Ghosts of international law : the figure of the foreign fighter in a cultural perspective / Alberto Rinaldi.
Imprint
Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2024.
Description
1 online resource (x, 243 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).
Series
Cambridge studies in international and comparative law ; 191.
Formatted Contents Note
The Spanish Civil War and the legacy of nineteenth century adventurers The return of the mercenaries : the 1976 Luanda Trial in context Enemies of humanity or freedom fighters? the jihadist combatant in the Syrian Civil War.
Summary
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.
Note
Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 13 Dec 2024).
