LITMIR.BIZ

The legacy of torture in the «War on Terror,» told through the story of one tank battalion
None of Us Were Like This Before recounts the dark journey of a tank battalion as its focus switched from conventional warfare to guerrilla war and prisoner detention. Phillips’s narrative reveals how a group of ordinary soldiers, ill trained for the responsibilities foisted upon them, descended into a cycle of degradation that led to the abuse of detainees. The book illustrates that the damaging legacy of torture is not only borne by the detainees, but also by American soldiers and the country to which they have returned.

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Incisive grassroots account of the new global revolutions by acclaimed BBC journalist. The world is facing a wave of uprisings, protests and revolutions: Arab dictators swept away, public spaces occupied, slum-dwellers in revolt, cyberspace buzzing with utopian dreams. Events we were told were consigned to history—democratic revolt and social revolution—are being lived by millions of people. In this compelling new book, Paul Mason explores the causes and consequences of this great unrest. From Cairo to Athens, Wall Street and Westminster to Manila, Mason goes in search of the changes in society, technology and human behavior that have propelled a generation onto the streets in search of social justice. In a narrative that blends historical insight with first-person reportage, Mason shines a light on these new forms of activism, from the vast, agile networks of cyberprotest to the culture wars and tent camps of the #occupy movement. The events, says Mason, reflect the expanding power of the individual and call for new political alternatives to elite rule and global poverty.

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Acclaimed examination of the British government’s complicity in torture. In this set of devastating essays, Gareth Peirce analyzes the corruption of legal principles and practices in both the US and the UK that has accompanied the ‘War on Terror’. Exploring the few cases of torture that have come to light, such as those of Guantánamo detainees Shafiq Rasul and Binyam Mohamed, Peirce argues that they are evidence of a deeply entrenched culture of impunity among those investigating presumed radicals among British Muslim nationals and residents, who constitute the new suspect community in the UK. Peirce shows that the British government has colluded in a whole range of extrajudicial activities—rendition, internment without trial, torture—and has gone to extraordinary lengths to conceal its actions. Its devices for maintaining secrecy are probably more deep-rooted than those of any other comparable democracy. If the government continues along this path, Peirce argues, it will destroy the moral and legal fabric it claims to be protecting.

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A darkly humorous architectural guide to the decrepit newBritain that neoliberalism built. Back in 1997, New Labour came to power amid much talk of regenerating the inner cities left to rot under successive Conservative governments. Over the next decade, British cities became the laboratories of the new enterprise economy: glowing monuments to finance, property speculation, and the service industry—until the crash. In A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain , Owen Hatherley sets out to explore the wreckage—the buildings that epitomized an age of greed and aspiration. From Greenwich to Glasgow, Milton Keynes to Manchester, Hatherley maps the derelict Britain of the 2010s: from riverside apartment complexes, art galleries and amorphous interactive «centers,» to shopping malls, call centers and factories turned into expensive lofts. In doing so, he provides a mordant commentary on the urban environment in which we live, work and consume. Scathing, forensic, bleakly humorous, A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain is a coruscating autopsy of a get-rich-quick, aspirational politics, a brilliant, architectural «state we're in.»

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This study provides an overview of current nation building processes in contested states. With a specific focus on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, and Kosovo, original data is presented, collected in English in a single work for the first time. Viktoria Potapkina presents an analysis and comparison of contested states from an internal perspective, looking at the processes that help legitimize such entities from within and creating support for their ongoing existence.
The work strives to fill a gap in the literature on contested states, as well as to contribute to the overall understanding of nation and state building, state formation, and sovereignty. It provides a new way of looking at the puzzle that contested states are, offering insight into why they still exist in their current forms.

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This truly unique collection is the essential guide to archival research on conservatism, the right wing, and the far right, offering a detailed overview of primary sources in all media (documents, film, video, sound recordings, microfilm and microfiche, cartoons, sheet music, newspaper art, etc.) housed in more than 4500 archives across 22 countries. Designed as an indispensable reference work for anyone researching in the field of right-wing politics, this astonishingly detailed account includes
– collections of personal and institutional papers,
– archives of right-wing periodicals in the Japanese, Romanian, and Russian languages,
– collections of pamphlets, ephemera, vertical files, and press cuttings,
– oral histories,
– library-accessible commercial databases,
– digitized collections and exhibitions,
– archived web sites,
– microfilm and microfiche collections with right-wing material.
The description of each archive contains its physical address and other identifying information, a summary of its contents and highlights, lists of publications and web pages citing the archive, and links to online finding aids. This book will be a crucial guide for anyone conducting primary research in the field.

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This volume explores the issues of extremism and violent extremism in Serbia through research from a multitude of different interdisciplinary perspectives. The topic of violent extremism and radicalization leading to terror (VERLT) has grown as a field of policy and donor aid support, globally and in the western Balkans. This new focus has been manifest through both increased counter-terrorism support as well as efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (P-CVE)—activities which are often peacebuilding as well as democratization initiatives. The main manifestation of extremism of interest to foreign donors (and often domestic authorities) is ISIS-inspired Salafi jihadism. However, in many of the countries in the region, and in the case of Serbia, there are other forms of extremism—namely far-right nationalism, violent hooliganism, and neo-Nazi movements—that are considered to be more of a threat, particularly as they are often viewed as examples of ‘normalized’ political expression. In addition, these extremisms can magnify one another through a process of reciprocal radicalization and interconnected spirals of exclusion, marginalization, grievance, and perceived victimhood.
This volume explores the issue as evident on the ground in Serbia in 2017 and 2018, using fresh and original research and perspectives that demonstrate that Serbia is at risk of many types of extremism, which are interconnected and can best be prevented by achieving the liberal, democratic, rights-based reforms that have remained elusive for more than two decades.

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All democratic constitutions feature «the people» as their author and ultimate source of legitimacy. They claim to embody the political form that citizens are in some sense supposed to have given themselves. But in what sense, exactly? When does a constitution really or genuinely speak for the people? Such questions are especially pertinent to our present condition, where the voice of «the people» turns out to be irrevocably fragmented, and people themselves want to speak and be heard in their own voices. Founding Acts explores the relationship between constitutional claims of popular sovereignty and the practice of constitution-making in our pluralistic age. Serdar Tekin argues that the process of making a constitution, or its pedigree, is as morally and politically significant as its content. Consequently, democratic constitution-making is not only about making a democratic constitution but also about making it, as much as possible, democratically. Tekin develops two overarching arguments in support of this claim. First, citizen participation in the process of constitution-making is essential to the democratic legitimacy of a new constitution. Second, collective action, that is, the political experience of constructing public life together, is what binds diverse people into a democratic peoplehood. Bringing into dialogue a wide range of canonical and contemporary thinkers, Tekin examines historical realities extending from revolutionary America and France to contemporary South Africa and Germany.

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The conditions for security in Europe in the 21st century differ from those in the second half of the 20th century. The consequences of the East-West conflict no longer determine the security agenda. Due to the pan-European process of integration and cooperation, European countries have the chance of a future together in an “area of peace, freedom, security and justice”. However, the security situation in Europe is determined by new threats and risks. Comprehensive security means that external and internal as well as civilian and military security aspects are closely linked. It goes beyond traditional security issues and includes, inter alia, instruments of economic, social, and health policy. In addition, today's threats are of cross-boarder nature: Threats like attacks on the security of IT systems, organized crime, and climate change appear to be solvable mainly through international cooperation. Thus, the role of international organizations is becoming more important. The 11th Network Conference analysed the existing security architecture of Europe in the above mentioned political areas. The contributions can be found in this publication.

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