Review by Choice Review
This compact and tightly argued book applies Richmond's earlier, more theoretical analysis to five post-Cold War peace-building efforts. The case studies are sandwiched between an interesting qualitative critique of four approaches to the "liberal peace framework": the victor's, based on military triumph; the institutional, resting upon post-Westphalia normative and legal contexts; the constitutional, emphasizing individual-based, cosmopolitan values; and civil peace, derived from direct citizen action, advocacy, and mobilization. Efforts have largely failed, Richmond and Franks (both, Univ. of St. Andrews, UK) conclude, because state building is inherently protracted. A "one-size fits all" approach does not appreciate local particularities, cannot engage with nonliberal subjects and their needs, and fails to build a liberal social contract or develop customary and hybrid understandings of a viable, context-driven peace. Such broad statements are based on succinct analyses of Cambodia ("a quasi-liberal, authoritarian state in which the needs of its communities remain marginalized"), East Timor (in which only a "virtual peace" exists with minimal impacts on daily life), Bosnia ("still ethnically polarized . . . [with a] paradox of local versus international ownership of the statebuilding process"), Kosovo (where ethnic Serbs are marginalized), and the Middle East since Oslo (where normative considerations are subordinate to security and territorial boundaries). Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections. C. E. Welch University at Buffalo, SUNY
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
