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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > Embargos & sanctions
This journey to the edge of Europe mixes history, travelogue and oral testimony to spellbinding and revelatory effect. Few countries have suffered more from the convulsions and bloodshed of twentieth-century Europe than those in the eastern Baltic. Small nations such as the Baltic States of Latvia and Estonia found themselves caught between the giants of Germany and Russia, on a route across which armies surged or retreated. Subjected to foreign domination and conquest since the Northern crusades in the twelfth century, these lands faced frequent devastation as Germans, Russians and Swedish colonisers asserted control of the territory, religion, government, culture and inhabitants. The Glass Wall features an extraordinary cast of characters - contemporary and historical, foreign and indigenous - who have lived and fought in the Baltic and made the atmosphere of what was often thought to be western Europe's furthest redoubt. Too often it has seemed to be the destiny of this region to be the front line of other people's wars. By telling the stories of warriors and victims, of philosophers and Baltic Barons, of poets and artists, of rebels and emperors, and others who lived through years of turmoil and violence, Max Egremont reveals a fascinating part of Europe, on a frontier whose limits may still be in doubt. 'Fascinating . . . a rich, nuanced account of life on "the Baltic frontier"' - The Times 'Excellent' - Daily Mail 'Extraordinary' - Literary Review 'Exemplary' - Economist
As the voting public continues to diversify across the United States, political candidates, and particularly white candidates, increasingly recognize the importance of making appeals to voters who do not look like themselves. As history has shown, this has been accomplished with varying degrees of success. During the 2016 election, for example, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigned vociferously among Latino voters in Nevada's early primary, where nineteen percent of the Democratic caucus consisted of Latinos. Clinton released a campaign message to these voters stating that she was just like their abuela (or grandmother). The message, widely panned, came across as insincere, and Clinton, who otherwise performed well among Latinos nationally, lost by a wide margin to Sanders. On the other hand, in 2013, Bill de Blasio, campaigning for mayor of New York City, appeared with his black son in a commercial aimed against stop and frisk policies. His appeal came across as authentic, and he received a high level of support among black voters. In Campaigning in a Racially Diversifying America, Loren Collingwood develops a theory of Cross-Racial Electoral Mobilization (CRM) to explain why, when, and how candidates of one race or ethnicity act to mobilize voters of another race or ethnicity. Specifically, Collingwood examines how and when white candidates mobilize Latino voters, and why some candidates are more succesful than others. He argues that candidates strategize by weighing the potential costs and benefits of conducting CRM based on the size of the minority electorate (the benefit) and the overall level of white racial hostility (the cost). Extensive cross-racial mobilization is most likely to occur when elections are competitive, institutional barriers to the vote are low, candidates have previously developed a welcoming racial reputation with target voters, whites' attitudes are racially liberal, and the Latino electorate is large and growing. Moreover, candidates who can demonstrate cultural competence and do so repeatedly are much more likely to be successful at making such appeals. The book looks at CRM trends and case studies over the past seventy years to gauge how politics in various places have changed as the American electorate has diversified. It draws on the author's research in over thirty archives in nine states, candidate and survey data, and experimental approaches to assess causality in voter responses to candidate behavior.
The land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley has been one of the most disputed territories in history. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Palestinians and Israelis have each sought claim to the national identity of the land through various martial, social, and scientific tactics, but no method has offered as much legitimacy and national controversy as that of the map. The Politics of Maps delves beneath the battlefield to unearth the cartographic strife behind the Israel/Palestine conflict. Blending science and technology studies, sociology, and geography with a host of archival material, in-depth interviews and ethnographies, this book explores how the geographical sciences came to be entangled with the politics, territorial claim-making, and nation-state building of Israel/Palestine. Chapters chart the cartographic history of the region, from the introduction of Western scientific and legal paradigms that seemingly legitimized and depoliticized new land regimes to the rise of new mapping technologies and software that expanded access to cartography into the public sphere. Maps produced by various sectors like the "peace camps" or the Jewish community enhanced national belonging, while others, like that of the Green Line, served largely to divide. The stories of Israel's many boundaries reveal that there is no absolute, technocratic solution to boundary-making. As boundaries continue to be controversial and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains intractable and unresolved,The Politics of Maps uses nationally-based cartographic discourses to provide insight into the complexity, fissures, and frictions within internal political debates, illuminating the persistent power of the nation-state as a framework for forging identities, citizens, and alliances.
