The State, Identity and Violence (PDF)

The nation-state, long the foundation of the international system is suddenly in question as a concept and as a political reality. In this book, a collection of experts investigate the varied forces - from global systems to local beliefs - that lead to civil violence, chaos and, perhaps, a new political order.
The State, Identity and Violence explores acts of mass violence occurring within national borders and examines the links such acts have to personal identities and how they challenge the character or very existence of the state. Building upon the anthropological premises of holism and cross-cultural comparison, this volume shows how violent challenges to existing states should be conceptualized as layered problems, with multiple kinds of causes. It not only goes beyond the "ancient hatreds" explanation, but shows the inadequacy of the concept of "ethnic violence" and of theories which treat interests and identities as separate, sometimes opposed variables.
The book contains commentaries on the nation-state, the phenomena of state collapse, the state and political science, minority populations and the importance of culture from respected theorists and case studies focusing on violence within Peru, India, the former Yugoslavia, Greece, Liberia, Angola, Chad, Somalia and Papua New Guinea. It will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of Anthropology, Political Science, International Relations and Sociology.
R. Brian Ferguson is a cultural anthropologist at Rutgers University-Newark. He has written extensively on many aspects of war, primarily as practiced by tribal peoples. His previous published books include Warfare, Culture and Environment (ed), Yanomami Warfare and War in the Tribal Zone - co-edited with Neil Whitehead.