In Strong Commanders, Weak States, Philip A. Martin investigates a fundamental political challenge faced by post-conflict states: how to create obedient national militaries from the remnants of insurgent forces.

When civil wars end, non-state armed groups often integrate into post-conflict militaries. Yet rebel-military integration does not always happen smoothly. In some cases, former rebels cooperate with new leaders, forming powerful national armies that underpin postwar stability. In others, they resist the authority of new leaders, maintaining clandestine armed networks that disrupt centralized state-building.

Martin argues that how field commanders of non-state armed groups governed during the war explains this variation. Rebel commanders who build accountable governance systems gain strong social support from rebel-ruled communities, becoming locally embedded. Thanks to these community ties, which persist after the war, these embedded commanders have the leverage to push the central government for concessions, resist directives to disarm fighters, or even orchestrate coup d'etats. Conversely, rebel commanders who governed coercively are less likely to sustain community ties. Without the ability to mobilize collective action after the war, these non-embedded commanders have stronger incentives to cooperate with new regime leaders.

Wielding in-depth evidence from Cote d'Ivoire and cases of rebel-military integration elsewhere, Martin shows that good governance during wartime can-ironically-lead to poor postwar state consolidation. Rather than preparing insurgents to be successful state builders, effective rebel governance can hinder post-conflict state-building. As costly peace operations come under increasing scrutiny, Strong Commanders, Weak States offers fresh guidance on how transitions to peace can better succeed.

This book analyses the entanglement between Washington and Hollywood to shed light on the violence inherent in the image as a semiotic-material agent in contemporary warfare. In the 21st century, the weaponized military drone, an image-centered machine, has spearheaded the geopolitical curatorship of the USA in the context of the war on terror. Drone violence shares the same characteristics as cinema: image and movement. However, a drone's image is not purely a reflection of the nature of war; it is more than representational, it is performative. Building upon the concept of annihilation-image, this book argues that the image wields a destructive agency as it transitions from reflection to diffraction. Rather than mirroring reality, the annihilation-image creates a brutal pattern of difference in the world. It is a destructive ontology in which seeing and annihilating are in a state of superposition. Therefore, everything that is framed is potentially dead. That is to say, by framing bodies and objects in the terrain, a state of superpositional violence is created in which one is alive, but virtually dead.

Contributors adopt novel theoretical approaches and empirical methods to explore the effects and dynamics of security threats. They highlight the significant diversity in definitions of both gender and security, introducing refined ways of understanding the connection between the two, focusing on topics including war, violence, climate change, pandemics, and criminal networks, as well as feminist action. The Handbook identifies fruitful avenues for future research in the field, surveying gender-related security policy at the international, national and regional levels.

The Handbook on Gender and Security is an essential resource for students and scholars of International Relations, Security Studies, and Gender Politics. It is also a vital read for policy-makers seeking to understand the significant impact of gender on experiences of and vulnerabilities to security threats.

This book offers insights into India's efforts to become self-reliant in its defence sector. Encompassing a wide range of subjects - such as policy frameworks, technological advancements, economic considerations, and strategic im-plications - the subject matter explores the diverse aspects of India's defence industry indigeni-sation efforts. By gathering the insights of esteemed experts, scholars, and professors, the book also presents an examination of the obstacles and possibilities in this process.

The aim of this book is to contribute to the ongoing discussion on the importance of a robust domestic defence industry in strengthening India's national security, elevating its international standing, and reinforcing its ability to make independent strategic decisions.

Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan)

The Mongol Archive in Late Medieval France is the first comprehensive study of contact between France and the Mongols in the late Middle Ages. As these realms expanded across Eurasia-the French through crusade and settlement, the Mongols through conquest-their encounters altered each other's understanding of the world and their place in it.

The Mongol influence on French culture is visible in what Mark Cruse calls the Mongol archive-a wide range of materials including chronicles, crusade treatises, encyclopedias, manuscript illuminations, maps, romances, and travel accounts-revealing how the French court made sense of a people previously unknown to the European intellectual tradition. Cruse mines this archive of Franco-Mongol contact to reassess France's place in the continental history of medieval Eurasia.

By comparing the French and Mongol courts, Cruse shows how their similarities allowed meaningful communication between them and highlights the surprising connections-diplomatic, intellectual, and genealogical-across vast distances. The library of King Charles V (r. 1364-1380), one of the largest in medieval Europe, is a monument to the richness of these encounters, which anticipate the global interconnectedness of the modern world. Ultimately, the innovative approach in The Mongol Archive in Late Medieval France toward French conceptions of and relations with the Mongols demonstrates how a global perspective transforms our understanding of the medieval world.

