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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Diplomacy
During the Second World War and the subsequent Cold War, foreign agents conducted intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and subversive operations inside neutral countries aimed at damaging their opponents' interests. The essays contained in this collection analyze the risks of espionage operations on neutral soil as well as the dangers their covert activities posed for the governments of neutral states. In striving to avoid involvement in the firing line of the Second World War or the front line of the Cold War, the contributors argue that neutral states developed security policies that focused on protecting their own sovereignty without provoking overt hostility from any of the great powers. This collection describes how the warring parties engaged in competition on neutral territory and analyzes how neutral governments rose to the existential challenge posed by international spies, their own venal officials, and even foreign assassins.
This book discusses the role of selective identities in shaping China's position in regional and global affairs. It does so by using the concept of the political transition of power, and argues that by taking on different types of identities-of state, ideology and culture-the Chinese government has adjusted China's identity to different kinds of audiences. By adopting different kinds of "self", China has secured its relatively peaceful transition within the existing system and, in the meantime, strengthened its capacity to place its principles within that system. To its immediate neighbors, China presents itself as a state that needs clearcut borders. In relation to the developing world (Global South), the PRC narrates "self" as an ideology with the banner of materialism, equality and justice. To its third "audience", the developed world (mainly Europe), China presents itself as a peaceful, innocent cultural construct based primarily on Confucius' passive approach. By bringing these three identities into "one Chinese body" ( , sanwei yiti), China's policymakers skillfully maneuver and build the country's position in the arena of global affairs.
The late Israeli Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and President Shimon Peres was a towering figure in Israeli and Middle Eastern politics. But what drove the hawkish statesman behind Israel's nuclear deterrence and early settlement policy to stake his political reputation on peace negotiations with the Arab world and the PLO, Israel's sworn enemy? In this insider's account, written by Avi Gil, Peres's close confidant over almost 30 years, we witness firsthand the tense moments during the historic Oslo talks, kept under the strictest secrecy, when the explosive revelation that Peres was directing direct communications with Yasser Arafat's representatives for the first time threatened to leak to the press. We also see the fervent discussions and arguments between the personalities involved in the peace process, including Peres's rivalries with the Prime Ministers he served under, including Rabin, Sharon and Netanyahu. Although one of Peres's most trusted colleagues, Gil offers a frank assessment of his mentor, recounting his foibles and failures as consistently as he does his victories. We are shown Peres's unique energy and optimism for Israel and its Arab neighbors in his vision of a 'New Middle East'. But most valuable of all, we gain unique insight into the actual thought processes, conversations and decisions of Peres and his colleagues and adversaries as they initiated, processed and reacted to events in real time, shedding new light on a historic period in Israeli and Middle Eastern History. Of unique value to all those interested in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the book is also an insightful meditation on the inner-workings of all high-level government and diplomatic negotiations.
One of Singapore's top diplomats, Bilahari Kausikan was the Institute of Policy Studies' (IPS) 2015/16 S R Nathan Fellow for the Study of Singapore. This book contains edited versions of the five public IPS-Nathan Lectures he gave between January and May 2016, and highlights of his dialogue with the audience.Kausikan gives a frank and dispassionate assessment of the international environment in the post-Cold War era and the geopolitical uncertainties that have emerged. In particular, he analyses the nature of US-China relations, the broad underlying factors in the South China Sea disputes and ASEAN's attempts to maintain order, and the role that human rights and democracy have played in international relations. He concludes by suggesting what Singapore needs to do to cope with the complexities that lie ahead, in this age without definition.The IPS-Nathan Lectures series was launched in 2014 as part of the S R Nathan Fellowship for the Study of Singapore. The S R Nathan Fellow, who is appointed annually, delivers between four and six lectures each year to advance public understanding and discussion of issues of critical national interest.
In this book a former United Nations Envoy offers an insider perspective on conflict management and peace efforts during the three most recent failed peace initiatives and three wars in Gaza. Robert Serry shares his reflections on walking the tight rope of diplomacy between Israel and Palestine and his analysis of what has gone wrong and why a "one-state reality" may be around the corner. Offering fresh thinking on how to preserve prospects for a two-state solution, this book examines the UN's uneasy history in the Arab-Israeli conflict since partition was proposed in resolution 181 (1948) and provides a rare insight into the life of a United Nations Envoy in today's Middle East.
