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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Diplomacy
This book re-examines the Nixon administration's attitude and approach to the European integration project. The formulation of US policy towards European integration in the Nixon presidential years (1969-1974) was conditioned by the perceived relative decline of the United States, Western European emergence and competition, the feared Communist expansionism, and US national interests. Against that backdrop, the Nixon administration saw the need to re-evaluate its policy on Western Europe and the integration process on this continent. Underpinning this study is the extensive use of newly-released archival materials from the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, the Library of Congress, and the State Department. Furthermore, the work is based on the public papers in the American Presidency Project and the materials on the topic of European integration and unification in the Archive of European Integration. Finally, the study has extensively used newspaper archives as well as the declassified online documents, memoirs and diaries of former US officials. Mining these sources made it possible to shed new light on the complexity and dynamism of the Nixon administration's policy towards European integration.
This book analyzes examples of strategic engagement in order to identify the factors which contribute to the success or failure of defence diplomacy in preventing interstate conflict. For more than a century, nations have engaged in defence diplomacy to cultivate mutual understanding and mitigate conflict. A subset of defence diplomacy is strategic engagement, defined as peacetime defence diplomacy between nations that are actual or potential adversaries. This book analyzes three cases of strategic engagement in order to elucidate the factors which contribute to the success or failure of this diplomacy in preventing conflict. It uses an inductive framework to compare strategic engagement in the following cases: Anglo- German defence diplomacy prior to World War I; U.S.-Soviet defence diplomacy during the Cold War; and post-Cold War U.S.-China defence diplomacy. Based upon archival, literature, and personal interview research, the book argues that defence diplomacy can mitigate the risk of interstate conflict between potential adversaries. The lessons learned from this book can be employed to discern the significant elements conducive to achieving a successful outcome of strategic engagement and averting conflict or even war. This book will be of much interest to students of defence studies, diplomacy studies, foreign policy and international relations.
This book examines the history of Belgium's annexation of the former German territories of Eupen and Malmedy during the interwar period. Focusing on Herman Baltia's transitory regime and Belgium's ambivalence about the fate of its new territories, the book charts the strained relations between Baltia's regime and Brussels, the regime's path to dissolution, and the failed retrocession of the territory to Germany. Through close analysis of primary source material, Vincent O'Connell investigates the efforts of Baltia's provisional government to assimilate the region's inhabitants into Belgium. The ultimate failure of that assimilation, he argues, may be traced back not only to incessant pro-German agitation, but to flawed Belgian policy from the outset. Framed in the context of a post-Versailles Europe, the book offers an interesting case study not only of the ebbs and flows of international politics across the frontier zones of Europe in the interwar years, but of how populations react to changes in national sovereignty.
This book seeks to answer one main question: what is the core concern of great powers that streamlines their behavior in the contemporary system of international relations? Building on the examples of the United States, China, Russia, France, and Britain, it tracks both consistency and fluctuations in global power dynamics and great power behavior. The author examines the genesis, causality, and policy implications of decision makers' fixation with retaining a credible image of power in world politics, while exploring how the dynamics of power distribution in international systems modify perceptions of primacy. Drawing on findings from disciplines such as history, economics, social and political psychology, communication theory, philosophy, political science, strategic studies, and above all, from International Relations theory and practice, the volume proposes a novel theory of power credibility, which offers an original explanation of great powers' behavior at the stage of their relative decline.
History and geography delineate the operation of power, not only its range but also the capacity to plan and the ability to implement. Approaching state strategy and policy from the spatial angle, Jeremy Black argues that just as the perception of power is central to issues of power, so place, and its constraints and relationships, is partly a matter of perception, not merely map coordinates. Geopolitics, he maintains, is as much about ideas and perception as it is about the actual spatial dimensions of power. Black's study ranges widely, examining geography and the spatial nature of state power from the 15th century to the present day. He considers the rise of British power, geopolitics and the age of Imperialism, the Nazis and World War II, and the Cold War, and he looks at the key theorists of the latter 20th century, including Henry Kissinger, Francis Fukuyama and Samuel P. Huntington, Philip Bobbitt, Niall Ferguson, and others.
