight 13

ontents

UBLICATION Page Introductory Essay

Why Are We Here?

Keith Webb

When Roger MacGinty asked me the simple questionWhat use are Peace and Conflict Studies? and asked meto write a short piece on the subject, cajolling me bysubtle(?) flattery, I blithely agreed on the basis that thedeadline was some months ahead. However, as the deadlineapproached ever faster I began to think about the question,and started to unpack its varous dimensions, and I realisedthat it was, in fact, a rather complicated question. It wascomplicated by the fact that, firstly, there were multipleaspects to the question and, secondly, there was little more

than impressionistic data to answer some of these questions.In the (sometimes erroneous) belief that if I was confusedthere was probably someone out there who was not, I putthe question out on the PeaceNet expecting voluminousreplies and the initiation of an on-line debate. Much to mysurprise I received very few responses and, while sensible,they did not answer the question in any depth.

Perhaps the best way to begin is to rephrase thequestion (as a first-year philosophy undergraduate I wastold that if you couldn't answer the question, change it!).So, I changed the question to Would the world be adifferent place if Peace and Conflict Studies had neverexisted? In some trivial sense the answer is clear that it

would; I would not have this job and Roger MacGintymight be unemployed. But in a less trivial sense we are inthe world of counterfactuals, of trying to estimate whatwould have been the case if what is the case was not. It isundoubtedly the case that the world was moving in thedirection of institutionalising more humanitarianapproaches, this marked initially by the charters of theLeague of Nations and the United Nations. Asinterdependence has deepened, and inter-state and inter-mestic relations were established, the necessity emerged formodes of governance beyond those envisaged by the earlyrealists. Hence, today, we have IGOs, INGOs, multinationalcorporations, and a host of normative institutions described

by regime theory,(1) together with notions of settled normsmanaging the governance of international society.(2) Thus, itmay be the case that international society would havedeveloped the way it did even if Richardson, Mitrany,Galtung, Burton and Singer had never been born. In thissense we can see the discipline of Peace and ConflictStudies as pushing on an open door, acting, perhaps, todefine and describe developments rather than initiating ordriving them.

An initial point that needs to be made is that Peaceand Conflict Studies, while today having a distinct identityas a sub-discipline, this marked by rapid institutionalgrowth (SIPRI, Carter Center, Bradford, George Mason,

Maryland, ANU, Harvard, Kent, INCORE, PRIO, etc.),(3)l a rgely evolved from the discipline of International

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elations which from its inception had the problematique ofar and peace at the heart of its concerns. It is worth

emembering, in this seeding context, that Morgenthauseminal realist text had as a sub-title The Struggle forower and Peace, and that the reason for the creation ofobbes Leviathan was to ensure peaceful relationsetween men. Perhaps we could deepen the argument anduggest that much of political philosophy has historicallyeen concerned with the management of relations betweenndividuals and communities and the best way to live ourives. If the question is contextualised in this manner, itecomes very difficult, if not impossible, to isolate thepecific contribution of Peace and Conflict Studies tohanging the world.

Ruminating in this fashion leads on to a furtheruestion, and that is What constitutes Peace and Conflicttudies?. It is clearly not just the eradication of war; the

1960s debate about the role of structural violence as a formf conflict realised that.(4) If we look at three edited volumesesigned to encapsulate the field, one is amazed at the

pread of topics covered. Gurrs Handbook of Politicalo n f l i c t, while being very much in the Americanehavioural tradition, yet has a chapter on the biologicalasis of conflict. (5) Smoker et al [eds] inA Reader in Peacetudies(6) includes such topics as the role of capitalism,evelopment, and feminism, but with no mention ofommunal violence. A more recent and somewhat moreeighty compendium, Chester A. Crocker et al [eds]anaging Global Chaos: Sources of and Responses to

nternational Conflict,(7) refers to among many other thingsigration, peacekeeping, mediation, humanitarian

ntervention, the role of NGOs, technology and trade. Thergument could be extended, but the point has been made,

nd that is that there is no clear and agreed definition ofhat constitutes Peace and Conflict Studies. It is a vast andprawling field of loosely interconnected researchrogrammes and agendas that defy any easy disciplinaryncapsulation. Because it has this somewhat anarchictructure, the question of its effectiveness is made moreifficult to answer. The old debate between Giovanniartori and Scott Greer seems not to help us, with Sartorirguing that a discipline is defined by reference to thendependent (explanatory) variables it uses, with Greerrguing that a discipline is defined by what those whodhere to that discipline do.(8) Maybe the field can beescribed in another way, by way of the collectiveotivation of those who practice in the discipline. As a

iscipline we are seeking ways in which human life is notegraded, either by collective violence, structural violence,uman rights abuses etc., and, if these are our dependentariables we are overwhelmed by the number of seeminglyignificant independent variables. This problem hasecently formed the core of Dennis Sandole's new book.(9)

There is little doubt that many of those working in theield as teachers, academics and researchers do so out of aelief that by understanding the processes of violentonflict, something practical can be done to ameliorate itsffects. In a recent publication, the membership of BISABritish International Studies Association) was surveyed

nd it was demonstrated that many of those in the disciplinef International Relations had motivations of this kind.(10)

page 3

But having such motivations and beliefs does not mean thatthey are effective in bringing about change. Again, theschismatic nature of the field both in the nature of itscoverage and what was, until recently, termed the inter-paradigm debate, means that while there may be anunderlying similarity in motivation, there is little similarityin prescription.(11)

It does not follow, however, that even if there were nopractical applications, that the discipline is not useful.One would not question the motives of a classical scholarfor studying ancient Greece, or Ming dynasty pottery;scholarship is its own justification. Most historians whohave studied war and peace would not feel the need to relatetheir findings to practical application, although a fewhave.(12) We might, therefore, without any feelings ofin a d e q u ac y, consider the findings of the discipline acivilisational value, another voice in the discourse ofhumanity.(13) Hence the study of international society and itsdislocations can be justified without reference to practicalapplication.

I personally believe, however, that there are manythings we know about war and peace that we did not knowin an earlier age. We know, for example, that where thereare arms races, the probability of inter-societal violenceincreases - with the search for security often leading to evengreater insecurity - or the longer an alliance structurepersists the less the probability of war. And that increases inhuman rights abuses are a frequent precurser to inter-communal violence, this often accompanied by a change inrhetoric. We know that negotiated settlements are ofteneasier to accomplish where there is relative equalitybetween the competing parties. We know, from Wright toGilpin among many others, that conflict will often bepreceded by a disturbance of equilibrium, or significantchange in the relations between parties.(14) Within the fieldof international mediation, we have clarified the conditionswhere first or second-track diplomacy are likely to be moreeffective. There are many other things we believe we knowthat do potentially have practical application.

The problem is not just knowing, it is linking thatknowing to action. Political action, however, is usuallyoutwith the power of the academic, though sometimes anindividual academic may become a political actor, thisdepending very much on the nature of the political systemwithin which the academic resides. The case of Rwanda isinstructive as an example. (15) All the classic signals of inter-communal violence were apparent; there had been explicit

warnings of impending genocide even down to a listing ofthose who were to be killed in the first wave; there was anarms build-up in the militias; the Radio of a Thousand Hillswas pouring out a rhetoric of hatred; and there had beensystematic killing of Tutsi people throughout the Arushaprocess. And then there was the infamous BlackTelegram.(16) Enough was known and was in the publicdomain for the Rwandan Genocide to have been prevented,and yet there was not the political will. The cost was half-a-million dead Tutsis and Hutus. Maybe academics should bemore proactive with respect to governments and NGOs andpurposely engage in the education of political actors tobring a fusion of knowledge and power. But, in so doing,they will need to make their pronouncements in a

comprehensible manner rather than in the arcane jargon thatoften passes for scholarship.

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(8) SGreer, Sociology and Political Science, and G Sartori, From theSociology of Politics to Political Sociology, in SMLipset (ed) (1969),Politics and the Social Sciences , Oxford:Oxford University Press, pp. 49-64 & 65-100.(9) DJD Sandole, (1999), The Genesis of War:Mapping and Modelling ofComplex Conflict Processes, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.(10) K Webb, (1994), Academics and Professionals in InternationalRelations: A BritishPerception in MGirard, WDEberwein & KW ebb(eds) Theory and Practice in Foreign Policy Making, London: Francis

Pinter, pp. 82-94.(11) Michael Nicholson (1995), Imaginary Paradigms: A sceptical view ofthe inter-paradigm debate in international relations, Kent Papers inPolitics and International Relations, found on URL: http://www.ukc.ac.uk/international/papers.dir/nicholson.html.(12) M Howard (1993), The Causes of War and Other Essays , London,Unwin Paperbacks; G Blainey (173), The Causes of War, Victoria:SunBooks.(13) See, for example, MOakeshott (1962), Rationalism in Politics andOther Essays, London: University Paperbacks.(14) Q Wright (1965),A Study of War, Chicago: Chicago University Press;R Gilpin (1981), War and Change in World Politics, New York:CambridgeUniversity Press.(15) The International Response to Conflict and Genocide:Lessons fromthe Rwanda Experience is an impressive five volume unprecedentedevaluation of the Rwanda emergency by the 36 donor countries, UN and

international agencies and non-governmental organisations. The initiativefor this was launched by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Study IIis Early Warning and Conflict Management.(16) K Webb (1999), Delinking Knowing and Acting:Forecasting and thecreation of international political will. (Forthcoming in Global Society).(17) DS Geller & J D Singer (1998), Nations at Wa r, Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, p. 2.

