Ashok Swain
Ashok Swain is a Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University Sweden. He is also the Director of Research School for International Water Cooperation. He received his PhD from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi in 1991, and since then he has been teaching at the Uppsala University. He has been a Mac Arthur Fellow at the University of Chicago, visiting professor/fellow at UN Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva; University Witwatersrand, South Africa, University of Science, Malaysia, University of British Columbia, University of Maryland, Stanford University, McGill University and Tuft University. He has written extensively on new security challenges, international water sharing issues and democratic development. He has worked as a consultant on development issues for several UN agencies, OSCE, NATO, EU, IISS, various government agencies of Sweden and Singapore.
Phone: +46 (0)18 - 471 7653, 471 6863
Address: P.O. Box 514
SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Fax: +46 (0)18 69 51 02
Phone: +46 (0)18 - 471 7653, 471 6863
Address: P.O. Box 514
SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden
Fax: +46 (0)18 69 51 02
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Books by Ashok Swain
Routledge Handbook on Middle East Security provides the first comprehensive look at Middle East security issues that includes both traditional and emerging security threats. Taking a broad perspective on security, the volume off ers both analysis grounded in the ‘hard’ military and state security discourse but also delves into the ‘soft’ aspects of security employing a human security perspective. As such the volume addresses imminent challenges to security, such as the ones relating directly to the war in Syria, but also the long- term challenges. The traditional security problems, which are deep- seated, are at the risk of being exacerbated also by a lack of focus on emerging vulnerabilities in the region. While taking as a point of departure the prevalent security discourse, the volume also goes beyond the traditional focus on military or state security and considers non- traditional security challenges. This book provides a state- of- the- art review of research on the key challenges for security in the Middle East; it will be a key resource for students and scholars interested in Security Studies, International Relations, Political Science and Middle Eastern studies.
Conceived as a single and reliable reference source which will be a vital resource for students, researchers, and policy makers alike, the Routledge Handbook of Environmental Conflict and Peacebuilding presents a wide range of chapters written by key thinkers in the field, organised into four key parts:
Part I: Review of the concept and theories;
Part II: Review of thematic approaches (resources, scarcity, intervention, adaptation, and peacebuilding);
Part III: Case studies (Middle East, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, Colombia, Philippines);
Part IV: Analytical challenges and future-oriented perspectives.
Enabling the reader to find a concise expert review on topics that are most likely to arise in the course of conducting research or policy making, this volume presents a truly global overview of the key issues and debates in environmental conflict and peacebuilding.
actors.
The book charts approaches which have been taken over the past two decades to promote more effective water management institutions, covering issues of conflict, cooperation, power and law. A new framework for a better understanding of the interaction between transboundary water management institutional resilience and global change is developed through analysis of the way these institutions respond to the climate change debate. This framework is applied to six river case studies from Africa, Asia and the Middle East (Ganges-Brahmaputra, Jordan, Mekong, Niger, Nile, Orange-Senqu) from which learning conclusions and policy recommendations are developed.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent shifting of international political environment, a new broader concept of security began to gain acceptance. This concept encompassed socio-economic-environmental challenges, such as resource scarcity and climate change, water-sharing issues, deforestation and forest protection measures, food and health security, and large population migration.
The book examines the causes and consequences of these emerging security threats, and retains a critical focus on evolving approaches to address these issues. The author attempts to develop a framework for sustainable security in a rapidly changing global political landscape, which seeks to bring states and societies together in a way that addresses weaknesses of the evolving international system. Moreover, through a detailed analysis of the emerging security issues and their pathways, the book further argues that the evolving processes not only pose critical challenges but also provide remarkable opportunity for cooperation and collaboration among and within various stakeholders.
This book will be of much interest to students of global security, war and conflict studies, peace studies and IR in general.
Specific areas of investigation include the role of diasporas in peace building, the relationship between the nexus and challenges to liberal state-building, and the part played by external parties in the peace processes of the Aceh and Sri Lankan conflicts. The inclusion of case studies from Africa, Asia and Europe provides the text with a strong geographical focus, and constructs a panoramic view of the nexus that encompasses the globe. Further country-based chapters – focusing on China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa – underline this worldwide perspective.
