Written by one of the world's leading political geographers, this fully revised and updated textbook examines the dramatic changes wrought by ideological, economic, socio-cultural and demographic changes unleashed since the end of the Cold War. Saul Cohen considers these forces in the context of their human and physical settings, and explores their geographical influence on foreign policy and international relations.

It has been increasingly impossible to think about our changing world without coming across the term 'geopolitics'. In the wake of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States, United Kingdom, and others, geopolitics has been offered as an explanation for the occupation's failure to reinvent the Iraqi state and as a blueprint for future action. But what is 'geopolitics'?

Drawing both on academic and political material, this book introduces readers to the concept of geopolitics, from the first usage of the term to its more recent reconceptualisations. The concept of geopolitics is introduced through four thematic sections - Imperial Geopolitics, Cold War Geopolitics, Geopolitics after the Cold War and Reconceptualising Geopolitics. Each section includes key writings from a range of diverse and leading authors such as Said, Agnew, Dalby, O Tuathail, Gregory, Barnett and Kaplan, and is accompanied by a critical introduction by the editors to guide the reader through the material. This Reader establishes the foundations of geopolitics while also introducing readers to the continuing significance of the concept in the 21st century.

This Reader provides an essential resource that exposes students to original writing. The Editors provide a pathway through the material with Section Introductions to assist the readers understanding of the context of the material and impacts of the writings. The readings included draw from a range of authors, writing from a range of locations. The Reader concludes with the latest changes in geopolitical thought, incorporating feminist and other perspectives.

Now in its sixty-ninth edition, this title continues to provide the most up-to-date geopolitical and economic information for this important world area. Key Features: - covers the Middle East and North Africa from Algeria to Yemen - includes topical contributions from acknowledged experts on regional affairs - accurately and impartially records the latest political and economic developments - provides comprehensive data on all major organizations active in the countries of the region. General Survey - introductory essays cover a wide range of topics relating to the region as a whole. Country Surveys Individual chapters on each country incorporating: - essays on the physical and social geography, recent history and economy - an extensive statistical survey of economic and social indicators, which include area and population, health and welfare, agriculture, forestry, fishing, mining, industry, finance, trade, transport, tourism, communications media and education - a full directory with names, addresses and contact details covering the constitution, government, legislature, political organizations, election commissions, diplomatic representation, judiciary, religious groups, the media, finance, trade and industry (including petroleum and natural gas), tourism, defence and education - a country-specific bibliography, providing suggestions for further research. Regional Information - includes all major international organizations active in the Middle East and North Africa; research institutes specializing in the region; and select bibliographies of books and periodicals.

The emergence of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa on a global stage has upset the dominance of the United States as the world's only superpower. But can they chart a path toward a more just global economy? This collection, which brings together leading political economists from around the world, argues that the BRICS are actually amplifying some of the worst features of international capitalism. This book aims to fill a gap in studies of the BRICS grouping of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). It provides a critical analysis of their economies, societies and geopolitical strategies within the framework of a global capitalism that is increasingly predatory, unequal and ecologically self-destructive -- no more so than in the BRICS countries themselves. In unprecedented detail and with great innovation, the contributors consider theoretical traditions in political economy as applied to the BRICS, including "sub-imperialism," the World System perspective and dynamics of territorial expansion. Only such an approach can interpret the potential for a "brics-from-below" uprising that appears likely to accompany the rise of the BRICS. Contributors: Elmar Altvater, Baruti Amisi, Patrick Bond, Omar Bonilla, Einar Braathen, Pedro Henrique Campos, Ruslan Dzarasov, Virginia Fontes, Ana Garcia, Ho-fung Hung, Richard Kamidza, Karina Kato, Claudio Katz, Mathias Luce, Farai Maguwu, Judith Marshall, Gilmar Mascarenhas, Sam Moyo, Leo Panitch, Bobby Peek, Gonzalo Pozo, Vijay Prashad, Niall Reddy, William Robinson, Susanne Soederberg, Celina Sorboe, Achin Vanaik, Immanuel Wallerstein and Paris Yeros.

