Peace Studies

Brian Rappert is one of our shrewdest commentators on the ...

(Hugh Gusterson, Professor of Anthropolog)

Brian Rappert is one of our shrewdest commentators on the complicated ways in which we come to believe that wars are right and weapons are good. His brilliant case studies of official British enquiries into the Iraq War, of controversies over casualties in that war and of the international movement to ban cluster bombs turn settled wisdom on its head and show us new ways of looking at familiar issues.

(Hugh Gusterson, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at George Mason University)

In war, governments habitually lean towards closure rather than openness ...

(Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies )

In war, governments habitually lean towards closure rather than openness in matters of policy and practice. There then exists the issue of 'striking the right balance', with this seen as the core of any debate. Rappert challenges the very basis of such discussion, arguing with considerable insights that seeking balance or redressing imbalance may well be praiseworthy, yet structuring the argument in these terms can obscure the underlying issue of the legitimacy of force. This is an important book with much to offer to anyone concerned with the study of statecraft in time of war.

(Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University and author of Losing Control)

How to Look Good in A War is a sophisticated ...

(Martin Shaw, Research Professor, Institu)

How to Look Good in A War is a sophisticated exploration of how understandings of war and weapons are produced by the movements between disclosure and concealment in official discourse. An important and very readable addition to the literature on contemporary Western warmaking.

(Martin Shaw, Research Professor, Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals and University of Sussex, and Professorial Fellow in International Relations and Human Rights, University of Roehampton, London. Author of The New Western Way of War)