Horne, Alistair, 2006. A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954—1962. New York: New York Review of Books. xii + 608 pp. ISBN 9781590172186
| Date | 01 May 2009 |
| Published date | 01 May 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00223433090460030908 |
| Author | Farrid Shamsuddin |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 46 / number 3 / may 2009
456
more empirical light on this issue. This book
should be of great interest to most political scien-
tists: the theory has very broad scope and appli-
cability, and the study is both well crafted and
well written.
Helge Holtermann
Haddad, Emma, 2008. The Refugee in
International Society: Between Sovereigns.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 235
pp. ISBN 9780521868884.
There are few subjects today that evoke as much
emotion and, at times, controversy as that of
refugees. As such, texts often concentrate on
how forced migration affects security, domestic
policy and identity. Emma Haddad’s welcome
and timely publication, based on her award-
winning PhD thesis, provides a new conceptual
framework for refugee study and ensuing policy.
At its core, the book endeavours to redefine and
reconceptualize the refugee as an unintended yet
inexorable by-product of the present interna-
tional state system. Utilizing the English School
perspective of international society, Haddad
argues that with the formation of the nation-
state, identities, belonging and, ultimately, sov-
ereignty are forged through an us (we) and them
(‘the other’) dichotomy. The formation of citi-
zens and outsiders is not just mutually exclusive
but mutually reinforcing. Those outsiders who
fall beyond the ‘state- citizen-territory trinity’
become refugees. While the book is normative
and theoretical in approach, the latter half pro-
vides an intriguing analysis of the interwar years,
the Cold War and the modern era. By highlight-
ing its dynamic and arbitrary nature, Haddad
illustrates the politicization of refugeehood in
both its construction and application. Mirroring
the Eurocentric origins of ‘the refugee’, the text
relies on a European approach to the concept –
as one would expect from someone who worked
at the European Commission. The author does,
however, leave some pertinent questions unre-
solved relating to process and the intellectual
origin of refugees at the point of creation. Fur-
thermore, Haddad’s definition of the refugee is
rather insufficient and provides as much scope
for criticism as the 1951 Convention definition
she is attempting to improve. That said, the text
provides a well-written, illuminating and thor-
oughly researched evaluation of the refugee and
international society.
Mark Naftalin
Horne, Alistair, 2006. A Savage War of Peace:
Algeria 1954–1962. New York: New York Review
of Books. xii + 608 pp. ISBN 9781590172186.
British historian Alistair Horne’s intimately
detailed and expansive volume has long been
regarded as a definitive study on the Algerian
War of Independence. It presents an erudite
narrative on an anti-colonial war of national
liberation, initiated by the resistance guerril-
las of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN)
against the French army, with an analytical
perspective and clarity of context that is a mas-
terclass in the historian’s craft. Horne’s skilled
handling is welcome given the prolonged, com-
plicated and messy nature of this brutal conflict
that was fought over eight exhausting and costly
years; la guerre d’Algerie claimed a million Alge-
rians lives and the political scalps of six French
prime ministers and precipitated the collapse of
the Fourth Republic. Horne is comprehensive
in his explanation of the roles of various groups
and individuals that defined the conflict – from
the curious case of the pied noirs and France’s
betrayal of the Harkis to an understanding of
FLN leaders such as Ahmed Ben Bella and
Houari Boumédienne, who led a clandestine
insurgency that displayed an unyielding and
relentlessly bloody resolve, ultimately forcing an
end to 132 years of French colonial rule, finally
negotiated under Charles de Gaulle’s political
stewardship. This account is also a cautionary
tale of how an increasingly intractable war led
both sides to descend into a spiral of violence
and torture that pushed the boundaries of
humanity for the sake of incremental political
and military gains, which in hindsight seems
obscene. This legacy was summed up with omi-
nous understatement by Algerian-born French
philosopher Albert Camus: ‘Everything fades,
save memory.’ Horne’s book is still as infinitely
readable and compelling as it was at its original
publication in 1977.
Farrid Shamsuddin
Kool, V. K., 2008. The Psychology of Nonviolence
and Aggression. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. xiii
+ 204 pp. ISBN 9780230545540.
As Kool’s third book on the subject of non-
violence, this latest addition to the field of peace
psychology provides a valuable overview of impor-
tant psychological works that are relevant for
the study of peace and conflict. Kool focuses on
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