Few Americans see the US presidents and the presidency outside of a sentimental idealism. Amaury de Riencourt, an author of more than eight books who lectured extensively in the US in the 1950s, pulls out all the stops to reveal the essence of the U.S. Presidency in this volume. Originally published in 1957, The Coming Caesars, was well-received being featured in publications like Foreign Affairs, The New Yorker and Harper's magazine. Now, with a new Introduction, a private letter to the author from a high Pakistani official from 2002, new endorsements, additional quotes and a new typeset design; a new generation can gain a better understand what is happening in the United States than is being told them. Caesarism in the presidency is much more of a threat today than ever before. This book will show why.

At La Capilla de Santa Maria, parishioners weatherized their church in an effort to decrease the utility bills that took up a fifth of the annual budget. At Jubilee Community Church, parents and the education coordinator revised the Sunday School curriculum to integrate care of creation for all age levels. And at All People's Church in Milwaukee, the sanctuary became a free farmer's market on Sundays with produce grown by youth. Natural Saints shares the stories and strategies of contemporary church leaders, parishioners, and religious environmentalists working to define a new environmental movement, where justice as a priority for the church means a clean and safe environment for all. Mallory McDuff shows that a focus on God's earth is transforming both people and congregations, creating more relevant and powerful ministries . As a result, people of faith are forming a new environmental movement with a moral mandate to care for God's earth. McDuff highlights eight key ministries: protecting human dignity, feeding the hungry, creating sacred spaces, responding to natural disasters, promoting justice, making a pilgrimage, educating youth, and bearing witness. With two daughters in tow, she traveled across the country to document environmental actions grounded in faith. This journey transformed the author's own faith and hope for a sustainable future. Congregations and individuals seeking to integrate care of creation into their faith community will find inspiration and concrete advice in the lives of these natural saints.

In this urgent and timely book, Patrick Cockburn writes the first draft of the history of the current crisis in the Middle East. Here he charts the period from the recapture of Mosul in 2017 to Turkey's attack on Kurdish territory in November 2019, and recounts the new phase in the wars of disintegration that have plagued the region, leading to the assassination of Iranian General Sulemani. Cockburn offers panoramic on-the-ground analysis as well as a lifetime's study of the region. As author of The Rise of Islamic State, and the Age of Jihad, he has proved to be leading, critical commentator of US intervention and the chaos it has wrecked/ And here he shows how, since Trump entered the White House promising an end to the Forever War, peace appears a distant possibility with the continuation of conflict in Syria, Saudi Arabia's violent intervention in the Yemen, the fall of the Kurds, riots in Baghdad, and the continued aggression towards Iran. While ISIS has been defeated, it is not clear whether it has disappeared from the region. Trump's policies has appeared to pour petrol on the flames, emboldening the other superpowers involved in the proxy wars. Following the collapse of the deal with Iran, and the threat of war crimes, is a new balance of power possible?

In the context of COVID-19, the production and governance of urban space has experienced a rapid digitalization and datafication, creating new challenges for citizenship. The urban realm is not only the environment where a new standard for digital development is set but also the realm from which rescaling nation-states are pervasively emerging. Emerging Digital Citizenship Regimes: Postpandemic Technopolitical Democracies explores the roles played by digital citizenship in the context of changing geographies of the nation-state in Europe in the aftermath of the global pandemic; and reframes the concept of digital citizenship amid the rescaling of nation-states in Europe by connecting it to the increasing digitalisation of urban environment as a corollary of pandemic. By theorising the concept of citizenship in the digital age through the lens of the evolutionary character of its classical concept or by drawing upon the narratives regarding the democratising potential and risks of the Internet, Emerging Digital Citizenship Regimes explores the complex interaction of social and political variables shaping offline and online civic practices and their intertwined relation to the urban environment, analysing the way it is produced and governed in the COVID-19 new context.

