Created in 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency plays an important part in the nation's intelligence activities, and is currently playing a vital role in the "war on terrorism." While the agency is often in the news and portrayed in television shows and films, it remains one of the most secretive and misunderstood organizations in the United States. This work provides an in-depth look into the Central Intelligence Agency and how its responsibilities affect American life. After a brief history of the agency, chapters describe its organization, intelligence/counterintelligence, covert operations, controversies, key events, and notable people.

This open access book aims to consolidate and advance debates on European and global energy poverty by exploring the political and infrastructural drivers and implications of the condition across a variety of spatial scales. It highlights the need for a geographical conceptualization of the different ways in which household-level energy deprivation both influences and is contingent upon disparities occurring at a wider range of spatial scales. There is a strong focus on the relationships among energy transformation, institutional change and place-based factors in determining the nature and location of energy-related injustices. The book also explores how patterns and structures of energy poverty have changed over time, as evidenced by some of the common measures used to describe the condition. In part, this means investigating the makeup of energy poor demographics across various social and spatial cleavages. More broadly, it also argues that energy sector reconfigurations are both reflected in and shaped by various domains of social and political organization, especially in terms of creating poverty-relevant outcomes.

This book explores the overall landscape of compulsory education policy development in China from multiple perspectives to uncover the stages, features, problems and suggestions in Chinese compulsory education system, locally, nationally and internationally. In addition, this book also presents specific historical educational policy shifts for policymakers and stakeholders to investigate the compulsory education strategy over the long term. Specifically, the Chinese compulsory education policy landscape involves investigating changes to the legal environment, management policies, as well as practices for teachers and curriculum and teaching materials. These discussions contribute to the readers' comprehensive and systematic understanding of compulsory education policy development in contemporary China.

This book systematically introduces readers to the framework of China's ETS pilots, exploring their design and operating process, the current state of the carbon market, and various barriers encountered. To do so, it deconstructs the Guangdong ETS, which is the largest and most representative of China's seven ETS pilots. The book subsequently describes and evaluates all seven pilots in terms of their efficiency, macro and micro effects, the method involved in the DEA model, the CGE model, and cost-benefit analysis. In turn, in the assessment section it demonstrates how some ETS pilots have failed to control carbon emissions due to inordinately high emissions quotas issued by the local government etc. Further, it argues that ETS should focus on those industries with large emissions and high mitigating potential for the time being, and then gradually expand the scale of its coverage. As China's national ETS is slated for launch on the basis of the lessons learned from the ETS pilots, the book offers a timely and valuable resource for all those who want to understand and forecast the development of China's ETS. It includes a wealth of descriptions and explanations of Chinese government policies involving carbon emissions control, making it a unique resource.

No modern U.S. president inherited a stronger, safer international position than Bill Clinton. In 1992, the Cold War was over, and the nation was at peace and focused on domestic issues. Despite this temporary tranquility, Clinton would soon be faced with a barrage of crises, including flare-ups of unrest in the Middle East, ethnic conflict in Yugoslavia, uneasy relations with Japan and China, persistent trouble in the Persian Gulf, the dissolution of the USSR, and disastrous situations in Somalia and Haiti.

In this comprehensive and balanced examination of Clinton's foreign policy--the first such book to cover all the global focal points of his administration to date--William G. Hyland brilliantly shows the effects of combining this confusion with Clinton's unique personality characteristics. His first term was marked, in the author's analysis, by murky policy, unrealistic goals, and the mishandling of several crises. By the end of that term he learned some hard lessons, was able to alter his pattern of response, and reversed himself on some major aspects of foreign policy--all to benefit, in the author's view, the country and the world as a whole.

Promoting rural entrepreneurship is a necessary step to limit the negative effects of classical agricultural policy based on a linear process and attracting secondary resources to the economic process. The analysis of agricultural policy and rural development in conjunction to entrepreneurship in terms of production may represent a further step in understanding the role and importance of diversifying the rural potentials in contemporary economies. The Handbook of Research on Agricultural Policy, Rural Development, and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Economies is an essential publication of academic research that examines agricultural policy and its impact on shaping future resilient economy in rural areas and identifies green business models and new business patterns in rural communities. Covering a range of topics such as entrepreneurship, product management, and marketing, this book is ideal for researchers, policymakers, academicians, economists, agriculture professionals, rural developers, business investors, and students.

