Courageously stepping into charged terrain, this book casts a clear light on globalization and terrorism for what they are, not what some may wish them to be. Jamal R. Nassar carefully defines these twin concepts, placing them in historical as well as political context. Woven throughout the book is his central theme of the migration of dreams and nightmares. As some are able to take advantage of the opportunities of globalization, leaving others behind, they leave behind a legacy of unrealistic dreams. These unfulfilled hopes of the poor and oppressed often transform themselves into nightmares for the wealthy and powerful. This vicious cycle, the author argues, is often enhanced by globalization and effected by terrorism. Focusing on the key case studies of Palestine and Northern Ireland, Nassar applies their lessons to other examples of conflict including Iraq, Afghanistan, the Congo, Chechnya, and Colombia in order to internationalize our understanding of how globalization and terrorism operate in a range of situations. He also devotes a chapter to Islamist terrorism in a tour de force of incisiveness and balance. This book considers globalization and terrorism not only from the perspective of the major powers, but also introduces the views of those dominated by forces beyond their control. Yet even as the author offers a profound critique of Western hegemony, he conveys respect and hope for an enlightened global interdependence—embracing the power of the dream over the nightmare.

Preventing sweeping human rights violations or wars and rebuilding societies in their aftermath require an approach encompassing the perspectives of both human rights advocates and practitioners of conflict resolution. While these two groups work to achieve many of the same goals—notably to end violence and loss of life—they often make different assumptions, apply different methods, and operate under different values and institutional constraints. As a result, they may adopt conflicting or even mutually exclusive approaches to the same problem. Eileen F. Babbitt and Ellen L. Lutz have collected groundbreaking essays exploring the relationship between human rights and conflict resolution. Employing a case study approach, the contributing authors examine three areas of conflict—Sierra Leone, Colombia, and Northern Ireland—from the perspectives of participants in both the peace-making and human rights efforts in each country. By spotlighting the role of activists and reflecting on what was learned in these cases, this volume seeks to push scholars and practitioners of both conflict resolution and human rights to think more creatively about the intersection of these two fields.

Following the 1998 peace agreement in Northern Ireland, political violence has dramatically declined and the region has been promoted as a model for peacemaking. Human rights discourse has played an ongoing role in the process but not simply as the means to promote peace. The language can also become a weapon as it is appropriated and adapted by different interest groups to pursue social, economic, and political objectives. Indeed, as violence still periodically breaks out and some ethnocommunal and class-based divisions have deepened, it is clear that the progression from human rights violations to human rights protections is neither inevitable nor smooth. Human Rights as War by Other Means traces the use of rights discourse in Northern Ireland's politics from the local civil rights campaigns of the 1960s to present-day activism for truth recovery and LGBT equality. Combining firsthand ethnographic reportage with historical research, Jennifer Curtis analyzes how rights discourse came to permeate grassroots politics and activism, how it transformed those politics, and how rights discourse was in turn transformed. This ethnographic history foregrounds the stories of ordinary people in Northern Ireland who embraced different rights politics and laws to conduct, conclude, and, in some ways, continue the conflict—a complex portrait that challenges the dominant postconflict narrative of political and social abuses vanquished by a collective commitment to human rights. As Curtis demonstrates, failure to critique the appropriation of rights discourse in the peace process perpetuates perilous conditions for a fragile peace and generates flawed prescriptions for other conflicts.

This volume expands our understanding of the pursuit of human rights during the era of the War on Terror. It explores the broad and complicated ramifications of crisis by looking comparatively at societies in the present era and looking back at the historical and legal foundations of human rights.

Examines the effectiveness of national human rights institutions in promoting and protecting human rights through a series of comparative case studies.

What role do transitional justice processes play in determining the gender outcomes of transitions from conflict and authoritarianism? What is the impact of transitional justice processes on the human rights of women in states emerging from political violence? Gender Politics in Transitional Justice argues that human rights outcomes for women are determined in the space between international law and local gender politics. The book draws on feminist political science to reveal the key gender dynamics that shape the strategies of local women’s movements in their engagement with transitional justice, and the ultimate success of those strategies, termed ‘the local fit’. Also drawing on feminist doctrinal scholarship in international law, ‘the international frame’ examines the role of international law in defining harms against women in transitional justice and in determining the ‘from’ and ‘to’ of transitions from conflict and authoritarianism. This book locates evolving state practice in gender and transitional justice over the past two decades within the context of the enhanced protection of women’s human rights under international law. Relying on original empirical and legal research in Chile, Northern Ireland and Colombia, the book speaks more broadly to the study of gender politics and international law in transitional justice.