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Who is the enemy? : Mary Kaldor and Stathis Kalyvas: Contemporary violent conflict


Document type: article
Download file(s): 138183 (226 KB)
Abstract: Violent conflicts in states such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the Balkans are at the centre of global politics. Do these conflicts require other policy solutions than trying to defeat the supposed enemies, be they ‘freedom fighters’, ‘terrorists’ or state armies? The Broker invited two eminent researchers of contemporary civil war to share their views on these issues. Ten years ago, Mary Kaldor wrote her ground-breaking book, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era. The book challenged and shifted the views of many policy makers, but it also sparked discussions about the ‘newness’ of contemporary war. In her contribution to this special report, Kaldor argues that her ideas are still relevant and that the book continues to influence thinking about issues of human security. Stathis Kalyvas has published widely on issues of civil war. In his most recent book, The Logic of Violence in Civil War, he analyzes the causes and dynamics of civil conflict, separating the concepts of war and violence. In his earlier work he questioned the idea that contemporary wars are ‘new’. In his contribution to this report, Kalyvas examines the main trends in civil war research since the Cold War and distinguishes different types of civil war.
Authors: Borgh, C. van der , Bieckmann, F.
Category: General
End Page: 20
Serial number: 14
ISSN: 1874-2033
Journal: The Broker
Keywords: conflict , conflict prevention , human rights
Language: eng
Organization: The Broker
Year: 2009
Right: © 2009 IDP. This article has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.
Subject: Humanitarian Assistance
Start Page: 13
Title: Who is the enemy? : Mary Kaldor and Stathis Kalyvas: Contemporary violent conflict