Book Notes
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Author | Taylor Owen |
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234330604300219 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 43 / number 2 / march 2006
234
disarming the citizenry in those countries . . .
where large quantities of weapons (especially
small arms) are still in the possession of civilian
groups’ (p. 188).
Anne Thurin
Matthew, Richard A.; Bryan McDonald &
Kenneth R. Rutherford, eds, 2004. Landmines
and Human Security: International Politics and
War’s Hidden Legacy. Albany, NY: State University
of New York Press. 294 pp. ISBN 0791463095.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines
and the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty have come to sym-
bolize the policy potential of human, as opposed
to state-based, security. Landmines cause minimal
damage to nations yet profoundly affect indi-
viduals. Used for short-term military gains, they
plague civilians for generations. In bringing
together policymakers, politicians, public figures,
civil society advocates, academics and victims,
this effort refreshingly moves the debate away
from technocratic policy discourse documenting
how diverse actors have challenged nation-states
and forced fundamental normative changes.
Following four quite remarkable forewords, the
state of the small-arms crisis is documented. We
learn of the devastating impact these weapons
have on civilian populations and their quite
limited military utility. Second, we are given vivid
accounts of the immense practical and political
challenges of such a broad coalition. Third, in a
rich section on the complexities of the landmine
problem itself, issues such as the controversial US
position, the practical difficulty of de-mining,
and the long term socio-economic and environ-
mental costs of landmines are discussed. Finally,
and perhaps most relevant for both the concept
of human security and the causes that may in the
future fall under its mandate, it is argued that the
success of the Mine Ban Treaty need not be
unique and, indeed, represents a model for future
action. This volume charts how a diverse group
of individuals with no common affiliation or
political interest other than their collective cause,
using modern networking and communications,
can bring about social change. In documenting
this alone, this volume has done great service.
Taylor Owen
Norris, Pippa & Ronald Inglehart, 2004.
Sacred and Secular: Religions and Politics World-
wide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
329 pp. ISBN 0521548721 (paperback).
Is the world becoming a more secular place? Such
a trend has been predicted by major thinkers back
to Marx, Durkheim and Weber, and it has been
widely assumed to have played out during the
20th century. Evidence from several countries
supports this assumption, but in this book, politi-
cal scientists Norris & Inglehart put it to a global
test. They go to the heart of the matter, making
use of data, some of which have only recently
become available, notably from the World Values
Survey (directed by Inglehart himself). In a study
of exemplary clarity, the authors provide a con-
densed outline of different theories of seculariza-
tion and the mechanisms assumed to drive it, and
develop six hypotheses for testing against the
survey data material. The test leads to three major
conclusions: that there has been a movement
towards more secular orientations among the
publics of virtually all advanced industrial
societies; that, since poorer countries are not sec-
ularizing (the authors emphasize the difference in
human security as the major explanation for this),
the world now has a greater number of people
with traditional religious views than ever before;
and finally, the authors predict that the ‘expand-
ing gap between the sacred and the secular
societies’ will contribute to raising the role of
religion on the international agenda. Norris &
Inglehart’s book is a pleasure to read and an inspi-
ration for scholars for its effort to generate solid
knowledge on a much-debated question. Along
the way, the reader will find much fascinating
material, one timely issue being the United States
as a non-secularizing ‘outlier’ (the authors
consider that high US figures for religiosity may
be inflated).
Sven Gunnar Simonsen
Prunier, Gérard, 2005. Darfur: The Am-
bigious Genocide. London: Hurst. 212 pp. ISBN
185065770X.
Gérard Prunier deserves commendation for pre-
senting the first accessible and fairly comprehen-
sive account of the current conflict in Darfur and
its background. Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide
may be divided into two parts. Starting with the
Darfur Sultanate (ca. 1500–1824), the first part
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