An officer of Global Affairs Canada from 1990-2018, Geoff White is a career expert in Canadian foreign policy. In Working for Canada he shares that expertise, illuminating the often invisible work of creating and enacting international policy. Writing with clarity, wit, and common sense, White demystifies Canadian diplomacy and provides a clear view of how it actually works-and when it doesn't.Reflecting on the headlines, highlights, and sometimes scandals of a long and successful career, White offers a highly readable blend of personal recollection and political insight. He begins with his first assignment in communications planning during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and continues through the establishment of NAFTA, humanitarian intervention in Kosovo, softwood lumber, during assignments at headquarters and in Canadian embassies abroad. He shares his experiences of negotiating aviation agreements with foreign governments, and of diplomatic efforts aimed at restoring and protecting human rights. Working for Canada is a fascinating memoir tracing a career spent in the service of Canada and Canadians. At the same time, it provides an unparalleled insider view into communications, negotiations, international trade, and diplomacy.
This collection, comprising essays by an array of scholars from Europe and the United States, offers a new look at transatlantic political activity since 1800. It reperiodizes transatlantic politics to include early and mid-19th and post-1945 eras, while showing the ideological heterogeneity of transatlantic political exchange
This is a book that will change the American perception of the Pacific War. One important question is: Who actually started the Pacific War? By examining recently discovered facts revealed through the declassification of official documents, the decoding of secret communications between the Soviet Union and its operatives, and findings from American and Japanese writers in recent decades, the author clarifies the role played by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and members of his cabinet in pushing Japan to the brink of war. Another notable analysis concerns the U.S. occupation of Japan immediately after the war. The author finds it as a spectacular success in politically castrating Japan. The impact is still clearly observable. Many Japanese have lost the sense of nationhood as a result. The author examines the historical background of U.S.-Japan relations from the visit of Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 to the present day. Utilized a wealth of Japanese as well as American materials, he presents a view of the history of the two countries. He finds that Japan was not very skillful in utilizing code-breaking or information-warfare, but tried to liberate colonies in Asia and Africa, and indeed her effort was successful and ultimately resulted in the loss of Western Colonies including India, Indonesia, Burma, and Malaysia. After reviewing nearly two hundred years of history, the author urges contemporary Japanese to be free from the self-incriminating view of history and to be confident that the nation is on a right track.
"America First" is "America Alone" Foreign policy is like physics: vacuums quickly fill. As the United States retreats from the international order it helped put in place and maintain since the end of World War II, Russia is rapidly filling the vacuum. Federiga Bindi's new book assesses the consequences of this retreat for transatlantic relations and Europe, showing how the current path of US foreign policy is leading to isolation and a sharp decrease of US influence in international relations. Transatlantic relations reached a peak under President Barack Obama. But under the Trump administration, withdrawal from the global stage has caused irreparable damage to the transatlantic partnership and has propelled Europeans to act more independently. Europe and America explores this tumultuous path by examining the foreign policy of the United States, Russia, and the major European Union member states. The book highlights the consequences of US retreat for transatlantic relations and Europe, demonstrating that "America first" is becoming "America alone," perhaps marking the end of transatlantic relations as we know it, with Europe no longer beholden to the US national interest.
Citizens, parties, and movements are increasingly contesting issues connected to globalization, such as whether to welcome immigrants, promote free trade, and support international integration. The resulting political fault line, precipitated by a deepening rift between elites and mass publics, has created space for the rise of populism. Responding to these issues and debates, this book presents a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of how economic, cultural and political globalization have transformed democratic politics. This study offers a fresh perspective on the rise of populism based on analyses of public and elite opinion and party politics, as well as mass media debates on climate change, human rights, migration, regional integration, and trade in the USA, Germany, Poland, Turkey, and Mexico. Furthermore, it considers similar conflicts taking place within the European Union and the United Nations. Appealing to political scientists, sociologists and international relations scholars, this book is also an accessible introduction to these debates for undergraduate and masters students.
Originally published in 1972, this volume contains selected significant documents to illustrate Soviet foreign policy between 1953 and 1970, according to its author, 'in the words of Soviet leaders and Soviet people.' Extracts from speeches by Khrushchev, Mikoyan, Brezhnev and Kosygin are included, together with commentary from other communist leaders, including Hoxha of Albania and Nagy of Hungary. The invasion of the former Czechoslovakia and the Chinese view of Soviet foreign policy are fully covered. A comprehensive and informative introduction traces the course of Soviet foreign policy since 1953. Some general considerations are given in the conclusion, and short explanatory comments elucidate the documents themselves.
