Review

Reviewed Work(s): The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia by Lutz Kleveman
Review by: Pavel Baev
Source: Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 41, No. 5 (Sep., 2004), pp. 641-642
Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4149629
Accessed: 19-12-2017 16:17 UTC

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 BOOK NOTES 641

0 Gallagher, Tom, 2003. The Balkans After the

unfairly by the Versailles Treaty's one-sided dis-
Cold War: From Tyranny to Tragedy. armament
London & provisions. What also hampered the
New York: Routledge. 256 pp. ISBN playing of this role was the widely held belief that
0415277639. the UK had already disarmed unilaterally to such
an extent that no further concessions could be
This volume is the second in a three-volume set justified. Hence, what Britain really aimed at was
being written by Tom Gallagher, a professor at to ensure that the blame for the failure of the con-
Bradford University, and devoted to the history of ference would fall on others. One might have
the Balkans since the French Revolution. The set wished for a more elaborate treatment of the
is apparently intended for use in undergraduate context of the conference, e.g. the preceding
education. Gallagher is best known as a researcher Washington Naval Conference of 1922 and its
on Romanian affairs, having previously con- successors of 1930 and 1932-36, as well as of the
tributed the brilliant monograph Romania After collective security provisions of the League. These
might have rendered disarmament more realistic,
CeauSescu: The Politics of Intolerance (Edinburgh
University Press, 1995). This present work, in had they been credible, and were thus part and
spite of its title, is largely focused on the Yugoslav parcel of the quest for international disarmament
area, especially the recent war. Based on a reading that the author claims the UK simply did not
of English-language sources, Gallagher does not understand. One might also have wished for
provide any new insights into the turbulent greater atttention to the debate among the British
decade of the 1990s. What he provides is a fair- public on one of the central themes of the con-
minded reading in which there is little to take ference, namely, the banning of 'offensive' or
exception to, though his belief that '[t]he rise of 'aggressive' weapons in which such strategic
a communist nationalism under Slobodan thinkers as Fuller and Liddell Hart participated.
Within
Milogevid did not sound alarm bells, nor did his her self-defined limitations, however, the
crack-down in Kosovo' (p. 41) suggests thatauthorthe has produced a solid and meticulously
author was not following the discussions inresearched
the account of an important juncture in
late 1980s in such journals as Orbis, Conflict the history of disarmament and arms control.
Studies, Global Affairs and East European Quar- Bjorn Moller
terly. It is also a pity to see him write that the
official flag of Croatia after 1990 bore a 'simi-
0 Kleveman,
larity' to that used in the fascist Croatian state of Lutz, 2003. The New Great Game:
World War II, while failing to mention that Blood
theand Oil in CentralAsia. New York: Atlantic
Monthly
checkerboard with the red square first was the Press. 287 pp. ISBN 0871139065.
same as used on the socialist flag, while the
There are far too many quasi-academic works
checkerboard used by the fascists had a white
offering 'conceptualization' of the new geopolit-
square first; no Croat is unaware of this differ-
ence. Besides, the checkerboard was featuredical
also
competition for the hydrocarbon resources of
in the medieval insignia of Croatia. the Caspian area - but this impeccably designed
Sabrina P Ramet volume is not just another addition to this bibli-
ography. The author lays no claim to 'scientific
knowledge' but builds on his long journeys
E Kitching, Carolyn J., 2003. Britain and thethe region, from Chechnya to Afghanis-
across
Geneva Disarmament Conference: A Study tan,inand on his many meetings with 'foot
soldiers' in the big and small wars, rather than on
International History. Houndmills: Palgrave Mac-
millan. 256 pp. ISBN 0333968506 (hardback). interviews with key decisionmakers. He takes no
sides in these wars and puts the blame as much
This is a good account of the 1932 worldondis- the oil-thirsty 'great powers' and transnational
armament conference of the League of Nations majors as on the greedy local elites; it is hard to
disagree
with a special focus on the role played by the UK. with his proposition that 'American
Contrary to common (British) assumptions, the of power will not fail to affect relations
arrogance
author does not find the UK to have played between
the the United States and its main rivals in
role of the 'honest broker' between Germany theand
new Great Game: Russia, Iran, and China' (p.
259). However, the unwavering belief (so typical
France, mainly because of its mistrust of France
of the 'academic great-gamers' as well) that oil is
and the feeling that Germany had been treated