This book analyses neo-liberal economic policy in Hong Kong and its relationship to British colonial governance. Using historical, political, and economic examples, the author argues that the growth and stability experienced by Hong Kong in the post-WWII/pre-1997 era was a direct result of policies enacted by the British in an effort to maintain colonial dominance in an era of decolonization rather than the independent workings of the free market. The book works through examples of policies employed by the British in Hong Kong, such as the creation of artificial scarcity in colonial land policy, the construction of large-scale public housing and the Mass Transit Railway System, and education policy that favored competition. Challenging long-accepted narratives, this book draws a direct line between market fundamentalism and direct colonial control. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars and students of economics, political science, history, and those studying the Asia-Pacific region.

The second edition of this acclaimed book offers a critical analysis of the transition from institutional to community care for people with mental health problems. Despite the almost complete abandonment of the old Victorian asylum system, the powerful cultural legacy of segregation remains potent in modern thought. Rogers and Pilgrim analyse the impact of new policies introduced by the Labour government since it came to power in 1997, identifying both the processes and causes of policy change and assessing its value in the context of longer term debates about madness and distress.

Highlighting American cultural and political contexts, this book provides an in-depth assessment of the breadth and magnitude of the United States' errors in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. An Unmitigated Disaster chronicles and explains the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency management expert Robert O. Schneider considers the quality of U.S. pandemic planning and preparedness; the quality and effectiveness of national, state, and local response efforts; and the performance of national leaders during this historic public health crisis. The book culminates in an assessment of how a predictable public health threat became an unprecedented health, economic, and security disaster. Schneider convincingly shows that conscious decisions were made by governmental authorities, beginning with the president, to ignore expert information and security intelligence in pursuit of other objectives. In other words, Schneider argues, if the U.S. was ill-prepared for or slow to respond to the crisis, it was because its leaders consciously chose to be ill-prepared or slow to respond. Readers will be fascinated by this behind-the-scenes expose of a pandemic year. Provides a political analysis and historical documentation of COVID-19 in real time Includes insights from the author's expertise in disaster preparedness, mitigation, and response Demonstrates why the United States stood alone as the only affluent nation to have suffered severe and sustained outbreaks for the entire year in 2020 Explains the nature and the degree of U.S. failure to respond to the pandemic Offers the definitive answer to the question "Was the United States prepared for the pandemic?"

This expansive reference examines the many types of Family Life Education (FLE) programs being offered around the world, reflecting a myriad of cultures and contexts. Coverage identifies core FLE content areas including parenting education, human sexuality, and interpersonal relationships, and details their programming in various countries over six continents, the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Contributors discuss complex challenges of program design, implementation, and evaluation, as well as connections between FLE and family prevention and intervention services. This knowledge is of great theoretical and practical utility across various fields, and is of particular interest to those developing programs for diverse populations. This unique volume: Presents in-depth information on Family Life Education programs from different countries around the world. Discusses how the socio-historic, political, and economic context of a country impacts its families and family services and programs. Covers current topics including poverty, domestic violence, and immigration. Encourages best practices and thorough understanding of the country/region. Offers recommendations for family service providers. Global Perspectives on Family Life Education is a trove of vital knowledge benefitting scholars and researchers as well as professors, postgraduates, graduate and undergraduate students, and practitioners in the family sciences, family life education, family therapy, social work, child and family studies, psychology, sociology, social work, cultural studies, and urban studies.

International migration has become a major domestic political issue in many countries and a major topic of international debate. Thus far, most of the attention has centered on the plight of refugees or on ways to curb the flow of illegal immigrants. As more and more migrants cross interstate boundaries, however, governments are realizing that immigration and asylum problems cannot be separated from broader socio-economic and political issues; nor can they be resolved by countries acting unilaterally. Even with this understanding, attempts to develop multilateral strategies to ease international tensions arising from uncontrolled migration will be complicated by economic disparities, regional political tensions, and mounting population and ecological pressures. Internal migration, particularly in terms of forced resettlement and urbanization, also gives rise to a myriad of problems relating to aspects of security. The increase in other major population movements, such as tourism and business travel, also has implications for security. Until recently, the question "what is security?" was rarely asked in the context of these developments. This was because there was a perceived consensus on what the nature of security was. The nature of security was held to mean national, political, and military security. Thus security was virtually synonymous with "defense." The theoretical claim of this volume is that these developments are necessitating a redefinition of security. This volume provides major theoretical analyses of these trends as well as in-depth case studies that explore specific developments of major concern to scholars and other researchers involved with international relations, migration, and development issues.

