Further Reading

A list of books on peace and security, recommended by staff at the International Peace Institute:

Global Security Upheaval: Armed Nonstate Groups Usurping State Stability Functions, by Robert Mandel (Stanford University Press)
This book challenges the assumption that central governments are always a source of stability, while nonstate armed groups are inherently forces of instability. Mandel argues that at times it can actually be counterproductive to rely on state governments for stability, depending upon the character of the government and the security situation. Following his past work on transnational organized crime, Mandel shows how armed nonstate groups can provide local stability better than weak state power, and he shows how cooperation between states and armed nonstate groups may at times be fruitful. The book provides a novel analysis of the nature of stability and the transformation of global security. It concludes with a series of policy guidelines on how to approach nonstate armed groups in the future. Suggested by Adam Lupel, IPI Editor and Senior Fellow.

Changing Norms Through Actions: The Evolution of Sovereignty, Jennifer Ramos (Oxford University Press)
The principle of the responsibility to protect has rekindled long-held debates about the status of sovereignty. One side holds state sovereignty to be inviolable, and one side holds it to be conditional, including both rights and obligations. In this book, Jennifer Ramos takes a more nuanced look at the sovereignty debate. She examines how the sovereignty norm has evolved over time, and she argues that you can trace its development in relation to the result of actions taken on its behalf. For example, whether an intervention is seen as a violation of sovereignty or not, depends greatly on the military outcome, and she argues this can have a profound effect on international normative commitments in subsequent crises. Through the analysis of conceptions of sovereignty before and after crises related to counterterrorism, human rights, and weapons of mass destruction, Ramos provides insight into how political action shapes international norms change over time. Suggested by Adam Lupel, IPI Editor and Senior Fellow.

Brokers of Deceit: How the US Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East by Rashid Khalidi (Beacon Press, 2013)
Mr. Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, examines historical moments during the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to reveal why he believes the American-brokered negotiations have not only failed but have undermined progress towards lasting peace. Suggested by Warren Hoge, Senior Adviser for External Relations.

Conflict Analysis: Understanding Causes, Unlocking Solutions by Matthew Levinger (US Institute of Peace Press, 2013)
Finally, in one volume, the theoretical underpinning and the tools to understand today’s conflict dynamics and develop policy responses. This handbook aims to help practitioners of conflict management in analyzing both the causes of conflict and peace, and to include their analysis in decisionmaking and program implementation. A very timely toolbox in an age of shifting global conflict trends that can enable policy makers to design more nuanced and agile responses to the early 21st-century complex conflict crises. Suggested by Francesco Mancini, Senior Director of Research.

The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat by Vali Nasr (Doubleday, 2013)
Questioning what he calls America’s dangerous choice to engage less in the world, Mr. Nasr, dean of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins and a former member of the Obama State Department, delivers a sharp indictment of the president’s foreign policy and charts a path forward for how the US can regain lost influence and compete with its chief rival, China. Suggested by Warren Hoge, Senior Adviser for External Relations.

Essays in Humanitarian Action by Hugo Slim (Oxford Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict and Kindle Books, 2012)
This collection of essays, written between 1996 and 2005 by a leading humanitarian scholar, provides food for thought on some fundamental tensions underlying humanitarian ethics and practice. As humanitarian action needs to adapt to a fast-changing world and faces recurrent challenges from Syria to Mali and Somalia, the book offers timely and badly needed reflection on humanitarian values and dilemmas. Suggested by Jeremie Labbé, IPI Senior Policy Analyst, Humanitarian Affairs.

Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case of Putting America’s House in Order by Richard N. Haas (Basic Books, 2013)
Arguing that America is underperforming at home and overreaching abroad, Mr. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, explains that America’s continued influence and leadership in the world is contingent upon its ability to confront pressing challenges at home and progress in a 21st-century “nonpolar” world of American primacy but not domination. Suggested by Warren Hoge, Senior Adviser for External Relations.

