William Perdue - Böcker

Terrorism and the State is a volume on the political economy of terrorism. Emphasizing the role of ideological systems in the definition of political violence, this book is theoretical, historical, and critical. It first presents and refutes the two most commonly expressed definitions of terrorism: the absolutist view, a simplistic picture of international deviance on the part of fanatics, and the liberal relativistic view, one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Both views focus on the definition of behaviors rather than on the real relations of domination and subjugation embodied in the social structure. Neither view can be used as a vehicle when analyzing institutionalized forces of domination through fear. The author suggests that there is presently a double standard of terrorism, one for the state and the other for its opponents. Terrorism and the State reframes the terrorism debate. A historical review supports a revisionist position that places the issue in the context of global relations. Attention is given to the role of the media in the selective selling of international terrorism. Having established his framework, the author proceeds through the investigation of historically grounded cases to systematically analyze state terrorism: the coercive power of today's nuclear weapon state, global apartheid, terrornoia, settler terrorism, holy terror, and, finally, surrogate terrorism.Terrorism and the State develops its framework for the terrorism debate within the first three chapters: The Ideology of Terrorism, Terrorism and the State, and Mediaspeak: The Selling of International Terrorism. The remainder of this volume concentrates on historically grounded cases: The Real Nuclear Terrorism; Racial Terrorism: Apartheid in South Africa; Terrornoia and Zonal Revolution: The Case of Libya; Settler Terrorism: Israel and the P.L.O.; Holy Terror: Iran and Irangate; Surrogate Terrorism: The United States and Nicaragua

This book is an enlightening, inspiring, and sobering account of the social and economic transformation of Poland. A multinational and interdisciplinary group of scholars examine the historical precursors that gave shape to the Solidarity movement, then focus on the institutional change that today presents challenges even more daunting than those of the earlier drama of resistance. The contributors have uncovered episodes of political domination, debt, and dependency that are not well known or well understood. These have important implications for economic development in general and for the reconstruction of the deindustrializing economies of Eastern Europe in particular. If Poland is to survive the crisis of the early 1990s, a new and authentic program of economic and human development must be adopted by West and East alike. The book concludes with a new discourse on development.

The on-going struggle in New Poland is not confined to the daunting questions of economic transformation, though these certainly have been seized center stage. Most troubling to the dreams of Polish democracy is the recent splintering of Solidarnosc, the party, and its estrangement from Lech Walesa, the man who led it to institutional power. This book affords the opportunity to ponder this paradox of change. By discussing social change and movements in general, as well as the situation in Poland in particular, the reader gains insight into how a social movement is born, how it achieves its goals, and how it is transformed.