Suffering Victory recounts the commitment of Soviet liberal intellectuals to democratic transition during the effervescent period of perestroika and in the first years of post-Soviet Russia to the rise of Boris Yeltsin and the dissolution of the USSR. Guillaume Sauve argues that late Soviet liberalism was mainly nourished by the legacy of humanistic socialism, combining Enlightenment ideals and Romantic aspirations, and concludes that the distinguishing feature is its assumed moralism.

After encouraging the concentration of power in the hands of the Russian president and an enlightened elite, liberal intellectuals undermined their own democratic project and were pushed aside from decision-making, while being rejected by most of the population for having supported a course of reforms that did not fulfill its promises. As Suffering Victory shows, the success of Russia's liberal intellectuals against the Communist Party came at the price of a decline deeper and more lasting than in most post-communist countries. Following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the fate of late Soviet liberals sheds crucial light on the prospects of liberal reforms in Russia today.

In War on Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner investigates the causes and properties of struggles over sites that are both venerated and contested, and proposes ways for managing these disputes. Holy places can create the potential for clashes, not only between competing religious groups but also between religious groups and secular actors. Hassner illustrates this complex, violent dynamic through a series of case studies, including the conflict over Jerusalem and competing Hindu and Muslim claims over Ayodhya. He also analyses successful compromises that reduced conflict in Jerusalem in 1967 and in Mecca in 1979. In this updated edition of War on Sacred Grounds, Hassner reevaluates his findings and conclusions and surveys ongoing conflicts over holy sites.

This edited volume explores the new directions emerging in the field of war and culture through six essays that examine conflicts and their cultural legacy from the First World War to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

The first two essays focus on the French experience of the World Wars through, first, a study of trench poetry and then the sexual experiences of POWs in Germany. The next two essays focus on gendered and especially women's experiences of conflict through, first, a study of women's war labour in the British army and then analysis of women photojournalists' role in promoting the adoption of Vietnamese babies in the USA. This volume concludes with two essays focusing on twenty-first century conflict. The first explores representations of veterancy in contemporary Romanian fiction, and the second, the phenomenon of fanvids in relation to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Originally published as a special issue of the Journal for War & Culture Studies, the book indicates new directions of travel for this sub-discipline and reflects the Journal's commitment over the past two decades to bring the Arts and Humanities and the Social Sciences into dialogue with each other.

Revolutionary Warfare investigates how efforts to counter a revolution could also be revolutionary. The Algerian War fractured the French Empire, destroyed the legitimacy of colonial rule, and helped launch the Third Worldist movement for the liberation of the Global South. By tracing how French generals, officers, and civil officials sought to counter Algerian independence with their own project of radical social transformation, Terrence G. Peterson reveals that the conflict also helped to transform the nature of modern warfare.

The French war effort was never defined solely by repression. As Peterson details, it also sought to fashion new forms of surveillance and social control that could capture the loyalty of Algerians and transform Algerian society. Hygiene and medical aid efforts, youth sports and education programs, and psychological warfare campaigns all attempted to remake Algerian social structures and bind them more closely to the French state. In tracing the emergence of such programs, Peterson reframes the French war effort as a project of armed social reform that sought not to preserve colonial rule unchanged, but to revolutionize it in order to preserve it against the global challenges of decolonization.

Revolutionary Warfare demonstrates how French officers' efforts to transform warfare into an exercise in social engineering not only shaped how the Algerian War unfolded from its earliest months, but also helped to forge a paradigm of warfare that dominated strategic thinking during the Cold War and after: counterinsurgency.

The War on Rescue documents how governments block assistance to people in times of crisis. Focusing on the European Migration Crisis of 2015-2022 to address the reasons why governments do this, William Plowright discusses the strategies employed that prevent suffering people from receiving help.

The European Migration Crisis motivated people around the world to offer assistance to needy refugees and migrants across Europe, the Mediterranean, and North Africa. Both large and small organizations rushed to bring food, medical care, and rescue to those stranded at sea. However, many European governments sought to prevent humanitarian assistance and deny safe haven to the desperate. Boats filled with those rescued were blocked from harbors, activists were arrested, and staff were threatened; some faced violence. The War on Rescue adds to social science understanding of and explanations for humanitarian assistance and the reasons why governments obstruct rescue efforts.