In the mid-1980s Mikhail Gorbachev's political and economic reforms promised a relaxation of tensions between the U.S.S.R. and the United States without disturbing the basic balance of power in Europe established after the Second World War. Then came the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the vast democratic revolution that swept the Soviet empire, creating a power vacuum east of Berlin. Could such an upheaval have been a natural and logical extension of the course of reform that Gorbachev began plotting in 1985?

Gorbachev's Revolution argues persuasively that the end of Communism was never the goal of the Soviet leader but rather the unintended result of an intense and many-faceted struggle for power. Anthony D'Agostino demonstrates that the pervasive image of stable in-system reform in fact ignored evidence from history. Succession struggles in the U.S.S.R. were generally wars of ideas in which the victors got their way by challenging their opponents' interpretations of the past.

Through political memoirs, newspaper accounts, and historical documents, Gorbachev's Revolution demonstrates once again that revolutionaries change the world not only according to their own designs but also according to the world's designs on them.

It seems that only a short time ago, numerous academics and practitioners in the field were somewhat blinded by the successes of the dot-com developments in the private sector, and some of them enthusiastically claimed that public administration was to be revolutionized. But that did not happen, and also the dot-com soap bubble burst. This suggests that there is much yet to be learned about innovation in public administration, especially about innovations at the cornerstones of technological and institutional transformations. New and more fully developed formulations of theory into practice are needed. The goal of the editors of this book is to contribute to some aspects of the understanding of e-government. In order to understand electronic government, one has to scrutinize the various environments and contexts in which e-government is developed and implemented. As such, it builds upon the biological and environmental lines of reasoning that have been suggested by authors like Bonnie Nardi and Vicky O'Day, and Thomas Davenport and Laurence Prusak.

Is the world entering a period of breakdown or breakthrough? As Suter makes clear, globalization is reducing the role of national governments, but it is not yet clear what will follow the current world order. He explains the process of globalization and uses the technique of scenario planning to examine alternative forms of global order and disorder.

The current world order is ending. The old order has been based on nation-states, or countries, with centralized national governments. As Keith Suter makes clear, the process of globalization, which is now the most important factor in world politics, is undermining that world order and leading to world disorder. Globalization is the process of the erosion of the nation-state as the basic unit of world politics, the declining power of national governments, and the reduced significance of national boundaries.

Global change is running ahead of governments' abilities to manage it. Economics is only a part of that process. Suter also deals with other vital concerns: war, crime, environment, and health. Therefore, while Suter examines the growth and impact of transnational corporations, he also takes in many other matters that comprise globalization. The process of globalization is not reversible. Therefore, there has to be a search for a new order rather than vain efforts to patch up the system of the nation-states. Suter concludes by exploring alternatives to the current world order using the technique of scenario planning. A provocative analysis that will be of interest to scholars, students, researchers, and the general public concerned with international relations, law, and economic issues.

Shinoda provides an analytical framework for examining the role of the prime minister in Japan's political decision making. He shows that two dimensions of fraction within the government and the ruling party--interagency rivalry and intraparty factions--confront the prime minister whenever a major policy issue needs to be resolved. Despite these obstacles, Shinoda shows that the prime minister can be effective.

First, Shinoda identifies the sources of power available to Japanese prime ministers--some from legal authorities and others from informal sources. Because prime ministers must rely on informal sources of power to effectively utilize institutional sources of power, their effectiveness varies depending on their background, experience, political skills, and personality. Shinoda identifies six major informal sources of power: power base within the ruling party, control over the bureaucracy, ties with the opposition parties, public support, business support, and international reputation. The national leader's leadership style can be defined depending on which sources of power they utilize in the policy process. He presents both successful and unsuccessful case studies--Hashimoto's administrative reform, Takeshita's tax reform, and Nakasone's administrative reform-- illustrate how different prime ministers have succeeded or failed in applying their political resources. After examining these three case studies, Shinoda uncovers four types of leadership among Japanese prime ministers. A major analytical resource for scholars and students of Japanese politics and political economy and comparative politics.

This book is open access under a CC-BY license. The volume presents papers on vocational education, project-based learning and science didactic approaches, illustrating with sample cases, and with a special focus on Central Asian states. Thematically embedded in the area of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the book examines the following main topics: project-based learning (PBL), specific didactics with a linkage to food technologies and laboratory didactics, media and new technologies in TVET, evaluation of competencies including aspects of measurement, examination issues, and labour market and private sector issues in TVET, and research methods with a focus on empirical research and the role of scientific networks. It presents outcomes from TVET programmes at various universities, colleges, and teacher training institutes in Central Asia.

