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Volume XVI (2005)
FOREWORD
The various articles and reviews assembled for this issue are a reflection of the diversity
within Third World studies. It includes articles featuring an alternative view of weapons
of mass destruction, a comparison of Gandhi and King, and an assessment of South
Africa’s transition to democracy.
The opening article is Michael J. Siler’s “The Global Weapons of Mass Destruction
Threat: A Counter-Argument to the Western Interdisciplinary Viewpoint,” which is nothing
less than a Kuhnian “paradigm” shift within the Western debate on global nonproliferation
policy. At a time when policy makers use certain mental models or maps that allow them to
organize and interpret information in ways that absolutely prohibit the rational justification
of the acquisition of nuclear weapons and WMD capabilities by Third World states, Siler
tilts the traditional Western paradigm on its head by proposing the question of whether it is
in the national security interests of some Third World states to acquire such weapons and
capabilities, given the resistance of the nuclear weapons states to protect them against a
nuclear or WMD attack from some belligerent. As Siler notes, the cost to major Third World
states linking proliferation with their long-term national security interests may be severe,
given that U.S. national security decision-makers have proposed using not only diplomatic,
but also military means to ensure that the acquisition does not take place.
In “Gandhi and King: A Comparison,” Michael J. Nojeim sets the stage for the oft
made claim that Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr., were the greatest advocates
and practitioners of nonviolent resistance in the twentieth century. By delving into the
lives of these two proponents of social change, Nojeim’s article contributes to a fuller understanding
of the lives and works of Gandhi and King’s by comparing them as activists
committed to nonviolence, as leaders, as religious devotees, as men, and as heroes. The
article ends with a brief analysis of Gandhi and King’s legacy in their respective countries.
Although Gandhi and King’s nonviolent visions do not dominate Indian and American society
in the twenty-first century, their example and influence permeate these societies, as
well as the rest of the world.
In “Miracle or Model? South Africa’s Transition to Democracy,” David T. Jervis takes
issue with the view that South Africa’s transition to democracy was simply a miracle. If the “miracle thesis” holds true, then there is no need to learn from it in order to apply its truths
to similar situations in Africa and elsewhere. On the other hand, if South Africa’s transition
was less of a miracle and more a result of certain practices, then its transition could serve as
a model for similar situations. Jervis considers the extent to which the transition should be
considered as a one-of-a-kind miracle or as a model for other cases. He concludes that there
were elements of both the miraculous and practice derived from theory, and that both were
crucial to South Africa’s transition. Although this transition would not have been successful
without a number fortuitous events and circumstances, those events and circumstances were
fortuitous largely due to how the transition process was designed by the participants. Jervis
is unwavering in his claim that South Africa’s emergence as a peaceful, multiracial democracy
should be considered as both a miracle and a model.
This issue includes review essays by Jonathan Benjamin-Alvarado and Richard R. Super.
Benjamin-Alvarado reviews Jorge Dominguez, Omar Everleny Péree Villanueva, and Lorena
Barberia’s new book The Cuban Economy at the Start of the Twenty-First Century (Harvard
University Press, 2005) and Max Azicri and Elsie Deal’s Cuban Socialism in a New Century:
Adversity, Survival, and Renewal (University Press of Florida, 2004). Super reviews
Steve J. Stern’s Remembering Pinochet’s Chile: On the Eve of London, 1998 (Duke University
Press, 2004) and Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the
Pinochet Era, 1973–2002 (Duke University Press, 2004) edited by Peter Winn. The Book
Review section concludes this issue with five reviews. Paul A. Williams reviews Tim Couzens
Murder at Morija (Random House, 2003); David T. Jervis reviews Witney W. Schneidman’s
Engaging Africa: Washington and the Fall of Portugal’s Colonial Empire (University Press
of America, 2004); Ann R. Tickamyer reviews Vinson H. Sutlive Jr.’s Female and Male in
Borneo: Contributions and Challenges to Gender Studies (The Borneo Research Council,
1991); Cynthia Cook reviews Charles Zenner’s Culture and the Question of Rights: Forests,
Coasts, and Seas in Southeast Asia (Duke University Press, 2002); Teresa Trumbly
Lamsam reviews the United Nations’ The State of the World Cities 2004/2005 (Earthscan,
2004); Owen G. Mordaunt reviews John L. Daly’s Training in Developing Nations: A Handbook
for Expatriates (M.E. Sharp, 2005); Melanie Lewandowski reviews Nigel Eltringham’s
Accounting for Horror: Post-Genocide Debates in Rwanda (Pluto Press, 2004); and Ghaleb
Darabya reviews John Quigley’s The Case for Palestine: An International Law Perspective
(Duke University Press, 2005).
The editorial staff of the Journal invites you to continue manuscript submissions for
consideration in future issues. As always, the ITWSJ&R is a refereed publication and is
open to articles and book reviews addressing any aspect of Third World studies. Articles
examining the concept of the Third World are equally solicited. In addition, future issues
will include reviews of films, translations, book notes, discussion notes, and interviews.
Submissions should be mailed to the address printed in the Information for Contributors
section of this issue.
In an attempt to make the journal more readily accessible, the editors have offered an
on-line version of the journal. Whether the journal moves to an on-line only format will be
gauged by the success of this experiment.
The contents of the last four volumes and the Information for Contributors can be
found on the journal’s website at http://www.unomaha.edu/itwsjr. The journal’s homepage
is maintained by the Department of Philosophy and Religion at http://www.unomaha.edu/
wwwphrel. For information on the upcoming Global Studies Conference at the University
of Nebraska at Omaha, go to http://www.unomaha.edu/world/twsc/.
—Rory J. Conces
Volume XVI |
