Economic Liberalization and Political Violence Utopia or Dystopia?

by Gutiérrez, Francisco; Schönwälder, Gerd

• ISBN13: 9780745330631
• ISBN10: 0745330630
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-15
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

Globalization is lauded by some as a tool for spreading peace and prosperity, and decried by others as a harbinger of conflict and war. This book challenges both views. Narrowing down globalization to the more manageable notion of neoliberalism,Economic Liberalization and Political Violencestudies the effect of neoliberalism on violent conflict and war-making. The sophisticated analysis includes statistical work and a set of qualitative case studies from Latin America (Colombia, Peru, El Salvador, and Guatemala) and sub-Saharan Africa (Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan, and Uganda). The findings demonstrate that the shift to neoliberal policies has produced widely diverging outcomes in different contexts. An invaluable source for students of political economy, development studies and international relations this book shows that neoliberalism can help to end violent conflict as well as bringing about new, criminal forms of violence.

Author Biography

Francisco Gutiérrez is researcher at the Instituto de Estudios Políticos y Relaciones Internacionales. His main research interests are on armed conflict, political organization, state crises, and comparative methodology.

Gerd Schönwälder is the Director of Policy and Planning at IDRC, where he previously led the Peace, Conflict, and Development program. Prior to joining IDRC, he worked in Brussels as a European Union official.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. War, Peace and Liberalism: A Quantitative Approach to the Relation between Economic Globalisation and Armed Conflict•by Jairo Baquero Melo
2. Economic Liberalisation and Politics in Uganda by Frederick Golooba-Mutebi
3. Ivory Coast: The Political Economy Of A Citizenship Crisis by Richard Banégas
4. The Multiple Uses of Neo-liberalism
War, New Frontier and Reconfiguration of the State in Sudan by Roland Marchal and Einas Ahmed
5. Colombia: The re-structuring of violence by Francisco Gutiérrez Sanín
6. War and Neoliberal Transformation:The Peruvian Experience by Ramón Pajuelo-Teves
7. Conclusions by Gerd Schönwälder and Francisco Gutiérrez-Sanín
Index