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642 journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 41 / number 5/september 2004

the beginning and the end of every political 0 Krepon, Michael, 2003. Cooperative Threat
collision in this conflict-ridden region slightly Reduction, Missile Defense, and the Nuclear Future.
devalues Kleveman's rich first-hand experiences. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 304 pp. ISBN
He is a sharp observer and a captivating narrator, 0312295561 (hardback).
but there may not be enough open-mindedness
that could, in the end, translate into real pen- The author's point of departure is that the 11 Sep-
etration. tember 2001 attacks prompted a long-overdue
Pavel Baev reassessment of the strategic requirements of the
United States, heralding a new era of 'asymmetric
warfare'. This irreversably unravelled the domestic
m Koser, Khalid, ed., 2003. New Africanconsensus on MAD (mutually assured destruction)
Diasporas. London & New York: Routledge. xx + resting on a combination of large numbers of
163 pp. ISBN 0415309492. offensive nuclear weapons with a ban on strategic
defences. The Soviet nuclear threat has thus been
This edited volume consists of eight chapters on replaced by one of terrorists armed with weapons
different aspects of new African diasporas, with of mass destruction. In this context, and consider-
an introduction by the editor. He writes about the ing the unchallenged US military preponderance,
book that 'it "updates" the "diaspora" concept in the national missile defence plans are tantamount,
the African context' (p. 2). Indeed, when the according to Krepon, to 'putting U.S. nuclear
concept of diaspora has been applied to Africa, it deterrence on steroids' (p. 11). The author much
has traditionally been with reference to the 'old' prefers theatre missile defences to national ones. To
slave diaspora and the historical continuities that allay Russian (and to some extent Chinese)
link it with present-day pan-Africanism. By concerns, these should be combined with rather
contrast, the contributions in this book are part deep cuts in the nuclear arsenals, ensuring that the
of the scholarship on diasporas and transnational total number of warheads should be less than the
migration that has come to play a dominant role number of (worthwhile) Russian targets. The resul-
in migration studies over the past decade. Thetant 'new mix of offense and defense' should be
eight chapters are case studies of recent migration negotiated rather than determined unilaterally by
from DRC, Eritrea, Ghana, Senegal and Somalia, Washington and could be subsumed under (an
and of certain multinational African groups in the expanded programme of) 'cooperative threat
United States and United Kingdom. Some con- reduction', which should also include a US acces-
tributions have a rather specific thematic focus sion to the comprehensive test ban treaty, controls
while others (most notably the chapters on Eritrea of fissile material, etc. The recommendations of the
and Somalia) provide broader introductions to author make perfect sense, if his premises are
specific national diasporas. The different writing accepted. That is, that the threat of WMD-armed
styles, approaches and foci constitute a meta- terrorists warrants serious attention and that
comment on the diversity of new African missile defences are bound to be deployed, thereby
diasporas, which is the book's key argument. making theatre defences the lesser evil. With these
However, it also makes the book a rather frag- moderate recommendations, the author thus
mentary and untailored outline of the topic at places himself somewhere between the 'hawks' and
hand. The editor's excellent introduction partly the 'doves', that is, in a position reminiscent of the
makes up for this, and many chapters are certainly 'owls' previously claimed by Graham Allison and
a good read regardless of the merits of the volume. others.
From a peace research perspective, Khalid Koser's Bjorn Moller
chapter on Eritrea is particularly interesting. Not
only does it provide a good introduction to
Eritrea's turbulent recent history and the role of N Morris, Benny, 2004. The Birth of the Pales-
the diaspora, but more generally it illustrates how tinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge:
a diaspora created in part by an armed conflict Cambridge University Press. 640 pp. ISBN
can constitute a valuable resource in post-conflict 0521009677.
reconstruction.

Jorgen Carling In 1988, the Israeli historian Benny Morris pub-

lished his famous book, The Birth of the Palestin-
ian Refugee Problem, 1947-49, sending shock

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