This is Edward Luttwak's third and arguably fi nest collection of essays. In a challenge to the intellectual backbone of those who write about peace as something one wishes into existence through mediation and good will, Luttwak's view of warfare is bracing: "An unpleasant truth, often overlooked, is that although war is a great evil, it does have a great virtue: it can resolve political confl icts and lead to peace."

Luttwak articulates positions shared by military fi gures and political heroes who have their feet on the ground rather than in the sand. He shares his thoughts in essays covering America at war and the new Bolshevism in Russia, ranging in place from the Middle East to Latin America and stops along the way to Byzantium. Luttwak examines military reform, great powers grown small, and drugs, crime and corruption as part of the common culture of the West. Th ough his message is sometimes delivered in a light tone, he is never foolish and never trivial.

Luttwak develops the bracing thesis that cease fi res and armistices in states of war, while sometimes inconclusive, are lesser evils than prospects for a nuclear meltdown. Even in arenas of geopolitical antagonism, neither Americans nor Russians have been inclined to intervene competitively in wars of lesser powers. As a consequence, intermittent war persists; and greater dangers to the world are averted. It is no exaggeration to compare Luttwak to Clausewitz in the nineteenth century and Herman Kahn in the twentieth century. Th is volume deserves to be read and digested by all who would understand contemporary geopolitics.

This book tells the story of an unprecedented experiment in public participation: the government-sponsored debate on the possible commercialization of 'GM' crops in the UK. Giving a unique and systematic account of the debate process, this revealing volume sets it within its political and intellectual contexts, and examines the practical implications for future public engagement initiatives. The authors, an experienced team of researchers, produce a conceptually-informed and empirically-based evaluation of the debate, drawing upon detailed observation of both public and behind-the-scenes aspects of the process, the views of participants in debate events, a major MORI-administered survey of public views, and details of media coverage. With innovative methodological work on the evaluation of public engagement and deliberative processes, the authors analyze the design, implementation and effectiveness of the debate process, and provide a critique of its official findings. The book will undoubtedly be of interest to a wide readership, and will be an invaluable resource for researchers, policy-makers and students concerned with cross-disciplinary aspects of risk, decision-making, public engagement, and governance of technology.

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Drawing on decolonial perspectives on peace, statehood and development, this illuminating book examines post-liberal statebuilding in Central Asia. It argues that, despite its emancipatory appearance, post-liberal statebuilding is best understood as a set of social ordering mechanisms that lead to new forms of exclusion, marginalization and violence. Using ethnographic fieldwork in Southern Kyrgyzstan, the volume offers a detailed examination of community security and peacebuilding discourses and practices. Through its analysis, the book highlights the problem with assumptions about liberal democracy, modern statehood and capitalist development as the standard template for post-conflict countries, which is widespread and rarely reflected upon.

This timely Reader brings together, for the first time, key writings on the relationship between law and geography. In so doing, it has fostered the creation of an intellectual forum for scholars and students in related disciplines, who have - until now - been working in parallel, rather than in tandem. Although a recent area of study, the intersection between these fields is becoming increasingly important with the recognition that space is socially produced and that it is riddled with power relations.

The chapters in this Reader are organized around geographic scale - local, national, global - and each section includes an introductory essay contextualizing the selections and explaining their contribution. The topics covered include public space, local racisms, property and the city, environmental regulation, state formation and decentralization and international-global legalities. A comprehensive introduction reviews the current state of the field.

Representing some of the most provocative and interesting approaches to law and geography by an interdisciplinary group of acclaimed contributors, "Legal Geographies Reader" will serve as an important reference source to this expanding field.

"A Companion to Political Geography" presents students and researchers with a substantial survey of this active and vibrant field.
Introduces the best thinking in contemporary political geography.
Contributions written by scholars whose work has helped to shape the discipline.
Includes work at the cutting edge of the field.
Covers the latest theoretical developments.

Providing case study analyses of the politics of science in and around the International Polar Year of 2007-2008, this volume makes a distinct contribution to ongoing research focusing on the relationship between science, international politics, law and history. The contributors combine both interdisciplinary and multi-theoretical approaches to engage directly with the most recent debates in international relations scholarship, to include discussions of arctic climate change, governance issues, reflections on the Antarctic Treaty and the science-geopolitics interface amongst others. This is the first comprehensive account to look explicitly at the relationship between global politics and science through an account of the International Polar Years.