How do authoritarian regimes deal with pressure from the international community? China's leaders have been subject to decades of international attention, condemnation, resolutions, boycotts, and sanctions over their treatment of human rights. We assume that hearing about all this pressure will make the public more concerned about human rights, and so regimes like the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should do what they can to prevent this from happening. In Hostile Forces, Jamie Gruffydd-Jones argues that while international pressure may indeed embarrass authoritarian leaders on the international stage, it may, in fact, benefit them at home. The targets of human rights pressure, regimes like the Communist Party, are not merely passive recipients, but actors who can proactively shape and deploy that pressure for their own advantage. Taking us through an exploration of the history of the Communist Party's reactions to foreign pressure, from condemnation of Mao's crackdowns in Tibet to outrage at the outbreak of COVID-19, analysis of a novel database drawn from state media archives, as well as multiple survey experiments and hundreds of interviews, Gruffydd-Jones shows that the CCP uses the most 'hostile' pressure strategically - and successfully - to push citizens to view human rights in terms of international geopolitics rather than domestic injustice, and reduce their support for change. The book shines a light on how regimes have learnt to manage, manipulate, and resist foreign pressure on their human rights, and illustrates how support for authoritarian and nationalist policies might grow in the face of a liberal international system.

The universe of militant groups in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), near the Afghan border, is far more complex and diverse than is commonly understood. While these groups share many ideological and historical characteristics, the militants have very different backgrounds, tribal affiliations, and strategic concepts that are key to understanding the dynamics of this dangerous, war-torn region- the main safe haven of al-Qaeda and the gateway to fighting in Afghanistan. This volume of essays, edited by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann and produced in connection with the New America Foundation, explores the history and current state of the lawless frontier of "Talibanistan," from the groups that occupy its various sub-regions to the effects of counterinsurgency and military intervention (including drone strikes) and the possibility of reconciliation. Contributors include MIT's Sameer Lalwani, NYU's Paul Cruickshank, Afghan journalist Anand Gopal, and Brian Fishman of the New America Foundation.

Long regarded as an empty and inhospitable environment, the deep ocean is rapidly emerging as an ecological hot spot with a remarkable diversity of biological life. Yet, the world's oceans are currently on a dangerous trajectory of decline, threatened by acidification, oil and gas drilling, overfishing, and, in the long term, deep-sea mining, bioprospecting, and geo-engineering. In The Geopolitics of Deep Oceans, noted environmental sociologist John Hannigan examines the past, present and future of our planet's 'final frontier'. The author argues that our understanding of the deep - its definition, boundaries, value, ownership, health and future state - depends on whether we see it first and foremost as a resource cornucopia, a political chessboard, a shared commons, or a unique and threatened ecology. He concludes by locating a new storyline that imagines the oceans as a canary-in-the-mineshaft for gauging the impact of global climate change. The Geopolitics of Deep Oceans is a unique introduction to the geography, law, politics and sociology of the sub-surface ocean. It will appeal to anyone seriously concerned about the present state and future fate of the largest single habitat for life on our planet.

Defense of the Baltic has gained unprecedented prominence in the West in view of a post-2014 resurgent Russia. The West's East follows the principles of strategic analysis for a systematic introduction to defense of the three Baltic states within their own context of broader security vulnerabilities as well as the historical and current contexts of both allies and neighboring powers. This 800-year overview-from indigenous Baltic tribes to the post-Cold War period-provides a historical and strategic perspective on conditions in which independent states existed and flourished among predatory great powers. More recent historical events and personalities also form the basis for analogies which are often used, rightly or wrongly, by Western observers to understand Russia and its relationship to the West. Today's strategic balance in the Baltic region is characterized through general analysis of the individual actors' geopolitical outlook, strategic culture, military capabilities, and non-military security vulnerabilities. The dynamics of potential strategic interactions between NATO and Russia are anticipated in case of hypothetical conflict in the Baltic, premised upon the general theory of strategy and essential strategic logic. These potential interactions range from deterrence, through various considerations of strategy in war itself, and the thorniness of war termination. Finally, more technical and esoteric aspects of military strategy related to instrumentality, effect, adversary, and control are considered in relation to the ultimate question of how much defense for the Baltic is enough.

