Book review: Refugees, capitalism and the British state: implications for social workers, volunteers and activists

"Refugees, Capitalism and the British State: Implications for Social Workers, Volunteers and Activists." Tom Vickers. Ashgate. 2012. --- In this period of economic crisis, public sector cuts, and escalating class struggles, Marxist theory offers social workers and service users important tools to help understand the structures of oppression they face and to devise effective means of resistance. This book uses Marxism’s lost insights, reinterpreting them for the current context by focusing on one particular section of the international working class: refugees and asylum seekers in Britain. Shuo Liu finds that this book offers a unique understanding of the refugee’s position in Britain, and is a valuable contribution to the anti-racism effort

Book review: legions of peace: UN peacekeepers from the global south by Philip Cunliffe

The huge number of security forces stationed around the world as United Nations peace keepers is second only to the global military deployments of the USA. But most UN peacekeepers come from the emerging powers and developing states that comprise the global South. A major contribution of Legions of Peace is its critical review of UN peacekeeping, which rejects any blind, religious like faith in such a system. The analysis of contemporary peacekeeping operations is backed up by rich material, which brilliantly answers the research question with strong and concise arguments, writes Shuo Liu