Across the Middle East and North Africa, particularly in countries emerging from the Arab Spring, women and gender-rights advocates face accusations of Western secular imperialism and cultural relativism. Advocates maintain that their position is neither imported nor new, and argue instead that indigenous feminism and historically progressive roles for women in society are being erased. Parallel and equally pressing questions and tensions are playing out in Southeast Asia.

In Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country, religious extremism is on the rise and threatens to reverse gains made by the women’s movement since the 1980s. Extremism, already fueling frequent violent incidents, also threatens to overturn Indonesia’s tradition of religious tolerance and pluralism. Islam is the leading religion in Southeast Asia, where many distinct cultures have practiced the faith with remarkable diversity. A recent resurgence of Islam—and identity politics driven by dynamics in the Middle East—has brought an increasingly shared identity and approach to Muslims in Southeast Asia, possibly giving rise to greater intolerance for minority views and groups in countries like Indonesia.

A recent report released by Cordaid captures one wave of homegrown feminism in Indonesia that challenges gender inequality and religious extremism while situating itself in a traditional Islamic space. Looking for that Other Face, by Frank van Lierde, tells the stories of six Indonesian Muslim women inspired by their faith to develop women’s leadership and work against sexual and domestic violence while countering the rise of extremist beliefs in their communities.

The report makes a significant contribution in documenting and vividly portraying indigenous feminism in a Muslim country. As one woman asserts in the report, “I am not a westerner. I am an Indonesian Muslim woman standing up for social justice.” For local actors opposed to expanding rights for women, these narratives help counter notions of women’s rights as imported Western values forced upon regions like Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa. For international actors, learning about indigenous and religious feminism can inform approaches to advocacy; supporters of women’s rights can learn to prioritize local voices and respect the translation of international human rights principles into cultural and religious terms that are more likely to persuade local populations and make a lasting positive impact.

All six women featured in the report come from and continue to work in the traditionally patriarchal world of the pesantren, or Islamic boarding school. In Indonesia, the pesantren is a powerful force of religion and values in society, with 27,000 religious schools currently housing and teaching millions of students. Teaching in the pesantren tends to follow kitab kuning, classical Islamic text books, but women leaders inside the schools say that reinterpretation can fight repression and extremism: “Rights, freedoms, obligations and traditions are always a question of interpretation and negotiation. And education gives the power to negotiate, to men as well as women.”

The publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s edited volume on security threats in the Sahel-Sahara region could not be more timely. As the international community makes the final adjustments for the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), and debates how to best address the complex issue of regional stability in West Africa, this collection of articles provides an overview of the challenges and makes substantive policy recommendations.

The book is a collection of seven articles, each addressing a geographic area and analyzing the factors of instability within it, such as Islamism in Mauritania, discontent in the Western Sahara, and organized crime in the Sahel. Despite the title of the volume, the articles do not cover all the countries of the Sahara; Eritrea, Sudan, and Chad are not discussed. The edition’s introduction is an accessible overview of the threats to peace and security in the region, and the book’s conclusion provides policy recommendations to address the threats. Each article stands alone, but taken as a whole, the collection demonstrates the interconnected nature of the countries of the Sahara, the common threats, and potential solutions.

Many of the articles provide analysis of illicit networks which facilitate organized crime and are protected by and reinforced by corrupt officials at both local and national levels. Exacerbated by entrenched ethnic and social grievances, international radical Islamist groups have capitalized on old grievances and provided economic lifelines in regions long neglected by central state authority. This melting pot, or “witches' brew of problems,” as the editors describe it, produced the most recent crisis in Mali which has both regional and international implications.

The volume begins with analysis of the region’s largest and most influential countries, Libya and Algeria. The first two articles, The Struggle for Security in Eastern Libya and Borderline Chaos? Stabilizing Libya’s Periphery, examine the internal security challenges in Libya, the impact of the fall of the Gaddafi regime on Libya’s neighbors, and the implications of this on the Sahel countries, through which the authors highlight the entwined fates of North Africa and the Sahel.