Worldviews of Aspiring Powers provides a serious study of the domestic foreign policy debates in five world powers who have gained more influence as the US's has waned: China, Japan, India, Russia and Iran. Featuring a leading regional scholar for each essay, each essay identifies the most important domestic schools of thought--nationalists, realists, globalists, idealists/exceptionalists--and connects them to the historical and institutional sources that fuel each nation's foreign policy experience. While scholars have applied this approach to US foreign policy, this book is the first to track the competing schools of foreign policy thought within five of the world's most important rising powers. Concise and systematic, Worldviews of Aspiring Powers will serve as both an essential resource for foreign policy scholars trying to understand international power transitions and as a text for courses that focus on the same.

Without a doubt, the topic of energy--from coal, oil, and nuclear to geothermal, solar and wind--is one of the most pressing across the globe. It is of paramount importance to policy makers, economists, environmentalists, and industry as they consider which technologies to invest in, how to promote use of renewable energy sources, and how to plan for dwindling reserves of non-renewable energy.
In Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know(r), Jose Goldemberg, a nuclear physicist who has been hailed by Time magazine as one of the world's top "leaders and visionaries on the environment," takes readers through the basics of the world energy system, its problems, and the technical as well as non-technical solutions to the most pressing energy problems. Addressing the issues in a Q-and-A format, Goldemberg answers such questions as: What are wind, wave, and geothermal energy? What are the problems of nuclear waste disposal? What is acid rain? What is the greenhouse gas effect? What is Carbon Capture and Storage? What are smart grids? What is the Kyoto Protocol? What is "cap and trade"? The book sheds light on the role of population growth in energy consumption, renewable energy resources, the amount of available energy reserves (and when they will run out), geopolitical issues, environmental problems, the frequency of environmental disasters, energy efficiency, new technologies, and solutions to changing consumption patterns. It will be the first place to look for information on the vital topic of energy.
What Everyone Needs to Know(r) is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.

In response to both policy and conceptual debates, alternative narratives have begun to emerge about territorial governance and policymaking. As local and regional policy actors strive to respond to the geographically uneven effects of the economic crises of the early twenty-first century, a crucial question emerges: what are the opportunities and challenges presented by alternative forms of territorially based governance and policy? The aim of this edited volume, therefore, is critically to explore the opportunities and challenges presented by different forms of territorial policy and governance. Drawing on conceptual debates and empirical research from the United Kingdom and other international contexts, the contributors engage with issues around the politics and governance of territorial development, economic development, planning and regeneration and the environment. Territorial Policy and Governance addresses the question of how alternative forms of territorial governance and policy can help to shape patterns of urban and regional development, highlighting the related opportunities, constraints and challenges that confront their operationalisation. This book will be essential reading for international audiences with an interest in territorial development, governance, politics, human geography and planning and regeneration.

The first English-language book to focus on northeast Sino-Russian border economies, Trust and Mistrust in the Economies of the China-Russia Borderlands examines how trans-border economies function in practice. The authors offer an anthropological understanding of trust in juxtaposition to the economy and the state. They argue that the history of suspicion and the securitised character of the Sino-Russian border mean that trust is at a premium. The chapters show how diverse kinds of cross-border business manage to operate, often across great distances, despite widespread mistrust.