This text is a timely and wide-ranging study providing essential background to the development of global modernity through the European encounter with China. Considering differing notions of peace, empire, trade, religion, and diplomacy as touchstones in the relations between China and Europe on mutuality, the book examines five encounters with France, Portugal, Holland, the pope, and Russia between 1248 and 1720, and reflects on concepts that the West took for granted but which did not successfully cross over into the Chinese world. This cutting edge text provides key insights into the cultural and political conflict which lay at the heart of early Chinese-European relations, as the West's understanding of the truth and appropriateness of its cultural norms was confronted by China's norms and beliefs.
As the UK enters a period of intense public introspection in the wake of Brexit, this book takes on one of the key questions emerging from the divisive process: what is Britain's place in the world? The Middle East is one of the regions the UK has been most engaged in historically. This book assesses the drivers of foreign policy successes and failures and asks if there is a way to revitalise British influence in the region, and if this is even desirable. The book analyses the values, trade and security concerns that drive the UK's foreign policy. There are separate chapters on the non- Arab powers - Israel, Turkey and Iran - as well as chapters on the Middle Eastern Arab states and regions including the Gulf, Iraq, Egypt, and Syria and the Levant. The contributions are from leading specialists in the field: Rosemary Hollis, Michael Clarke, Ian Black, Bill Park, Christopher Phillips, Sanam Vakil, Michael Stephens and Louise Kettle. They each explain and re-assess the declining western influence and continued instability in the region and what this means for the UK's priorities and strategy towards the MENA. This is an essential book for policy makers, journalists and researchers focused on foreign policy towards the Middle East.
A guide to the practice of mediation as a means of resolving conflict, this short how-to manual includes all the resources needed to teach and train mediators in the skills of conflict resolution. It explains the conceptual framework of conflict and peacemaking, the stages and steps of the mediation process, and the resources necessary to conduct mediation sessions, including practice through role-playing. The book is divided into three parts: Theory, Process, and Practice. Part I provides a conceptual framework for understanding conflict and mediation. It discusses the sources of conflict, the dynamics of power imbalances, how mediation counteracts them, and familiar styles for managing conflicts. Part II describes the stages of the mediation process. It begins with orientation and preparation for the mediation session before outlining each of the five stages of the mediation process along with a range of communication skills crucial to the success of each stage. Part III focuses on several familiar areas of human experience in which the practice of mediation is common, such as family and domestic mediation, business and organizational mediation, international mediation, and education. These chapters include customary forms and techniques used in resolving conflicts. The final chapter includes materials to manage and conduct mediation role-playing exercises.
Anglo-Chinese Encounters Before the Opium War: A Tale of Two Empires Over Two Centuries studies the fascinating encounters between the two historic empires from Queen Elizabeth I's first letter to the Ming Emperor Wanli in 1583, to Lord Palmerston's letter to the Minister of China in 1840. Starting with Queen Elizabeth I's letter to the Chinese Emperor and ending with the letter from Lord Palmerston to the Minister of China just before the Opium War, this book explores the long journey in between from cultural diplomacy to gunboat diplomacy. It interweaves the most known diplomatic efforts at the official level with the much unknown intellectual interactions at the people-to-people level, from missionaries to scholars, from merchants to travelers and from artists to scientists. This book adopts a novel "mirror" approach by pairing and comparing people, texts, commodities, artworks, architecture, ideologies, operating systems and world views of the two empires. Using letters, gifts and traded goods as fulcrums, and by adopting these unique lenses, it puts China into the world history narratives to contextualise Anglo-Chinese relations, thus providing a fresh analysis of the surviving evidence. Xin Liu casts a new light on understanding the Sino-centric and Anglo-centric world views in driving the complex relations between the two empires, and the reversals of power shifts that are still unfolding today. The book is not intended for specialists in history, but a general audience wishing to learn more about China's historical engagement with the world.
This book explores how Vietnam's leadership conceptualises and conducts public diplomacy (PD) and offers a comparative analysis with regional powers. Drawing on social constructivism as its theoretical framework it investigates the rationale behind an authoritarian regime's implementation of public diplomacy to contribute to a better understanding of the broader framework of foreign-domestic policy. This theoretical and practical exploration of Vietnam's PD in cases of cultural diplomacy, South China Sea diplomacy and online activism situates it in the general academic and theoretical discussion on soft power. Key variables to the conceptualisation and conduct of Vietnam's PD, namely national interest, national identity and changing information technologies, especially the Internet and social media, are also thoroughly investigated. With crosscutting themes ranging from politics and international relations to communication studies, it will appeal to students and scholars of identity politics, populism and nationalism.