Further analysis of North Africa’s impact on the Sahel is included in The Paranoid Neighbor: Algeria and the Conflict in Mali in which Algeria’s influence on the fighters in Mali and its potential role as a leader in the regional crisis are discussed. The author notes that Algeria has broad experience with counterterror operations; effective intelligence service; close ties to the US; and a capable military, making it a critical strategic partner, albeit a “prickly, paranoid” one. The article argues that Algeria is reluctant to play the regional enforcer; its domestic priorities, a fear of global terrorist reaction (experienced by many Western powers as a result of their declaration of opposition to al-Qaeda’s demands), and distrust of its neighbors keep Algeria’s feet in clay.

This is true to a large extent, but Algeria has shown some leadership away from the spotlight of discussions on military intervention. In 2010, Algeria established, with Mauritania, Mali, and Niger, a joint operational command (CEMOC) and a fusion and liaison unit (UFL) to combat terrorism and criminal networks . Both units are based in Algeria, and while progress has yet to be widely demonstrated, cooperation between the countries in conducting operations, analyzing security threats, and sharing border responsibilities is a laudable model, and the initiative demonstrates Algeria’s willingness to instigate collaboration.

In his new book Great Games, Local Rules, Alexander Cooley suggests that the countries of Central Asia have become players rather than pawns in a new “great game.” Because of a change in their fortunes—due to the discovery of huge reserves of oil and gas, and their geostrategic location near Afghanistan—countries of the region are now signalling that great powers such as China, Russia, and the United States need to play by local rules in order to get what they want. To some extent, the dragon, the bear, and the eagle have been tamed.

More than a century ago, British geographer Halford Mackinder described the Eurasian heartland as the pivot region of the world’s politics—whoever controlled this region would control the world. This still rings true at the beginning of the 21st century. Central Asia is at the crossroads of Asia, Europe, and Russia, and on the doorstep of Afghanistan, India, Iran, and Pakistan. Therefore, it is a critical zone for trade and security, and, more broadly, influence. As a result, as Cooley points out, what is going on in Central Asia is not only interesting in itself, it gives clues about the great power rivalry in other parts of the world.

Great Games, Local Rules explains the motivations for the policies of the United States, Russia, and China in the region, particularly in the context of post 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan.

Cooley explains how the scramble for influence among the great powers has empowered the local elites. “Patrimonial” regimes, which are a carry-over from Soviet times, have been able to strengthen their patronage networks due to their ability to act as brokers between external actors and local constituencies. They have shrewdly leveraged their positions in order to extract benefits from their suitors who seek cooperation for access to energy resources, base agreements, and counterterrorism. Some states have capitalized on their strengths—for example, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan because of their hydrocarbons, and Uzbekistan because it is the main conduit for the Northern Distribution Network to and from Afghanistan. Others such as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have asked for help to deal with internal tensions and external threats such as a spillover of instability from Afghanistan.

Sometimes a government has played one great power off against another. The example of Kyrgyzstan’s base bidding war between the United States and Russia is described in considerable detail.

As another attempt at peace talks begins, international attention is once again focused on the armed group M23 in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the allegations of Rwanda’s puppet control. But is the portrayal of Machiavellian machinations towards a compliant group of discontented soldiers a convenient oversimplification of a complex relationship? Of course. As Jason Stearns’ report “From CNDP to M23: The Evolution of an Armed Movement in Eastern Congo” (November 2012) demonstrates effectively, the actors and tensions under the microscope at the beginning of 2013 are neither new nor unprecedented.

Media commentators frequently refer to the “nine-month rebellion” waged by the M23 rebel group in the DRC, but as Stearns’ report comprehensively details, current events are only the latest manifestation of a web of alliances and groups whose longevity predates the resurgence of April 2012. Stearns explains the long shadow cast over the region by ethnic tensions and deeply held mistrust between groups, individuals, and governments—a mistrust that has precipitated alliances and deals in the name of “security” for land owners, military commanders, businessmen, and Rwandan officials. Power has fluctuated between ethnic groups, and as each clash brings offences on both sides, fears persist on all sides that any peace deal will result in prosecution for past actions.