This book investigates US foreign policy and tests the hypothesis that transition-inspired democracy promotion will successfully establish liberal democracy around the world, and thus fulfil the aims of the American mission and its application of the democratic peace. It features two detailed case studies exploring political liberalization in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and suggests that the conclusions are applicable to other cases by highlighting the US mission in Iraq. The author critically examines US foreign policy in a theoretical and historical context, focusing on the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) democracy assistance. It demonstrates that if liberal democracy is the end-goal of USAID's strategy then the theoretical and practical limitations of transition-inspired assistance will impede the attainment of this goal. In examining US democracy promotion in Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq during the Clinton and Bush administrations, the book concludes by considering its future during the Obama administration. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of International Relations, US Foreign Policy and Democratization Studies. A video of a panel discussing Matthew Hill's book and associated topics in more detail can be found here: http://www.sas.ac.uk/videos-and-podcasts/politics-development-human-rights/old-wine-new-bottle-democratisation-lessons-af
A unique analysis of the numbers that came to define Chinese politics and how this quantification evolved over time. For decades, a few numbers came to define Chinese politics-until those numbers did not count what mattered and what they counted did not measure up. Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts argues that the Chinese government adopted a system of limited, quantified vision in order to survive the disasters unleashed by Mao Zedong's ideological leadership. Jeremy Wallace explains how that system worked and analyzes how the problems that accumulated in its blind spots led Xi Jinping to take drastic action. Xi's neopolitical turn-aggressive anti-corruption campaigns, reassertion of party authority, and personalization of power-is an attempt fix the problems of the prior system, as well as a hedge against an inability to do so. The book argues that while of course dictators stay in power through coercion and cooptation, they also do so by convincing their populations and themselves of their right to rule. Quantification is one tool in this persuasive arsenal, but it comes with its own perils.
Building on the recent initiative to truly globalize the field of international relations, this book provides an innovative interrogation of regionalism. The book applies a globalizing framework to the study of regional worlds in order to move beyond the traditional conception of regionalism, which views regions as competing blocs dominated by great powers. Bringing together a wide range of case studies, the book shows that regions are instead dynamic configurations of social and political identities in which a variety of actors, including the less powerful, interact and partake in regionalization processes and have done so through the centuries.
Who Rules the World is the essential account of geopolitics right now - including an afterword on President Donald Trump. Noam Chomsky: philosopher, political writer, fearless activist. No one has done more to question the hidden actors who govern our lives, calling the powers that be to account. Here he presents Who Rules the World?, his definitive account of those powers, how they work, and why we should be questioning them. From the dark history of the US and Cuba to China's global rise, from torture memos to sanctions on Iran, this book investigates the defining issues of our times and exposes the hypocrisy at the heart of America's policies and actions. The world's political and financial elite are now operating almost totally unconstrained by the so-called democratic structure. With climate change and nuclear proliferation threatening our very survival, dissenting voices have never been more necessary. Fiercely outspoken and rigorously argued, Who Rules the World? is an indispensable guide to how things really are.
After the 1994 Oslo Accords, Palestinians were hopeful that an end to the Israeli occupation was within reach, and that a state would be theirs by 1999. With this promise, international powers became increasingly involved in Palestinian politics, and many shadows of statehood arose in the territories. Today, however, no state has emerged, and the occupation has become more entrenched. Concurrently, the Palestinian Authority has become increasingly authoritarian, and Palestinians ever more polarised and demobilised. Palestine is not unique in this: international involvement, and its disruptive effects, have been a constant across the contemporary Arab world. This book argues that internationally backed authoritarianism has an effect on society itself, not just on regime-level dynamics. It explains how the Oslo paradigm has demobilised Palestinians in a way that direct Israeli occupation, for many years, failed to do. Using a multi-method approach including interviews, historical analysis, and cutting-edge experimental data, Dana El Kurd reveals how international involvement has insulated Palestinian elites from the public, and strengthened their ability to engage in authoritarian practices. In turn, those practices have had profound effects on society, including crippling levels of polarisation and a weakened capacity for collective action.
Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister and Minister of External Affairs from 1947 to 1964, set the framework of foreign policy which has remained India's reference point until the present. One of the most significant leaders of the twentieth century, Nehru came to power in the early years of the Cold War, determined to assert independent India's influence and interests in Asia and beyond. Drawing on the Nehru Papers, Francine Frankel's When Nehru Looked East reinterprets the doctrine of non-alignment with which Nehru is most closely identified to reveal its strategic purpose. Analyzing India-US and India-China relations during this period, Frankel explains how these parties came to distrust each other. From the outset, Nehru's vision of India's destiny as a great power collided with that of the US as leader and protector of the free world. He considered the US a rival in South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East and carried out an active diplomacy to dissuade newly independent nations from joining US-led anti-communist mutual security alliances and instead follow India's example of non-alignment. He did not see a threat from the Soviet Union and believed, despite the dispute with China over the northern border, that India's approach would bring India and China together as advocates of Asianism to counter American penetration in the region. This historic miscalculation, manifested in the 1962 China-India War, overthrew the pillars of Nehru's foreign policy. Frankel provides the most authoritative account yet of the origins of India-US suspicions and India-China rivalries. Outlasting the Cold War, Nehru's worldview lived on in the mindset of successor generations, making it difficult for the US and India to form a strategic partnership and establish a natural balance in Asia.
China-Africa economic tie has experienced lasting rapid growth since the 2000s, attracting lots of discussion on its nature and effects. A key question is whether Chinese engagements provide an alternative paradigm to existing mainstream models, like Washington Consensus, for developing countries. However, theories on state-market dichotomy can hardly explain the strong momentum of bilateral cooperation. By examining a broad range of practices with solid field research, including trade, infrastructure, agriculture, manufacturing, industrial zones, labor and socio-environmental preservation, this book proposes a new angle of non-linear circular causality to understand Chinese approaches to work with Africa. Guided by the pursuit for sustainable growth rather than by specific models, Chinese actors are able to experiment diverse methods to foster structural transformation in Africa. In particular, the author carefully records mutual influences between Chinese and African stakeholders at all levels, from grassroots to policy making, to illustrate the effects of coevolving industrialization.
The astonishing drama of Cold War nuclear poker that divided humanity - reissued with a new Postscript to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of the fall of the wall. During the night of 12-13 August 1961, a barbed-wire entanglement was hastily constructed through the heart of Berlin. It metamorphosed into a structure that would come to symbolise the insanity of the Cold War: the Berlin Wall. Frederick Taylor tells the story of the post-war political conflict that led to a divided Berlin and unleashed an East-West crisis, which lasted until the very people the Wall had been built to imprison breached it on 9 November 1989. Weaving together history, original archive research and personal stories, The Berlin Wall, now published in fifteen languages, is the definitive account of a divided city and its people in a time when humanity seemed to stand permanently on the edge of destruction.
After the shock of the conflict against the Indian Army in Sikkim in 1967 and the loss of almost 400 soldiers, the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) pressed for resolving all territorial disputes by discussion only, without using force or firearms against one another. This book analyses the process of bulletless border management by the Indian Army against the PLA, presenting the history of this process over the course of half a century.
