Sovereign Forces

John-Andrew McNeish is Professor of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU).

“Sovereign Forces is a fascinating, multi-disciplinary and historically grounded account of the contested resource politics of Latin America. It makes an impassioned plea for critical engagement with resource sovereignty as a crucial aspect of environmental peacebuilding, that resonates far beyond the country contexts examined here. The book is a must-read for anyone wishing to engage with the complexities of everyday environmental governance in Latin America and elsewhere.” • Public Anthropologist“The book is a very ambitious and mature piece of work. John-Andrew McNeish engages some of the most profound questions of politics with ethnographic delicacy and allows the reader to understand abstract questions in their palpable reality. Questions, sometimes confined to grey textbooks, come to life with urgency in the chapters.” • Christian Lund, University of Copenhagen“This book makes an important argument about the role of resource sovereignty in struggles over land, territory, energy and the environment….The author has had two decades of experience researching these issues across the continent, and the book demonstrates his wide reaching understanding of both the region and its struggles as well as the relevant literature.” • Nancy Postero, University of California San Diego

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Sovereignty MattersChapter 1. Sovereignty within and beyond the StateChapter 2. Resource Politics at the MarginsChapter 3. Contesting Extraction and Sovereignty in Colombia and GuatemalaChapter 4. Citizens of Lithium and SaltChapter 5. No Negotiation with a Gun to Your Head?Conclusion: Making Use of Sovereign Forces?Index