The volume’s collected essays thus provide a detailed and comprehensive view of this fluid, contemporaneous topic, both theoretically and empirically. ‘The Security-Development Nexus’ is a vital appraisal of both the present issues and current thought concerning conflict, security and development.
In this book, Ashok Swain demonstrates how displaced people mobilize to protest with the help of their social networks. Studying protests against large industrial and development projects, Swain compares the mobilization process between a traditionally protest rich and a protest poor region in India to explain how social network structures are a key component to understand this variation. He reveals how improved mobilization capability coincides with their evolving social network structure thanks to recent exposure to external actors like religious missionaries and radical left activists.
The in-depth examination of the existing literature on social mobilization and extensive fieldwork conducted in India make this book a well-organized and useful resource to analyze protest mobilization in developing regions.
Most of the literature on democracy assumes that it is the best form of government. Theoretical works on democratic transition and democratization have also emphasized the internal conflict resolution capacity of democracy. It has been reasoned that democracy reduces the likelihood of discrimination, especially of ethno-political minorities, and thus the possibility of political repression. However, the democratic peace theory has not been explicitly tested with reference to third world post-colonial states, where most internal violent conflicts take place. Certainly, there is a dearth of practical advice for policy makers on how to design and implement democratic levers that can make internal peace and stability endure in the South.
This volume, drawing among others on the work of six scholars from the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, contributes to identifying and understanding the challenges and opportunities of this democratization project to the peace and development of the world both at the domestic level in selected countries, trends in regions of the world, and in the global system of the post-Col War Era.
Contents:
1. Knowledge, Identity and Power - Education Movements in the Global South, by A.Swain
2. Food for Starved Minds: The Mobilization of African Americans for Education, by D.C.Worgs
3. Education Movements, Power and Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by R.Kostic
4. Universal Elementary Education in India: An Exploratory Study of Movements in Civil Society, by S.Pai
5. Muslim Madrasas in Contemporary South Asia, by Y.S.Sikand
6. Education among Indigenous Peoples from Colombia and Peru: Social Movement or Public Policy?, by C.Uribe
7. Education as an Agenda of Social Action in Malaysia: The Search for Unity in a Plural Society, by K.Askandar
8. Social Movements and the 'Education Revolution' in Post-apartheid South Africa, by L.A.Swatuk
9. Social Action for Education, the State and the Global Network, by A.Swain
Routledge Handbook on Middle East Security provides the first comprehensive look at Middle East security issues that includes both traditional and emerging security threats. Taking a broad perspective on security, the volume off ers both analysis grounded in the ‘hard’ military and state security discourse but also delves into the ‘soft’ aspects of security employing a human security perspective. As such the volume addresses imminent challenges to security, such as the ones relating directly to the war in Syria, but also the long- term challenges. The traditional security problems, which are deep- seated, are at the risk of being exacerbated also by a lack of focus on emerging vulnerabilities in the region. While taking as a point of departure the prevalent security discourse, the volume also goes beyond the traditional focus on military or state security and considers non- traditional security challenges. This book provides a state- of- the- art review of research on the key challenges for security in the Middle East; it will be a key resource for students and scholars interested in Security Studies, International Relations, Political Science and Middle Eastern studies.
Conceived as a single and reliable reference source which will be a vital resource for students, researchers, and policy makers alike, the Routledge Handbook of Environmental Conflict and Peacebuilding presents a wide range of chapters written by key thinkers in the field, organised into four key parts:
Part I: Review of the concept and theories;
Part II: Review of thematic approaches (resources, scarcity, intervention, adaptation, and peacebuilding);
Part III: Case studies (Middle East, Iraq, Jordan, Liberia, Nepal, Colombia, Philippines);
Part IV: Analytical challenges and future-oriented perspectives.
Enabling the reader to find a concise expert review on topics that are most likely to arise in the course of conducting research or policy making, this volume presents a truly global overview of the key issues and debates in environmental conflict and peacebuilding.
actors.
