For Ukraine, the signing of the Association Agreement and the DCFTA with the European Union in 2014 was an act of strategic geopolitical significance. Emblematic of the struggle to replace the Yanukovych regime at home and to resist attempts by Russia to deny its 'European choice', the Association Agreement is a defiant statement of Ukraine's determination to become an independent democratic state. The purpose of this Handbook is to make the complex political, economic and legal content of the Association Agreement readily understandable. This third edition, published seven years since signature of after entry into force of the Agreement's implementation is substantially new in content, both updating how Ukraine has been implementing the Agreement, and introducing new dimensions (including the Green Deal, the Covid-19 pandemic, cyber security, and gender equality). The Handbook is also up to date in analysing Ukraine's the development of the Zelensky administration, with its unfinished agenda for cutting corruption and reforming the rule of law. Two teams of researchers from leading independent think tanks, CEPS in Brussels and the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) in Kyiv, collaborated on this project, with the support of the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida). This Handbook is one of a trilogy examining similar Association Agreements made by the EU with Georgia and Moldova.

The development of a green and sustainable economy continues to grow in awareness and popularity due to its promotion of a more comprehensive way of achieving economic development through social and environmental efficiency. Sustainable Technologies, Policies, and Constraints in the Green Economy carefully investigates the complex issues which surround the wide array of concepts, policies, and measures that come into play when promoting this somewhat new ideology. This publication covers over 50 years of research in the field in order to provide the best theoretical frameworks and empirical research to its readers. Professors, researchers, practitioners, and students will all benefit from the relevant discussions and diverse conclusions which are revealed in these chapters.

Zakat, a religious obligation in the form of almsgiving, is highly important both in Islam and in the Islamic economy. As Muslim communities face financial hardships around the world, Zakat has emerged as a vital component within these communities and could play a major role in sustainable economic development by helping society to alleviate poverty and promote social equality. Impact of Zakat on Sustainable Economic Development is a pivotal reference source that contributes practical solutions and knowledge production in alleviating poverty in Muslim countries by adopting Islamic approaches to contemporary socio-economics and the importance of Zakat in sustaining development and supporting the welfare of society. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics such as corporate governance, ethics, and sustainable economic development, this book is ideally designed for economists, government officials, regulators, entrepreneurs, financial professionals, religious authorities, researchers, academicians, and students at the postgraduate level.

Viewers of The Thick of It will know of special advisers as spin doctors and political careerists. Several well-known ministers have been special advisers, among them David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Jack Straw and Vince Cable. People also know about the public relations disasters involving Jo Moore, Damian McBride and Adam Smith. But what is the reality? What do special advisers actually do in government? Who are they, where do they come from, and why are they needed? This book is the most detailed study yet carried out of special advisers. The Constitution Unit's research team, led by Dr Ben Yong and Professor Robert Hazell, assembled a comprehensive database of over 600 special advisers since 1979. They conducted written surveys, and interviewed over 100 special advisers, ministers and officials from the past thirty years. They conclude that special advisers are now a permanent and indispensable part of Whitehall, but are still treated as transient and temporary. The book concludes with practical recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of special advisers through improvements to their recruitment, induction and training, support and supervision, and strengthening their accountability.

Who has access, and who is denied access, to food, and why? What are the consequences of food insecurity? What would it take for the food system to be just? Just Food: Philosophy, Justice and Food presents thirteen new philosophical essays that explore the causes and consequences of the inequities of our contemporary food system. It examines why 842 million people globally are unable to meet their dietary needs, and why food insecurity is not simply a matter of insufficient supply. The book looks at how food insecurity tracks other social injustices, covering topics such as race, gender and property, as well as food sovereignty, food deserts, and locavorism. The essays in this volume make an important and timely contribution to the wider philosophical debate around food distribution and justice.

The book makes an important contribution to the discourse on student experience in higher education. The book includes chapters that cover important aspects of the 21st century student experience. Chapters cover issues such as: new trends and insights on the student experience; the changing profile of students in higher education and performance measures used to assess the quality of student experience, institutional approaches in engaging students, using student voice to improve the quality of teaching, COVID-19 and its impact on international students, innovative partnerships between students and academic staff, student feedback and raising academic standards, the increased use of qualitative data in gaining insights into student experience, the use of innovative learning spaces and technology to enhance the learning experience, and the potentially disrupting nature of student feedback and its impact on the health and wellbeing of academic staff, and the increased use of social media reviews by students.

This uniquely composed textbook provides a cross-disciplinary introduction to the field of homeland and civil security. It unites U.S. and international scholars and practitioners in addressing both foundational topics and risk- informed priorities in fostering secure societies. The book examines research-related foundations of homeland and civil security across national boundaries, and how those apply to addressing real-world challenges of our time. Representing different disciplines, intellectual styles, and methodological choices in meeting those challenges, chapters provide a comprehensive perspective across different approaches and levels of governance within an all-hazards framework. The book covers international experiences in border management; intelligence for homeland security; comparative political and legal frameworks for use of "drones"; risk management at the tribal level; terrorism as a strategic hybrid threat; critical infrastructure protection and resilience; historical lessons for emergency management in the homeland security era; the leadership challenge in homeland security; ethics, legal, and social issues in homeland and civil security research and practice; and examples of the scientific status of the field from the epistemic as well as the educational point of view. Including a research guide, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index, the book will be of distinctive worth to homeland security students in graduate courses, as well as to an international student community taking courses in political science, public administration, "new security studies", and security research.

