No name

Scharre, Paul, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War, New York, W.W. Norton, 2018 , pp. 448

An extensive examination of the possibilities and implications of artificial intelligence applied to the battlefield, from drones to 'killer robots', with varying degrees of autonomous ability to make decisions without human intervention. Scharre interviewed engineers creating new weapons and those in the military who might use them. He disagrees with campaigners seeking a total ban, which he thinks impossible, arguing instead for ensuring a minimum degree of human involvement in their deployment.

See also: Trying to Restrain the Robots', The Economist, 19 Sept. 2019, pp. 26-27.

A succinct examination of autonomous weapons and of issues arising, starting with the 'Harop' drone produced by Israeli Aerospace Industries, which can be classed as either a remote-controlled weapon or as an autonomous robot, depending on its software at the time. The article reports briefly on the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of 89 NGOs, and concludes by noting that in 2017 the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (also known as the Inhumane Weapons Convention, agreed in 1980) appointed an expert group to examine the implications of autonomous weapons and different approaches to controlling their use.

Gadsden, Fay, Notes on the Kamba destocking controversy of 1938, 7 4 1974 , pp. 681-687

Alieva, Leila, Azerbaijan’s frustrating elections, 17 2 (April) 2006 , pp. 147-160

Analysis of background and context of elections, the regime’s role and actions of the opposition.

Mentan, Tatah, Cameroon: A flawed transition to democracy, In Jean-Germain Gros, Democratization in Late Twentieth Century Africa: Coping with Uncertainty (E. I.2.1.i. General Overviews) Westport CT and London, Greenwood Press, 1998 , pp. 41-57

Maxwell, Kenneth, Portugal: The Revolution of the Carnations’, 1974-75, In Timothy Garton Ash, Adam Roberts, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2009 pp. smaller than 0

Focuses on 1974-75, and provides more detailed references in both Portuguese and English.

, Six Months On. Gaza's Great March of Return, , pp. smaller than 0

After summarizing the dire economic and social conditions among the 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza (70 per cent of whom are registered as refugees from other parts of Israeli territory) after years of blockade and damage from military attacks, Amnesty focuses on the destructive Israeli military reaction to the Great March.

See also: Wispelwey, Bram and Yasser Abu Jamel. 'The Great March of Return: Lessons from Gaza on Mass Resistance and Mental Health', HHR: Health and Human Rights Journal, vol. 22 no. 1 (June 2020), pp. 179-86.

The article describes how the blockade and Israeli attacks have undermined mental health in the community. The authors assess the positive impact on communal mental health created initially by the March of Return resistance movement. But they argue that this has been offset by the impact of death, disability and trauma many have suffered as a result, and by the longer-term failure to achieve better conditions. The authors then examine what health workers can learn about the 'psychosocial consequences of community organizing’.

Payne, Charles, I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organising Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle, 1995 Berkeley CA, University of California Press, 2007 , pp. 525

Thorough study of grass-roots activism in Mississippi, with useful bibliographical essay.

See also commentary by Francesca Polletta in Jeff Goodwin, James M. Jasper, Contention in Context: Political Opportunities and the Emergence of Protest (A. 6. Nonviolent Action and Social Movements) , pp. 133-152.

Eglitis, Olgerts, Nonviolent Action in the Liberation of Latvia, Cambridge MA, Albert Einstein Institution, 1993 , pp. 72

Drewett, Michael, Aesopian Strategies of Textual Resistance in the Struggle to Overcome the Censorship of Popular Music in Apartheid South Africa, In Beate Müller, Censorship & Cultural Regulation in the Modern Age, Amsterdam and New York, Rodopi, 2004 , pp. 250 , pp. 189-207

Brown, Louise, The Challenge to Democracy in Nepal, New York, Routledge, 1996 , pp. 239

Covers historical background, earlier attempts at democratization and the evolution of political parties. It draws on extensive interviews. See especially chapter 5 for the resistance movement.

Yanes Berrios, Blanca; Lopez, Omar, Cultural action for liberation in Chile, In Philip McManus, Gerald Schlabach, Relentless Persistence: Nonviolent Action in Latin America (E. IV.1. General and Comparative Studies) Philadelphia PA, New Society Publishers, 2004 , pp. 117-135

Discusses role of SERPAJ in struggle for survival by poor, including community organization and ingenious protests against hunger and unemployment, e.g. blocking supermarket checkouts with trolleys.

Ashour, Omar, Egypt's Revolution amd the Transformation of Armed Islamist Movements towards unarmed activism, In Véronique Dudouet, Civil Resistance and Conflict Transformation – Transitions from Armed to Nonviolent Struggle (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) London, Routledge, 2015 , pp. 173-189

, Revolt and Crisis in Greece: Between a Present Yet to Pass and a Future Still to Come, ed. Vradis, Antonis; Dalakoglu, Dimitris, Edinburgh and London, A.K. Press and Occupied London, 2011 , pp. 378

Wide range of contributors, including David Graeber, on economic meltdown in Greece and popular responses to government’s extreme austerity programme.

