© Columbia University Press
For Kin or Country: Xenophobia, Nationalism, and War
June, 2008
Cloth, 320 pages, 6 illus., 10 tables
ISBN: 978-0-231-14478-0
$40.00
/ £27.50
"[For Kin or Country] deserves to be on the bookshelf of every serious scholar of nationalism and ethnic conflict." — Eric Kaufmann, Nations and Nationalism
"For Kin or Country is a breakthrough in the study of ethnic conflict. It provides both rigorous theory and testing with regard to irredentism and reaches a compelling conclusion about the primacy of domestic politics. The book features a sophisticated interplay among identity, xenophobia, and kin status as it successfully accounts for variation in irredentism in recent decades-from absence to near obsession-throughout Eastern Europe. The framework developed explains superficially puzzling cases such as the restraint shown by Hungary and the intense efforts at retrieval from Armenia. This work sets a high standard for the study of ethnic conflict in general and irredentism in particular, and I recommend the book without reservation to both specialists in the area and those with a more general interest in international relations and comparative politics." — Patrick James, professor and director, Center for International Studies, University of Southern California, and vice-president, International Studies Association
"In this important book, Stephen M. Saideman and R. William Ayres correct a lot of nonsense that has been written and said not just about irredentism, but about nationalism and foreign policy. They emphasize the limits to even great powers' ability to influence the choices of other countries, urging humility in the degree to which threats or proffered benefits can change minds. Power, Saideman and Ayres find, may not prevent the efforts of the determined, or motivate the ambivalent. The authors also emphasize the importance of understanding other people's beliefs, especially the content of their nationalist ideology, instead of assuming likely behavior can be guessed from labels such as 'nationalist' or 'extremist.' The paradoxical conclusion is that irredentism may be restrained more by xenophobia than by international pressure. All told, this book is an important contribution to the literatures on identity, nationalism, and foreign policy, and will be profitably read by anyone looking for insight into the tangled nationalist politics of Europe's unsettled east." — Stuart J. Kaufman, professor of political science and international relations, University of Delaware