This volume introduces readers to the achievements made in the context of China's reform and opening up. It tells China's story with regard to twelve aspects: the reform path, opening up, macro-economy, regional development, the "three rural" policy, poverty alleviation, industrial development, scientific and technological leadership, ecological civilization, human resources, social security, and income distribution. On the one hand, China's successes and lessons learned in this regard - e.g. the establishment of special economic zones and pilot zones in advance, followed by the implementation of regional development strategies - can be condensed into a general sense of Chinese wisdom. On the other, China's participation in economic globalization and global economic governance can serve as a role model, helping developing countries overcome poverty and move towards modernization. As China accounts for nearly one fifth of the world's total population, the problems and difficulties that it faced at the beginning of reform and opening up are similar to those of many developing countries; therefore, it can provide valuable guidance for developing countries in the form of Chinese wisdom and Chinese approach.

Indonesia has long been hailed as a rare case of democratic transition and persistence in an era of global democratic setbacks. But as the country enters its third decade of democracy, such laudatory assessments have become increasingly untenable. The stagnation that characterized Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's second presidential term has given way to a more far-reaching pattern of democratic regression under his successor, Joko Widodo. This volume is the first comprehensive study of Indonesia's contemporary democratic decline. Its contributors identify, explain and debate the signs of regression, including arbitrary state crackdowns on freedom of speech and organization, the rise of vigilantism, deepening political polarization, populist mobilization, the dysfunction of key democratic institutions, and the erosion of checks and balances on executive power. They ask why Indonesia, until recently considered a beacon of democratic exceptionalism, increasingly conforms to the global pattern of democracy in retreat.

" 'Where in the world is the Philippines?' is a question that has been deftly and consistently dodged by our politicians at the expense of clearly defining the Philippines' territorial and maritime jurisdictions. Severino's scholarly work lays out what has happened in the past and what must be done in the future - and does so just as newly elected President Benigno S. Aquino begins his term in office. With the help of this timely and comprehensive study, it is imperative that Aquino and the Congress confront and resolve territorial issues once and for all." - Roberto R. Romulo, former Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines

This book examines Norwegian education throughout the course of the 19th century, and discusses its development in light of broader transnational impulses. The nineteenth century is regarded as a period of increasing national consciousness in Norway, pointing forward to the political independency that the country was granted in 1905. Education played an important role in this process of nationalisation: the author posits that transnational - for the most part Scandinavian - impulses were more decisive for the development of Norwegian education than has been acknowledged in previous research. Drawing on the work of educator and school bureaucrat Hartvig Nissen, who is recognised as the most important educational strategist in 19th century Norway, this book will be of interest to scholars of the history of education and Norwegian education more generally.

The nation's approach to managing environmental policy and protecting natural resources has shifted from the national government's top down, command and control, regulatory approach, used almost exclusively in the 1970s, to collaborative, multi-sector approaches used in recent decades to manage problems that are generally too complex, too expensive,, and too politically divisive for one agency to manage or resolve on its own. Governments have organized multi-sector collaborations as a way to achieve better results for the past two decades. We know much about why collaboration occurs. We know a good deal about how collaborative processes work. Collaborations organized, led, and managed by grassroots organizations are rarer, though becoming more common. We do not as yet have a clear understanding of how they might differ from government led collaborations. Hampton Roads, Virginia, located at the southern end of the Chesapeake Bay, offers an unusual opportunity to study and draw comparative lessons from three grassroots environmental collaborations to restore three rivers in the watershed, in terms of how they build, organize and distribute social capital, deepen democratic values, and succeed in meeting ecosystem restoration goals and benchmarks. This is relevant for the entire Chesapeake Bay watershed, but is also relevant for understanding grassroots collaborative options for managing, protecting, and restoring watersheds throughout the U.S. It may also provide useful information for developing grassroots collaborations in other policy sectors. The premise underlying this work is that to continue making progress toward achieving substantive environmental outcomes in a world where the problems are complex, expensive, and politically divisive, more non-state stakeholders must be actively involved in defining the problems and developing solutions. This will require more multi-sector collaborations of the type that governments have increasingly relied on for the past two decades. Our approach examines one subset of environmental collaboration, those driven and managed by grassroots organizations that were established to address specific environmental problems and provide implementable solutions to those problems, so that we may draw lessons that inform other grassroots collaborative efforts.

Romero examines the extent to which majority American opinion has shaped Congressional and Supreme Court responses to civil rights issues. She provides an institutionally oriented history of civil rights policy as well as an examination of the validity of the blueprint for our national government. In Romero's view, the design of the government, as articulated in "The Federalist," was meant to provide a balance between a facilitation of the majoritarian democratic process and protection of the rights of minorities. The struggle for civil rights reform represents perhaps the best modern test of whether the Founders' expectations were valid: Were the Founders correct in assuming that, in their respective consideration of minority rights, Congress would reflect majority preferences while the Supreme Court would remain insulated?

After analyzing the shape and direction of public opinion regarding civil rights, Romero examines the congressional record and the record of the Supreme Court. She concludes with a reassessment of the predictions of the Founders as applied to civil rights policy. Of particular interest to scholars and students involved with institutional policy making as well as civil rights issues.

This Open Access book aims to find out how and why states in various regions and of diverse cultural backgrounds fail in their gender equality laws and policies. In doing this, the book maps out states' failures in their legal systems and unpacks the clashes between different levels and forms of law-namely domestic laws, local regulations, or the implementation of international law, individually or in combination. By taking off from the confirmation that the concept of law that is to be used in achieving gender equality is a multidimensional, multi-layered, and to an extent, contradictory phenomenon, this book aims to find out how different layers of laws interact and how they impact gender equality. Further to that, by including different states and jurisdictions into its analysis, this book unravels whether there are any similarities/patterns in how these states define and utilise policies and laws that harm gender equality. In this way, the book contributes to the efforts to devise holistic and universal policies to address various forms of gender inequalities across the world. This volume will be of interest to scholars and students in Gender Studies, Sociology, Law, and Criminology.