‘In 1980, as Peru returned to democracy after more than a decade of military rule, both the state and civil society faced an unparalleled challenge. Sendero Luminoso – an Ayacucho-based, Maoist party led by philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán – declared an armed struggle against the “reactionary state” and the “bureaucratic-terrateniente dictatorship” embedded within the nascent…
Category: terror
Sheila Fitzpatrick: “What’s Left?”
Review of 5 new books: “Nothing fails like failure, and for historians approaching the revolution’s centenary the disappearance of the Soviet Union casts a pall. In the rash of new books on the revolution, few make strong claims for its persisting significance and most have an apologetic air. … On top of that, the revolution,…
Asim Qureshi: “Their Violence, Our Values: A History of European Responses to Political Dissent”
European responses to political dissent and terror: “The post-French Revolution period witnessed an era of extreme repression; including the suspension of habeas corpus, installation of the security state, and widespread suppression of civil liberties, ultimately leading to further disenfranchisement. During the colonial period, these measures were taken to a completely new level, as the principles…
Margaret Moore reviews Christopher J. Finlay’s “Terrorism and the Right to Resist: A Theory of Just Revolutionary War” (2015)
A study in just war theory: “Finlay is aware that the rebels and revolutionaries and terrorists that are the subject of his book are often acting in pursuit of reasonable goals that an oppressive state doesn’t allow them to pursue through legitimate means; and he shows that the underlying architecture of just war theory, with…
Brad Evans/”The Stone”: “Humans in Dark Times”
Countering violence: “Over the past year, we have engaged in a series of discussions with prominent and committed intellectuals who are all concerned in various ways with developing a critique of violence adequate to our times.”
Jamie Allinson: “Disaster Islamism”
Understanding ISIS as “the political project of disaster:” “It should go without saying that anyone committed to emancipatory politics should be an enemy of ISIS. It should also go without saying that just because someone is an enemy of ISIS (whether rhetorically, as with Assad, or actually, as with the Western powers) they are not…