Conflicted Territories Representations Of Ethnic And Political Disputes In World Literature

Conflicted Territories: Representations of Ethnic and Political Disputes in World Literature is an attempt to contextualise the diversity and complexity of human territories around the globe through their manifestations in literature and popular culture. The unremitting presence of social variables such as indigeneity, sovereignty, and religion in territorial disputes obfuscates the possibility of conflict resolution due to their sensitive and complex traits. This complexity is the kernel of this book in which each chapter explores the implications and dissensions of social variables in stifling global territorial crises.

Despite the vast body of texts inspired by warfare from The Iliad to Maus war writing is perpetually haunted by the notions of unrepresentability and inadequacy. War and Words examines the methods, conventions and pitfalls of constructing verbal accounts of military conflict in literature and the media. This multifocal study draws on a wide array of theoretical perspectives, including feminism, posthumanism, masculinity, trauma, spatiality and media studies, and brings together such diverse material as canonical literature, war veterans testimonies, imaginative fiction, computer games, English curricula, and Al-Qaedas propaganda pieces. In five consecutive sections Spreading War Propaganda, Reconstructing War Spaces, Envisioning War, Gendering War, and Teaching War the contributors consider war in its manifold aspects: as an ideological tool used for propaganda purposes, as a spatial reconstruction performed for the critical reassessment of past conflicts, as a projection (or extrapolation) of possible future conflicts and their social repercussions, as a political statement to deconstruct the oppressive nature of violence, and, finally, as a didactic tool to foster empathy. This collection will appeal primarily to academics specialising in English and American literature, but also to those researching media, gender, and game studies.

The end of the Cold War has changed the shape of organized violence in the world and the ways in which governments and others try to set its limits. Even the concept of international conflict is broadening to include ethnic conflicts and other kinds of violence within national borders that may affect international peace and security. What is not yet clear is whether or how these changes alter the way actors on the world scene should deal with conflict: Do the old methods still work? Are there new tools that could work better? How do old and new methods relate to each other? International Conflict Resolution After the Cold War critically examines evidence on the effectiveness of a dozen approaches to managing or resolving conflict in the world to develop insights for conflict resolution practitioners. It considers recent applications of familiar conflict management strategies, such as the use of threats of force, economic sanctions, and negotiation. It presents the first systematic assessments of the usefulness of some less familiar approaches to conflict resolution, including truth commissions, "engineered" electoral systems, autonomy arrangements, and regional organizations. It also opens up analysis of emerging issues, such as the dilemmas facing humanitarian organizations in complex emergencies. This book offers numerous practical insights and raises key questions for research on conflict resolution in a transforming world system.

Although referendums have been used for centuries to settle ethnonational conflicts, there had yet been no systematic study or generalized theory concerning their effectiveness until Matt Qvortrup's Referendums and Ethnic Conflict. Qvortrup's study filled the gap with a comparative and empirical analysis of all the referendums held on ethnic and national issues from the French Revolution to the 2012 referendum on statehood for Puerto Rico. Drawing on political theory and descriptive case studies, the scholar created typologies of referendums that are held to endorse secession, redraw disputed borders, legitimize a policy of homogenization, or otherwise manage ethnic or national differences. He considered the circumstances that compel politicians to resort to direct democracy, such as regime change, and the conditions that might exacerbate a violent response. Qvortrup offers a clear-eyed assessment of the problems raised when conflict resolution is sought through referendum as well as the conditions that are likely to lead to peaceful outcomes. This updated and revised edition includes a new introduction bringing the general field to the present, as well as new specific sections on Scotland (2014), Catalonia (2017), and the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom (2016). The original work's political framework now also covers the literature on identity politics, online campaigning, the regulation of social media, and how referendums are used increasingly as populist devices. This edition also updates referendum results through the end of 2020.

Political Science Abstracts is an annual supplement to the Political Science, Government, and Public Policy Series of The Universal Reference System, which was first published in 1967. All back issues are still available.