This book provides a comprehensive review of the transatlantic relationship between the United States and Europe, from the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall to the Trump administration. It highlights the primary factors that test the U.S-Europe relationship. America and Europe Adrift highlights the background of the German unification and the reaffirmation of NATO as the framework of U.S. presence in Europe after the end of the Cold War; the NATO enlargement; the Transatlantic Rift in the context of the Iraq War; the economic aspects of transatlantic relations, specifically the rise of Germany's weight in international affairs as a result of the European Monetary Union; and the gradual retrenchment of U.S. power. It focuses on the enduring factors that threaten the transatlantic relationship during the 21st century while also suggesting how that relationship will likely survive: through the United States' continued provision of indispensable security to the rest of the Western world. This book is an essential resource for students of transatlantic relations; graduates in international politics and international history, security studies, and strategic studies; and foreign policy practitioners. Specifies the issues that marked transatlantic relations from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Trump administration Highlights the conflicts between the Allies over NATO enlargement, the Yugoslav wars, and the second Iraq War in particular Emphasizes the economic aspects of transatlantic relations, specifically the rise of Germany's weight as a result of the European Monetary Union Reviews the discontinuities in U.S. strategy with the advent of the Trump administration Suggests that despite divergent views and interests between the United States and Europe, the transatlantic relationship will survive because the U.S. is indispensable in providing security to the Western world
This book informs students about the practice of modern diplomacy while simultaneously inviting them to critically reflect on it. The work introduces the world of diplomacy from a practitioner's point of view. Rather than listening to what diplomats say they do, the book looks at what they actually do. Diplomacy is thus approached through the lenses of its manifold practices: from political analysis to policy-shaping, from conflict prevention over conflict-management to conflict-resolution. However, the book not only aims at informing or instructing but also, and primarily, wants its readers to critically reflect on diplomacy. It reviews received ideas by posing questions such as: what does 'preventive diplomacy' really mean?; what is the place of 'transparency' in diplomatic practice?; why is the relationship between 'law and diplomacy' ambiguous?; how come that our leaders have such a difficult time in credibly defending 'human rights'?; and why is conducting an 'ethical foreign policy' a mission impossible? To tackle these and other questions, the book uses the tools of contemporary academic disciplines, such as behavioural economics, game theory, social psychology, argumentation theory, and practical logic, among others. This interdisciplinary approach brings fresh perspective to a field of study that has long remained self-contained. This book will be of great interest to students of diplomacy, foreign policy, and International Relations, as well as those seeking a career in diplomacy and existing diplomatic practitioners and international analysts.
This book examines European history and politics between two very well-known but flawed treaties: The Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Maastricht. Taking the Treaty of Versailles, signed following World War I, as a starting point, the volume argues that while it was well-intentioned to the point of being utopian, it was also totally impractical, rearranging the map of Europe in a way which led to the tragic descent into conflict and barbarism in World War II. The volume then moves through the post war period, the outcome of the war producing the uneasy stability of a Cold War divided continent, and with the establishment of NATO in 1949, the process of European integration ushered in the era of cooperation. Under the influence of Charles de Gaulle, the newly created European Community acted as an association of sovereign states led by France and Germany, spurring economic growth and encouraging other countries to apply to join. After de Gaulle's retirement in 1969, this approach was progressively abandoned in favour of a federal model of integration in which member states transferred their sovereignty to the institutions of what became the European Union. Europe was to be transformed from a continent to a country. The book concludes by analysing the Maastricht treaty, which enshrined this process, as being as fatally flawed as the Versailles Treaty and charts the post-Maastricht slow decline of the European Union giving way to widespread Euroscepticism. From the Treaty of Versailles to the Treaty of Maastricht will appeal to researchers and students alike interested in European history, politics and World War I and II.
