The Wars Within: Peoples and States in Conflict

In The Wars Within, Robin M. Williams Jr. brings together decades of thought about ethnic conflicts in an effort to better understand their dynamics and to lessen their disastrous consequences. Williams presents a worldwide perspective, conscious that many studies of ethnicity focus primarily on the United States. The stakes of struggles can involve both material resources, such as oil, diamonds, and gold, and sociocultural goods, such as group status and cultural distinctiveness. Ethnic conflict, Williams finds, can be portrayed as a set of dynamic processes that may escalate from restrained confrontations over limited issues to devastating ethnic warfare and genocide.Throughout, Williams attends to present-day realities and continually reminds readers that ethnic conflict has human significance and lasting effects. His analysis implies that the military and political behavior of the United States profoundly affects whether faraway places attempt ethnic cooperation or shatter into deadly conflict. The Wars Within ends on a note of mild hope as Williams provides an overview of ways to prevent, moderate, or resolve severe intrastate violence.

About the Author :
Robin M. Williams Jr. is Henry Scarborough Professor of Social Science, Emeritus, at Cornell University and longtime Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of California-Irvine. He is a former president of the American Sociological Association and the author of several books, including American Society: A Sociological Interpretation and Strangers Next Door: Ethnic Relations in American Communities.

Review :
A long-standing student of social conflict—especially its ethnic and racial forms—for over half a century, Robin Williams, Jr., has produced a wide-ranging and stimulating work of synthesis. He brings together an immense body of literature, including a fascinating array of work on the nature of ethic and national identities.... While William's canvas is global and his approach is very much a multidisciplinary one, he focuses on a specific period of time—from 1945 to the early years of the 21st century. - Christopher Dandeker (American Journal of Sociology) The Wars Within... is densely packed with valuable information, analysis and synthesis. Irrespective of diversity in areas of expertise or interest, anyone reading this book will find an amazing array of well-considered theories and research. Professor Williams is painstakingly careful to present the data in an extensive and well articulated discourse that provides the reader with an impressive view of positions and counter positions, whether economic, political, or social, regarding inter and intra state conflicts.... This is not a book to be lightly skimmed. It is a rich treasure house of information and perspectives, of considerations around both meaning and context relevant to the issue of wars within states, which are perhaps reflective of the wars within people, themselves. This book is another 'must have' fusion of important information, analysis, and synthesis. - Dr. Shyrl Topp Matias (International Journal on World Peace) A geographically and conceptually comprehensive introduction to a complex subject. With his extensive use of ethnic conflict studies, particularly those of the last two decades, Williams shows the reader how much has been achieved in the field. (Choice) In The Wars Within, Williams provides a comprehensive review of research on ethnic conflict within nations. His coverage is broad in the range of topics covered, in the levels of analysis, in disciplines drawn from, and in geographical coverage; he relates these various aspects to each other in a coherent way.... While sociologists pay a good deal of attention to the sources of social conflict, they generally give less attention to ways to reduce it. This book should serve to stimulate further interest and research in both aspects of ethnic conflict. - Martin Patchen (Contemporary Sociology)