Challenging Boundaries: Globalflows, territorial identities

Edited by Michael J. Shapiro & Hayward

R. Alker(Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1996)

493pp. Index. ISBN 0-8166-2698-7. Pb.: 14.95; ISBN 0-8166-2699-5.

Challenging Boundaries is a provocative collection ofessays on contemporary international theory. Thecontributors argue that traditional models of InternationalRelations Theory (i.e. Realism and Pluralism) have failed toexplain in a convincing manner the state of the New WorldOrder. Instead, they propose a series of wide-rangingtheories concerned with national identities, cultural values

and political expression. The challenging framework of thisbook has much to offer the discipline of InternationalRelations and the study of ethnic conflict. In particular, thesection of essays on Boundary Anxieties provides a timelyanalysis of the growing regional and global instabilities thatare putting pressure on the bordered world of states. Thebook succeeds admirably in presenting new theories for abetter understanding of the post-Cold War world. Itprovides a useful complement to traditional theories ofInternational Relations and should find a wide audienceamongst critically-inclined scholars and their critics.

Ian JacksonManchester Metropolitan University

It may be the case, though, that we are looking at theuestion in the wrong way, and perhaps expecting too muchf ourselves. In a recent work by Geller and Singer it isointed out how novel the activity we are engaged in is, andompared with other ways of thinking about war and peaceow little time and money has been spent on the peacerogramme.(17) We are emerging from the long darkness ofhe Cold Wa r, where so much political thinking wasominated by Realist views - the balance of power,eterrence, the amorality of international politics and theltimate idiocy of Mutually Assured Destruction - into anra where those with power are more open to othererspectives. And it is not just the writings of academicshat are of importance, it is their ability to interact, and toeed society with new ways of viewing the politicalroblems of international society. Much of this perspective-eeding will come from the students we teach and train,ome whom will become political actors, or work in NGOs,r become teachers themselves. Perhaps, as an analogy, wehould see ourselves more like scientists in the fight againstancer; a new drug here, a new treatment there, very

radually pushing the disease back inch by inch, but for theorseeable future not seeing any possibility of the completeradication of the disease. Maybe, in the years to come, theeaceful alternatives to international and inter-communalar will become the conventional way of settling at least

ome disputes - this is perhaps already happening to someegree - and develop into another settled norm.

Or is this utopian? I remember many years agoistening to a lecture on mediation and peacemaking bydam Curle at The City University in London. During the

ecture Adam pointed out that the vast majority ofediation attempts fail. In the ensuing discussion he was

sked why, if so many attempts fail, did he continue to works a mediator. He replied to the effect that it was an act ofaith, because he knew from his studies that justccasionally they succeeded. I agree.

eith Webb is Director of Studies of the International

onflict Analysis Programme at the University of Kent.

ndnotes1) See P Mayer, V Rittberger &M Zurn (1995), Regime Theory: State ofhe Art and Perspectives in V Rittberger, with P Mayer (eds) Regimeheory and International Relations, Oxford:Oxford University Press, pp.91-430.2) See M Frost (1996) Ethics in International Relations: A Constitutiveheory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.3) See (1998) Prevention and Management of Violent Conflicts:Annternational Directory. A Publication of the European Platform for

onflict Prevention and Transformation (Utrecht), edited in cooperationith PIOOM and the Berghof Institute for Constructive Conflictanagement. This publication lists 475 relevant organisations and

nstitutions.4) See K Webb Structural Violence and the Definitioin of Conflict,nternational Encyclopedia of Peace , Volume 1, Oxford:Pergamon Press,

1986, pp. 431-434.5) TR Gurr (1980),Handbook of Political Conflict, New York: The Freeress.6) Paul Smoker et al (1990), A Reader in Peace Studies, Oxford:ergamon Press. Interestingly, the first sentence of the Introduction is theuestion Why is Peace Studies Important? and the answer makeseference to Chernobyl and the destruction of the rain forests.

7) C Croker et al (eds) (1997), Managing Global Chaos:Sources of andesponses to International Conflict, Washington, USIPPress.

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page 5

The Demographic Struggle forPower

Milica Zarkovic Bookman

(London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1997).ISBN 0-7146-4752-7 32.50/$45.00. Pb.: ISBN 0-7146-4308-4

15.00/$19.50

It is important to understand that which we findabhorrent. The purpose of Bookmans work is tocomprehend the logic behind such policies as ethniccleansing, the promotion or discouragement of births,forced assimilation, and genocide. The author convincinglyargues that the underlying dynamic of nearly all ethnicconflicts is the belief that there is strength in numbers; as aresult, leaders seek to increase ones population relative tothat of potential enemies. This is the demographic strugglefor power.

Bookmans examples span across region and level ofeconomic development; though the focus is primarily onmodern cases. The authors background in and inclinationstoward political economy are obvious. However, the authorshows an acute understanding of how economic power istied to political power and ethnic group security. Inaddition, Bookman shows how economic inducements,policies, and discrimination often play a crucial role indemographic engineering.

The first and second chapters provide the backgroundand basic dynamics of the demographic struggle for powerby making the link between power and the relative size ofethnic groups. Chapters three through seven examinedifferent policies through which ethnic leaders attempt tomanipulate population size: censuses; pro- and anti-fertilitypolicies; assimilation; forced population movements;genocide; secession and irredentism. Chapter eightexamines economic pressures underlying demographicchange. In the conclusion, Bookman proposes severing thelink between demographics and political power by adjustinginternal boundaries so that ethnicity does not coincide withsubstate regions.

The weakest section is the conclusion. In some casesethnic regions actually prevent conflict because theyprovide some semblance of security to ethnic groups andshift conflicts to the substate level. While this is not true inevery case, it is not given its due. Also, the author misreadsthe case of prewar Bosnia which possessed the kind ofsubstate regions called for by Bookman. Now that Bosniasinternal units are more or less ethnically defined, it ispossible that each group will feel secure enough to worktogether.

There is also the broader problem of intention: whilesome of the policies cited can have demographicconsequences, this may not be their purpose. AlthoughBookman shows an understanding of this, some exampleslack the important link between intention and policy.Nevertheless, this is an excellent book. It is stronglyrecommended.

Thomas AmbrosioUniversity of Virginia

Peacemaking in InternationalConflict: Methods and techniques

Edited by I William Zartman & J LewisRasmussen

(Washington DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1997)

412pp. Index. $35.00; ISBN 1-878379-61-5. Pb.: $19.95; 1-878379-60-7.

The stated purpose of this volume is to provide thereader with an overview of the tools and skills that areurrently used in international conflict resolution and toritically asses them. Overall it achieves this aim admirably,

although the editors seem unsure of their target audiencewith some chapters aimed at a broad audience ofpractitioners and interested lay-persons while others requirean in-depth knowledge of conflict resolution theory as aprerequisite.

The first section of this book covers some of the

seminal thoughts of conflict resolution (CR), both as anrientation towards the Post-Cold War world and as ab u rgeoning way to view the world, stemming frominternational relations, sociology, psychology and law. Thethree chapters by Druckman, Bercovitch, and Bilder cover a

ajority of the fundamental activities studied andperformed by CR theorists and practitioners; negotiation,

ediation, and adjudication. Each chapter provides an in-epth survey of the theories used to inform CR

professionals and provides both a background and directionfor further reading. Fisher and Kelman cover much of theame material in their chapters on social-psychological

approaches, however Fishers historical review imparts areat deal of knowledge and perspective of CR as a field

with both a past and future. While Sampson correctly pointsut the vast contributions made to conflict resolution,reconciliation, and transformation by religious actors herssertions that they have more legitimacy in promoting

reconciliation than non-religious figures is questionable.Hume gives us an interesting, brief and well writtenxplanation of the changing role of diplomats andiplomacy in conflict resolution. However, he avoids orlosses over issues concerning the use of power andoercion by the US in securing its interests. This makes thehapter appear unbalanced as he clearly indicates that the

Russians do so. Natsios coverage of NGO roles capturesany of the advantages and disadvantages of the

rganizations operating in the field, and covers some of theissues missed by Sampson. However, he limits hisxamination to developmental and crisis assistance NGOs,issing the recent growth of CR focused NGOs such as

International Alert and Partners for Democratic Change.he final chapter, by Babbitt, covers aspects of training

programs and their effects upon international conflictresolution. This is a well written chapter covering theapproaches and uses of training as well as some if theritiques of current training methods and possible directions

both for future training and for evaluation of current efforts.

