Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden
| Date | 01 November 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234330604300615 |
| Published date | 01 November 2006 |
| Author | Joakim Hammerlin |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
but argue that these are better explained as con-
flicts over power and ownership (Cameroon) or
social and political control (Senegal). The con-
tributors are anthropologists and geographers,
and chapters focus on small-scale conflicts, not
necessarily between rebels and the state. For peace
researchers, the focus can be rather too narrow,
but for those more sympathetic to the Boserupian
approach than the neo-Malthusian, the case
studies provide interesting and convincing
examples of Africans’ ability to deal with resource
challenges in a flexible and creative way.
Helga Malmin Binningsbø
Kahl, Colin H., 2006. States, Scarcity, and
Civil Strife in the Developing World. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton University Press. 333 pp. ISBN
069112406X.
The environmental security literature currently
appears to enjoy a large policy influence among
Western governments. It sees population pressure
leading to environmental degradation as the main
driving force behind armed conflicts and unrest
in poor countries. This book, originally presented
as a PhD thesis at Columbia University (2000),
builds on this line of thinking. The author
presents demographic and environmental stress
(DES) as a composite independent variable that,
through two different pathways (state failure and
state exploitation), can lead to violence. This
argument is systematically presented mainly
through the cases of the communist insurgency in
the Philippines and ethnic land clashes in Kenya
and by arguing against competing perspectives,
such as neoclassical economics and political
ecology. In the concluding chapter, other conflict
areas are also discussed, such as Chiapas, Somalia,
Rwanda and the Tuareg rebellion in northern
Mali. My main problem with this book, and with
the environmental security literature in general, is
that its basic premise, the existence of severe and
widespread environmental degradation, is often
not supported by facts. Based on careful environ-
mental research, there is now a large literature
questioning the type of crisis narratives that the
environmental security works take for granted.
This research is largely neglected in this book.
Referring for instance to ‘a fragile ecology’ and
‘desertification’ in northern Mali (p. 234), the
author assumes that DES was a significant factor
behind the Tuareg rebellion. But it was not. Such
thinking ignores environmental research during
the last 15–20 years that has questioned the very
existence of desertification in northern Mali and
in the Sahel in general.
Tor A. Benjaminsen
Lawrence, Bruce, 2005. Messages to the
World: The Statements of Osama Bin Laden.
London & New York: Verso. 292 pp. ISBN
1844670457.
There are people it is hard to be indifferent
about. Osama bin Laden is such a person. To
some, he is an evildoing mastermind, governing
his global terrorist network; to others, a freedom-
fighting martyr, raising arms against an imperial-
ist Western world. The fascinating thing about
this book is that it provides resonance for both
of these perspectives. Or, more precisely, it shows
why bin Laden can be interpreted both as a
freedom-fighting martyr and as an evildoing
mastermind at the same time. Basically, it
consists of a collection of various statements he
has made from 1994 to 2004. Although
occasional fragments have previously been pub-
lished in the press, the entirety of his statements
has seldom reached the public in the Western
world. Therefore, bringing these statements
together in a volume in a comprehensive and sys-
tematic manner is a welcome and important
achievement, invaluable for research on terrorism
and international politics. Translated from
Arabic by James Howarth and edited by Islamic
scholar Bruce Lawrence, it provides an uncen-
sored and unbiased glimpse into the mind of the
man at the top of FBI’s list of most wanted ter-
rorists. It is a striking mix of religious rhetoric,
prose and politics that constitutes a valuable
springboard when analysing the roots of political
Islam.
Joakim Hammerlin
Lyons, Robert & Scott Straus, 2006.
Intimate Enemy: Images and Voices of the Rwandan
Genocide. Photographs by Robert Lyons; intro-
duction and interviews by Scott Straus. Brooklyn,
NY: Zone. 185 pp. ISBN 1890951633.
Intimate Enemy gives the reader the rare oppor-
tunity to examine unmitigated transcripts of
interviews with convicted perpetrators of the
Rwandan genocide. One sits alongside Straus in
the prisons as he asks questions that reveal the
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 43 / number 6 / november 2006
754
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