"Politics Russia" provides the most comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date introduction to all aspects of the political development of Russia in the post-communist era. Writing with the undergraduate student specifically in mind, Danks' fluent style and masterly grasp of complex material will make this an indispensable guide for many years to come.

Divided into five sections, "Politics Russia" maps a clear path towards an understanding of Russia and its politics in the twenty first century. In Part One the emergence of contemporary Russia is put into context by a consideration of the end of the USSR and the move towards democratization under Gorbachev. Part Two provides a clear-sighted and stimulating overview of the nature of the executive and the legislature in contemporary Russia. Part Three examines civil society, the role of the media and the representative process. Part Four is focussed on the policy process, from foreign and defence policies to the development of domestic social policies from the provision of healthcare to education. Part Five, the final, provides an overall consideration the contemporary state of Russia, examining the development from Yeltsin, to Putin to Medvedev, and considers the possible futures of the region.

The book is supported by a host of pedagogical features, including:

• Annotated further reading lists
• Definitions of key political terms
• Short biographies of key figures

This volume examines the reasons why some despair at the prospects for an ecological form of democracy, and challenges the recent deliberative turn in environmental political thought.

Deliberative democracy has become popular for those seeking a reconciliation of these two forms of politics. Demand for equal access to a public forum in which the best argument will prevail appears to offer a way of incorporating environmental interests into the democratic process. This book argues that deliberative theory, far from being friendly to the environmental movement, shackles the ability those seeking radical change to make their voices heard in the most effective manner.

Mathew Humphrey challenges beliefs about the relationship between ecological politics and democracy at a time when those who take direct action are being swept up in the War on Terror. By calling for a more open and contested form of democracy, in which the boundaries of what constitutes acceptable behaviour are not decided in advance of actual debate, Ecological Politics and Democratic Theory is an original contribution to the literature on environmental politics, ecological thought and democracy.

Drawing on critical geopolitics and related strands of social theory, this book combines new case studies with theoretical and methodological reflections on the geographical analysis of security and insecurity. It brings together a mixture of early career and more established scholars and interprets security and the war on terror across a number of domains, including: international law, religion, migration, development, diaspora, art, nature and social movements. At a time when powerful projects of globalization and security continue to extend their reach over an increasingly wide circle of people and places, the book demonstrates the relevance of critical geographical imaginations to an interrogation of the present.

The COVID-19 pandemic is a Rorschach test for society: everyone sees something different in it, and the range of political and economic responses to the crisis can leave us feeling overwhelmed. This book cuts through the confusion, dissecting the new post-coronavirus capitalism into several policy areas and spheres of action to inform academic, policy and public discourse. Covering all the major aspects of contemporary capitalism that have been affected by the pandemic, Andreas Noelke deftly analyses the impacts of the crisis on our socio-economic and political systems. Signposting a new era for global capitalism, he offers alternatives for future economic development in the wake of COVID-19.

When considering strategies to address violent conflict, scholars and policymakers debate the wisdom of recognizing versus avoiding reference to ethnic identities in government institutions. In Diversity, Violence, and Recognition, Elisabeth King and Cyrus Samii examine the reasons that governments choose to recognize ethnic identities and the consequences of such choices for peace. The authors introduce a theory on the merits and risks of recognizing ethnic groups in state institutions, pointing to the crucial role of ethnic demographics. Through a global quantitative analysis and in-depth case studies of Burundi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, they find promise in recognition. Countries that adopt recognition go on to experience less violence, more economic vitality, and more democratic politics, but these effects depend on which ethnic group is in power. King and Samii's findings are important for scholars studying peace, democracy, and development, and practically relevant to policymakers attempting to make these concepts a reality.

This book offers insight into the use of empirical diffusionist models for analysis of cross-cultural and cross-national communication, translation and adaptation of the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The book looks at three social analytical instruments of particular utility for the cross-national study of the translation and diffusion of global sustainable development discourses in East Asia (China and Japan). It explains the underlying hypothesis that, in the transmission and adaptation of global SDGs in different national contexts, three large groups of social actors encompassing sources of information, mediating actors and socio-industrial end-users form, shape and contribute to the complex, latent networks of social engagement. It illuminates how the distribution within these networks largely determines the level and breadth of the diffusion of global SDGs and their associated environmentalist norms. This book is an essential read for anyone interested in sustainable growth and development, as well as global environmental politics.