Nehring, Holger, Politics of Security: British and West German Protest Movements in the Early Cold War 1945-1970, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013 , pp. 368

Discusses cultural and social bases of protest against nuclear weapons, role of nationalism in the movements, and importance of British types of activism for German protest in light of experience in World War Two and the cold war. See also: Holger Nehring, Demonstrating for “Peace” in the Cold War: The British and West German Easter Marches 1958-64, In Matthias Reiss, The Street as Stage: Protest Marches and Public Rallies since the Nineteenth Century, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007 , pp. 352 pp. smaller than 0 , chap. 15; Holger Nehring, National Internationalists: British and West German Protests Against Nuclear Weapons, the Politics of Transnational Communication and the Social Hisotry of the Cold War 1957-1964, 2005 , pp. 559-582 .

Cochrane, Kira, All the Rebel Women: The Rise of the Fourth Wave of Feminism, London, Guardian Books, 2013 , pp. 71

See also her article Kira Cochrane, The fourth wave of feminism: meet the rebel women, , 10/12/2013 pp. smaller than 0

Describes wide range of feminist activities and groups (both established like the Fawcett Society, and new) and wider attitudes to feminism in mainstream organizations such as Girl Guides and Mumsnet.

Whyte, John, How Much Discrimination Was There under the Unionist Regime, 1921-72?, In Tom Gallagher, James O'Conell, Contemporary Irish Studies, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1983 , pp. 144 , pp. 1-35

Detached assessment of the evidence. Concludes that while discrimination against Catholics in this period certainly existed, it was more marked in some policy areas than others – more marked in electoral practices (especially at local government level), public employment and policing, generally less so in private employment, public housing and regional policy. But he notes that geographically, also, there were marked differences, with discrimination being more widespread in the west, which had a higher Catholic population.

Hall, Bogumilla, Gendering Resistance to Right-Wing Populism: Black Protest and a New Wave of Feminist Activism in Poland?, 63 10 2019 , pp. 1497-1515

The election of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) in 2015, and its growing authoritarianism, has politicized thousands of Poles and stimulated large-scale protests. Women have been at the forefront, linking the demand for reproductive rights with the wider resistance to the ruling party. In particular, the proposal to restrict the abortion law sparked mass mobilization in 2016. These Black Protests became a formative experience for many previously inactive. This article examines this latest wave of feminist activism in Poland and its methods, from a generational perspective. It scrutinises in detail the narrative of a “new generation of activists,” who claim they are making Polish feminism more inclusive, creative and bolder.

, Feminicide: A Global Phenomenon. From Brussels to El Salvador, Brussels, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Report, 2015 , pp. 39

Edited every two years on the occasion of the European Union and Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-CELAC) Summit, this fifth edition of the series ‘Feminicide: A Global Phenomenon’ addresses the chapter on gender from the Action Plan, and points to other initiatives aiming at eradicating feminicide/femicide, and also inspiring the implementation of the Action Plan EU-CELAC on this matter.

Scarry, Elaine, Thermonuclear Monarchy. Choosing Between Democracy And Doom, New York and London, W. W. Norton, 2014 , pp. 582

Social theorist Elaine Scarry recalls the threats to use nuclear weapons by successive US presidents and argues that the power of one leader to obliterate millions people with a nuclear weapon deeply violates the constitutional rights of the citizens in the US. She also argues that it undermines the social contract and is fundamentally at odds with the deliberative principle of democracy. She explores political and constitutional changes that she believes could make it possible to start dismantling the nuclear arsenals.

Castello, Nicolas, 'Social Upheaval in Chile: No One Saw It Coming? , 11 1 2020 , pp. 154-164

Castello outlines the evolution of the movement that erupted on October 18, 2019 (ending the period of political calm in the country) and the government responses to try to deal with it.

Della Porta, Donatella, Mobilizing for Democracy: Comparing 1989 and 2011, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014 , pp. 384

Expert on social movements combines analysis of movements with theory of democratisation, and using comparative framework discusses causes and outcomes of 1989 movements in Eastern Europe with the Middle East and North Africa from 2011. Particular, but by no means exclusive, focus on GDR and Czechoslovakia and on Tunisia and Egypt.

, Uprising in East Germany 1953: The Cold War, the German Question and the First Major Upheaval Behind the Iron Curtain, ed. Ostermann, Christian, Budapest, Central European University Press, 2003 , pp. 492

A documentary history in sections, including: i. origins of crisis April 1952-mid-June 1953; ii. the uprising; with introductions to each section and general well referenced introduction.

Jones, Stephen, The Rose Revolution: A Revolution without Revolutionaries?, 9 1 2006 , pp. 33-48

Argues that the role of civil society bodies was important, but not vital. He suggests that key factors were popular attitudes to the ideal of Europe, the impact of the global economy, the appeal of western models and the implications of the soviet legacy. See also Stephen Jones, Georgia’s ‘Rose Revolution’ of 2003: Enforcing Peaceful Change, In Timothy Garton Ash, Adam Roberts, Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (A. 1.b. Strategic Theory, Dynamics, Methods and Movements) New York, Oxford University Press, 2009 , pp. 317-334 .