Today Vietnam is one of America’s strongest international partners, with a thriving economy and a population that welcomes American visitors. How that relationship was formed is a twenty-year story of daring diplomacy and a careful thawing of tensions between the two countries after a lengthy war that cost nearly 60,000 American and more than two million Vietnamese lives.  Ted Osius, former ambassador during the Obama administration, offers a vivid account, starting in the 1990s, of the various forms of diplomacy that made this reconciliation possible. He considers the leaders who put aside past traumas to work on creating a brighter future, including senators John McCain and John Kerry, two Vietnam veterans and ideological opponents who set aside their differences for a greater cause, and Pete Peterson—the former POW who became the first U.S. ambassador to a new Vietnam. Osius also draws upon his own experiences working first-hand with various Vietnamese leaders and traveling the country on bicycle to spotlight the ordinary Vietnamese people who have helped bring about their nation’s extraordinary renaissance.  With a foreword by former Secretary of State John Kerry, Nothing Is Impossible tells an inspiring story of how international diplomacy can create a better world.
In Conflict and Human Security Threats in Africa, South African scholar Victor Ojakorotu unravels the dynamics of conflicts and human security threats now affecting numerous African nations. While some of these conflicts are local, others are national and international. This current and highly engaging study captures multiple cases of insecurity, presenting discussions of terrorism, kidnapping, militia activities, human trafficking, political violence, teenage pregnancy, civil war, and armed conflicts, as well as strategies for their future management. Ojakorotu documents a philosophical assessment of African politics as well as the place of the "new" media in the politics of human security and the development of an African worldview in the post-modern intellectual arena. This book is a must-read for all students of African and global politics, as well as policy makers and diplomats working with Africa, which will soon be home to more than three billion people and a center of global growth.
Ending the U.S. war in Iraq required redeploying 100,000 military and civilian personnel; handing off responsibility for 431 activities to the Iraqi government, U.S. embassy, USCENTCOM, or other U.S. government entities; and moving or transferring ownership of over a million pieces of property in accordance with U.S. and Iraqi laws, national policy, and DoD requirements. This book examines the planning and execution of this transition.
In Diplomatic Material Jason Dittmer offers a counterintuitive reading of foreign policy by tracing the ways that complex interactions between people and things shape the decisions and actions of diplomats and policymakers. Bringing new materialism to bear on international relations, Dittmer focuses not on what the state does in the world but on how the world operates within the state through the circulation of humans and nonhuman objects. From examining how paper storage needs impacted the design of the British Foreign Office Building to discussing the 1953 NATO decision to adopt the .30 caliber bullet as the standard rifle ammunition, Dittmer highlights the contingency of human agency within international relations. In Dittmer's model, which eschews stasis, structural forces, and historical trends in favor of dynamism and becoming, the international community is less a coming-together of states than it is a convergence of media, things, people, and practices. In this way, Dittmer locates power in the unfolding of processes on the micro level, thereby reconceptualizing our understandings of diplomacy and international relations.
This volume presents the first global history of human rights politics in the age of decolonization. The conflict between independence movements and colonial powers shaped the global human rights order that emerged after the Second World War. It was also critical to the genesis of contemporary human rights organizations and humanitarian movements. Anti-colonial forces mobilized human rights and other rights language in their campaigns for self-determination. In response, European empires harnessed the new international politics of human rights for their own ends, claiming that their rule, with its promise of 'development,' was the authentic vehicle for realizing them. Ranging from the postwar partitions and the wars of independence to Indigenous rights activism and post-colonial memory, this volume offers new insights into the history and legacies of human rights, self-determination, and empire to the present day.
This book introduces a new perspective on risk seeking behaviour, developing a framework based on various cognitive theories, and applying it to the specific case-study of Turkey's foreign policy toward Syria. The author examines why policy makers commit themselves to polices that they do not have the capacity to deliver, and develops an alternative theoretical model to prospect theory in explaining risk taking behaviour based on the concept of overconfidence. The volume suggests that overconfident individuals exhibit risk seeking behaviour that contradicts the risk averse behaviour of individuals in the domain of gain, as predicted by prospect theory. Using a set of testable hypothesis deduced from the model, it presents an empirical investigation of the causes behind Turkish decision makers' unprecedented level of risk taking toward the uprising in Syria and the consequences of this policy.