Despite the general confusion regarding the level ofthe audience, this book is a useful addition to a CR orientedlibrary.

Landon HancockICAR, George Mason University

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The International Spread ofEthnic Conflict: Fear, diffusion,

and escalation

Edited by David A Lake and DonaldRothchild

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998)392pp. Index. Bibl. ISBN 0-691-01691-7. Pb.: 14.95; ISBN 0-

691-01690-9.

Since Barry Posens seminal article in the journalSurvival in 1993, many scholars have introduced conceptsfrom neorealist international relations theory into the studyof ethnic conflicts. Lake and Rothchilds edited volumeserves as an important bridge between the two fields and acontribution to both. The contents center around (but arenot beholden to) the editors introductory chapter whichposits that the underlying dynamic of ethnic conflicts is acollective fear of the future. These fears produce and areexacerbated by a number of strategic dilemmas which formbetween groups: information failures, commitmentproblems, and the security dilemma. At the same time,sincere nationalists and self-interested politicalentrepreneurs reinforce them. According to the editors:these between-group and within-group strategicinteractions produce a toxic brew of distrust and suspicionthat can explode into murderous violence, even thesystematic slaughter of one people by another.(p. 4). Thesecond theme of the book is the process by which ethnicconflicts spread across state borders either by sparking newethnic conflicts or by bringing third parties into the conflict.

By framing the subsequent articles, the Lake andRothchild piece provides a coherence often lacking in otheredited volumes: for the most part they are debating andexpanding upon the same issues, even if they do not agreewith each other. The downside, however, is that there issome redundancy; though not enough to detract from theoverall caliber of the book.

Lake and Rothchild begin with their argument and auseful review of the field. Part Two provides a largelyquantitative examination of the spread of ethnic conflict.(Because of the emphasis on quantitative analysis, thesechapters might be inappropriate for underg r a d u a t estudents). Part Three focuses on factors which limit thespread of ethnic conflict. Part Four searches for ways that

transnational ethnic conflict can be managed. Finally, theeditors summarize the findings of the book and identifypractical suggestions for preventing ethnic conflicts in thefuture.

Although overall this is an excellent volume, thequality and readability of the articles is somewhat uneven;the Lake and Rothchilds articles, James Fearonscontribution on commitment problems, Paula Garbsexamination of ethnic identities in the Caucasus, andKrasner and Froats historical account of minority rights,standing out as among the best. In short, this book is highlyrecommended for its attention to theory, its logicalprogression, and the quality of its articles.

Thomas AmbrosioVirginia University

Standing Your Ground:Territorial disputes and

international conflict

Paul K Huth

(Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998)

275pp. Index. Bibl. $47.50; ISBN 0-472-10689-9. Pb.: $19.95;ISBN 0-472-08520-4.

Territorial disputes and international conflict present ailemma to the analyst who wishes to draw upon the currentheories of why conflicts escalate into war. Huth drawspon theoretical frameworks for analyzing territorialisputes. Huths objective is to advance an understandingf the dynamics of interstate conflict over disputederritory and also to try to contribute to internationalelations theory by developing a more integrated approacho theory building (p.7). Issues of ethnic minorities alongorders become the focus of a dispute when there is a

political unification based on common ethnic backgroundetween the challenger and target population (p. 70). Bynalyzing the marginal impact of variables in measuring thessues at stake, Huth concludes that the desire to acquireontrol over strategically located territory was a powerfulotive behind the territorial claims of challenger states. He

ses statistics to chart the change in the value of thexplanatory variable, such as language, ethnicity, andatural resources to a change in the probability of territorialisputes.

However, when there are conflicts that do not involveerritorial disputes between countries that share common

thnic and linguistic ties, such as in Northern Africa andentral and South America, there is historical, diplomaticrecedent settling their border disputes. Anotherontributing factor is the stronger sense of separateational political identities within differing colonialowers (p. 80).

The irredentist claim is one who advocates theecovery of territory culturally or historically related tones nation but now subject to a foreign government. Huthostulates that one irredentist theory is now inaccurate.his particular theory states that if the location of a largethnic group is divided by state borders, the minority statusf that ethnic group in one country will stimulate irredentisterritorial claims by the other state (p. 80). In developingountries outside of Europe, Huth raises a compellingrgument that leaders within challengers had goodomestic political reasons not to make a major issue ofthnic minorities across the border (p. 83). In some casesrredentist claims were not raised because the challengertself was not ethnically homogeneous (p.83). As a result,oreign policy issues become divisive when larger ethnicroups within the challenger attempt to increase in size bynnexing the bordering territory of the target populated byhe same ethnic group (p. 83). Huth draws upon the workf Donald Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict for thisrgument.

Patricia Aqiimuk Paul

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page 7

When Men Revolt and Why

Edited by James Chowning Davies

(New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 1997)357pp. Bibl. Pb.: 15.95; ISBN 1-56000-939-X.

What makes people organise for collective action andseek to overthrow government by violent means? Includingcontributions from Aristotle, Alexis de Tocqueville, KarlMarx and Friedrich Engels as well as more recent conflicttheorists such as Bruce Russett, Ted Gurr and the editorJames C. Davies himself, this book traces one explanationto this puzzle.

The idea, which has survived two millennia, issimple; political revolutions stem from frustratedexpectations. Although it may seem common sensical and

even simplistic this idea has given rise to a number oftheories explaining revolutions, all linking basic humanneeds and collective political action and highlighting thesubjective nature of peoples grievances.

Originating with Aristotle the thesis that discontent isa result of a perceived gap between what people have andwhat they think they should have surfaced again in the1950s and 1960s when, contrary to the expectations at thetime, instability and protest followed modernisation andprogress all over the world. The thesis forms the essence ofestablished concepts such as relative deprivation andrevolution of rising expectations. The latter summarised the

argument of the editor of this anthology, James C. Davies,that revolutions follow a J curve, that is, are most likely tooccur when a prolonged period of socio-economic upswingis followed by a short and sharp reversal. This sudden dropin actual need satisfaction creates an intolerable gapbetween what people want and what they get.

Critics of the thesis, which are not included in thisvolume, have highlighted the level of analysis problemcontained in a theory which purports to make causalinferences about group action from what is a fundamentallypsychological phenomenon of individual perceptions. Earlyresearch on the relative deprivation thesis also suffered frommeasurement problems in that researchers tended to rely onobjective measures, usually income, for what is a subjectivepsychological orientation.

This anthology was first published in 1971 andalthough the theory of relative deprivation is no longerconsidered the primary cause of collective violence the ideahas survived in modified forms. For example, one of itsearly proponents, Ted Gurr, includes relative deprivation ina recent model of ethnopolitical violence which alsointegrates elements of the major challenger to the relativedeprivation thesis, namely resource mobilisation theory.The latter, developed by among others Charles Till y,

focuses on the capacity of groups to mobilise for collectiveaction. In his recent research Gurr also uses measures of

Postconflict Elections,Democratization and

International Assistance

Edited by Krishna Kumar

(Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 1998)Distributed by the Eurospan Group

265pp. Index. Bibl. 39.95; ISBN 1-55587-755-9. Pb.: 15.95;ISBN 1-55587-7-778-9.

This volume is the third in a series of evaluationstudies directed by Krishna Kumar of USAID andoncerned with the transition from civil war to peace. The

volume presents eight case studies of post conflict elections.Practically all of the case studies - El Salvador (Baloyra),Nicaragua (two studies, Lopez-Pintor and McCoy), Haiti(Nelson), Cambodia (Brown), Ethiopia (Harbeson), AngolaOttaway), Mozambique (Turner, Nelson and Mahling-

lark) and Liberia (Lyons) - are of countries having at leastome experience of ethnic conflict.

The case studies do not engage ethnicity as such.here are only a few references to it: for example in thehapter on El Salvador Baloyra reports that there were nothnic factions to be reconciled but he recognises that the

timing and the nature of elections have to be adjusted to takeinto account the individual circumstances applying in eachountry. Indeed he comments that Elections following aivil war driven by ideological considerations may haveuch more greater efficacy than those driven by ethnic

hatred.(p. 32).

