Scott Straus

War, Leadership, and Genocide in Modern Africa

Making and Unmaking Nations

Race, Power, And War in Rwanda

The Order of Genocide

Barry Driscoll

The challenge of teaching international studies is to help students think coherently about the multiple causes and effects of global problems. In International Studies: Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions, award-winning scholars Scott Straus and Barry Driscoll introduce students to the foundations of the course; the major actors, institutions and theories; as well as the contemporary problems that will matter most to students. In the fully updated Second Edition, the authors give students a clear framework that pinpoints how key factors—forces, interactions, and tensions—contribute to current world events and global problems like human rights abuses, economic inequality, pandemic and global health responses, and food security. The book raises the bar for the Introduction to International Studies course and is relevant to students from a wide variety of backgrounds with diverse interests in geography, sociology, political science, and anthropology. Included with this text The online resources for your text are available via the password-protected Instructor Resource Site.

Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions

International Studies

Lars Waldorf

In the mid-1990s, civil war and genocide ravaged Rwanda. Since then, the country’s new leadership has undertaken a highly ambitious effort to refashion Rwanda’s politics, economy, and society, and the country’s accomplishments have garnered widespread praise. Remaking Rwanda is the first book to examine Rwanda’s remarkable post-genocide recovery in a comprehensive and critical fashion. By paying close attention to memory politics, human rights, justice, foreign relations, land use, education, and other key social institutions and practices, this volume raises serious concerns about the depth and durability of the country’s reconstruction. Edited by Scott Straus and Lars Waldorf, Remaking Rwanda brings together experienced scholars and human rights professionals to offer a nuanced, historically informed picture of post-genocide Rwanda—one that reveals powerful continuities with the nation’s past and raises profound questions about its future. Best Special Interest Books, selected by the American Association of School Librarians Best Special Interest Books, selected by the Public Library Reviewers

State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence

Remaking Rwanda

Provides a collection of interviews and photographs of perpetrators and victims of the Rwandan genocide.

Images and Voices of the Rwandan Genocide

Intimate Enemy

The challenge of teaching international studies is to help you think coherently about the multiple causes and effects of global problems. In International Studies: Global Forces, Interactions, and Tensions, award-winning scholars Scott Straus and Barry Driscoll give you a clear framework that pinpoints how key factors—forces, interactions, and tensions—contribute to world events, with both global and local consequences. The authors first show you how to look for common patterns in global issues by introducing four world-shaping forces: global markets, shifting centers of power, information and communications technologies, and global governance. They systematically trace how these forces prompt interactions among world actors and thus give rise to a set of tensions that spur key challenges. The framework enables you to ask and answer for yourself—Who is interacting? Where did such interactions develop? What policies or institutions govern them? Why are they getting certain global and local reactions? You are then apply the framework to the global problems that matter most to you: human rights abuses, economic inequality, terrorism, forced migration, pandemics and global health responses, climate change, food security, and more. International Studies raises the bar for the Introduction to IS course, moving beyond interdisciplinary, and into the realm of critical analysis to increase student relevancy and motivation.

"Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention presents key insights into US and international efforts to prevent genocide and mass atrocities worldwide. Since the Holocaust and World War II, an international community of policy makers, scholars, and activists has developed a loose network of norms, institutions, and policy tools to prevent and respond to acts of mass violence against civilians. Fundamentals analyzes the normative, legal, and operational opportunities and challenges associated with preventing genocide and mass atrocities to date, and identifies unresolved issues in this nascent field of study and practice. It also offers important insights into opportunities to strengthen both our understanding of and our ability to implement policies and programs to stop the world’s worst violence." --Goodreads.

Fundamentals of Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention

David K. Leonard

This thoughtful discussion probes the international roots of Africa's civil conflicts and lackluster economies. Analyzing an unwitting system that creates a set of incentives inimical to development, the authors offer a new way of thinking about Africa's development dilemmas and the policy options for addressing them. Weak states, aid dependence, crushing debt, and enclave economies, argue the authors, create disincentives for long-term economic growth and even peace. The nature of Africa's interaction with the international system often supports these negative features; thus, the remedy must come from a radical restructuring of that relationship. Africa's Stalled Development heeds that call by presenting specific and innovative prescriptions for change that are sure to stimulate a much-needed debate. -- Publisher description.

International Causes and Cures

Africa's Stalled Development

Winner of the Award for Excellence in Government and Political Science (AAP) The Rwandan genocide has become a touchstone for debates about the causes of mass violence and the responsibilities of the international community. Yet a number of key questions about this tragedy remain unanswered: How did the violence spread from community to community and so rapidly engulf the nation? Why did individuals make decisions that led them to take up machetes against their neighbors? And what was the logic that drove the campaign of extermination? According to Scott Straus, a social scientist and former journalist in East Africa for several years (who received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for his reporting for the Houston Chronicle), many of the widely held beliefs about the causes and course of genocide in Rwanda are incomplete. They focus largely on the actions of the ruling elite or the inaction of the international community. Considerably less is known about how and why elite decisions became widespread exterminatory violence. Challenging the prevailing wisdom, Straus provides substantial new evidence about local patterns of violence, using original research—including the most comprehensive surveys yet undertaken among convicted perpetrators—to assess competing theories about the causes and dynamics of the genocide. Current interpretations stress three main causes for the genocide: ethnic identity, ideology, and mass-media indoctrination (in particular the influence of hate radio). Straus's research does not deny the importance of ethnicity, but he finds that it operated more as a background condition. Instead, Straus emphasizes fear and intra-ethnic intimidation as the primary drivers of the violence. A defensive civil war and the assassination of a president created a feeling of acute insecurity. Rwanda's unusually effective state was also central, as was the country's geography and population density, which limited the number of exit options for both victims and perpetrators. In conclusion, Straus steps back from the particulars of the Rwandan genocide to offer a new, dynamic model for understanding other instances of genocide in recent history—the Holocaust, Armenia, Cambodia, the Balkans—and assessing the future likelihood of such events.

Race, Power, and War in Rwanda

Jean-Pierre Chrétien

The first English-language publication of a major history of the Great Lakes region of Africa.

Two Thousand Years of History

The Great Lakes of Africa

Challenging the prevailing wisdom, Straus provides substantial new evidence about local patterns of violence, using original research to assess competing theories about about the causes and dynamics of the genocide.

Scott Straus

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