Publications in 2012

South Sudan: From Revolution to Independence

LeRiche, Matthew, and Matthew Arnold,
Columbia University Press (2012).

Gaining unique access to closed societies and making use of extensive ethnographic research, this book assesses both the social and political dynamics that have fueled the country’s remarkable transformation and the pressures that threaten to tear its statehood apart.

Global Matters for Non-Governmental Public Action

Howell, Jude (ed),
Palgrave Macmillan (2012).

This unique collection of comparative studies on the politics of non-governmental public action at the global level explores themes such as child rights, access to medicine, global security and environmentalism. The contributors investigate how non-governmental public actors engage in global policy processes and how this in turn affects their activities and their relations with each other.

Meeting the Challenges of Crisis States

Putzel, James and John DiJohn (2012)

'This is an impressive example of academic research leading to good policy advice. It challenges much of the current conventional wisdoms, but makes clear forward looking proposals. All who pontificate on failed states should read it, and re-examine their policies.'

Clare Short, UK Secretary of State for International Development, 1997-2003.

Decentralization and Popular Democracy: Governance from Below in Bolivia

Faguet, Jean-Paul,
University of Michigan Press (2012).

Decentralization is meant to deepen democracy, improve public services, and make government more accountable. But evidence from across the globe is contradictory. Is it all empty fashion? A giant mistake? Dr Faguet's new book examines the factors that determine the outcomes of national decentralization on the local level.

New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, 3rd Edition

Kaldor, Mary,
Polity (September 2012).

Mary Kaldor's seminal book, now in its third edition, has been fully revised and updated. Kaldor has added an afterword answering the critics of the New Wars argument and, in a new chapter, shows how old war thinking in Afghanistan and Iraq greatly exacerbated what turned out to be, in many ways, archetypal new wars - characterised by identity politics, a criminalised war economy and civilians as the main victims.

The Strength of Weak States? Non-State Security Forces and Hybrid Governance in Africa

Meagher, Kate,
Development and Change, 43.5 (2012), 1073-1101.

Dr Meagher explores the recent revalorization of non-state forms of order and authority in the context of hybrid approaches to governance and state building in Africa.

Weber meets Godzilla: Social Networks and the Spirit of Capitalism in East Asia and Africa

Meagher, Kate,
Review of African Political Economy, 39.132 (2012), 261-278.

This paper investigates the cultural foundations of contemporary network capitalism in East Asia, and its implications for African enterprise development.

Useful Enemies: When Waging Wars is More Important than Winning Them

Keen, David,
Yale University Press (May 2012).

In this important book, Professor Keen investigates why conflicts are so prevalent and so intractable, even when one side has much greater military resources. Could it be that endemic disorder and a "state of emergency" are more useful than bringing conflict to a close?

Global Civil Society 2012: Ten Years of Critical Reflection

Kaldor, Mary; Selchow, Sabine and Henrietta L. Moore (eds),
Palgrave Macmillan (2012).

In this anniversary edition, activists and academics look back on ten years of 'politics from below', and ask whether it is merely the critical gaze upon the concept that has changed - or whether there is something genuinely new in kind about the way in which civil society is now operating.