Overview

This book examines the driving forces that lead to civil wars and revolutions. The authors’ approach differs from the familiar historical narrative, as they differentiate between “causes” or ‘actions of great men’ and “mechanisms” that arise from social activity and behaviour. The latter include early-stage conflicts or outbreaks of violence which, if not checked, can lead to social division and more violent incidents. The approach rooted in methods used in physical experimentation is illustrated in part one using the Fire of London and American war of Independence. Part two examines narratives for uprisings in a range of occupied countries across both the world. Part three implements the approach developed in part one on a broad basis to explore common features of invasions and conflict. A separate chapter looks at the lifetime of political empires and explores why religious empires have much greater longevity. The scientific methods lead to the possibility of prediction and some observations are made of current events in the middle east and Ukraine.

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9789819562671

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Professor Roehner is the author of several books and over 60 papers in various scientific journals spanning physics economics, sociology and physics He has spent time as a guest at various leading economic and physical institutions including: Institute of Economics (Copenhagen, September 1996), Harvard Department of Economics (Summer 1994, Fall 1998), Santa Fe Institute (2002), Harvard Department of Sociology (Spring 2002), Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York (Spring 2003, May-June 2005).Beijing Normal University (Oct 2007, Sep-Nov 2008), Sep-Nov 2009) He was co-organizer of and invited speaker at the Prague 2001 NATO Conference on econophysics (8-10 February). A member of the editorial board of a key websites devoted to econophysics: www.unifr.ch/econophysics, he is also a referee for various physics and economic journals; e.g. Explorations in Economic History, Journal of Development Economics, International Regional Science Review, Journal of Economic Behavior, Physica A, or institutions, e.g. the National Science Foundation. Professor Richmond studied physics at Queen Mary College London and is now the author of over 100 publications in various journals and books covering econophysics, sociophysics. colloid science and solid state physics. He has spent time at various institutions including: University of Kent UK, University of New South Wales, Institute of Advanced Studies Australian National University, Bochum University, Bulgarian Academy of Science, Unilever Research Port Sunlight UK and lately Trinity College Dublin. He has extensive managerial experience having been Director and Head of Laboratory of the Norwich Institute of Food Research and senior management positions within the UK food industry. He was Chair of two large EU COST Actions each with 27 countries participating: Physics of Risk (2002-6) and Physics of Conflict and Cooperation (2007-11). He is a member of the Advisory Editorial board of Physica A and a member of the research committee of the Research Committee of the UK NSFT NHS Hospital Trust concerned with mental health.               

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