This book presents a comprehensive framework, six pathways of connection, which explains the impact of public diplomacy on achieving foreign policy goals. The comparative study of three important public diplomacy practitioners with distinctive challenges and approaches shows the necessity to move beyond soft power to appreciate the role of public diplomacy in global politics. Through theoretical discussions and case studies, six pathways of connection is presented as a framework to design new public diplomacy projects and measure their impact on foreign policy.
This book is about the future of nuclear weapons, geopolitics, and strategy. It examines the legacy of nuclear weapons on US thinking about some concepts of strategy and geopolitics, namely deterrence, extended deterrence, alliances, and arms control. The purpose of this is to demonstrate just how fundamentally nuclear weapons have influenced American thinking about these concepts. It argues that, given the extent of nuclear weapons' influence on these concepts and the implications for international security, further reductions beyond current Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START) levels, and the more absolute idea of nuclear disarmament, may not necessarily be prudent ideas. Nuclear weapons have contributed to the avoidance of major war between states, made alliances more credible and last longer, and have made arms control relatively easier to conceptualize and manage. As such, the author argues, these concepts may become even more difficult to manage in a world where nuclear weapons are marginalized.
This book identifies and addresses subtle but important questions and issues associated with the configuration of International Relations as a discipline. Starting with a much-needed discussion of manifold implications and issues associated with pluralism, the book raises important questions, such as where does the field of IR stand in terms of epistemological, theoretical, and methodological diversity. The book also carries out a comparative analysis of the present status of post-positivist IR scholarship in the United States and China.Eun discusses these questions through a close reading of the key texts in the field and by undertaking a critical survey of publishing and teaching practices in IR communities. IR scholars will gravitate to this text that fills many gaps in international political theory.
This book investigates the economic, political and cultural factors that influence regional economic integration processes as well as international political cooperation in the area of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The authors analyze market integration manifested in interregional trade, investment and service connections. Taking a constructivist approach, they shed new light on how national, ethnic, religious and linguistic factors as well as systems of government, political regimes and models of leadership shape foreign-policy decision-making in various post-Soviet countries.
This book considers the principal challenges facing the European Union, which has been buffeted by a series of profound crises, both internal and external. These range from the future of Ukraine, the Union's reactions to China's 'One Belt, One Road' initiative, how to help stabilize countries to its south, and relations with the United States. The core argument is that the EU lacks a meta-narrative that could indicate priorities and linkages between the various continental, regional, national and thematic strategies. As a result, the EU often appears to be a confusing and even contradictory actor to many international partners. In response to these challenges the EU needs to develop a deeper sense of strategic awareness and confidence so that it may give a more convincing response to fundamental questions about the Union's role, purpose and identity in a changing world.
This book examines how international order at sea is challenged, changed and maintained. The book surveys challenges to the international order at sea in the Asia-Pacific, the Indian Ocean Region, the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. It explores the interaction between and cooperation among leading, emerging and smaller naval powers, both naval and coastguard responses, required for the maintenance of good order at sea. Six broad and interlinked issues are identified that will influence the future international order at sea: the balance between the maritime and the continental domains; the balance between great power rivalry and cooperation; the contest between access and denial; the operational balance between preparing; building and training for warfighting as opposed to operations other than war; how to manage 'disorder' security challenges that very often transcends territorial waters and national boundaries, and finally, the balance between safeguarding national interests and contributing to collective efforts preserving the international order at sea.
This book argues that Michael Oakeshott's political philosophy contributes to current debates in normative international theory and international political theory on the historical, social, and moral dimension of international society. Davide Orsi contends that the theory of civil association may be the ground for an understanding of international society as a rule-based form of moral association constituted by customary international law. The book also considers the role of evolving practices of morality in debates on international justice. Orsi grounds this work on a study of Oakeshott's philosophical arguments and compares the Oakeshottian perspective to recent constructivist literature in International Relations.
This book provides an in-depth analysis of the relations between China and the EU, tracing the development of this complex, yet intriguing, relationship between two substantially different actors. To uncover a deeper understanding of this unlikely partnership, the authors analyze the partnership through the prism of contending norms and worldviews. The China-EU strategic partnership has evolved through fits and starts but despite continuous trade disputes and severe diplomatic misunderstandings, the EU and China pledge to uphold, even deepen, the partnership. Policy experts and scholars will learn how such contending bilateral relationships can be managed and establish a better understanding of deep-seated conceptual differences between these two entities.
