Death squads in global perspective : murder with deniability / edited by Bruce B. Campbell and Arthur D. Brenner.

Includes bibliographical references (P. [325]-348) and index.

1. Death Squads: Definition, Problems, and Historical Context / Bruce B. Campbell -- 2. "To Induce a Sense of Terror": Caudillo Politics and Political Violence in Northern Nicaragua, 1926-34 and 1981-95 / Michael J. Schroeder -- 3. Feme Murder: Paramilitary "Self-Justice" in Weimar Germany / Arthur D. Brenner -- 4. Window on the Past: A Declassified History of Death Squads in El Salvador / Cynthia J. Arnson -- 5. State of Siege: Political Violence and Vigilante Mobilization in the Philippines / Eva-Lotta Hedman -- 6. State Terrorism and Death Squads in Uganda (1971-79) / Edward Kannyo -- 7. From Petrus to Ninja: Death Squads in Indonesia / Robert Cribb -- 8. Modernity and Devolution: The Making of Police Death Squads in Modern Brazil / Martha K. Huggins -- 9. The Rise and Fall of Apartheid's Death Squads, 1969-93 / Keith Gottschalk -- 10. India's Secret Armies / Patricia Gossman --

11. Territoriality and Plausible Deniability: Serbian Paramilitaries in the Bosnian War / James Ron -- App. Death Squad Cases: A Short Summary.

"Death squads have become an increasingly common feature of the modern world. In nearly all instances, their establishment is tolerated, encouraged, or undertaken by the state itself. The state thereby risks its monopoly on the use of force, one of its defining characteristics. Why do such a variety of regimes, under very different circumstances, condone this activity?

Using ten case studies from around the world, Death Squads in Global Perspective hopes to answer that question and to explain not only their development, but also why they can be expected to proliferate in the early twenty-first century."--BOOK JACKET.