This book is designed as a basic text for courses that are part of an interdisciplinary program in environmental studies. The intended reader is anyone who expects environmental stewardship to be an important part of his or her life, as a citizen, a policy maker, or an environmental management professional. In addition to discussing major issues in environmental ethics, it invites readers to think about how an ethicist's perspective differs from the perspectives encountered in other environmental studies courses. Additional topics covered include corporate social responsibility, ecological citizenship, property theory, and the concept of stewardship as a vocation.

This volume provides a comprehensive overview of the role of local governments around the world in the management of the migration, integration and development nexus. Drawing on case studies from the Global North and South, this comparative work fills a lacuna in the existing literature which has focused largely on migration as addressed by European and North American cities. Further, it widens the current debate by confronting northern experiences with attitudes and strategies observed in sending countries; clearly demonstrating that international mobility has become a global issue for cities at both end of the migration spectrum. This innovative work will provide a valuable resource for students and scholars working in the social sciences, public policy and development; in addition to practitioners and policymakers.

A comprehensive assessment of how economic policy is made in Britain at the start of the 21st century and of how the content of taxation, spending, monetary and regulatory policy has evolved since 1945. All of this is set in the context of the impact of globalization and the European Union on the autonomy of domestic policy and an assessment of the debates about British economic performance and British decline.

U.S. and British naval power developed in quite different ways in the early 20th century before the Second World War. This study compares, contrasts, and evaluates both British and American naval power as well as the politics that led to the development of each. Naval power was the single greatest manifestation of national power for both countries. Their armies were small and their air forces only existed for part of the period covered. For Great Britain, naval power was vital to her very existence, and for the U.S., naval power was far and away the most effective tool the country could use to exercise armed influence around the world. Therefore, the decisions made about the relative strengths of the two navies were in many ways the most important strategic choices the British and American governments ever made. An important book for military historians and those interested in the exercise and the extension of power.

In the last quarter of the 20th century, politicians in Washington, as well as interest groups, regulatory policy makers, and drug industry leaders were forced to confront the hot-button issue of pharmaceutical regulation. The struggle always centered on product innovation, consumer protection, and choice in the free market. As the American economy stuttered in the late 1970s, the stakes were extremely high for the powerful drug industry and the American public. At the center of this drama was the Food and Drug Administration, which was censured from both the left and right of the political spectrum for being too strict and too lenient in the application of its regulatory powers. Lucas Richert explores the FDA, drugs, and politics in the context of the watershed Reagan era, a period when the rhetoric of limited government, reduced regulation, and enhanced cooperation between businesses and U.S. regulatory agencies was on the ascent. As he investigates the controversies surrounding Laetrile, Reye's Syndrome, Oraflex, patient package inserts, diet pills, and HIV/AIDS drugs, Richert argues that the practical application of conservative economic principles to the American drug industry was A Prescription for Scandal.

Drawing on the principles of welfare economics and public finance, this second edition of Cost-Benefit Analysis: Theory and Application provides the theoretical foundation for a general framework within which costs and benefits are identified and assessed from a societal perspective. With a thorough coverage of cost-benefit concepts and their underlying theory, the volume carries the reader through the steps of a typical evaluation process, including the identification, measurement, and comparison of costs and benefits, and project selection. Topics include alternative measures of welfare change, such as the concepts of consumer surplus and compensating and equivalent variation measures, shadow pricing, nonmarket valuation techniques of contingent valuation and discrete choice experiment, perspectives on what constitutes a theoretically acceptable discount rate, the social rate of time preference, income distribution, and much more. The book also focuses on real-world applications of cost-benefit analysis in two closely related areas-environment and health care-followed by an examination of the current state of the art in cost-benefit analysis as practiced by international agencies.

This book analyses the role of evidence in taking wellbeing from an issue that has government attention to one that leads to significant policy change. In doing so, it draws on contributions from political science, policy theory and literature specifically on the evidence and policy relationship. The book has three main aims: to understand the role of evidence in shaping the prospects for wellbeing in public policy; to inform the barriers literature on the use of evidence in policy; and, to inform the multiple streams approach (MSA) to agenda-setting. While the book focuses on developments at UK government level, a number of the findings and arguments presented here have wider significance, both in relation to wellbeing developments elsewhere and to the theoretical literatures on agenda-setting and evidence use. The book draws on insights from interviews with policy-makers and stakeholders that were undertaken as part of the work of the Community Wellbeing Evidence Programme of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing.