Transnational Dynamics Of Civil War

Civil wars are the dominant form of violence in the contemporary international system, yet they are anything but local affairs. This book explores the border-crossing features of such wars by bringing together insights from international relations theory, sociology, and transnational politics with a rich comparative-quantitative literature. It highlights the causal mechanisms - framing, resource mobilization, socialization, among others - that link the international and transnational to the local, emphasizing the methods required to measure them. Contributors examine specific mechanisms leading to particular outcomes in civil conflicts ranging from Chechnya, to Afghanistan, to Sudan, to Turkey. Transnational Dynamics of Civil War thus provides a significant contribution to debates motivating the broader move to mechanism-based forms of explanation, and will engage students and researchers of international relations, comparative politics, and conflict processes.

Combining innovative theory with detailed case studies, this book offers a novel account of the border-crossing processes of civil war.

Combining innovative theory with detailed case studies, this book offers a novel account of the border-crossing processes of civil war.

This volume of pioneering essays brings together an impressive array of well-established and emerging historians from Europe and the United States whose common endeavor is to situate America’s Civil War within the wider framework of global history. These essays view the American conflict through a fascinating array of topical prisms that will take readers beyond the familiar themes of U. S. Civil War history. They will also take readers beyond the national boundaries that typically confine our understanding of this momentous conflict. The history of America’s Civil War has typically been interpreted within a familiar national narrative focusing on the internal discord between North and South over the future of slavery in the United States.

How can the current civil wars in the Middle East be resolved? This volume brings together academics, experts, and practitioners to explore this question. The book covers the history of civil wars in the region during the 20th century, and then examines the specific causes, drivers, and dynamics of the ongoing civil wars in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Updated for a second edition, the book argues that while these are very different cases of civil war, there are patterns that are important to point out at the outset. First, while each of the conflicts appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon, each has a long historical tail. Second, each of the civil wars had deep and complex domestic drivers and dynamics over issues of governance, political identity, and resources; at the same time, all of the conflicts have had deep regional and international components. Finally, all of these civil wars have been affected by the presence or entrance of armed transnational non-state actors, which have had far greater involvement in the Middle Eastern civil wars compared to other regions. The book concludes that these conflicts will require a mixture of local, regional, and international interventions to bring them to an end, but that none of the conflicts are likely to end cleanly through either a negotiated settlement or a clear victory by one party or the other. Despite this pessimistic overall assessment, the book emphasizes that policymakers should use knowledge of civil wars in the Middle East to develop and pursue specific national, regional and global policies. These should be built around mitigating the worst effects of the conflicts and towards ultimate resolution.

Civil war is one of the critical issues of our time. Although intrastate in nature, it has a disproportionate and overwhelming effect on the overall peace and stability of contemporary international society. This book investigates why civil wars have become so widespread and how can they be contained?

This book examines the challenges that military forces will face in multinational operations in the 21st century. Expanding on Rupert Smith’s The Utility of Force, the volume assesses the changing parameters within which force as a political instrument is ultimately carried out. By analysing nine carefully selected mission types, the volume presents a comprehensive analysis of key trends and trajectories. Building upon this analysis, the contributors break the trends and parameters down into real and potential tasks and mission types in order to identify concrete implications for military forces in future multinational operations. The context of military intervention in conflicts and crises around the world is rapidly evolving. Western powers’ shrinking ability and desire to intervene makes it pertinent to analyse how the cost of operations can be reduced and, how they can be executed more intelligently in the future. New challenges to international military operations are arising and this book addresses these challenges by focusing on three key areas of change: 1) An increasingly urbanised world; 2) The changing nature of missions; 3) The commercial availability of new technologies. In answering these questions and embracing some of the insights of a growing field of future studies, the volume presents an innovative perspective on future international military operations. This book will be of much interest to students of international intervention, military and strategic studies, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.