Paramilitarism

Description

From the deserts of Sudan to the jungles of Colombia, from the streets of Belfast to the mountains of Kurdistan, paramilitaries have appeared in violent conflicts. Üngör presents a comparative and global overview of paramilitarism, showing how states use it to successfully outsource mass political violence against civilians.

• First comparative and conceptual synthesis of paramilitarism
• Focuses on the centrality and breadth of states' paramilitary strategies
• Examines the involvement of organized crime in paramilitarism

About the Author(s)

Ugur Ümit Üngör, Associate Professor of History, Utrecht University

Ugur Ümit Üngör is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies. His main area of interest is the historical sociology of mass violence in the Middle East. He is an editor of the Journal of Perpetrator Research, and coordinator of the Syrian Oral History Project. He is the author of the award-winning The Making of Modern Turkey (Oxford University Press, 2011) and is currently writing a monograph on mass violence in Syria.

Table of Contents

1:Introduction: Old Wine in New Bottles?
2:Paramilitarism's Long Twentieth Century
3:Organized Crime, the State, and Paramilitarism
4:The Organization of Paramilitarism
5:Conclusion: the complexity of paramilitarism
Select Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"Historically based and yet inspiringly contemporary in its analysis and relevance, it shows that 'paramilitarism', as Üngör states in his concluding sentence, 'is here to stay' (p. 194), not least in its legacies of civic and state fragmentation." - Gregor Kranjc, Brock University, St Catharines, ON, Canada, The English Historical Review

"Üngör's excellent book will become the point of departure for much new study of the phenomenon of paramilitarism in the modern period." - John Paul Newman, E-International Relations

"Üngör offers an in-depth and panoramic view of paramilitarism in a highly sophisticated analysis that successfully combines historical and sociological scholarship. This is a first historical sociological exploration of paramilitarism in all its forms and as such will attract attention across many disciplines." - Sinisa Malesevic, University College, Dublin, Journal of Political Power

"Excellent ... [Üngör] pulls off quite a feat - covering no end of ground, showing command of his subject and sources, making serious but not portentous points, and - last but not least - keeping quite succinct." - Professional Security

"This book contributes further to our understanding of [the] key element of the solar eclipse of political violence within the contemporary state and throws further a little light on the pall of counterinsurgency and collusion on the Conflict in Northern Ireland." - Chris Stanley, Village Magazine