Why is Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, involved in a costly and merciless war against its mountainous southern neighbour Yemen, the poorest country in the Middle East? When the Saudis attacked the hitherto obscure Houthi militia, which they believed had Iranian backing, to oust Yemen's government in 2015, they expected an easy victory. They appealed for Western help and bought weapons worth billions of dollars from Britain and America; yet two years later the Houthis, a unique Shia sect, have the upper hand.In her revealing portrait of modern Yemen, Ginny Hill delves into its recent history, dominated by the enduring and pernicious influence of career dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled for three decades before being forced out by street protests in 2011. Saleh masterminded patronage networks that kept the state weak, allowing conflict, social inequality and terrorism to flourish.In the chaos that follows his departure, civil war and regional interference plague the country while separatist groups, Al-Qaeda and ISIS compete to exploit the broken state. And yet, Yemen endures.
Upper Silesia, one of Central Europe's most important industrial borderlands, was at the center of heated conflict between Germany and Poland and experienced annexations and border re-drawings in 1922, 1939, and 1945. This transnational history examines these episodes of territorial re-nationalization and their cumulative impacts on the region and nations involved, as well as their use by the Nazi and postwar communist regimes to legitimate violent ethnic cleansing. In their interaction with-and mutual influence on-one another, political and cultural actors from both nations developed a transnational culture of territorial rivalry. Architecture, spaces of memory, films, museums, folklore, language policy, mass rallies, and archeological digs were some of the means they used to give the borderland a "German"/"Polish" face. Representative of the wider politics of twentieth-century Europe, the situation in Upper Silesia played a critical role in the making of history's most violent and uprooting eras, 1939-1950.
Since the early twentieth-century, Kurds have challenged the borders and national identities of the states they inhabit. Nowhere is this more evident than in their promotion of the 'Map of Greater Kurdistan', an ideal of a unified Kurdish homeland in an ethnically and geographically complex region. This powerful image is embedded in the consciousness of the Kurdish people, both within the region and, perhaps even more strongly, in the diaspora. Addressing the lack of rigorous research and analysis of Kurdish politics from an international perspective, Zeynep Kaya focuses on self-determination, territorial identity and international norms to suggest how these imaginations of homelands have been socially, politically and historically constructed (much like the state territories the Kurds inhabit), as opposed to their perception of being natural, perennial or intrinsic. Adopting a non-political approach to notions of nationhood and territoriality, Mapping Kurdistan is a systematic examination of the international processes that have enabled a wide range of actors to imagine and create the cartographic image of greater Kurdistan that is in use today.
Without resolute counteraction, climate change will overstretch many societies' adaptive capacities within the coming decades. This could result in destabilization and violence, jeopardizing national and international security to a new degree. However, climate change could also unite the international community. This is provided that we recognize climate change as a threat to humankind and so set the course for adopting a dynamic and globally coordinated climate policy. If we fail to do so, climate change will draw ever-deeper lines of division and conflict in international relations, triggering numerous conflicts between and within countries over the distribution of resources - especially water and land, and over the management of migration, or over compensation payments between the countries mainly responsible for climate change and those countries most affected by its destructive effects. With Climate Change as a Security Risk, WBGU has compiled a flagship report on an issue that quite rightly is rising rapidly up the international political agenda. The authors pull no punches on the likelihood of increasing tensions and conflicts in a climatically constrained world and spotlight places where possible conflicts may flare up in the 21st century unless climate change is checked. The report makes it clear that climate policy is preventative security policy.
