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Voices from Post-Saddam Iraq Living with Terrorism, Insurgency, and New Forms of Tyranny

Victoria Fontan

ISBN: 0-313-36532-6

ISBN-13: 978-0-313-36532-4

DOI:

240 pages

Praeger Publishers

Publication: 12/30/2008

List Price: $44.95 (UK Sterling Price: £31.95)

Availability: In Stock

Media Type: Hardcover

Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4

Subjects:

Series Title: Praeger Security International

Reviews:

"Fontan (peace and conflict studies, U. for Peace, Costa Rica) has worked as a freelance journalist in Iraq writing for Western and Iraqi media. Seeking to avoid condemning or condoning occupiers or occupied, liberators or liberated, she argues that primary factor ruling the people of Iraq since the arrival of the US military is humiliation. Her topics include
insurgency, the Sunnis, and humiliation's role; Abu Ghraib as a source of ethno-religious unrest; the gender factor and how it may hold keys to peace; and a new role for the US in post-Saddam Iraq."
—Reference & Research Book News 5/1/2009

Description: Even today, most Americans can not understand just why the fighting continues in Iraq, whether our nation should be involved there now, and how we could change our tactics to help establish a lasting peace in the face of what many fear will become a full-fledged civil war. In the book at hand, Victoria Fontan - a professor of peace and conflict studies who lived, worked and researched in Iraq - shares pointed insights into the emotions of Iraq's people, and specifically how democratization has in that country come to be associated with humiliation. Including interviews with common people in Iraq this work makes clear how laudable intentions do not always bring the desired result when it comes to international conflict and cross-cultural psychology. For example, Fontan explains, one might consider the comment of a young Shiite: The greatest humiliation of all was to see foreigners topple Saddam, not because we loved him, but because we could not do it ourselves.

This gripping text is focused on a new and growing area of human psychology - humiliation studies. In it, this leader at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace spotlights aspects of U.S. actions - and Iraqi perceptions - that have fueled ongoing conflict and left some increasingly outspoken residents of the U.S., and the rest of the world, demanding that foreign forces be withdrawn and the Iraqis left to their own accord. The work examines issues including how and when the Iraqis began to see the United States, as not a liberator but as an occupier; how both Abu Ghraib and our ensuing handling of the scandal heightened Iraqi humiliation and fighting; how we've fueled the ethno-religious unrest that still rages today; and how the Post-Saddam elections paved the way for civil war. Fontan also describes the role of women in Iraq who may ultimately be an important key to peace and explains her views on the new role the U.S. may play to better help establish peace.

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements
Map of Iraq
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Road to Hell is Paved With
Chapter 2: Insurgency, the Sunnis and Humiliations Role
Chapter 3: Abu Ghraib, A Source of Ethno-Religious Unrest
Chapter 4: The Gender Factor and How It May Hold Keys to Peace
Chapter 5: The Post-Saddam Elections and How They Paved the Way for Civil War
Chapter 6: Moving Beyond Humiliation, A New Role for The United States in Post-Saddam Iraq
Conclusion
Bibliography
Notes

About the Author: Victoria Fontan is Director of Academic Development and Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, at the United Nations-mandated University for Peace in San Jose, Costa Rica. Prior to this appointment, she was a Fellow to the Iraq Project at the Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University. As a freelance journalist, Fontan has worked in Iraq for Deutsche Welle Radio and Television, for the Baghdad Bulletin, and for The Independent, based in the United Kingdom. Her many roles have also included serving as Research Fellow at Sabanci University in Turkey, Research Associate at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, and Visiting Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Colgate University in New York.

LCC Class: DS79

PDF Catalogs:
Academic Library Spring 2009.pdf


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