The Politics of Collective Violence or Asia America and the Transformation of Geopolitics

The Politics of Collective Violence (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics Series)

Author: Charles Tilly

Are there any commonalities between such phenomena as soccer hooliganism, sabotage by peasants of landlords' property, road rage, and even the events of September 11? With striking historical scope and command of the literature of many disciplines, this book seeks the common causes of these events in collective violence. In collective violence, social interaction immediately inflicts physical damage, involves at least two perpetrators of damage, and results in part from coordination among the persons who perform the damaging acts. Charles Tilly argues that collective violence is complicated, changeable, and unpredictable in some regards, yet also results from similar causes variously combined in different times and places. Pinpointing the causes, combinations, and settings helps to explain collective violence and also helps to identify the best ways to mitigate violence and create democracies with a minimum of damage to persons and property. Charles Tilly is the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University. He has published more than twenty scholarly books, including twenty specialized monographs and edited volumes on political processes, inequality, population change and European history.

Foreign Affairs

Why do people who have lived together peacefully for years suddenly start killing each other? Tilly, a leading historical sociologist, thinks there are patterns to collective violence that run through its various forms — barroom brawls, peasant rebellions, labor strikes, ethnic struggles, civil wars, and even interstate wars. Although Tilly relies on jargon and abstractions in his quest for a unifying framework to make sense of these diverse types of violence, a dedicated reader will pick up some interesting insights. Tilly argues that the activation of latent political identities that separate people into "us" and "them" often triggers violence. But the violence emerges less from preexisting hatred than from sudden uncertainties and shifting social conditions, particularly the declining capacity of authorities to enforce agreements or police existing boundaries. Tilly supports this claim with the useful finding that the character and intensity of collective violence depend mightily on the type of government and its capacities. Democratic regimes tend to experience less group violence than authoritarian ones because of broader participation and a more extensive array of rights and institutions, and thus, he concludes, they are the best cure for collective violence.

Table of Contents:

	Preface
1	Varieties of Violence	1
2	Violence as Politics	26
3	Trends, Variations, and Explanations	55
4	Violent Rituals	81
5	Coordinated Destruction	102
6	Opportunism	130
7	Brawls	151
8	Scattered Attacks	170
9	Broken Negotiations	194
10	Conclusions	221
	References	239
	Index	255

Interesting book: Klare Führung

Asia, America and the Transformation of Geopolitics

Author: William H Overholt

American security and prosperity now depend on Asia. William H. Overholt offers an iconoclastic analysis of developments in each major Asian country, Asian international relations, and U.S. foreign policy. Drawing on decades of political and business experience, he argues that obsolete Cold War attitudes tie the U.S. increasingly to an otherwise isolated Japan and obscure the reality that a U.S.-Chinese bicondominium now manages most Asian issues. Military priorities risk polarizing the region unnecessarily, weaken the economic relationships that engendered American preeminence, and ironically enhance Chinese influence. As a result, despite its Cold War victory, U.S. influence in Asia is declining. Overholt disputes the argument that democracy promotion will lead to superior development and peace, and forecasts a new era in which Asian geopolitics could take a drastically different shape. Covering Japan, China, Russia, Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Korea, and South-East Asia, Overholt offers invaluable insights for scholars, policymakers, business people, and general readers.