Search results for ""Author Kimberly Zisk""
Columbia University Press Weapons, Culture, and Self-Interest: Soviet Defense Managers in the New Russia
How do powerful people react to revolutionary circumstances? How quickly and effectively do elites adapt to, and shape, the structures of new social and political systems? Zisk offers a detailed examination of the unexpected ways Russian defense industrialists have acted in the new market economy. Bridging the gap between political economy and international security studies, Zisk plunges into the debate of whether rational self-interest or broader cultural norms explain behaviour best. She focuses on three institutions that structured the Russian defense manager's working life in the 1992-95 transition era: the large defence enterprises dating from Soviet times; the webs of political authority spanning both local and national levels; and the newly emerged, market-oriented spin-off firms. Zisk shows that the combination of opportunism and social conditioning, when coupled with the massive decline in the Russian defense budget, encourages both illegal arms sales and social unrest in Russia's defense-heavy regions. In the transition from central planning to the market, Russian defense managers have had to figure out how best to survive. By taking advantage of two new trends - local and regional autonomy, and the absence of financial stability - Russian defense factories are attracting any and all customers, leaving the Russian state unable to control weapons production and sales. Zisk concludes that the collectivist Soviet culture had only limited impact on even those most comfortable within it; managers, workers and officials have all pursued individual gain in the new system. At the same time, the Soviet legacy of paternalism continues to matter in the workplace and gives Russian capitalism a unique flavour. For scholars and students of international security, post-socialist transitions, and political economy and culture, this book offers a new insight into post-Soviet culture.
£90.00
Columbia University Press Enforcing the Peace: Learning from the Imperial Past
Anarchy makes it easy for terrorists to set up shop. Yet the international community has been reluctant to commit the necessary resources to peacekeeping-with devastating results locally and around the globe. This daring new work argues that modern peacekeeping operations and military occupations bear a surprising resemblance to the imperialism practiced by liberal states a century ago. Motivated by a similar combination of self-interested and humanitarian goals, liberal democracies in both eras have wanted to maintain a presence on foreign territory in order to make themselves more secure, while sharing the benefits of their own cultures and societies. Yet both forms of intervention have inevitably been undercut by weak political will, inconsistent policy choices, and their status as a low priority on the agenda of military organizations. In more recent times, these problems are compounded by the need for multilateral cooperation-something even NATO finds difficult to achieve but is now necessary for legitimacy. Drawing lessons from this provocative comparison, Kimberly Zisk Marten argues that the West's attempts to remake foreign societies in their own image-even with the best of intentions-invariably fail. Focusing on operations in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and East Timor in the mid- to late 1990s, while touching on both post-war Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq, Enforcing the Peace compares these cases to the colonial activities of Great Britain, France, and the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The book weaves together examples from these cases, using interviews Marten conducted with military officers and other peacekeeping officials at the UN, NATO, and elsewhere. Rather than trying to control political developments abroad, Marten proposes, a more sensible goal of foreign intervention is to restore basic security to unstable regions threatened by anarchy. The colonial experience shows that military organizations police effectively if political leaders prioritize the task, and the time has come to raise the importance of peacekeeping on the international agenda.
£25.20
Columbia University Press Enforcing the Peace: Learning from the Imperial Past
Anarchy makes it easy for terrorists to set up shop. Yet the international community has been reluctant to commit the necessary resources to peacekeeping-with devastating results locally and around the globe. This daring new work argues that modern peacekeeping operations and military occupations bear a surprising resemblance to the imperialism practiced by liberal states a century ago. Motivated by a similar combination of self-interested and humanitarian goals, liberal democracies in both eras have wanted to maintain a presence on foreign territory in order to make themselves more secure, while sharing the benefits of their own cultures and societies. Yet both forms of intervention have inevitably been undercut by weak political will, inconsistent policy choices, and their status as a low priority on the agenda of military organizations. In more recent times, these problems are compounded by the need for multilateral cooperation-something even NATO finds difficult to achieve but is now necessary for legitimacy. Drawing lessons from this provocative comparison, Kimberly Zisk Marten argues that the West's attempts to remake foreign societies in their own image-even with the best of intentions-invariably fail. Focusing on operations in Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, and East Timor in the mid- to late 1990s, while touching on both post-war Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq, Enforcing the Peace compares these cases to the colonial activities of Great Britain, France, and the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. The book weaves together examples from these cases, using interviews Marten conducted with military officers and other peacekeeping officials at the UN, NATO, and elsewhere. Rather than trying to control political developments abroad, Marten proposes, a more sensible goal of foreign intervention is to restore basic security to unstable regions threatened by anarchy. The colonial experience shows that military organizations police effectively if political leaders prioritize the task, and the time has come to raise the importance of peacekeeping on the international agenda.
£79.20
