Conscientious Objection: Resisting Militarized Society

Refusing to take part in war is as old as war itself. This wide-ranging and original book brings together four different bodies of knowledge to examine the pratice of conscientious objection: historical and philosophical analyses of conscientious objection as a critique of compulsory military service and militarization; feminist, LGBT and queer analyses of conscientious objection as a critique of patriarchy, sexism, and heterosexism; activist and academic analyses of conscientious objection as a social movement and individual act of resistance; legal analyses of the status of conscientious objection in international and national law. Conscientious objection is an increasingly important subject of academic and political debate in countries including the US, Israel and Turkey. This book provides a much needed introduction and tool for making sense of the history of nation-states in the 20th century and understanding the political developments of the early 21st century.

Ozgur Heval Cinar is a lawyer. Currently he is a Ph.D. candidate in the Law Department at the University of Essex.

Coskun Usterci is currently a member of the Human Rights Association, and has been working since 1992 at the Human Rights Foundation of Turkey. He is a board member of this foundation.