Daniel Rothbart - Civilians and Modern War : Armed Conflict and the Ideology of Violence

This book explores the issue of civilian devastation in modern warfare, focusing on the complex processes that effectively establish civilians identity in times of war.

Underpinning the physicality of wars tumult are structural forces that create landscapes of civilian vulnerability. Such forces operate in four sectors of modern warfare: nationalistic ideology, state-sponsored militaries, global media, and international institutions. Each sector promotes its own constructions of civilian identity in relation to militant combatants: constructions that prove lethal to the civilian noncombatant who lacks political power and decision-making capacity with regards to their own survival.

Civilians and Modern War provides a critical overview of the plight of civilians in war, examining the political and normative underpinnings of the decisions, actions, policies, and practices of major sectors of war. The contributors seek to undermine the tunnelling effect of the militaristic framework regarding the experiences of noncombatants.

This book will be of much interest to students of war and conflict studies, ethics, conflict resolution, and IR/Security Studies.

Daniel Rothbart is Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. He has published extensively in the fields of identity-based conflicts and the ethics of war, and currently co-chairs the Sudan Task Group.

Karina V. Korostelina is Associate Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. She has published extensively on identity-based conflicts, civilian devastation, interfaith dialogue, and history and conflict.

Mohammed D. Cherkaoui is adjunct professor at George Mason University and recently published The Palestinian Media at the Crossroads: Challenges and Expectations .

This new book series focuses on the morality of decisions by military and political leaders to engage in violence and the normative underpinnings of military strategy and tactics in the prosecution of the war.

Civilians and Modern War

Armed conflict and the ideology of violence

Edited by Daniel Rothbart, Karina V. Korostelina and Mohammed D. Cherkaoui

Ethics, Norms and the Narratives of War

Creating and encountering the enemy other

Pamela Creed

First published 2012

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada

by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa Business

2012 Selection and editorial material, Daniel Rothbart, Karina V. Korostelina and Mohammed D. Cherkaoui; individual chapters, the contributors

The right of Daniel Rothbart, Karina V. Korostelina and Mohammed D. Cherkaoui to be identified as editors of this work, and of the chapter authors for their individual contributions, has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Civilians and modern war: armed conflict and the ideology of violence/edited by Daniel Rothbart, Karina V. Korostelina and Mohammed D. Cherkaoui.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Civilians in war. 2. Combatants and noncombatants
(International law) 3. Civilian war casualties. 4. War victims. 5.
Military history, Modern20th century. 6. Military history,
Modern21st century. 7. WarMoral and ethical aspects. I.
Rothbart, Daniel. II. Korostelina, K. V. (Karina Valentinovna) III.
Cherkaoui, Mohammed D., 1960IV. Title: Armed conflict and
the ideology of violence.
U21.2.C514 2012
305.90695dc23

2011041245

ISBN: 978-0-415-69393-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-12256-3 (ebk)

Andrea Bartoli is S-CARs Drucie French Cumbie chair and its dean. He has been at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR) at George Mason University since 2007. He works primarily on peacemaking and genocide prevention. An anthropologist from Rome, Dr. Bartoli completed his Italian dottorato di ricerca (PhD equivalent) at the University of Milan and his laurea (BA-MA equivalent) at the University of Rome. His most recent books include: Peacemaking: From Practice to Theory (Praeger, December 2011) and Somalia, Rwanda and Beyond: The Role of International Media in Wars and International Crisis (Geneva-New York: Crosslines, 1995).

Mohammed D. Cherkaoui is adjunct professor at George Mason Universitys School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR). In his current research, he focuses on the split of social groups, the transformation of narratives and enmity system, and the emergence of new identities. His most recent publication is The Palestinian Media at the Crossroads: Challenges and Expectations (March 2011). Cherkaoui has been a media practitioner at the British Broadcasting Corporation in London, the Voice of America , and the Arab American Network television in Washington. He is the recipient of eleven professional awards for excellence in journalism including The Voice of America Employee of the Year .