Overall the volume examines the critical role of theinternational community in the provision of technical andfinancial assistance in the planning, organisation andertification of postconflict elections. It acknowledges that

the role that elections play in postconflict settings hasmerged as a topic of controversy among some analysts and

policy makerselections do not always result in a cessationf hostilities or the establishment of an environmentonductive to economic, social or even political

reconstruction.(p. 1).

Kumar and Ottaway respond by rethinking electionsand suggesting the need to explore two questions: Whatonditions must exist before elections are held? And, whatan be done to consolidate peace and promote democracy iflections do not appear advisable in the immediate

future?(p. 234). These are not new questions. The answersust surely include the role of ethnicity.

Patrick A Bradley

The Chief Electoral Officer for Northern Ireland

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Muslim Communities in the New

Europe

Edited by Gerd Nonneman, Tim Niblock& Bogdan Szajkowski

(Reading, UK Ithaca Press, 1996)346pp. Index. ISBN 0-86372-223-7.

Amongst the number of academic volumes on Islamin Europe, this book differs from the mainstream for twoclear reasons. It focuses not only on Islam settled in WesternEurope, but includes a set of stimulating articles on Islam inEastern Europe. Most of the contributors succeed inavoiding classical monographical narratives, focusinginstead on transversal thematics discussed in the book's firstchapter by Nonneman who refers to modes of religiousbelongings regarding various modernisation models. Hechooses a challenging method developing comparativeperspective along East-West lines. It is liberal organisingprinciples applied to the treatment of individual and group-rights of Muslims in a global context of identity assertionthat lie at the theoretical and methodological core of theeditors general analysis.

What do Western and Eastern Europe share in termsof Islam? Beyond historical separated political state-buildings, structural differences between an indigenisedand a transplanted Islam, the status issue is intenselydiscussed on both sides, particularly a set of common issuesamong ethnic minorities such as language, education,mosque-building, cultural production and equal treatmenton the labour and housing market. These apparently

common features need to be finely-shaded. For instance,recognition of groups-rights is rendered problematic by theincompatibility with the post-communist civic society inEastern Europe (see the case studies of Albania andBulgaria), while Western Europe offers various conditionsfor coexistence depending upon institutional repertoires andincorporation patterns provided by host-countries(circumstantial handicap, p. 280) and linked to home-countries.

Citizenship and participation in national polities areother central issues. European national scenes aredistinguished, by the way that ethnic-religious conflictarises, plays a part in politics and may also be a feature of

everyday life. In Eastern Europe, the focus on separateethnic, national and religious affiliations reveals thecomplexity framing definitions of political membership,especially in Orthodox dominant societies. In this respect,religion appears one element of an ethnic-nationalidentification liable to assess eligibility for citizenship giventhat confessional unity is much easier to manipulate thannational unity. (p. 87) Islam is less a matter of overt ethnicconflict in Western Europe, even if in certain cases it mayseem to be latent, but is more often linked with positions inthe public sphere, the ideological multicultural frameworkand questions of visibility. Conflict cleavages do not havethe same basis as those in Eastern Europe but retain

relevance.

elative deprivation which more accurately reflects theultidimensional nature of grievances.

With its 357 double column pages the sheer volume ofhis anthology is somewhat intimidating. The reader isowever greatly helped by the editors succinct summarieshich precede each part of the book and which in

hemselves provide an excellent guided tour through the

ynamics of the development of a theory. Includingxcerpts from classic texts as well as full articles the valuef this anthology lies primarily as a reference book for anytudent of conflict theory.

Ann-Sofi JakobssonUppsala University

Ethnicity

Edited by John Hutchinson & Anthony DSmith

(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996)

448pp. Index. Bibl. Pb.: 10.99; ISBN 0-19-289274-6.

Type the word ethnicity into any search-engine oribrary-search and you will be overrun by the amount ofitles and links. This reader is perhaps a solution and also auide to what is now a large field of study. As a referencend incentive for further reading, it is almost unbeatable. Itanages to accommodate the main issues in the area of

thnic studies and as such it finds its place extremely welln any reading list or any shelf.

The book is divided in seven parts, ranging fromconcepts of ethnicity, theories of ethnicity, ethnicity in

istory, ethnicity in the modern world, ethnicity, religionnd language, race and ethnicity, ethnic conflict andationalism and finally, transcending ethnicity. One alsoas to mention the general introduction which in itself isnlightening. Just as the predecessor on nationalism, eachhapter has a short introduction followed by short extractsrom longer published works.

There are, of course, questions to be asked. Oneuestion could of course focus on the selection of texts. Is itossible to be objective? Of course, in an area liket h n i c it y, there is bound to be controversy regardingepresentation. By looking on the chapters described above,he two editors have obviously tried to satisfy most camps

nd have managed quite well. Still one can question the lackf contributions in the area of gender and ethnicity (oneontribution, Deniz Kandyoti) and also to a certain extentxamples and contributors from the Third World andastern Europe. One or two contributions discussingevelopments in the aftermath of the downfall of the USSRould have been welcomed, as many discovered the word

ethnicity during these turbulent years. Still, leaving thisehind, the reader manages to accommodate most of thereas discussed in the discipline today and also shows theroblems with definitions and concepts. This shoulderhaps not only be a book for researchers and students, butor anyone with an interest in these issues.

Ulf HanssonUniversity of Ulster

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Similarly professor Voll argues that the attentiondevoted to terrorist connections is highly misleading inattempting to understand the more important informalscholarly-activist, interregional (eg. the Brotherhood andJamaat-i Islami) International (eg. OIC, ECO, PA I C )networks in the Islamic world.

In an excellent contribution on Afghanistan, which isas concise as it is detailed, Barnetts William places theArab Islamists in the context of international and regionalgeopolitical and ideological conflicts and interests clearlyshowing the importance of both field work and analysis ofgovernment and non government organisations relations,usually ignored by many analysts.

There are other useful and provocative essays, likeDirk Vandewalles analysis of the implications of viewingAlgeria as a rentier state to understanding why the Algerianregime lost its legitimacy and Mohsen Milanis argument infavor of viewing the Islamic republic of Iran in terms ofrestrictive pluralism. Most however provide just a cursoryand reasonable outline of political history introducingstudents to the variety of forms displayed by contemporarypolitical Islam.

Roni LinserUniversity of Melbourne

Shattering the Myth: Islam

beyond violence

Bruce B. Lawrence

(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1998)237pp. Index. Bibl. Hb.: 17.95; ISBN 0-691-05769-9.

Books with the word Islam in their titles haveappeared with increasing frequency since the Iranianrevolution of 1978-1979. Today, the presence of activeIslamist movements around the world, and the United Statesconfrontation with Islamist governments in Sudan andAfghanistan, reinforce popular Western images of Islam asa violent or irrational religion.

In Shattering the Myth: Islam Beyond Violence, BruceLawrence takes us beyond the headlines and CNN

broadcasts and shows us an Islam that is not quite as neatand tidy as is popularly presented. Lawrence argues thatIslam is a complex religious system that is shaped by itsown ethical and moral demands as much as by theinteraction between Muslim peoples and the modern world.Therefore, it is folly to speak of one monolithic Islam or ofa single cohesive Islamic fundamentalist movement.

To buttress his case, the author explores ways inwhich Muslims are engaged in reformist and developmentalactivities across the world today, especially in the Muslimcommunities of Southeast Asia. The author is particularlyinterested in the changing role of women in many Muslim

societies and discusses their positions in states as diverse asPakistan, Egypt, and Iran.

The result is an eclectic but quite exhaustive view onontemporary Islam in Europe. Of particular interest arehapters concerning the radical shift of attitudes vis--vis

religion in Eastern countries. But as the product of a three-ear project, it is regrettable that other transversal topics

such as the transformation of the relationship betweenindividual and society in contemporary Islam, a comparison

f the new modes of believing and belonging, thetransnationalisation of Islamic associative mobilisation andthe pressures exerted by Muslim States on their nationalsthroughout Europe are not discussed.

Valrie AmirauxEuropean University Institute - Florence

Political Islam: Revolution,radicalism, or reform?

Edited by John L Esposito

(London: Lynne Rienner, 1997). Distributed by Eurospan.281pp. Index. Bibl. Pb.: 15.95; ISBN 1-55587-168-2.

In a world where globalizing forces impact onconomic, political and cultural local conditions and where

local conditions feedback into global forces, a book thatattempts to examine the impact of contemporary politicalIslam on domestic and international politics is a welcomeontribution.

This is an especially necessary task in light of theimportant role played by Islam in the lives of approximatelya quarter of the worlds population yet there is abundant

ignorance displayed in the coverage of that world by theWestern media and partisan commentators. Moreover inlight of the expanding debate about civilizational conflictsn the one hand and ethnic conflicts on the other, it isrucially important to policy makers to have grounding inompetent research.

