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Product Description
In this provocative and compelling examination of the deep politics of war, Carolyn Nordstrom takes us from the immediacy of war-zone survival, through the offices of power brokers, to vast extra-legal networks that fuel war and international profiteering. She captures the human face of the front lines, revealing both the visible and the hidden realities of war in the twenty-first century. "Shadows of War" is grounded in ethnographic research carried out at the epicenters of political violence on several continents. Its pages are populated not only with the perpetrators and victims of war but also with the scoundrels, silent heroes, and average families who live their lives in the midst of explosive violence. War reconfigures our most basic notions of humanity, Nordstrom demonstrates. This book, of crucial importance at the present moment, shows that war is enmeshed in struggles over the very foundations of the sovereign state, the crafting of economic empires both legal and illegal, and innovative searches for peace. Nordstrom describes the multi-trillion-dollar international financial networks that support warfare. She traces the entangled routes by which illegal drugs, precious gems, weapons, basic food supplies, and pharmaceuticals are moved by an international cast of businesspeople, profiteers, and black-market operators. "Shadows of War" demonstrates how the experiences of both the architects of war and of ordinary people are deleted from media accounts and replaced with stories about soldiers, weapons, and territory. For the first time, this book retrieves from the shadows the faces of those whose stories seldom reach the light of international recognition.
About the Author
Carolyn Nordstrom is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author of A Different Kind of War Story (1997) and the coeditor of Fieldwork under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival (California, 1995) and The Paths to Domination, Resistance, and Terror (California, 1992).
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I had gotten a ride on an unexpected cargo flight to a province on a distant Mozambican battlefront. Read the first page
I had gotten a ride on an unexpected cargo flight to a province on a distant Mozambican battlefront. Read the first page
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Lessons and realities of life in shadows of armed conflict
23 July 2004
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book to understand what is ?normality? outside the vision of the Media but the essence of our century for much of the world. Simplistic phrases like ?failed state? don?t cut it and their use by diplomats, policy makers, or pundits merely proves their ignorance and/or superficiality. It is usually also evidence that they don?t really care a bit so long as raw materials from these areas make it to world markets.
Many people and a very significant part of the world economy is in this ?unofficial? and shadowlike area. Many depend upon it without even knowing that it exists. (Violent ?terrorism? is our present obsession but not the only storyline to understand much of the world.)
The author is an Anthropologist who has spent considerable time in various no-man?s lands especially in Southern Africa and explains some of the illicit ?order? that keeps things going in war, borderlands, and general chaos. There are brief comparative references to Latin America as well. The analysis and description is the best I have ever seen in print (much deeper than Kaplan?s Coming Anarchy which might be the nearest comparison although very different in style and with little real analysis).
Perhaps a fifth of the book is telling anecdotes that humanize the book and are relevant but which could be skipped if a reader had little time (these are clearly identified in small print and spacing.) Other readers will find these the most approachable part of the book.
Crime, violence, child soldiers, smuggling, viciousness are here. But so are some means of continuing trade and human relations, some sparks of peace and order and even some hopeful examples of places gradually finding their path back to more civil society. From children living in ?clean? storm drains as family, to unrecognized states formed in areas of noted violence, to gradual reconciliation after war and violence ? there are lessons to be learned and some small ray of hope.
Many people and a very significant part of the world economy is in this ?unofficial? and shadowlike area. Many depend upon it without even knowing that it exists. (Violent ?terrorism? is our present obsession but not the only storyline to understand much of the world.)
The author is an Anthropologist who has spent considerable time in various no-man?s lands especially in Southern Africa and explains some of the illicit ?order? that keeps things going in war, borderlands, and general chaos. There are brief comparative references to Latin America as well. The analysis and description is the best I have ever seen in print (much deeper than Kaplan?s Coming Anarchy which might be the nearest comparison although very different in style and with little real analysis).
Perhaps a fifth of the book is telling anecdotes that humanize the book and are relevant but which could be skipped if a reader had little time (these are clearly identified in small print and spacing.) Other readers will find these the most approachable part of the book.
Crime, violence, child soldiers, smuggling, viciousness are here. But so are some means of continuing trade and human relations, some sparks of peace and order and even some hopeful examples of places gradually finding their path back to more civil society. From children living in ?clean? storm drains as family, to unrecognized states formed in areas of noted violence, to gradual reconciliation after war and violence ? there are lessons to be learned and some small ray of hope.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A tremendously rich work, a revelation.
24 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
This book reveals aspects of war normally "in the shadows"--the vast profits to be made from conflicts in resource-rich regions; the informal systems through which the resources move north to the "peaceful" developed countries and the weapons, medicines, technology of the north move south to fuel the wars and also sometimes to help heal them. This is wonderful anthropology, rich in quotes and stories from the winners and losers in war--from UN officials, profiteers, development bankers to resourceful homeless children of the streets. Shadows of War will change the way you see the world. It has tremendous implicatons for the future of all of us in the 21st century, who live amongst the realities of extra-state power (like bin Laden's) that we are hardly beginning to understand.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Good Storyteller, Poor Academic
17 Sep 2004
Format:Paperback
Attempting to do research in the field of war and developing, I have mixed feelings about the utility of this book. As a collection of first-hand stories about conflict in Mozambique, the book does an admirable job, and I suspect that anyone who treats it as a adventure travel book with some political overtones will enjoy it. Treat it like early Robert Kaplan, and it will be worth your while.
However, if you're looking for some substantial insight into the living conditions of a ravaged permament conflict-ridden region of the world, I find it lacks academic rigour. Prof Nordstrom begins to chart economic relationships that both fuel and rape the region, yet does so half-heartedly. She discusses the societal strain that the conflict has caused, yet again does so as a storyteller rather than an academic. Although there were a few interesting anecdotes, I felt like I was reading "Chicken Soup for the Soul".
The bottom line is, if you're looking for academic insight, look elsewhere. As a description of life in Mozambique, the book is fine.
I won't even go into the fact that little is given in the way of solution at the end of the book. Regardless what you feel your role is as an academic, I would have thought rational due diligence would have at least inspired you to write guidance on potential solutions. Otherwise, why read the book?
As a postscript, if you've spent any time yourself in developing nations and are looking for this to supplement your experience, you'll find nothing new here.
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