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This introductory chapter discusses relevant background information on Zapatismo and locates the text in relation to the international political economy. It studies the ethical and moral responsibilities anthropologists have and argues that a flexible understanding of anthropology can incorporate the functions of witness and observer, especially in relation to human rights work and the human experience of social suffering. This chapter also takes a look at the longer anthropological tradition of ethnography conducted during times of conflict and violence, while suggesting responsible ways to conduct such research.

This chapter provides the reader with background material and a basic understanding of Africa’s uniqueness. It looks at the highly diverse and unique set of security challenges--from traditional to non-traditional—facing the continent and provides an overview of the nature of the threat to the continent and its people. It also sets the stage for an in-depth examination of the key threats to African security (and by extension to the global community) and identifies some emerging trends that present both opportunities and challenges for improving security in the decades ahead.

The protection of civilians in armed conflict (POC) since 1999 has been recognized as a core obligation of the United Nations, and as vital to the legitimation of the Security Council’s role and status in its efforts to control and confront large-scale violence. Over the course of this same period, and with the passage in 2000 of Security Council Resolution 1325, the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda has also become a prominent part of action associated with the protection of civilians. This chapter first discusses some of the steps that have been taken to put POC and WPS on the UN’s agenda, before turning to the official Chinese response to these two core areas of the UN’s activities. That response illustrates once again a complex interplay between Beijing’s understanding that it must be responsive in this area of action, while remaining attentive to its belief in the need to ensure the preservation of a state-based international order that includes a restrained UN Security Council interpretation of the types of conflict that represent threats to international peace and security. In both the POC and WPS policy areas, China accords a primary role to economic development as the most effective means of preventing the conflicts that are the source of civilian harm and for improving women’s rights and representation.

The field of international security, like international relations in general, has been slow to incorporate religion into empirical analysis, policy development, and strategic engagement. Since 9/11, religion has belatedly become a major focus in security circles, yet rarely in ways that put religious freedom per se into the foreground. The focus on religious freedom—its forms, complexities, causes, effects, impediments, strategies, and so on—is not nearly as integrated into the mainstream of the security field as it should be. Moreover, there is tendency to assume a zero-sum relationship between religious freedom and security—that in an era dominated religiously-motivated terrorism, increasing security necessarily means curtailing religious freedom to constrain violent religious extremists. This chapter argues that religious freedom and sustainable security are in fact interdependent. It demonstrates two underlying dynamics in the religion-security relationship: a negative cycle (in which religious restriction/repression leads to insecurity) and a positive cycle (in which religious freedom supports social stability and well-being, and hence security over the long-term). The chapter concludes by providing recommendations for governmental and nongovernmental actors in contemporary world affairs.