Though the editor, Georgetown University professorohn Esposito, argues that Islamic politics must be viewedithin specific country contexts the collection exhibits aore lenient approach. It is organised into three

perspectives : the struggle between governments andillegal Islamic opposition, Islam within the political process

nd the international relations of political Islam. It isintroduced by professor Esposito and includes abibliography and Index.

The collection of 11 essays, clearly does not mean tobe a comprehensive account, and the different contributionsvary both in approach and interests. Most just narrate aursory political history but some go a step further.

Professor Bakers contribution on the Egyptian centristIslamic movements challenges the security oriented Realistparadigm of international relations with its focus onterrorism. He argues that the New Islamists, the centre in

gypt, are similar to the new social movements present in

the West, powerfully criticising modernity which in Egyptthreatens a corrupt repressive regime.

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uncompromising revolutions, are not necessarily orinherently juxtaposed in thought and action to democracyand pluralism. The detailed and contextual analyses in thecase studies implicitly challenges the Western myths (andconsequent fears) of an all-encompassing hegemonic andextremist Islamic movement.

The book will be instructive to those not familiar with

the theoretical foundations and historical context of Islamicconviction in the contemporary world. However, the bookdoes not extensively explain, and that is not its purpose,why the West has chosen fundamentalism as its new enemy.Rather Ahmad Moussalli and his fellow contributors chooseto demystify Islamic fundamentalism through developing anuanced and contextual understanding. A refined analysisof this type is critical in moving Western conflict resolutionpractitioners, and the public, away from the reductionistview that the biggest threat to peace is the clash ofirreconcilable civilisations rather than the socio-economicproblems, and resultant opposition, created by rapideconomic liberalisation.

Brandon Hamber

Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation,

Johannesburg

The Silent War: Imperialism andthe changing perception of race

Frank Fredi

(London: Pluto Press, 1998)282pp. Index. Bibl. 45.00; ISBN 0745313086. Pb.: 14.99;

ISBN 0745313035.

In this meticulously researched and compelling studyFredi analyses the ways in which white racial thinking hasbeen, and still is, inextricably linked with western cultureand identity. Drawing on a wide range of often fascinatingsource material, the author examines how, during the 20thcentury, Anglo-American political culture dealt with theissue of race within the context of massive global changes.These changes impacted on the nature of both internationaland domestic relations, and throughout the paramountconcern was ensuring that any threats to Western powerwere minimised. At the turn of this century elites in Britainand the USA surveyed the world order that had been createdout of slavery and imperialism from, as Fredi puts it, a

position of racial confidence. There were no inhibitionsregarding the concept of race; Western domination oflarge portions of the world confirmed assumptions of whitesuperiority. From early on in the 20th century, however, thiswas to change significantly. Internationally there wasincreasing resistance to Western exploitation andoppression, and within the USA the beginning of a blackcivil rights movement. The 20th century, then, saw a shiftfrom confidence to racial fear and, according to Fredi,this shift resulted in the gradual development of an Anglo-American race relations industry. In his view this racerelations industry evolved in order to avoid, minimise orpostpone racial conflict. Thus the history presented here is

not one which sees the development of race relations aspart of a linear process of progressive enlightenment, a

This lively essay is a concise and engaging read.nyone befuddled by the simplistic images put out by manyestern media or those interested in an overview of a

umber of issues that confront Muslims in todays worldould do well to read this work.

Lawrence Tal

Islamic Fundamentalism: Mythsand realities

Edited by Ahmad S Moussalli

(Reading, UK: Ithaca Press, 1998).348pp. Index. Hb. ISBN 0-86372-232-6.

Islam has been seen to be well suited to play the rolef the bad guy after the cold war, for it is large, frighteningnd anti-Western and thrives on poverty and anger. It ispread over vast tracts of the world, and so the countries of

slam could be shown on TV as large maps of green, as theommunist countries used to appear in red.(p. 6).

The fetishism of the West, and particularly the Unitedtates, with the creation of a new enemy after the end of theold War is an increasing point for international concern.n one hand there is a growing awareness in the

nternational community of the fabrication of an enemy forplethora of self-serving reasons. Yet, on the other, the

verwhelming ignorance of the Muslim world, and thenormous publicity of extremist terror attacks, has fannedears of a new Islamic green threat. Ahmad Moussalli andis fellow contributors set out to rationally and

ystematically challenge the myths that perpetuate thesenxieties.

The book begins with several complex theoreticalhapters that cover a number of key debates. These rangerom the (ir)relevancy of Western social science innderstanding the Muslim world, to the philosophical andolitical underpinnings of the views and ideologies ofiffering Islamic traditions on religion, state, democracynd human rights. These intricate theoretical chapters wille helpful to researchers with little understanding of Islamicundamentalism, as well as those with a larger base ofnowledge. They demonstrate that although any

nderstanding of Islamic fundamentalism cannot be easilyonflated into the framework of Western thought,undamentalism is not beyond intellectual, economic,olitical and cultural analyses (p.25). This is critical, ashe remaining chapters all converge on the need tonderstand Islamic fundamentalism and its growthontextually.

The instructive and in-depth case studies of Algeria,ebanon, the Occupied Territories, Saudi Arabia and Egyptlearly show that the resurgence of Islamic activism cannote divorced from the local socio-economic and politicalontext. The case studies convincingly demonstrate thatost major fundamentalist groups, notwithstanding a fewidely publicised groups that are engaged in exclusivist

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prejudice, discrimination and domination which keep somany Americans from equality and equal citizenship, whilefuelling the neoconservative agenda.

By exploring the institutional flaws in the U.S. legalsystem (Law and Order: Civil Rights Laws and WhitePrivilege), the neoconservative rise and the inherent racismof new American patriotism (Whiteness and War), andC a l i f o r n i a s recent racist, anti-immigrant laws andmentality (California: The Mississippi of the 1990s),Lipsitz shows racism and inequality are not legacies of thepast, rather they are still at the foundations of Americansociety. The book gathers great strength from Lipsitzsability to move effortlessly from personal narrative to hard-hitting policy analysis. At the root of his argument lies thepremise that racism and other forms of domination are not

just someone elses problems, but they affect allAmericans, and whites, in particular, need to push forsolutions and massive changes in American society. Hewrites: We need to learn why our history has been built soconsistently on racial exclusion and why we continue to

generate new mechanisms to increase the value of past andpresent discrimination (p. 233).

Eamon JoyceVassar College

Race and Representation:Affirmative action

Edited by Roger Post and Michael Rogin

(New York: Zone Books, 1998) Distributed by MIT Press.424pp. 33.50; ISBN 0-942299-48-5. Pb.: 15.95; ISBN 0-

942299-49-3.

This important and timely book examines the crisisof the affirmative action initiative in the United States in thewake of recent attempts to challenge it. In particular, thevolume assesses the three legal resolutions that havethreatened affirmative action policies: Resolution SP-1,passed by the Board of Regents of the University ofCalifornia in 1995 which prohibited the use of race as acriteria for admission of students; the decision of the USSupreme Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in the caseof Hopwood vs Texas, which declared the use of race as abasis for admissions by the states universities to beunconstitutional; and the passing of Proposition 209 whichamended the Californian constitution so that race-basedaffirmative action were forbidden.

Race and Representation analyses the implications ofthe above resolutions for future affirmative actionprogrammes. The first section addresses the rulings andtheir impact, whilst the second offers a broader perspectiveon the history, development and successes of the principleof affirmative action and associated policies. Thedifficulties of edited collections such as this are evidencedin this second section, where there are a number of shortchapters that lack substance. Affirmative action is clearly

important to the authors (all 29 of them), and, althoughnearly all offer engaging discussions, on occasion some

rocess arising simply out of a moral agenda based uponanti-racism and a commitment to racial equality per se. Inhis interpretation the agenda is induced by fear, informed bypragmatism and at times overtly cynical. Above all, thiswas a war which, although deriving from white racismand domination, remained silent as it was reconstitutedideologically by a race relations industry in all its guises.

he book details these developments up to the immediateost-Second World War period, though there is someiscussion of more recent history. The final word can be

left to the author:

In the end, racial pragmatism had to give way to aormal acceptance of equality, but by the time this occurred,ecades of racial pragmatism, and the practices associated

with it, had helped create a climate where the West couldinimise the damage consequences of its racist tradition.

(p. 238)

John TierneyUniversity of Durham

The Possessive Investment inWhiteness: How white peopleprofit from identity politics

George Lipsitz

(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998)274 pp. Index. $59.95; ISBN 1-56639-634-4. Pb.: $19.95; ISBN

1-56639-635-2.

