An exceptionally detailed and carefully crafted study ... the book strikes an excellent balance between accessibility of style and empirical rigour ... a satisfying combination of facts and rigorous analysis that will be a vital source for anyone engaging in research, development or policy work in Sri Lanka now and in the future.' * Commonwealth and Comparative Politics * Offers a fascinating account of the Sri Lankan government's tense relationship with the international community. Filled with sharp insights, Push Back will help us all have a better sense of where Sri Lanka may be headed. * Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka Project Director, International Crisis Group * This important new volume is essential reading for those wishing to understand the decades-long conflict in Sri Lanka, the quest for accountability, and the challenges of building peace in the wake of conflict. * Chandra Lekha Sriram, University of East London * The first serious academic study of the Rajapaksa regime's manipulation of the international system, which enabled them to preside over mass atrocities and get away scot free. * Frances Harrison, former Sri Lanka correspondent for the BBC and author of Still Counting the Dead: Survivors of Sri Lanka's Hidden War * A brilliant exposition of the end game in the Sri-Lankan civil war. * Kevin Clements, University of Otago * Few inquiries have offered the theoretically incisive lens adopted here ... Combing a nimble, Foucauldian conceptualization of the rapidly changing landscape of "global governance" and notions of "illiberal peacebuilding". * Matthew Godwin, Journal of South Asian Development * Incisively interrogates Sri Lanka's socio-political fabric under the Rajapaksa regime ... the book sheds new light on how the government got away with outrageous human rights violations, even after the war. * Sanjana Hattotuwa, Centre for Policy Alternatives (Sri Lanka) *