Examining globalization in the Middle East, this book provides a much needed assessment of the impact of globalization in the 'greater' Middle East, including North Africa, in the context of the powerful geopolitical forces at work in shaping the region today.

Written by a well-known authority in this area, this book demonstrates that, unlike in other regions, such as East Asia, geopolitics has been a critical factor in driving globalization in the Middle East. The author argues that whereas elsewhere globalisation has opened up the economy, society, culture and attitudes to the environment; in the Middle East it has had the opposite effect, with poor state formation, little interregional trade, foreign and interregional investment, and reassertion of traditional identities.

This book explores the impact of globalization on the polities, economies and social environment of the greater Middle East, in the context of the region's position as the central site of global geopolitical competition at the start of the twenty-first century.

This book initiates a critical discussion on the varieties of global anti-fascism and explores the cultural, political and practical articulations of anti-fascism around the world. This volume brings together a group of leading scholars on the history of anti-fascism to provide a comprehensive analysis of anti-fascism from a transnational and global perspective and to reveal the abundance and complexity of anti-fascist ideas, movements and practices. Through a number of interlinked case studies, they examine how different forms of global anti-fascisms were embedded in various national and local contexts during the interwar period and investigate the interrelations between local articulations and the global movement. Contributions also explore the actions and impact of African, Asian, Latin American, Caribbean, and Middle Eastern anti-fascist voices that have often been ignored or rendered peripheral in international histories of anti-fascism. Aimed at a postgraduate student audience, this book will be useful for modules on the extreme right, political history, political thought, political ideologies, political parties, social movements, political regimes, global politics, world history and sociology. Chapters 5 and 10 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license at https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9780429058356_oachapter5.pdf and https://tandfbis.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9780429058356_oachapter10.pdf

Winner of the International Studies Association's Harold and Margaret Sprout Award 2008 for the best book on international environmental problems. This pioneering study examines the impacts of neoliberal global governance on forests and provides an exhaustive overview of international forest politics: Intergovernmental Panel on Forests World Commission on Forests and Sustainable Development Intergovernmental Forum on Forests United Nations Forum on Forests Forest Certification New policies to address illegal logging World Bank's forests strategy Convention on Biological Diversity - and other international forest-related processes The book is an essential reference for students of global environmental politics and required reading for forest policy makers. It concludes by arguing for a democratization of global governance and a fundamental restructuring of the regulatory environment so that final decision making authority is restored to the local level. Driven by concern at what forest loss means for communities and future generations, this is a book that stands to make a difference.

In this timely book, distinguished scholars from the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow take up the challenge passionately articulated in the Foreword by Eduard Shevardnadze. Considering the unprecedented opportunities for unifying a region split into antagonistic blocs for more than forty

This book examines the strategic and economic logic behind the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Regional Cooperation. According to estimates, BCIM covers approximately 9 percent of the world's mass and 40 percent of the world's population spanning across four countries, constituting the confluence of East, Southeast and South Asia. It contributes about 13 percent to world trade but ironically only 5 percent to inter-regional trade. This volume compares the various approaches to cooperation - trade-led vs project-led, geo-political vs geo-strategic, Sino-centric vs India-led. The chapters explore the complex interplay of geo-economics and geo-politics associated with BCIM sub-regional cooperation in general, and the BCIM Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC) in particular. It points to the current challenges that impede globalisation and economic growth, and critically reviews implications for the stakeholders, institutional frameworks and the spatial impact of the Corridor, especially on the underdeveloped regions. The book discusses the geo-political, geo-economic and geo-strategic advantages that will accrue to the member countries once the sub-regional cooperation becomes fully functional. It advocates the adoption of best practices from similar sub-regional groupings across the globe. This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, geo-politics, strategic studies, sub-regional cooperation, South Asian studies, India-China relations, foreign trade and economics, besides those dealing with foreign policy and development cooperation. It will especially benefit policymakers, development agencies and strategic think tanks.

Over 50 full-colour world maps and graphics break down hardcore statistics to provide a compelling analysis of all the political, social, economic and ecological nightmares that keep us awake at night.* The world's car population has grown five times as fast as the human population over the last 50 years.* Wal-Mart's sales revenue exceeds the GDP of 150 countries.* Climate change may put 2.7 billion at risk of armed conflict.* Germany generates more tourists than anywhere else.* Americans use 160 times more water than people in Rwanda.If you want to get behind the headlines and understand the world - from urbanization to globalization, terrorism to tourism, military spending to human rights - The State of the World Atlas is unmatched.

