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| Source: CUP |
Description:
Heroes and villains, idealists and mercenaries, freedom fighters and religious fanatics. Foreign fighters tend to defy easy classification. Good and bad images of the foreign combatant epitomize different conceptions of freedom and are used to characterize the rightness or wrongness of this actor in civil wars. The book traces the history of these figures and their afterlife. It does so through an interdisciplinary methodology employing law, history, and psychoanalytical theory, showing how different images of the foreign combatant are utilized to proscribe or endorse foreign fighters in different historical moments. By linking the Spanish, Angolan, and Syrian civil wars, the book demonstrates how these figures function as a precedent for later periods and how their heritage keeps haunting the imaginary of legal actors in the present.
- Provides an interdisciplinary account of international law-making, with specific reference to violent non-state actors
- Introduces the theory step-by-step using ordinary-language explanations and examples throughout
- Portrays a different story of foreign volunteering and offers a window on the constitutive role of cultural archetypes in international law
Table of Contents:
Introduction
1. The Spanish Civil war and the legacy of Nineteenth Century adventurers
2. The return of the mercenaries: The 1976 Luanda trial in context
3. Enemies of humanity or freedom fighters? The Jihadist combatant in the Syrian Civil war
Back to the Future
Bibliography
Index.
Author
Alberto Rinaldi, Lunds Universitet, Sweden
Alberto Rinaldi has worked for academic and non-academic institutions in Egypt, France, and currently Sweden. His research focuses on interdisciplinary approaches to law and the humanities, including law and emotions, literature, cinema, and pop culture.