The Airborne Mafia explores how a small group of World War II airborne officers took control of the US Army after World War II. This powerful cadre cemented a unique airborne culture that had an unprecedented impact on the Cold War US Army and beyond.

Robert F. Williams reveals the trials and tribulations this group of officers faced in order to bring about their vision. He spotlights the relationship between organizational culture, operational behavior, and institutional change in the United States Army during the Cold War, showing that as airborne officers ascended to the highest ranks of the army they transmitted their culture throughout their service in four major ways-civil-military relations, preparation for potential atomic combat, helicopter airmobility, and strategic response forces.

Experiences of training and commanding airborne divisions in World War II led these men to hold sway in army doctrine by the mid-1950s. Dominating institutional thought and imparting their values, beliefs, and norms throughout the service they enjoyed a special privilege within the group culture. Williams demonstrates this impact, privilege, and power by focusing on the paratrooper triumvirate of Matthew Ridgway, Maxwell Taylor, and James Gavin and the lasting impression they made on how the US Army fought.

The Airborne Mafia illuminates the power subcultures can have in changing their parent cultures over time, particularly one as set in its ways and as large as the US Army. With a deft touch, deep research, and an unwavering eye for the human stories behind organizational change, Williams helps explain the existence and importance of the paratrooper mystique that remains within the military still today.

This textbook is an essential primer for philosophy students embarking on their journey into the field of ethics and political philosophy. It is meticulously structured to unfold the rich tapestry of ethical discourse in a manner that is both profound and accessible to undergraduate and graduate students alike. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction, followed by an in-depth exploration of ethical concepts, and concludes with thought-provoking study questions and a curated list of further readings.

Adopting an international comparative perspective, authors examine common and differing features of various states to show how these features pertain to local autonomy, as well as what impacts derive from local government configurations. Chapters cover 57 countries situated on six continents over a span of 31 years, including almost all member states of the European Union, Council of Europe and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The authors define local autonomy as a multifaceted concept which can be measured through legal, functional, financial, organizational, administrative and central-or-regional-access dimensions. With fresh empirical data and findings on local autonomy, they capture its evolving nature.

Dynamics and Issues of Local Autonomy is an essential read for scholars of public administration, regulation and governance, public policy and political science. Providing a better understanding of the factors that influence local autonomy and its implications for governance and service delivery, this book is a vital resource for practitioners and policymakers alike.

The Humanities and Public Administration presents a comprehensive analysis of how fields such as historiography, philosophy, religious studies, and the fine arts can shed light on under-explored aspects of administrative phenomena. Reflecting critically and systematically on the applications of these subject areas, chapters present exciting new approaches to understanding international public administration and public policy. Authors also emphasise the wider benefits of connecting the humanities as a whole to the study of social sciences.

This pioneering book is a vital read for academics and students in public administration and management, public governance, and public policy. It provides an illuminating insight into the interdisciplinary nature of both public administration and the humanities for all those interested in these fields.

Scholars and practitioners usually regard the nuclear non-proliferation regime as composed of two categories of countries - those with and those without nuclear weapons. The latter are regarded as the core designers of that regime, while the former have their prominence in shaping non-proliferation institutions eclipsed or ignored. This book proposes to go beyond that duality by focusing on a usually neglected group of states: latent nuclear countries. Those are the countries that possess advanced nuclear capabilities but no weapons.

This book shows that latent nuclear countries not only participate actively in non-proliferation institutions but also promote the creation of new frameworks highlighting concerns and perspectives different from their nuclear-weapon and nuclear-free counterparts. The author makes this argument through an intricate combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, with an in-depth analysis of Brazil and Germany as sources for case studies. He makes the case to understand the nuclear non-proliferation regime as an inclusive and refined approach that takes into consideration countries' nuclear capabilities, identities, role conceptions, and domestic structures.

In 2016, the Peace Accords between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) and the Colombian government promised to bring an end to over fifty years of armed conflict. Yet, despite widespread international acclaim and heavy investments in the peace process, war continued. In this book, Anthony Dest provides a rigorous reassessment of the terms of peacebuilding through an ethnography of ongoing struggles for autonomy, based on over fifteen years of research and activism in Colombia. By questioning the potential for peace under the aegis of the state, Dissident Peace opens up critical space from which to imagine more radical forms of peace.

From the coca fields of southwestern Colombia to the negotiating table in Cuba, Dissident Peace brings the contradictions of peacebuilding and organizing to life. Throughout the book, Dest locates contemporary violence within longer histories of colonial capitalism and centers the lives and insights of Black and Indigenous communities in Colombia. He identifies "dissident peace" as a potent alternative to dominant, state-centric peace frameworks-one based on evolving principles of autonomy and self-determination by marginalized communities. With vital implications for social movements globally, this book provides a gripping account of what it means to struggle today.