Stearns’ portrait of the M23 group and its origins in the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) movement clearly demonstrates how it is impossible to view the DRC’s rebel group through a solely Congolese lens. The migration of ethnic groups across national lines as well as the relative geographic proximity of Kigali to eastern Congo (Kinshasa is 1,200 miles and a world away from Goma) has contributed to the formation, nature, and demands of the group. While keen to point out that the M23 is no passive puppet of the Rwandan government, the report acknowledges that Rwandan involvement has been expedient but is by no means assured for the group. However, the rebels and the Rwandan government do, for the moment, share a lack of confidence in the Kabila administration to deliver stable governance in the region and to protect ethnic groups from further persecution.

One of Stearns’ key recommendations to neutralize this paranoia is the decentralization of Congolese government. Whether this would succeed in dismantling personal and institutional power bases and breaking the cycle of retaliation would depend on further reform of the Congolese governance structure and ethnic reconciliation. Attempts to do so in the past, as Stearns points out, have resulted in rebel groups using the ceasefire to regroup; integration into the national armed forces has given groups greater access to weapons and supplies, and currently powerful stakeholders have little to gain from democratic reform which would give minority groups less control than at present.

As the M23 rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire on January 8 ahead of a second round of peace talks with the Kinshasa government, what hope does Stearns give us for the success of the talks? He sounds a cautionary note when considering the Goma conference in January 2008, which he commends as a positive and cathartic experience. As in recent months, the conference was precipitated by a military defeat of the Congolese army by the CNDP in December 2007 and the conference was acknowledged to be a change of approach to the rebels by the government. It was an attempt to tackle the root causes of the conflict and promote reconciliation between the factions.

What books captured some of the broad trends in peace and security in 2012? Here is a selection of the books IPI staff members recommend reading for a deeper understanding of the peace and security landscape at the start of 2013.

Why Peace Fails: The Causes and Prevention of Civil War Recurrence by Charles T. Call (Georgetown University Press, 2012)
Looking at fifteen cases in Africa, Call explores why some countries slip back into armed conflict but others don’t. He argues that political exclusion is a key factor in explaining why peace fails and strongly recommends that international actors remain engaged with governments after war ends. Suggested by Francesco Mancini, Senior Director of Research.

Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present by Max Boot (Liveright, 2013)
A fascinating analysis of guerrilla warfare, insurgencies, and terrorism throughout history, with many lessons for policymakers. Suggested by Francois Carrel-Billiard, Managing Director.

The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us About Coming Conflicts and the Battle Against Fate by Robert D. Kaplan (Random House, 2012)
Kaplan provides a holistic interpretation of the next cycle of conflict throughout Eurasia and a brilliant rebuttal to thinkers who suggest that globalism will trump geography. He argues that natural facts can help prevent this century’s looming cataclysms. Suggested by Warren Hoge, Senior Adviser for External Relations.

Governing the World: The History of an Idea by Mark Mazower (Penguin, 2012)
Mazower explores the tension between ideas and power in this compelling history of global governance. Suggested by Warren Hoge, Senior Adviser for External Relations.

Massacres and Morality: Mass Atrocity in an Age of Civilian Immunity by Alex Bellamy (Oxford University Press, 2012)
This book provides much needed historical context to contemporary debates about mass atrocities and the responsibility to protect. It examines the development of norms against the killing of civilians over the course of more than 200 hundred years, and it argues that while progress has been made, the norm of civilian immunity remains continuously challenged by counter-norms. Suggested by Adam Lupel, Editor and Senior Fellow.