The book charts approaches which have been taken over the past two decades to promote more effective water management institutions, covering issues of conflict, cooperation, power and law. A new framework for a better understanding of the interaction between transboundary water management institutional resilience and global change is developed through analysis of the way these institutions respond to the climate change debate. This framework is applied to six river case studies from Africa, Asia and the Middle East (Ganges-Brahmaputra, Jordan, Mekong, Niger, Nile, Orange-Senqu) from which learning conclusions and policy recommendations are developed.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent shifting of international political environment, a new broader concept of security began to gain acceptance. This concept encompassed socio-economic-environmental challenges, such as resource scarcity and climate change, water-sharing issues, deforestation and forest protection measures, food and health security, and large population migration.
The book examines the causes and consequences of these emerging security threats, and retains a critical focus on evolving approaches to address these issues. The author attempts to develop a framework for sustainable security in a rapidly changing global political landscape, which seeks to bring states and societies together in a way that addresses weaknesses of the evolving international system. Moreover, through a detailed analysis of the emerging security issues and their pathways, the book further argues that the evolving processes not only pose critical challenges but also provide remarkable opportunity for cooperation and collaboration among and within various stakeholders.
This book will be of much interest to students of global security, war and conflict studies, peace studies and IR in general.
Specific areas of investigation include the role of diasporas in peace building, the relationship between the nexus and challenges to liberal state-building, and the part played by external parties in the peace processes of the Aceh and Sri Lankan conflicts. The inclusion of case studies from Africa, Asia and Europe provides the text with a strong geographical focus, and constructs a panoramic view of the nexus that encompasses the globe. Further country-based chapters – focusing on China, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Africa – underline this worldwide perspective.
The volume’s collected essays thus provide a detailed and comprehensive view of this fluid, contemporaneous topic, both theoretically and empirically. ‘The Security-Development Nexus’ is a vital appraisal of both the present issues and current thought concerning conflict, security and development.
In this book, Ashok Swain demonstrates how displaced people mobilize to protest with the help of their social networks. Studying protests against large industrial and development projects, Swain compares the mobilization process between a traditionally protest rich and a protest poor region in India to explain how social network structures are a key component to understand this variation. He reveals how improved mobilization capability coincides with their evolving social network structure thanks to recent exposure to external actors like religious missionaries and radical left activists.
The in-depth examination of the existing literature on social mobilization and extensive fieldwork conducted in India make this book a well-organized and useful resource to analyze protest mobilization in developing regions.
Most of the literature on democracy assumes that it is the best form of government. Theoretical works on democratic transition and democratization have also emphasized the internal conflict resolution capacity of democracy. It has been reasoned that democracy reduces the likelihood of discrimination, especially of ethno-political minorities, and thus the possibility of political repression. However, the democratic peace theory has not been explicitly tested with reference to third world post-colonial states, where most internal violent conflicts take place. Certainly, there is a dearth of practical advice for policy makers on how to design and implement democratic levers that can make internal peace and stability endure in the South.
This volume, drawing among others on the work of six scholars from the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, contributes to identifying and understanding the challenges and opportunities of this democratization project to the peace and development of the world both at the domestic level in selected countries, trends in regions of the world, and in the global system of the post-Col War Era.
Contents:
1. Knowledge, Identity and Power - Education Movements in the Global South, by A.Swain
2. Food for Starved Minds: The Mobilization of African Americans for Education, by D.C.Worgs
3. Education Movements, Power and Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by R.Kostic
4. Universal Elementary Education in India: An Exploratory Study of Movements in Civil Society, by S.Pai
5. Muslim Madrasas in Contemporary South Asia, by Y.S.Sikand
6. Education among Indigenous Peoples from Colombia and Peru: Social Movement or Public Policy?, by C.Uribe
7. Education as an Agenda of Social Action in Malaysia: The Search for Unity in a Plural Society, by K.Askandar
8. Social Movements and the 'Education Revolution' in Post-apartheid South Africa, by L.A.Swatuk
9. Social Action for Education, the State and the Global Network, by A.Swain