In The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, Professor

f Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diegoeorge Lipsitz primarily focuses on the legacy of racialsubordination in the United States. Lipsitz argues suchsubordination stems from systematic efforts from colonialtimes to the present to create economic advantages throughpossessive investment in whiteness for EuropeanAmericans (p. 2). Lipsitz implores white Americans torealize that they are not innocent of a myriad of privilegesthey receive as a result of being white, and to support publicpolicies, such as affirmative action and fair housing acts, to

ppose and end white privilege.

Lipsitzs work, however, does not remain trapped

nly in analysis of racial subordination. From his work onrace, Lipsitz expands his critique to the multiple forms ofiscrimination and subordination, including those based onlass, gender and sexual preference, that exist and continue

to flourish in the post-civil rights era in the United States.By utilizing intersectional analysis, Lipsitz avoids thepitfalls of one-sided racial analysis, particularly thereductiveness of framing race in the United States in alack/white dichotomy. He insightfully examines racism

against Asians/Asian-Americans as well as Latinos andther minorities in the chapter Immigrant Labor and

Identity Politics and elsewhere. In combining thepossessive investment in whiteness with other hegemonicAmerican constructs (heterosexism, patriarchy, classism),

ipsitz describes and elucidates upon the problems of

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interesting and critically important with regard tounderstanding ethnic identity and its role in conflict, thistext is somewhat disappointing. Back has identified avariety of interesting concepts, such as white flight,l o c a l i t y, nostalgia, and the preservation of privilege,neighborhood nationalism, social context and racistpractice, and transculturalism and the politics of dialogue.Unfortunately, in his attempt to cover all of these conceptsand the underlying nuances, he fails to provide the readerwith a comprehensive and coherent discussion.

Wanda Wigfall-WilliamsICAR, George Mason University

Fascisms Return: Scandal,revision, and ideology since 1980

Edited by Richard J. Golsan

(London: University of Nebraska Press, 1998)330pp. Index. Bibl. Hb.: 52.00; ISBN 0-8032-2159-2. Pb.:

23.95; ISBN 0-8032-7071-2.

Fascisms Return is a selection of essays whichaddress the fascist movement predominantly in Europe.The book attempts to look at this phenomenon not onlyfrom a political stand point but from an intellectual andcultural perspective as well. Scandals involving the fascistideology are addressed such as the Barbie and Paul Touviertrials along with the revision and development of a newfascism.

What the book sets out to tell its reader is that fascismis alive and well and living in Europe. All hope is not losthowever, as in a more optimistic turn some of the essaysargue that the sheer acknowledgement of fascism is thestarting point to stopping its spread.

To those of us most interested in ethnic conflict thebook has something to offer by way of an ideologicalperspective. Fascisms need for scapegoats and exaltationof nation and race clearly mark its importance to researchersof ethnic conflict. Many of the authors make a point ofincluding cultural and intellectual areas of the ideologyalong with the political angle which I found especiallyuseful in my own studies. I found the book a pleasure toread and one that would be useful when trying to beginresearch into the study of ethnic conflict.

Having said all of that I must just add that I foundsome of the essays a bit redundant and would have

appreciated a wider spectrum of countries being discussed.The cover makes reference to Europe, however the majorityof the work is on France and Germany. The last essay in thebook looks at U.S. involvement in Central America, mainlyEl Salvador. The author puts forward the question ofwhether the U.S. involvement in El Salvador could beconsidered fascist and whether or not Reagan and Bushcould be accused of running fascist regimes.

All in all I would have to say the book is a good toolwhen trying to understand the ideologies involved in ethnicconflict but if the reader is looking for a comprehensivestudy of fascism in Europe I think they would bedisappointed with the narrowness of this book.

Kathleen Korosec HolmesUniversity of Missouri in Kansas City

hapters tend to become rather polemical in style, to thextent that one author (Fox Piven) claims that the campaigngainst affirmative action works to sustain the politics oface hatred (p387). Although it goes without saying thatffirmative action is an emotive issue, perhaps a moreonsidered and detached approach, like that advocated byaldron, works best in a volume such as this.

Despite this, Race and Repre s e n t a t i o n o ffers aascinating analysis not just of affirmative action, but alsof contemporary political and social issues affecting raceelations in the United States. A particular highlight isu s t e rs incisive analysis of the history of legalevelopments affecting Americas diverse ethnicommunities, and the politics behind the choice ofalifornia as the battleground in which the opponents offfirmative action have sought to challenge it. The varietyf articles is best illustrated by Wagners articulate piece onrtistic depictions of race issues, another fine chapter inhis generally excellent book.

Jon GarlandUniversity of Leicester

New Ethnicities and UrbanCulture: Racisms and

multiculture in young lives

Les Back

(London: University College London Press, 1996)288pp. Index. Bibl. ISBN 1-85728-251-5. Pb.: 12.95; ISBN 1-

85728-252-3.

As a former youth worker operating in multi-ethnicommunities, Back perceived the models he encountered toddress racism tended to be ineffective and overlyimplistic. Most models neglect to take into considerationhe myriad complexities of racist and non-racist sentimentsnd behaviours. Consequently, this simplistic model sets updynamic whereby young whites are either praised for

ehaving like a saint or punished for behaving like asinner. Back challenges the status quo by suggesting thathe highly centralized and moral approach to counter racisms limited at best, and moreover fails to examine how racismirst enters the lives of young people. Back has a keen

nterest in understanding and accounting for the emergingorms of cultural practice and identity formation withinetropolitan contexts. He describes the writing of this book

s a commitment to engage with the world of vernacularulture. His expectation is that by examining how identityormation, racism, and multi-culturalism is manifest inveryday life, he and other scholars may gain a broader andore accurate perspective on the racial, ethnic, and cultural

ynamics of post-imperial London.

This book is organized around three central themes:he nature of community; the social identities of youngeople within the community; and their experience with

acism. These themes are described and explored within theontext of two communities. Although the subject matter is

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Masses in Flight: The global crisis

of internal displacement

Roberta Cohen & Francis M Deng(Washington DC: Brookings Institution, 1998)

414pp. Index. Bibl. $52.95; ISBN 0-8157-1512-9. Pb.: ISBN 0-

8157-1511-0.

This timely book addresses a critical issue which hasonly recently found expression in the lexicon ofinternational political and legal discourse. Unlike refugeeswho cross international borders and benefit fromestablished legal and institutional frameworks, internallydisplaced persons remain within the borders of acountry/state, without the benefit of a regime similar to thatwhich avails refugees. Yet, the magnitude of the crisisengendered by this phenomenon is such that by 1997, morethan 20 million internally displaced persons were reportedin thirty five to forty countries!

The authors explore the factors - both natural andartificial - which account for this unfortunate state of affairs.A noticeable omission, however, is internal displacementoccasioned by environmental degradation and theresponsibility of the culprits, especially transnationalcorporations. For our purpose, given the specific focus ofthisDigest, the authors underscore the fact that, most of theconflicts which lead to mass displacement have a strongethnic component (p.22). Accordingly, the two countrieswhich the authors identify as having the dubious distinctionof being responsible for the largest number of internallydisplaced persons - Sudan and Turkey - are notorious fortheir intractable ethnic and religious conflicts. Whilesubmitting that it is seldom mere differences of identitybased on ethnic or religious grounds that generate conflict,but the consequences of those differences when the questionof access to resources and opportunities is in issue, the,authors opine that the manipulation of such differencesraises a presumption to the effect that there may be genuinegroup concerns. In the circumstance, they draw attention tothe imperative of acknowledging and addressing theunderlying causes of ethnic animosity.

With particular reference to Africa, which accountsfor about half of the world's internally displaced persons,the authors implicate the arbitrary balkanization of thecontinent by the colonial powers and warn that thepervasive crisis of national identity created by the artificialborders of the colonial state can be expected to continue togive rise to ethnic and racial strife within and betweenstates (p.47). Given this reality, one would have expected afairly elaborate discussion of the way out of this quagmire.Instead, one finds no more than a passing reference to self-determination. This approach is replicated in the discussionof the requisite legal framework. It is, however, refreshingthat the authors address the increasing trend of recastingsovereignty as a concept of responsibility, with the resultthat a state which fails to be accountable to its domesticconstituency and the international community loses itslegitimacy and concomitantly risks having its veil pierced.On balance, the book makes compelling reading.

Dakas CJ DakasUniversity of Jos, Nigeria

Borders, Exiles, and Diasporas

Edited by Elazar Barkan and Marie-Denise Shelton

(Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1998) Distributed byCambridge University Press.

340pp. Index. 35.00; ISBN 08047-2905-0. Pb.: 12.95; ISBN08047-2906-9.

An unfortunate gap persists between culturalstudies and social science approaches to culture. Barkanand Shletons volume epitomizes the former and thereforewill frustrate social scientists looking for insights into thepolitics of transnationalism.