A few years ago it was fashionable to describe some of the world’s badlands as “ungoverned spaces.” Yet these areas outside the control of the central government—for example, in Afghanistan or Somalia—are not lawless. They are usually controlled by de facto authorities who may be better armed and better organized than the state that they have broken away from. In her new book Warlords, Kimberly Marten introduces us to these strong-arm brokers in weak states, particularly Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Georgia, Iraq, and Chechnya. She concludes with a number of lessons and hypotheses about warlords and sovereignty.

As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum. So do weak states. Where the central government is unable or unwilling to exercise its sovereignty, others will fill the void.

Marten, quoting historian David Herrmann, believes that “warlordism is the default condition of humanity.” She argues that “potential specialists in violence are always amongst us,” and, given the chance, they will take control over a specific territory using force and patronage. This is easier to do in failing states because there is less resistance. As a result, the state loses its monopoly on the use of force. 

Yet, as Marten points out, there may be times when states tolerate or even encourage warlords. In some cases (like Georgia’s relations with Abkhazia in the early 1990s), the central government made a virtue out of necessity because it could not defeat the warlord, so it struck a bargain with him. The British tried to do this with the Pashtun tribes on either side of the Durand Line between Afghanistan and Pakistan in the mid-19th century. As they discovered, the problem is that tribal leaders can be as manipulative as their patrons. In other cases, like Russia’s support for Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechnya or Pakistan’s relations with tribal leaders in the FATA, the state outsourced a piece of its sovereignty in a remote and/or hard to control territory to someone that it hoped it could work with. Under this Faustian bargain, she wrote, “as long as de jure sovereignty was preserved, de facto control over the territory was ceded.”

It is worth noting–although Marten does not raise the point–that international organizations operating in weak states have also made deals with warlords for the sake of short-term expediency. However, as Marten points out, such deals seldom appease warlords; rather they empower them. Furthermore, the longer warlords hold on to power, the stronger they become, and the harder it is to get rid of them. As she warns, “tolerating warlordism means accepting a future of political backwardness and illiberalism, and all of its potential economic and security consequences.”

The inaugural issue of Stability, a new academic journal on international security and development, has launched, and its aim is to draw attention to new and emerging forms of instability and innovative responses. It also aims to tackle some of the major failures of contemporary academic publishing, including low real-world impact, unnecessary barriers to access, narrow marketing and distribution and, lastly, painfully slow publishing procedures that delay the dissemination of good ideas.

The journal challenges the tendency to view conflict, crime, and other forms of violence through separate lenses. Indeed, these artificial distinctions have in some cases masked the interconnections between contexts. The fact is that many ostensibly “post-conflict” and even "peaceful" settings register levels of insecurity that are on par with today's war zones. These conceptual boundaries have unnecessarily constrained learning and cross-fertilization among scholars, policy makers, and practitioners.

The case of Mali highlights how multiple forms of insecurity are converging and forcing us to rethink how best to engage. There, al Qaeda-linked rebels in the north are financed in part by the transit of Latin American narcotics, mostly cocaine, into western Europe. Malian rebels are using drug wealth to recruit fighters, win local support with free services and delay an anticipated mission from the Economic Cooperation Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS). In Mali, we see European drug demand and Latin American narco-traffickers fueling an Islamist rebel movement, which is partly backed by Middle Eastern financiers and bolstered by Libyan and Sudanese fighters hardened through a succession of wars. International organizations, along with West African forces, are attempting to resolve the situation with mediation by Algeria.

The journal is endorsing a new approach to academic publishing. Part of its mission is to bring research to intended audiences in a faster and more accessible format. It hopes to chart a new path that is now referred to as “gold open access.” This means that articles are published online as soon as they are available (rather than waiting for the next opening in a future issue). Readers do not pay anything to access articles. And contributions are encouraged not only from professional researchers and academics but also from experienced policymakers and practitioners; authors from developing and violence-affected countries are pro-actively encouraged to contribute. Articles are then actively “marketed” to relevant policymakers and practitioners, both by the journal itself and by providing authors with information to guide them in disseminating their content.