The EU is many things: a civilization ideal to emulate, an anchor of geopolitical stabilization, a generous donor and a historical lesson on cooperation across nations. A fixer of national governance problems, however, it is not. In this book, Mungiu-Pippidi investigates the efficacy of the European Union's promotion of good governance through its funding and conditionalities both within EU proper and in the developing world. The evidence assembled shows that the idea of European power to transform the quality of governance is largely a myth. From Greece to Egypt and from Kosovo to Turkey, EU interventions in favour of good governance and anti-corruption policy have failed so far to trigger the domestic political dynamic needed to ensure sustainable change. Mungiu-Pippidi explores how we can better bridge the gap between the Europe of treaties and the reality of governance in Europe and beyond. This book will interest students and scholars of comparative politics, European politics, and development studies, particularly those examining governance and corruption.

When George Mitchell described his time helping broker peace in Northern Ireland, he said, 'We had 700 bad days - and then one good day, which changed the course of history.' One Good Day is the fascinating insider account of those negotiations from diplomat David Donoghue, who was then Irish head of the Anglo-Irish Secretariat in Belfast. It explores the complex, delicate and often frustrating series of talks that drew the Troubles to an end. April 2023 marks the 25-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, hailed internationally as a near-miracle of collective collaboration, compromise and diplomacy. One Good Day offers an absorbing perspective on the drama of the negotiations from someone who was right at the centre of the action, alongside all the key players such as Martin McGuinness, Gerry Adams, John Hume, Bill Clinton, Bertie Ahern and Mo Mowlam. 'Incisive and compelling - an insider's story of the negotiations which delivered the Good Friday Agreement.' George Mitchell 'A gripping account of how we achieved the agreement that changed Ireland for the better.' Bertie Ahern 'I've been reporting on matters linked to Ireland for forty years and I learned a lot from this fine book' Tommie Gorman

"Looking beyond the headlines to address the enduring grand strategic questions facing the United States today American foreign policy is in a state of upheaval. The rise of Donald Trump and his "America First" platform have created more uncertainty about America's role in the world than at any time in recent decades. From the South China Sea, to the Middle East, to the Baltics and Eastern Europe, the geopolitical challenges to U.S. power and influence seem increasingly severe-and America's responses to those challenges seem increasingly unsure. Questions that once had widely accepted answers are now up for debate. What role should the United States play in the world? Can, and should, America continue to pursue an engaged an assertive strategy in global affairs? In this book, a leading scholar of grand strategy helps to make sense of the headlines and the upheaval by providing sharp yet nuanced assessments of the most critical issues in American grand strategy today. Hal Brands asks, and answers, such questions as: Has America really blundered aimlessly in the world since the end of the Cold War, or has its grand strategy actually been mostly sensible and effective? Is America in terminal decline, or can it maintain its edge in a harsher and more competitive environment? Did the Obama administration pursue a policy of disastrous retrenchment, or did it execute a shrewd grand strategy focused on maximizing U.S. power for the long term? Does Donald Trump's presidency mean that American internationalism is dead? What type of grand strategy might America pursue in the age of Trump and after? What would happen if the United States radically pulled back from the world, as many leading academics-and, at certain moments, the current president-have advocated? How much military power does America need in the current international environment? Grappling with these kinds of issues is essential to understanding the state of America's foreign relations today and what path the country might take in the years ahead. At a time when American grand strategy often seems consumed by crisis, this collection of essays provides an invaluable guide to thinking about both the recent past and the future of America's role in the world. "

Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the normalisation of relations between Iran and America has appeared unrealistic if not inconceivable, given that the Iranian state has vigorously pursued an anti-American ideology. This account of US-Iranian relations examines the efficacy of external pressure such as sanctions, as well as domestic grassroots reform movements within the Islamic Republic. The Obama presidency marked a rare high point in the Washington-Tehran relationship, as negotiations between the two countries and other powers produced an unprecedented nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. However, the Trump administration's unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA, and re-imposition of new sanctions in pursuit of 'maximum pressure', had devastating economic consequences, undermining the Iranian middle class, which has consistently been the voice of political moderation and supported Iran's integration into the global economy. Crucially, sanctions have also driven Iran further into the arms of China, while rendering it an even more recalcitrant and aggressive adversary. Monshipouri's central conviction is that negotiations are pivotal to dismantling the mistrust that has long characterised US-Iranian relations, and to seeking detente between Iran and its Arab neighbours--a critical priority, since gradual US withdrawal from the region is all but certain.

