On the Faultline : Managing Tensions and Divisions within Societies

This title offers essential insight into the conflicts waiting to happen in every country. Societies in all countries are split by major divisions - or 'faultlines' - caused by differences in race, religion, ethnicity, wealth, class or power. Like geological faultlines, some are plainly evident, whereas others are more concealed and can erupt with little warning. Violence along faultlines within states, from Sudan to Iraq to the Congo, is the spark of much contemporary conflict. It has cost millions of lives in the past twenty years alone. In extreme cases, this violence threatens to tear states apart. Yet some countries such as Canada, South Africa and Northern Ireland, have largely succeeded in managing their faultlines. "On the Faultline" is based on a unique year-long project by some of the world's leading experts to examine the nature of conflict around these divisions. In a world facing acute environmental, migration and resource challenges that can only exacerbate differences, it is an essential guide to understanding a phenomenon that all countries must grapple with in the 21st century.

Dr Jeffrey Herbst is the President of Colgate University and an accomplished scholar of international politics. Dr Greg Mills is Director of the Brenthurst Foundation and one of South Africa's most respected security and development experts. His most recent book is Why Africa is Poor (Penguin). Dr Terence McNamee is Deputy-Director of the Brenthurst Foundation and writer and historian of the acclaimed photographic histories Century and Decade (Phaidon).