Contributors cover a range of topics, fromsexuality/gender in Europe, the Middle East, and theAmericas to the philosophies of Benjamin and Wittgenstein.Most chapters focus on particular individuals or literarypieces, drawing on themes of exile and cultural encounter.Symptomatic of edited volumes, the book lacks an

verarching argument or theme. Indeed, in that sense thebook delivers on the editors' introductory promise to reflectthe open-ended, discontinuous, and syncretic nature of thepostmodern experience (p. 6). As such, social scientistsan and should take a literary project on its own terms.

But the editors also claim that, because the volumerecognizes the political stakes of diasporic identity, itcombines the poetic with the political, while probing thexistential consequences of displacement and culturalislocation (p. 5). Even those of us who accept the '60sictum that the personal is political will regret the failuref the volume to deliver on its tantalizing potential for

political insights that the editors rightly highlight.

While the volume as a whole may be too literary in itsrientation to satisfy those more interested in the political

and social dimensions of culture, a few contributions doeserve attention. Francoise Lionnet's chapter,

Immigration, Poster Art, and Transgressive Citizenship:France, 1968-1988, approaches multiculturalism in a way- poster art - which bridges the methodological gap betweenliterary and social analysis. In Scraps of Culture: AfricanStyle in the African American Community in Los Angeles,

Leslis Rabin links African and African-American culturethrough clothing, an approach that could lend itself to moref a political economy perspective. And Catherine

Portuges Accenting LA: Central Europeans in DiasporanHollywood in the 1940s reminds us not to generalize aboutontent and nationality of cultural industries. These piecesoint in fruitful directions for narrowing the conceptual andethodological divides between literary and social science

views of culture. Only then will we be able to share aonversation about more specific concerns, such as the

politics of transnationalism and cultural identities.

Audie Klotz

University of Illinois at Chicago

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New Diasporas: The massexodus, dispersal and regrouping

of migrant communities

Nicholas Van Hear

(London: University College London Press, 1998) Distributed byTaylor & Francis

298pp. Index. Bibl. Pb.: 13.95; ISBN 1-85728-837-8.

The second volume in the Global Diasporas seriesfrom the Transnational Communities Programme at theUniversity of Oxford,New Diasporas is an important bookthat adds much to the current debate on the meaning,character, and contemporary significance of diasporas andtransnationalism. The central purpose of this study is toexamine ten migration crises in Africa, the Middle East,Asia, Europe, Central America and the Caribbean todetermine the links between migration crises and theformation and demise of diasporic and transnational

communities.

Van Hear approaches his topic with an appreciationfor the significance of context and historical change. Hisinterest in studying migration crises, moreover, ispredicated on his belief in the transformative character ofsuch events. Migration crises, he explains, are sudden,massive, disorderly population movements [which] may bepivotal episodes or critical moments which signal a juncturebetween one migration order and the next (p. 23). VanHears approach to this phenomenon is carefully attuned toquestions of international political economy. Crisis forwhom? is the driving question for each of the migrationcrises examined. This perspective is a refreshing alternative

to the rather narrow problem solving approachesprevalent in so much of the literature on forceddisplacement. In each of the cases he examines, Van Heartakes pains to determine what kinds of populations aretransnational, what gives them this character, and whatconditions bring about their transformation. The study notonly demonstrates how the forces of globalizationaccelerate the dispersal and regrouping of transnationalcommunities, but the socially differentiated manner inwhich these changes occur is also highlighted.

Van Hears emphasis on the socio-economicimplications of diasporas and transnationalism is important.It cautions against the uncritical celebration of such

identities for how they challenge traditional state-centricidentities and communities. Nonetheless, Van Hearsanalysis would benefit from expanding its scope to considerthe relationship between transformations in migrationorders and changes to a more broadly conceived worldorder. How do diasporic and transnational forces impactand transform the identities and communities provided bythe logic of state sovereignty? Van Hear begins to exploresuch questions at the very end of his book. Furtherreflection on these issues would have made for a richer andmore satisfying study. That said, New Diasporas i snonetheless a compelling and very readable book.

Peter Nyers

York University, Canada

Gatherings in Diaspora: Religiouscommunities and the new

immigration

Edited by RS Stephen Warner & Judith GWittner

(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1998)409pp. Index. Hb. ISBN1-56639-613-1. $59.95. Pb.: 56639-614-

X $24.95

Warner and Wittner have edited a nice collection ofthnographic studies looking at how immigrantommunities in the United States articulate a collectivedentity on religious grounds. Each of the chapters writes aicro sociological study of the processes of religious

dentity creation of a small, local community of post-1965mmigrants in the United States. Instead of a textualroduction of identity, the authors self-consciouslymphasise a participatory research of the institutionalrocesses of identity formation. The chapters cover a richatchwork of religious communities: Jews, Muslims,hristians, Hindus, Rastafarians and practitioners ofoodoo from countries such as Korea, Mexico, Morocco,hina, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Iran, and Jamaica.

The book includes some excellent ethnographichapters offering detailed descriptions of everydayommunity practices. But, systematic reflections about theeneral concepts which inform the micro sociology are onlycarcely present. It would have been interesting to see inach of the chapters a more explicit reflection on how theoncept of identification is understood, for example.nother problem with micro-studies is that the structural

ontext within which the everyday practices are locatedften remain underarticulated. Integrating micro-analysisith a more general reading of national and global

conomic, cultural and social structures and processes couldave improved the thickness of the descriptions. This wouldlso have opened a way for a more critical theorising of theubject. It must be said though that the book aspires mainlyo be a collection of interesting ethnographic studies andhat the weakness just described is to an extent unavoidablen such a collection. But, an easy way out - the moreifficult being to demand of each individual author toddress these issues - would have been to add a strongntroductory and concluding chapter which deal explicitly

ith conceptual and contextual dimensions. Although thentroductory and concluding chapter of the book do this ton extent, they could have been structured much moreightly around conceptual and methodological questions andhe link between the wider social context and the localituations. The introduction, for example, reads like anxplanation of the general project of which these casetudies are a part instead of offering a more generalubstantial interpretation of diasporic communities in thenited States. In conclusion, the book is interesting in itsetail but somewhat lacking in its more general picture.

Jef Huysmans

University of Kent

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those individuals whose life experiences correspond withthe Geneva Convention definition, readers should takeseriously the very interesting - and innovative - procedurehe outlines for answering the question Who is a refugee?Carlier employs the Theory of the Three Scales toinvestigate three crucial components to the refugeedetermination processthat is, verifying that the degree ofrisk, persecution, and proof is sufficiently established inorder to grant the applicant asylum. This interpretive sectionof the book will be of special interest not only to refugeepractitioners and decision-makers, but also to refugeeadvocates, legal theorists, and students of global populationflows.

Peter NyersYork University, Canada

British Policy and the Refugees

1933-1941

Yvonne Kapp and Margaret Mynatt(London: Frank Cass, 1997)

35.00; ISBN 0-7146-4797-7. Pb.: 16.00; ISBN 0-7146-4352-1.

Between the years 1933-39 the United Kingdomreceived some 80,000 to 90,000 refugees from countriesunder Nazi rule. Some 20,000 to 30,000 of these re-emigrated before the outbreak of war (p. 3).

This book is centrally concerned with Jewish andpolitical refugees from Germany, Austria andCzechoslovakia fleeing Nazi oppression by coming intoBritain in the 1930s. The book also critically examines the

programme of internment and deportation instigated by theBritish government in the summer of 1940. Yvonne Kappwas born in Dulwich in 1903 into a Jewish middle-classfamily. She became involved in relief work for refugeesfrom 1933, worked full time for the Jewish RefugeesCommittee and was later seconded to the Czech RefugeeTrust Fund becoming Assistant to the Director. MargaretMynatt was born in Vienna in 1907 into a poorBritish/Austrian Jewish family. She became a journalist andafter the Reichstag fire fled to Prague and eventually toLondon, where she worked on a voluntary basis for anti-fascist aid organisations and then for British Committee forRefugees from Czechoslovakia. Both women were

committed communists and were dismissed from theirpositions in the government sponsored Czech Refugee TrustFund on account of their political affiliations. This bookwas written when they were both living in the Lake Districtin 1940. Although the book was accepted for publication in1940, publication was stopped when a Penguin volume The

Internment of Aliens written by anti-fascist and anti-communist Francois Lafitte was published. Publication wasreconsidered in 1968 and again in the 1980s but was notfinally published until 1997 - fifty-seven years after it waswritten.

The book is written in an accessible style that verymuch engages the reader in the actual experiences ofrefugees and their struggle against the many and changingways in which they were positioned by the British

Who is a Refugee? A comparative

case law study

Edited by Jean-Yves Carlier, DirkVanheule, Klaus Hullmann & Carlos Pea

Galiano(The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 1997)

794 pp. Index. Bibl. Hb.: $25.00; ISBN 90-411-0348-1.

