Why and how do countries buy the armaments and defence equipment they do buy? The first volume of this study, published in 1998, examined in detail the processes that lie behind arms procurement decisions in six arms-recipient countries: China, India, Israel, Japan, South Korea, and Thailand. This second volume contains similar case studies based on extensive original research by experts from the national academic and defence communities in six more countries. It considers in particular whether arms procurement can become more responsive to the broader objectives of security and public accountability.

This is the first issue of the biannual, peer-reviewed Journal of Romanian Studies, jointly developed by The Society for Romanian Studies and ibidem Press. The new interdisciplinary journal examines critical issues in Romanian Studies, linking work in that field to wider theoretical debates and issues of current relevance, and serving as a forum for junior and senior scholars. The journal also presents articles that connect Romania and Moldova comparatively with other states and their ethnic majorities and minorities, and with other groups by investigating the challenges of migration and globalization and the impact of the European Union. Volume 1,1 (2019) Katherine Verdery: Thoughts on a Century of Surveillance Vintila Mihailescu: From Peasant to Post-Peasant Society. The Rural Footprint of Nation-Building Dennis Deletant: Shattered Illusions: Britain and Iuliu Maniu, 1942-1945 Maria Bucur: Queen Marie and Interwar Feminism Marius Stan and Vladimir Tismaneanu: Stalinism and Anti-Stalinism in Romania: The Case of Alexandru Jar Revisited

The nuclear age is coming to the Middle East. Understanding the scope and motivations for this development and its implications for global security is essential. The last decade has witnessed an explosion of popular and scholarly attention focussed on nuclear issues around the globe and especially in the Middle East. These studies fall into one of four general categories. They tend to focus either on the security and military aspects of nuclear weapons, or on the sources and mechanisms for proliferation and means of reversing it, or nuclear energy, or the logics driving state policymakers toward adopting the nuclear option. The Nuclear Question in the Middle East is the first book of its kind to combine thematic and theoretical discussions regarding nuclear weapons and nuclear energy with case studies from across the region. What are the key domestic drivers of nuclear behaviour and decision-making in the Middle East? How are the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council seeking to employ nuclear energy to further guarantee and expedite their hyper-growth of recent decades? Are there ideal models emerging in this regard that others might emulate in the foreseeable future, and, if so, what consequences is this development likely to have for other civilian nuclear aspirants? These region-wide themes form the backdrop against which specific case studies are examined.

The Iranian nuclear crisis has dominated current affairs and geopolitics for over a decade. Yet there is little real understanding of Iran's nuclear programme, in particular its history, which is now over fifty years old. This ground-breaking book argues that the history of Iran's nuclear programme and the modern history of the country itself are irrevocably linked, and only by understanding one can we understand the other. From the programme's beginnings under the Shah of Iran, the book details the central role of the US in the birth of nuclear Iran, and the role that nuclear weapons have played in the programme since the beginning. The author's unique access to 'the father' of Iran's nuclear programme, as well as to key scientific personnel under the early Islamic Republic and to senior Iranian and Western officials at the centre of today's negotiations, sheds new light on the uranium enrichment programme that lies at the heart of global concerns. What emerges is a programme that has, for a variety of reasons, a deep resonance to Iran. This is why it has persisted with it for over half a century in the face of such widespread opposition. Drawing on years of research across the world, David Patrikarakos has produced the most comprehensive examination of Iran's nuclear programme - in all its forms to date. This new edition features interviews with the main actors who saw through President Obama's Iran nuclear deal, and give the inside story in how progress stalled under the Trump administration.