As the nature of war has changed, so has the role of civilians caught up in war. In an increasingly interconnected and globalized world, the way that media, civil society, and nongovernmental actors engage with conflict can be as important as what happens on the battlefield. Forty years after the birth of the human rights movement, nongovernmental activists use naming and shaming and other tactics to draw boundaries on warring parties' actions and to shape the legal standards by which they will be judged. Meanwhile, the growth of "embed journalism" and the 24-hour news cycle gives the public a ringside seat to conflict. The articles in this anthology focus on the small cadre of individuals-journalists, lawyers, humanitarians, and civil society activists-who are often caught between the population and combatants in modern conflicts. Experts outline the dilemmas these individuals face in navigating the complexity of 21st century conflict environments and analyze their impact on modern warfare. Book jacket.

Civil society plays an increasingly powerful role in the global landscape, emerging as key actors in preventing and managing conflict, and building more peaceful and sustainable societies . The multiple case studies featured in this volume illustrate the growth of civil society involvement in national, regional, and international peacebuilding policy. The focus is on multi-stakeholder, systems-based approaches to peacebuilding and human security that involve diverse civil society groups (NGOs, religious organizations, media, etc.), government agencies, intergovernmental organizations, and security forces. This unique comprehensive approach encompasses diverse stakeholders seeking to understand the drivers of conflict and the possibilities for working together to build peace. The book illustrates how the involvement of civil society can result in better informed, more inclusive, more accountable government decision making, and more effective peacebuilding policies. Importantly, a number of the case studies provide a gender perspective on peacebuilding and civil society issues, voicing and giving attention to women’s perspectives without being focused only on gender issues. Further, authors from the Global South offer the perspectives of those directly immersed in ongoing struggles for justice and peace.

Social media technology is having a dramatic impact on social and political dynamics around the world. The contributors to this book document and illustrate this "techtonic" shift on violent conflict and democratic processes. They present vivid examples and case studies from countries in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, Latin America as well as Northern Ireland. Each author maps an array of peacebuilding solutions to social media threats, including coordinated action by civil society, governments and tech companies to protect human minds, relationships and institutions. Solutions presented include inoculating society with a new digital literacy agenda, designing technology for positive social impacts, and regulating technology to prohibit the worst behaviours. A must-read both for political scientists and policymakers trying to understand the impact of social media, and media studies scholars looking for a global perspective.

Charts the history, development and influence of the African-American Press.

An eye-opening case study of the news at war, introducing a critical perspective on our mass media The Pen and the Sword is the only comprehensive examination of how the media have covered the 21st Century's #1 news story: terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is the full story—from 9/11 to the Obama doctrine, and including: The war in Afghanistan. There were two sides to this story, but the press told only one, and the untold story would return to haunt us. The campaign for war in Iraq. What did the press know and when did they know it about the web of lies that led us into war? Iraq, from invasion to "Mission Accomplished." When the story of war is told as patriotic hymn, Playstation game, or melodrama of macho heroes and bad guys dressed in black, important things are left out. Aftermath, from "Mission Accomplished" to the present. Something has changed since the Vietnam War, when the press finally found its critical voice. However, the 21st Century media continue to cling to an untenable, pro-war story, even after the public has abandoned it. The Pen and the Sword uses this tragic and eye-opening case study of the news at war to ask, "Why?" and to offer a critical perspective on our mass media, including the latest information on the underpinnings of the news business—corporate ownership, the power of elites to define the news—and adds three important new features of the media landscape: The media profit crisis of the late '00s and how it is affecting the news. The creation and mainstreaming of a new right-wing media surround-sound system. The increasing importance of entertainment media and soft news in shaping our views.

How did civil society function as a locus for reconciliation initiatives since the beginning of the 20th century? The essays in this volume challenge the conventional understanding of reconciliation as a benign state-driven process. They explore how a range of civil society actors - from Turkish intellectuals apologizing for the Armenian Genocide to religious organizations working towards the improvement of Franco-German relations - have confronted and coped with the past. These studies offer a critical perspective on local and transnational reconciliation acts by questioning the extent to which speech became an alternative to silence, remembrance to forgetting, engagement to oblivion.

Since the emergence of the dissident “parallel polis” in Eastern Europe, civil society has become a “new superpower,” influencing democratic transformations, human rights, and international co-operation; co-designing economic trends, security and defense; reshaping the information society; and generating new ideas on the environment, health, and the “good life.” This volume seeks to compare and reassess the role of civil society in the rich West, the poorer South, and the quickly expanding East in the context of the twenty-first century’s challenges. It presents a novel perspective on civic movements testing John Keane’s notion of “monitory democracy”: an emerging order of public scrutiny and monitoring of power.