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Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Interdisciplinary studies > Area / regional studies
Five years ago, Good Governance Africa undertook to focus its National Security Programme on a core phenomenon that actively seeks to disrupt, undermine and destroy peace, development and security across Africa. This is the problem of extremisms in Africa – an increasing scourge. These movements are religious, ethnic and race-based in nature, and represent complex and supreme threats to stability.
To better prepare ourselves to understand and engage extremist threats in order to prevent, counter and overcome them, GGA has scoured the African continent, producing a collection of close on 50 chapters of knowledge in a trilogy of book volumes (of which this book is the third) covering a plethora of topics across regions and countries, dedicated to markedly diverse themes.
Volume 3 of Extremisms in Africa consists of 17 contributions, and evidences an even greater attention to detail on further developments and potential threats. Topically, given the global COVID-19 pandemic, the book looks at the pressing theme of the weaponisation of viruses; current insurgency developments in northern Mozambique; the impact of extremisms on business; the business that is extremist activity; and the crime–extremism nexus and terror financing in Africa’s Horn. On the tech and cyber front, the book examines the rise of artificial intelligence and social media. To the north, it examines why Libya remains problematic, to the west, we examine why kidnapping is rife there, and to the south, Volume 3 reviews lessons learned for southern Africa, amongst other topics.
It is January, 1978. Groups of nervous, dutiful white conscripts
begin their National Service with Rhodesia's security forces. Ian
Smith's minority regime is in its dying days and negotiations
towards majority rule are already under way. For these
inexperienced eighteen-year-olds, there is nothing to do but go on
fighting, and hold the line while the transition happens around
them. Dead Leaves is a richly textured memoir in which an ordinary
troopie grapples with the unique dilemmas presented by an
extraordinary period in history - the specters of inner violence
and death; the pressurized arrival of manhood; and the place of
conscience, friendship and beauty in the pervasive atmosphere of
futile warfare.
A foundational essay of class struggle published in English for the
first time Considered one of the most important intellectuals in
Latin American social thought, Ruy Mauro Marini demonstrated that
underdevelopment and development are the result of relations
between economies in the world market, and the class relations they
engender. In The Dialectics of Dependency, the Brazilian
sociologist and revolutionary showed that, as Latin America came to
specialize in the production of raw materials and foodstuffs while
importing manufactured goods, a process of unequal exchange took
shape that created a transfer of value to the imperialist centers.
This encouraged capitalists in the periphery to resort to the
superexploitation of workers - harsh working conditions where wages
fall below what is needed to reproduce their labor power. In this
way, the economies of Latin America, which played a fundamental
role in facilitating a new phase of the industrial revolution in
western Europe, passed from the colonial condition only to be
rendered economically "dependent," or subordinated to imperialist
economies. This unbalanced relationship, which nonetheless allows
capitalists of both imperialist and dependent regions to profit,
has been reproduced in successive international divisions of labor
of world economy, and continues to inform the day-to-day life of
Latin American workers and their struggles. Written during an
upsurge of class struggle in the region in the 1970s, and published
here in English for the first time, the revelations inscribed in
this foundational essay are proving more relevant than ever. The
Dialectics of Dependency is an internationalist contribution from
one Latin American Marxist to dispossessed and oppressed people
struggling the world over, and a gift to those who struggle from
within the recesses of present-day imperialist centers--nourishing
today's efforts to think through the definition of "revolution" on
a global scale.
In Power in the Balance: Presidents, Parties, and Legislatures in
Peru and Beyond, Barry S. Levitt answers urgent questions about
executive power in "new" democracies. He examines in rich detail
the case of Peru, from President Alan Garcia's first term
(1985-1990), to the erosion of democracy under President Alberto
Fujimori (1990-2000), through the interim government of Valentin
Paniagua (2000-2001) and the remarkable, if rocky, renewal of
democracy culminating in Alejandro Toledo's 2001-2006 presidency.
This turbulent experience with democracy brings into clear focus
the functioning of formal political institutions-constitutions and
electoral laws, presidents and legislatures, political parties and
leaders-while also exposing the informal side of Peru's national
politics over the course of two decades. Levitt's study of politics
in Peru also provides a test case for his regional analysis of
cross-national differences and change over time in presidential
power across eighteen Latin American countries. In Peru and
throughout Latin America, Levitt shows, the rule of law itself and
the organizational forms of political parties have a stronger
impact on legislative-executive relations than do most of the
institutional traits and constitutional powers that configure the
formal "rules of the game" for high politics. His findings, and
their implications for improving the quality of new democracies
everywhere, will surprise promoters, practitioners, and scholars of
democratic politics alike.
Over the last 40 years, the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute has been
honoured to partner with the Singapore government in hosting 44
Singapore Lectures. The Singapore Lecture series is a unique public
platform for world leaders and experts visiting Singapore that
reflects the city-state's role as a global hub of ideas and
diplomacy. The 21 lectures chosen for this 40th anniversary volume
chart the fundamental changes in the global economy and the
inter-state system that Southeast Asia and Singapore have
successfully navigated over these four momentous decades.
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