The appearance of a hastily-constructed barbed wire entanglement through the heart of Berlin during the night of 12-13 August 1961 was both dramatic and unexpected. Within days, it had started to metamorphose into a structure that would come to symbolise the brutal insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. A city of almost four million was cut ruthlessly in two, unleashing a potentially catastrophic East-West crisis and plunging the entire world for the first time into the fear of imminent missile-borne apocalypse. This threat would vanish only when the very people the Wall had been built to imprison, breached it on the historic night of 9 November 1989. The Berlin Wall reveals the strange and chilling story of how the initial barrier system was conceived, then systematically extended, adapted and strengthened over almost thirty years. Patrolled by vicious dogs and by guards on shoot-to-kill orders, the Wall, with its more than 300 towers, became a wired and lethally booby-trapped monument to a world torn apart by fiercely antagonistic ideologies. The Wall had tragic consequences in personal and political terms, affecting the lives of Germans and non-Germans alike in a myriad of cruel, inhuman and occasionally absurd ways. The Berlin Wall is the definitive account of a divided city and its people.

This timely book explores the central role that borders play in shaping the contemporary world. Building on a discussion of border thinking and making from antiquity to the present, Gabriel Popescu applies a critical eye to current border-making concepts, processes, and contexts. Throughout, he offers a balanced understanding of borders, explaining why and how interstate borders have emerged, whose interest they serve, who is involved in border making, and how border-making practices affect societies. Assessing the latest theoretical approaches to border studies, the author deftly incorporates a range of disciplinary perspectives, including geography, international relations, sociology, history, security studies, and anthropology. Popescu explores recent world events, discussing how current issues such as migration, terrorism, global warming, pandemics, the international human rights regime, outsourcing, the economic crisis, supranational integration, regionalization, and digital technology relate to borders and influence our lives. Written with a clear eye and voice, this book makes a complex subject accessible to a wide readership.

A gripping behind-the-scenes account of the dramatic legal fight to hold leaders personally responsible for aggressive war On July 17, 2018, starting an unjust war became a prosecutable international crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Instead of collective state responsibility, our leaders are now personally subject to indictment for crimes of aggression, from invasions and preemptions to drone strikes and cyberattacks. The Crime of Aggression is Noah Weisbord's riveting insider's account of the high-stakes legal fight to enact this historic legislation and hold politicians accountable for the wars they start. Weisbord, a key drafter of the law for the International Criminal Court, takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most consequential legal dramas in modern international diplomacy. Drawing on in-depth interviews and his own invaluable insights, he sheds critical light on the motivations of the prosecutors, diplomats, and military strategists who championed the fledgling prohibition on unjust war-and those who tried to sink it. He untangles the complex history behind the measure, tracing how the crime of aggression was born at the Nuremberg trials only to fall dormant during the Cold War, and he draws lessons from such pivotal events as the collapse of the League of Nations, the rise of the United Nations, September 11, and the war on terror. The power to try leaders for unjust war holds untold promise for the international order, but also great risk. In this incisive and vitally important book, Weisbord explains how judges in such cases can balance the imperatives of justice and peace, and how the fair prosecution of aggression can humanize modern statecraft.

This volume explores the ways petroleum as an industry and substance has moulded the social, cultural and artistic life of the Middle East. Rather than tackle the powers of this crucial resource from the perspective of macro-economics, impersonal rentier states and large corporations, this book 'brings oil back' into the ebbs and flows of Middle Eastern life. It focuses on the ways petroleum mediates and is mediated by national formations and imaginaries, visual practices, as well as scientific, business and artistic production. In focusing on the largest oil producing and exporting region in the world, this volume sheds light on the effects and affects of petroleum's presence within and beyond the oil-industry.