El libro que ofrezco a los lectores nace a partir de un elenco de artículos que he elaborado a lo largo de diez años de investigaciones sobre el terrorismo principalmente en España y sus víctimas, y que ahora cobran unidad en este texto. El núcleo central de libro es una reflexión contra la impunidad ideológica, jurídica y social que envuelve con cierta asiduidad al fenómeno del terrorismo en nuestro tiempo. El terrorismo ha afectado el continente Europeo desde el siglo XIX, pero ha ido cambiando paulatinamente su modo de manifestarse. Si bien en el siglo XX el terrorismo ha perpetrado sus actos violentos justificándolos en las ideologías clásicas de extrema derecha y de extrema izquierda, a partir del siglo XXI está tratando de legitimar sus crímenes también en un ideario político-religioso a partir de una interpretación extremista y belicosa de las sagradas escrituras musulmanas.

Using an unprecedented human rights trial as its lens, The Disappeared tells the extraordinary saga of Argentina's attempt to prosecute its aging Dirty Warriors a generation after the collapse of its last military regime.

Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America presents a nuanced and evidence-based discussion of both the acceptance and co-optation of the transitional justice framework and its potential abuses in the context of the struggle to keep the memory of the past alive and hold perpetrators accountable within Latin America and beyond. The contributors argue that “transitional justice”—understood as both a conceptual framework shaping discourses and a set of political practices—is a Janus-faced paradigm. Historically it has not always advanced but often hindered attempts to achieve historical memory and seek truth and justice. This raises the vital question: what other theoretical frameworks can best capture legacies of human rights crimes? Providing a historical view of current developments in Latin America’s reckoning processes, Legacies of State Violence and Transitional Justice in Latin America reflects on the meaning of the paradigm’s reception: what are the broader political and social consequences of supporting, appropriating, or rejecting the transitional justice paradigm?

This interdisciplinary study explores the interaction between memory and transitional justice in post-dictatorship Argentina and Uruguay and develops a theoretical framework for bringing these two fields of study together through the concept of critical junctures.

If subjecting war to law is one of the most important legal achievements of the 20th century, progressing further in that direction is one of the most important challenges for the 21st century. The problems it poses are many: the term “war” has formally fallen into disuse and we talk about “peacekeeping”; armies are today the product of cooperation between states and international organizations; private contractors increasingly participate in warlike activities, as the case of the Iraq war demonstrates; and the lines between war and very serious forms of crime (terrorism, organized crime) are increasingly blurred. This volume compiles the contributions presented at XVth International Congress on Social Defence, and tackle the criminal-legal issues raised by these new scenarios. It constitutes an innovative volume, gathering together the work of both academic and military authors, who have drawn on their theoretical and practical experience.