This book examines European history and politics between two very well-known but flawed treaties: The Treaty of Versailles and the Treaty of Maastricht. Taking the Treaty of Versailles, signed following World War I, as a starting point, the volume argues that while it was well-intentioned to the point of being utopian, it was also totally impractical, rearranging the map of Europe in a way which led to the tragic descent into conflict and barbarism in World War II. The volume then moves through the post war period, the outcome of the war producing the uneasy stability of a Cold War divided continent, and with the establishment of NATO in 1949, the process of European integration ushered in the era of cooperation. Under the influence of Charles de Gaulle, the newly created European Community acted as an association of sovereign states led by France and Germany, spurring economic growth and encouraging other countries to apply to join. After de Gaulle's retirement in 1969, this approach was progressively abandoned in favour of a federal model of integration in which member states transferred their sovereignty to the institutions of what became the European Union. Europe was to be transformed from a continent to a country. The book concludes by analysing the Maastricht treaty, which enshrined this process, as being as fatally flawed as the Versailles Treaty and charts the post-Maastricht slow decline of the European Union giving way to widespread Euroscepticism. From the Treaty of Versailles to the Treaty of Maastricht will appeal to researchers and students alike interested in European history, politics and World War I and II.
This book presents the reader with a detailed analysis of the U.S. policy toward Cuba that was designed and adopted by the Lyndon B. Johnson administration. Based in governmental and other sources from both the U.S. and Cuba, the book analyzes the changes in the U.S. policy and its political and practical effects. Cuba still had to face a combination of "dirty war" and "passive containment," but during the course of the 1960s, the influence of the "dirty war" policy was weakened due to the failure of the tactics to overthrow the Cuban Revolution by violent means. Instead, the policy was directed towards "passive containment," characterized by its focus on an intensification of the economic blockade, the promotion of diplomatic isolation, and propaganda campaigns and psychological warfare. The book is unique since it is written from a Cuban perspective and it complements and enriches the knowledge of the U.S.-Cuban relationship during the 1960s, and the policy adopted by the Johnson administration.
A guide to the practice of mediation as a means of resolving conflict, this short how-to manual includes all the resources needed to teach and train mediators in the skills of conflict resolution. It explains the conceptual framework of conflict and peacemaking, the stages and steps of the mediation process, and the resources necessary to conduct mediation sessions, including practice through role-playing. The book is divided into three parts: Theory, Process, and Practice. Part I provides a conceptual framework for understanding conflict and mediation. It discusses the sources of conflict, the dynamics of power imbalances, how mediation counteracts them, and familiar styles for managing conflicts. Part II describes the stages of the mediation process. It begins with orientation and preparation for the mediation session before outlining each of the five stages of the mediation process along with a range of communication skills crucial to the success of each stage. Part III focuses on several familiar areas of human experience in which the practice of mediation is common, such as family and domestic mediation, business and organizational mediation, international mediation, and education. These chapters include customary forms and techniques used in resolving conflicts. The final chapter includes materials to manage and conduct mediation role-playing exercises.
This is a work of excavation of the modern history of Turkey, with the Kurdish question at its center, unearthed and exposed in Candar's captivating narrative. The founding of a Turkish nation-state in Asia Minor brought with it the denial of the distinct Kurdish identity in its midst, giving birth to an intractable problem that led to intermittent Kurdish revolts and culminated in the enduring insurgency of the PKK. The Kurdish question is perceived as a mortal threat for the survival of Turkey. The author weaves a fascinating account of the encounter between Turkey and the Kurds in historical perspective with special emphasis on failed peace processes. Providing a unique historical record of the authoritarian, centralist and ultra-nationalist-rather than Islamist-nature of the Turkish state rooted in the last decades of the Ottoman period and finally manifested in Erdogan's "New Turkey," Candar challenges stereotyped and conventional views on the Turkey of today and tomorrow. Turkey's Mission Impossible: War and Peace with the Kurds combines scholarly research with the memoirs of a participant observer, richly revealing the author's first-hand knowledge of developments acquired over a lifetime devoted to the resolution of perhaps the most complex problem of the Middle East.
Originally published in 1991, The Roots of Appeasement outlines the attitudes of the British weekly press and its editors to Nazism and to German and British foreign policies during the 1930s. It analyses and interprets the reasons which underlay those attitudes. Aided by the evidence of the weeklies, it sheds additional light on the roots and development of appeasement. After introducing the weeklies and their editors, the study conveys and examines their attitudes to the European crises of 1935-9 and one chapter focusses on the popular fear of air attack as reflected in the journals. The major conclusion of the book is that a consensus supporting appeasement emerged in the weeklies in the course of 1935 and that it remained virtually intact until September 1938. |
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