This book focuses on the more than 8,000 local elections administrators in counties, municipalities, and townships who largely manage the key administrative processes of elections, work with campaigns and candidates, design voting materials and choose voting equipment, staff early, and Election Day polling locations, and communicate with and educate voters. They are the frontline of democracy, and this is the first book that explores who becomes an election administrator; their opinions about election reform and election integrity; how LEOs responded to the unique challenges of the 2020 election which included misinformation and even death threats; and how to move forward to ensure a sustainable, diverse, and sustainable community.

In Words of War, Eric Min pulls back the curtain on when, why, and how belligerents negotiate while fighting.

Of all interstate conflicts across the last two centuries, two-thirds have ended through negotiated agreement. Wartime diplomacy is thus commonly seen as a costless and mechanical process solely designed to end fighting. But as Min argues, that wartime negotiations are not just peacemaking tools. They are in fact a highly strategic activity that can also help states manage, fight, and potentially win wars.

To demonstrate that wartime talk does more than simply end hostilities, Min distinguishes between two kinds of negotiations: sincere and insincere. Whereas sincere negotiations are good faithhonest attempts to reach peace, insincere negotiations exploit diplomacy for some other purpose, such as currying gaining political support or remobilizing forces. Two factors determine whether and how belligerents will negotiate: the amount of pressure that outside parties can place on belligerents them to engage in diplomacy, and information obtained from fighting on the battlefield.

Combining statistical and computational text analyses with qualitative case studies ranging from the War of the Roman Republic to the Korean War, Min shows that negotiations are more likely to occur with strong external pressures. A combination of such pressures and indeterminate battlefield activity, however, will most likely leads to insincere negotiations that may stoke fighting rather than end it. By revealing that diplomacy can sometimes be counterproductive to peace, Words of War compels us to rethink the assumption that it "cannot hurt" to promote diplomacy during war.

Why AI will not replace human strategic judgement in war

Is AI about to automate war? Will autonomous drone swarms and killer robots controlled by AI dominate the battlespace and determine the winner? In AI, Automation, and War, Anthony King debunks this science fiction-tinged narrative of AI's military potential, exploring instead the actual applications of AI by the armed forces over the last decade. He finds that AI is not going to replace human commanders and combatants; the machines are not about to take over. Rather, the military has used, and will continue to use, AI to process data at a scale and speed that exceeds the capacity of humans. AI will be used primarily to improve military understanding and intelligence.

King explains that military commanders, enabled by the data processing power of AI, will be able to see the battlespace at a previously unattainable depth, fidelity, and speed. AI will help the armed forces plan, target, and conduct cyber operations faster and more effectively. In order to harness AI in this way, however, a radical organisational transformation is taking place. The armed forces are integrating civilian technologists into operational headquarters to work alongside military staff. This partnership between the armed forces and the technology sector signals the emergence of a military-tech complex that promises to be as powerful in this century as the military-industrial complex was in the last.

The book probes the lesser-known history of the Great Wars in the India-Myanmar borderland from the perspective of the indigenous people of the area. It critically studies how the indigenous hill people saw the Wars as an opportunity to defend their land and free themselves from the bondage of colonial rule. The volume provides an in-depth analysis of the effectiveness of unconventional warfare during the First and Second World Wars, where conventional methods of fighting seemed to be irrelevant in the mountainous Indo-Burma frontier, and studies the role played by the indigenous hill people who had traditional expertise in jungle warfare.

An important contribution to indigenous studies, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of history, Northeast India, frontier studies, military history, insurgency and counterinsurgency, colonialism, tribal studies, and the history of modern Southeast Asia.

Chapters examine key challenges facing governments in Latin America and the Caribbean, shedding light on the lasting effects of colonization and critically evaluating the application of theories and ideas originating in the Global North to this context. They demonstrate the diversity of approaches to public management in countries with different social, cultural, and historical backgrounds, drawing on case studies ranging from the established democracy of Costa Rica to the enduring autocracy of Cuba. Ultimately, the Handbook looks toward the future of public administration in the region, exploring avenues for tackling inequalities, fostering economic growth, and promoting democratic values.

Academics and students in public administration and management, public policy, and international politics will benefit from the novel insights in this Handbook. It is also a vital resource for policymakers, government officials and NGOs looking to bolster development in the region.