In this engaging book, David M. McCourt makes the case for New Constructivist approaches to international relations scholarship. The book traces constructivist work on culture, identity, and norms within the historical, geographical, and professional contexts of world politics, and reflects on recent innovations in fields including practice theory, relationalism, and network analysis. Copiously illustrated with real-world examples from the rise of China and US foreign policy, it illuminates the processes by which international politics are built. This is both an accessible tour of Constructivism to date and a persuasive declaration for its continuing application and value.

This study examines conflicts arising from the dual processes of Europeanization and post-socialist transformations, from gaining independence in 1991 to facing the current economic crisis. Through an in-depth comparison of Estonia and Slovenia over time, it shows how elite actors within these two very different welfare capitalist states resisted EU pressures to change their cohesive and successful national models.

This new book provides fresh and in-depth perspectives on so-called 'resource wars'. Highlighting the multiple forms of violence accompanying the history of resources exploitation, business practices supporting predatory regimes, insurgent groups and terrorists, this is an authoritative guide to the struggle for control of the world's resources. It includes key conceptual chapters and covers a wide range of case studies including: * the geopolitics of oil control in the Middle East, Central Asia and Columbia, * spaces of governance and 'petro-violence' in Nigeria * 'blood diamonds' and other minerals associated with conflicts in Sierra Leone and the Congo. This book was previously published as a special issue of the journal Geopolitics.

This volume focuses on the influence that borders in the Middle East can have on actors' identity building, as well as how local, national, or transnational actors re/ define borders and boundaries. The Middle East is facing a political crisis, revealed by the Arab uprisings, that is affecting states' borders in a paradoxical way: while local, communal, or tribal dissent tends to contest international borders, states are trying to affirm their control over national territory in building border fences. Focusing on borders in their materiality as well as their symbolic dimensions - their representations - may help with reappraising the region's own history, the local/national specificities, as well as regional/ global constraints affecting borderlands and those who cross borders; be they workers, migrants, or jihadists. In this book, six case studies will provide insights on state- community relationships through the lens of border issues in the Levant and the Gulf. The theoretical framework provided by the border studies conceptual tools allows authors to delve into the process of bordering, de- bordering, and re- bordering which is affecting the region, raising questions on sovereignty, authority, and the political legitimacy of the regimes. This book was originally published as a special issue of Geopolitics.

This book discusses the growing media engagement between China and Africa from the point of view of both these regions. The rapid increase in Sino-African contact has led to many controversies and debates in the media, often represented in simplistic terms and stereotypes that call for more in-depth scholarly analysis. Not only have the relationship between Africa and China made headlines in the media, but the media itself has also become increasingly central in the exchanges of capital and human resources between these two regions. The media has also become the terrain where China's new foreign policy takes shape in the form of 'soft power'. This volume brings together authors from Africa, China, the US, UK and Europe to provide analysis, comment and empirical evidence to deepen our understanding of how the geopolitical shift towards the emerging regions of China and Africa are playing out on media terrain. The implications for transnational flows of media capital and content on journalistic approaches, press freedom and normative frameworks are discussed, as well as how African journalists have responded to these changes. The result is a collection of perspectives that refuses simplistic conclusions about what the growing engagement between China and Africa might mean, but presents a range of arguments informed by scholarly research. This book was originally published as a special issue of Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies.

Arctic Geopolitics, Media and Power provides a fresh way of looking at the potential and limitations of regional international governance in the Arctic region. Far-reaching impacts of climate change, its wealth of resources and potential for new commercial activities have placed the Arctic region into the political limelight. In an era of rapid environmental change, the Arctic provides a complex and challenging case of geopolitical interplay. Based on analyses of how actors from within and outside the Arctic region assert their interests and how such discourses travel in the media, this book scrutinizes the social and material contexts within which new imaginaries, spatial constructs and scalar preferences emerge. It places ground-breaking attention to shifting media landscapes as a critical component of the social, environmental and technological change. It also reflects on the fundamental dilemmas inherent in democratic decision making at a time when an urgent need for addressing climate change is challenged by conflicting interests and growing geopolitical tensions. This book will be of great interest to geography academics, media and communication studies and students focusing on policy, climate change and geopolitics, as well as policy-makers and NGOs working within the environmental sector or with the Arctic region. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.tandfebooks.com/doi/view/10.4324/9780367189822 has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.