Friedman and a distinguished group of contributors offer a compelling analysis of globalization and the lethal explosiveness that characterizes the current world order. In particular, they investigate global processes and political forces that determine networks of crime, commerce and terror, and reveal the economic, social and cultural fragmentation of transnational networks. In a critical introduction, Friedman evaluates how transnational capital represents a truly global force, but geographical decentralization of accumulation still leads to declining state hegemony in some areas and increasing hegemony in others. The authors examine the growth and increasing autonomy of indigenous populations, and the massively destabililizing effect of migration processes. They describe the rapid increase in criminalization of ethnic and immigrant groups as well as an increase in class stratification, creating new forms of social confrontation and violence. In addition to ethnic, identity-based conflict there are analyses of transnational criminal networks, which also represents disintegration of larger homogeneous territories or hierarchical orders. The authors ask us to reevaluate the dynamics of globalization—the contradictions of centralization and fragmentation around the world—as we discover how best to transform these conditions for the future. This research was originally funded by the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Globalization, the State and Violence will be a valuable reference in anthropology, social theory, international politics and economics, ethnic conflict, immigration, and economic history.

The events of the 11th of September 2001 revealed most dramatically that globalization has a shadow. While large sections of the world’s population enjoy the perceived benefits of globalization, others seek to utilize globalization for their own politically violent purposes. If 9/11 demonstrated anything, it is that globalization can as readily facilitate violence and insecurity as it can produce stability, prosperity and political order. This edited volume offers important new methodological and multi-disciplinary insights into the study of globalization and political violence. It brings together studies from various disciplines in order to address the precise nature of the relationship between globalization and political violence as it seeks to offer new theoretical and empirical understandings of the types of actors involved in political violence, either as perpetrators or victims. Examples of the studies include the changing character of state militaries and state-to-state conflict under globalization, the emergence of ‘new wars’ fuelled by globalization, the role of state militaries in intervention, new forms of violence directed by states against refugees and anti-globalization protesters, the role of terrorist actors post-9/11, networks for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the rise of private military firms amongst others. The Globalization of Political Violence will be of interest to students and researchers of politics, international relations, security studies and international political economy.

Violence is most common when there is a power disparity between two groups of people, and those with less power are far more likely to become the victim in a violent situation. Environment has as much influence on whether or not violence will occur as the person or people involved, and this relationship has drawn the attention of researchers worldwide. Globalization and Its Impact on Violence Against Vulnerable Groups is an essential source that provides research that delves deeply into occurrences of violence and the environmental and personal influences that lead to violence in order to better understand and prevent it from happening. Featuring a wide range of topics such as e-blackmail, human displacement, and psychology, this book is ideal for criminologists, law enforcement, psychologists, therapists, academicians, sociologists, anthropologists, government officials, researchers, and students.

This book examines the phenomenon of paramilitarism across Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, offering a nuanced perspective while identifying key patterns in the way paramilitary violence is implicated in processes of capital accumulation, state-building, and the reproduction of social power. Paramilitary violence, a key modality of coercion in the era of globalization, has been pursued by states and dominant classes in the Global South, to reproduce or extend their power over subaltern groups. Paramilitary groups are responsible for atrocities, including extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture, rape, and forced displacement. The book integrates empirically rich investigations into an emergent theory of political violence, capturing the relationship between parastatal armed actors, capital, and the state. The analysis sheds light on globally relevant phenomena such as the end of the Cold War, the shifting role of US hegemony, and evolving nature of the nation-state. The book is suitable for academics, graduate and upper-year undergraduate students, and policy-makers in development, human rights, and violence prevention. Given its interdisciplinary subject, it appeals to scholars from a wide range of disciplines, including political science, sociology, political anthropology, development, peace and conflict, security and terrorism, international relations, and global studies.

Violence and Politics points out a paradox of contemporary political violence: it appears to be growing in scope and complexity even in this era of unprecedented democratic and economic growth. These essays cover a number of timely issues including pro-life terrorism, hate crimes, Islam's connection (or stereotyped connection) to violence, rape as a war crime, ethnic conflicts, and violence against those protesting for civil rights for women, gays and lesbians and blacks. Contributors cross disciplines and subdisciplines to examine the counter-intuitive persistence of violence in advanced democracies and in steadily improving developing countries.

The volume critically discusses theoretical discourses and theoretically informed case studies on state violence and state terror. How do states justify their acts of violence? How are these justifications critiqued? Although legally state terrorism does not exist, some states nonetheless commit acts of violence that qualify as state terror as a social fact. In which cases and under what circumstances do (illegitimate) acts of violence qualify as state terrorism? Geographically, the volume covers cases and discourses from the Caucasus, South East and Central Asia, the Middle East, and North America.