Sovereign states, especially in the past century, havestablished extensive apparatuses for determining andontrolling who may or may not be eligible for membership

(i.e. citizenship) in the political community. As its titlesuggests, the focus of Who is a Refugee? A Comparative

ase Law Study is to provide a thorough overview of thease law and state procedures relevant to determining whos an authentic refugee and thus eligible for protection

and/or asylum. This is certainly a timely endeavour as notnly do the number of refugees worldwide continue toincrease (from 1.5 million refugees in 1951, to over 14

illion in 1995, together with an additional 13 millionreturnees, internally and otherwise displaced people) but theonditions and circumstances that bring about these massovements have also multiplied. Indeed, the largely

unprecedented polymorphism and complexity in the causes,underlying dynamics, and effects of global refugee flowsreminds us that this political phenomenon continues to bene of the most pressing facing modern political practice,

analysis, and theory.

In this work, Jean-Yves Carlier and his co-editors set

ut to address the question of who qualifies for refugeestatus in two stages. The first part of the book consists of

ational reports on the case law relevant to determiningrefugee status for each of the fifteen different statesonsidered. With nearly five thousand decisions recorded

and one thousand five hundred considered, this is by far theost substantial section of the book and will serve as an

invaluable resource to refugee scholars, advocates, andecision-makers. The content of these reports is mainlyescriptive in nature, while the format is similarly

structured so as to facilitate cross-national comparisons.hile it is unfortunate that only European and North

American states are considered, what is most striking about

these reports is the disarmingly similar way in which thesestates have reformed their refugee policies. On the whole -and despite some laudable innovations by countries such as

anada on gender persecution - Western states haveincreased restrictions, tightened procedures, shortened time-lines, and in general made the goal of attaining asylum moreifficult.

How then should this crisis in the asylum cultures ofWestern nations be confronted and resolved? The secondection of the book consists of a concluding general report

by Jean-Yves Carlier which tries to address this crucialproblem. While one could question Carliers liberalassumption that the harmonization of state policies will lead

to a more efficacious system, or raise some concerns withhis recommendation that refugee status should be limited to

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Sisters in Sorrow: Voices of carein the Holocaust

Edited by Roger A Ritvo and Diane MPlotkin

(College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, 1998)314pp. Index. Bibl. Hb.: $35.95; ISBN 0-89096-810-1.

This book contains the harrowing personaltestimonies, letters and reflections of various Jewish doctorsand nurses who took care of the sick and infirm in Nazitransit and concentration camps. It contains tellingobservations and details of significant differences inconditions between Theresienstadt, Westerbork, Auschwitzand Belsen. It also contrasts the treatment of women andmen in the camps, and provides a different perspective onthe experiences of women prisoners.

The volume chronicles the ingenuity and resilience,

plus the survival skills which these women exhibited inadapting to the concentration camp environment - hamperedby insanitary conditions, a starvation diet, the lack ofmedicine and hospital equipment such as anaesthetics,disinfectants, sterilisation instruments and hot water.Despite the petty humiliations and the debilitatinginsecurity and uncertainty of living under constant threat ofdeath, the women alleviated the suffering of their fellowvictims and attempted to maintain as normal a life aspossible, and to remain human in the most inhumanconditions. Nevetheless, it proved impossible to livewithout dirty hands, and breaking the rules of traditionalbehaviour became unavoidable in the struggle for survival.

The volume addresses the agonising moral dilemmas thatconfronted these women carers: that it was necessary toparticipate in the Nazi killing process in order to save lives.Because the Nazis decreed that pregnant women were to begassed, and new-born babies to be killed, the womendoctors were forced to compromise their professionalintegrity and ethical standards in an attempt to save the livesof the mothers. The healers were trapped in an escapablemedical paradox, having to perform clandestine abortions,which contravened their professional and personal ethics,and killing new-born babies in order to save their mothersfrom the gas chambers.

It is poignant that many of the accounts refer to the

incomprehension and indifference that the womenencountered on liberation, and returning to their formerhomes as refugees. One observed: You feel nobody canunderstand what you went throughwe were at home butwe were strangers(p. 91).

For the most part the material is descriptive in form,and not a contribution to the analytical literature of theHolocaust. However, there are some unforgettable personalstories, and important moral issues are raised. The book isa useful addition to the subject, and a supplement to suchclassics as Olga Lengyels Five Chimneys and Robert JayLiftons The Nazi Doctors.

Rab BennettManchester Metropolitan University

uthorities before and following the onset of the war. Asell as graphically describing the dynamics of government

nd the British public's responses to the refugees, theuthors present criticisms of government policies, all ofhich have continuing relevance for Britain, Ireland andther European countries.

Although the Geneva Convention which was framedo meet the refugee problem relating to education andmployment of refugees amongst other things, was onlyartially ratified by Britain. The book lists the many aspectsf the Convention that were not applied in the Britishituation which applied its illiberal Aliens Act. The effectsf these circumstances was to develop, by 1939, arangling and haggling apparatus wherein the harassed butumane officials of both the refugee organisations and theliens Department co-operated to fit the refugee problem

nto the Procrustes bed of the regulations (p. 25). A furtherffect of these complicated and obstructive regulations washe keeping of working-class foreigners out of the countryp. 27).

The authors also raise the important question ofepresentation of refugees and the ways in which theaternalistic workings of some refugee organisations meanshat a large mass of refugees had no voice at all in theolicies that deeply effected their lives. They describe therbeitskreis as an example of a refugee representative body

nd its effectiveness in saving time and money to the reliefrganisations. The authors discuss why such self-epresentation was left to the political refugees and note thei fferent circumstances by which racial and politicalefugees gain refugee status and the consequent different

evels of preparedness.

he suspicion that surrounds refugees in times of war isddressed and challenged by the authors with reference tohe material and political dynamics of refugee status and thenternal surveillance that takes place within refugeeommunities. It is evident from this book that thenternment of the refugees cannot be seen as an aberrationn a time of crisis but as coming out of an attitude towardoreigners, Aliens and Jews that were prevalent during the

1930s and before.

This book offers an insight into those externalolicies and conditions that shaped the lives and

xperiences of refugees to Britain in this period and thehanging labels, status and loyalty tests required of them byhe authorities. The authors are self-conscious about howheir account might be read and note that they are notdvocating unlimited admission but arguing instead foregislation and policies based on the principle of the right tosylum, that is, for a consistent pro-refugee policy ratherhan what they saw as an anti- refugee policy withoopholes (p. 35-6).

Breda GrayUniversity College Cork

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The Destruction of Romanian andUkrainian Jews During the

Antonescu Era

Edited by Randoph L Braham

(New York: Rosenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies/CityUniversity of New York, 1997).Distributed by Columbia University Press.413pp. Hb.: 48.00; ISBN 0-88033-380-4.

As the title indicates, The Destruction of Romanianand Ukrainian Jews During the Antonescu Era ( e d .Randoph L. Braham) is firstly about the tragedy that befellsome 420,000 Jews living on Romanian soil in 1939 duringthe reign of the Legionary State (1940-1944). It also tellsthe story of the murder of tens of thousands of UkrainianJews in areas under Romanian occupation from the fall of1941 to the spring of 1944.

An outgrowth of a 1996 international scholarsconference held in Washington, D.C., this collection ofessays is, on another level, about the re-surfacing of thedemons of the past in post-communist Eastern Europe.Divided into four sections (Setting the Stage, The DriveAgainst the Jews, The Foreign Factor and Notes andHistory Cleansing), the book necessarily deals with two ofthese - extreme nationalism and antisemitism.

Namely, in Romania they have been inextricablyintertwined with the campaign to rehabilitate the wartimepro-Nazi dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu. Part of thisprocess has been the construction of the myth that he and hiscolleagues in the Legionary State leadership actually playeda key role in saving its own and foreign Jews who soughtrefuge on its territory from destruction.

From the start, however, it is made clear that nothingcould be farther from the truth. At every stage of itsdevelopment Antonescu was the principal actor in framingand implementing wartime persecution of the Jews. Takefor example Lya Benjamins essay, Anti-Semitism asReflected in the Records of the Council of Ministers, 1940-1944: An Analytical Overview. At a Cabinet Councilmeeting of November 13, 1941 on the infamous deportationof the Jews of the Bukovina and Bessarabia to theTransnistria region between the Bug and Dniester Rivers,

she cites his, having remarked: The Jews must not bespared Dont think they will not take revenge when giventhe opportunity. But, in order to leave no one to takerevenge, I shall finish them first (Braham, p.11). No lesscompelling a