This book analyses the global visions of Olof Palme, Bruno Kreisky and Willy Brandt, European social democratic statesmen who earned international esteem for their contributions to global developments during the second half of the twentieth century. Their visions encompassed, inter alia, international peace and security, East-West and North- South Cooperation, and other important domains pertinent to developing countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this volume, the author closely examines the advancements Palme, Kreisky and Brandt made and demonstrates how their visions remain valid for shaping the future of mankind.
This book examines changes in Taiwan's policies toward Mainland China under former Republic of China (ROC) President Ma Ying-jeou (2008-16) and considers their implications for US policy toward the Taiwan Strait. In recent years, the People's Republic of China (PRC)'s increasingly assertive foreign policy behaviors have heightened tensions with its regional neighbors as well as the United States. However, under the Kuomintang (KMT) administration of Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan discounted Beijing's coercion and pursued rapprochement on the basis of the "1992 consensus," which was a tacit agreement reached between the KMT and Chinese Communist Party in 1992 that both Taiwan and the mainland belong to one China though that "China" is subjected to either side's different interpretations. The author of this volume analyzes why Taipei underreacted towards the security challenges posed by the PRC and chartered policies that sometimes went against the interests of Washington and its allies in the Asia-Pacific. The KMT was pushing for nation-building initiatives to rejuvenate the ROC's "one China" ruling legitimacy and to supplant pro-independence forces within Taiwan. The island's deeply fragmented domestic politics and partisanship have led policy elites to choose suboptimal strategy and, thereby, weakening its security position. The implications from this study are equally applicable to Taiwan's newly elected Democratic Progressive Party government that has taken off ice in 2016.
The SAGE Handbook of Diplomacy provides a major thematic overview of Diplomacy and its study that is theoretically and historically informed and in sync with the current and future needs of diplomatic practice . Original contributions from a brilliant team of global experts are organised into four thematic sections: Section One: Diplomatic Concepts & Theories Section Two: Diplomatic Institutions Section Three: Diplomatic Relations Section Four: Types of Diplomatic Engagement
This book comprises findings from the author's wide-ranging research since 1948 on the unresolved Arab/Israel protracted conflict. Brecher reflects back on his detailed analysis of the UN Commission created in November 1947, and his near-seven decades of research and publications on this complex protracted conflict continued since the first of nine Arab/Israeli wars. The book includes an analysis of the crucial early phase of the unresolved struggle for control of Jerusalem in 1948-49 and beyond, based on extensive interviews with Israel's leaders and prominent Egyptian senior officials, journalists and academics. It addresses the many diverse attempts at conflict resolution, including a peace plan to resolve the Arab/Israel conflict of the author's own design. It concludes with historical reflections about Israel's behavior, domestically and externally, in 1948-1949 and 2008 and beyond. No other book on this protracted conflict contains so many important interviews with the first two generations of Israeli leaders and Egyptian officials and academics, and no other author can speak from such a deep and prolonged engagement.
This book analyses two international incidents in the 1920s shocked Japan and changed the way in which the country looked at the West. In the Paris Peace Conference, Japanese proposed Racial Equality Bill was defeated. In 1924, the US passed the immigration law that singularly excluded Japanese from immigration. Little known today, the two incidents made significant impact on Japanese mind-set. Detailed study of the two incidents reveals how they contributed towards the drastic transformation of Japan, from the liberal thinking Taisho Democracy in the 1920s to the violent rise of ultra- nationalism in the 1930s. Departing from a purely academic style writing, the story develops around the life of Hanihara Masanao, Japanese diplomat, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and ultimately the Ambassador to Washington during the fateful years of 1923-24. A unique pair of a Japanese Studies scholar in Australia and a leading investigative journalist in Japan undertook the work. Rigorous archival search extended over Japan, the United States, Australia and Europe resulted in a significant amount of new materials never published in English before.
This book reinforces the need to understand the sources of global change that is taking place and to accommodate it in the world political, social, and economic systems. Linking the United States, China, India, and Russia along with Europe and the Middle East, the author addresses demographics, international trade, technology, and climate change as global challenges that require cooperation in order to be solved. Both academics and policymakers will be enlightened, discovering ways of addressing global change by working together rather than through confrontation. |
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