The Papuan conflict has been on the international radar screen since Indonesia became an independent state in 1945. Since the surrender of the territory of Papua to Indonesia in 1962, a low-intensity military conflict has been building. Most Papuans believed that their right to self-determination was sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics. Later, when East Timor seceded peacefully from Indonesia, Papuans expected the same right. When this did not happen, the conflict intensified. In this pivotal work, Bilveer Singh examines the history of the Papuan struggle, and approaches to conflict resolution through the framework of its geopolitical implications. Asserting that the Papuans were treated unjustly by Indonesia and the international community, it is not surprising that many have come down squarely on the side of Papuan independence as a way out of the imbroglio. While to some extent the Papuan's case cannot be denied, definite political and strategic realities should not be ignored. Unfortunately for the Papuans, their territory has immense geopolitical, geostrategic, and economic significance--not only for Indonesia, but also for others such as the United States, China, Australia, and a number of European countries. Papua is wealthy, under-populated and backward in terms of human resource development. Its future as a distinct entity is in real danger as the Papuans are becoming the minority in their own homeland. Due to the asymmetry of power, the Papuans' struggle has not made a breakthrough that would force Indonesia to rethink the future of the territory in any fundamental way. In order to unravel the dynamics involving Papuan separatism, this study describes the Papuan political landscape. Singh explains what makes Papua unique, and how its makeup has affected the territory's political dynamics. He analyzes the emergence of Papua as a geopolitical trophy, calling into question the degree to which Papuan nationalism has crystallized. Finally, he questions whether Papua is emerging as a regional flashpoint, and, in view of its geopolitical importance, the various options available. "Papua: Geopolitics and the Quest for Nationhood" will be of interest to scholars of international relations, comparative politics of Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific, and policymaking.
For a decade America’s share of the global economy has been in decline. Its diplomatic alliances are under immense strain, and any claim of moral leadership has been abandoned. America is still a colossus, possessing half the world’s manufacturing capacity, nearly half its military forces, and a formidable system of global surveillance and covert operations. But even at its peak it may have been sowing the seeds of its own destruction. Is it realistic to rely on the global order established after World War II, or are we witnessing the changing of the guard, with China emerging as the world’s economic and military powerhouse? America clings to its superpower status, but for how much longer?
'A riveting and illuminating tour of how nations deal with crises - which might hopefully help humanity as a whole deal with our present global crisis' YUVAL NOAH HARARI, author of SAPIENS ** NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER** Author of the landmark international bestsellers Guns, Germs and Steel and Collapse, Jared Diamond has transformed our understanding of what makes civilizations rise and fall. Now, at a time when crises are erupting around the world, he explores what makes certain nations resilient, and reveals the factors that influence how nations and individuals can respond to enormous challenges. In a riveting journey into the recent past, he traces how six distinctive modern nations - Finland, Chile, Indonesia, Japan, Germany and Australia - have survived defining catastrophes, and identifies patterns in their recovery. Looking ahead, he investigates the risk that the United States and other countries, faced by grave threat, are set on a course towards catastrophe. Adding a rich psychological dimension to the in-depth history, geography, biology and anthropology that underpin all of Diamond's writing, Upheaval is epic in scope, but also his most personal book yet. 'Fascinating ... I finished the book even more optimistic about our ability to solve problems than I started' BILL GATES 'Jared Diamond does it again: another rich, original and fascinating chapter in the human saga - with vital lessons for our difficult times' STEVEN PINKER
In this Element, the authors develop an account of the role of behaviour change that is more political and social by bringing questions of power and social justice to the heart of their enquiry in order to appreciate how questions of responsibility and agency are unevenly distributed within and between societies. The result is a more holistic understanding of behaviour, as just one node within an ecosystem of transformation that bridges the individual and systemic. Their account is more attentive to questions of governance and the processes of collective steering necessary to facilitate large scale change across a diversity of actors, sectors and regions than the dominant emphasis on individuals and households. It is also more historical in its approach, looking critically at the relevance of historical parallels regarding large-scale behaviour change and what might be learned and applied to the contemporary context action.
Eco-Warriors was the first in-depth look at the people, actions, history and philosophies behind the "radical" environmental movement. Focusing on the work of Earth First , the Sea Shepherds, Greenpeace, and the Animal Liberation Front, among others, Rik Scarce told exciting and sometimes frightening tales of front-line warriors defending an Earth they see as being in environmental peril. While continuing to study these movements as a Ph.D. student, Scarce was jailed for contempt of court for refusing to divulge his sources to prosecutors eager to thwart these groups' activities. In this updated edition, Scarce brings the trajectory of this movement up to date--including material on the Earth Liberation Front--and provides current resources for all who wish to learn more about one of the most dynamic and confrontational political movements of our time. Literate, captivating, and informative, this is also an ideal volume for classes on environmentalism, social movements, or contemporary politics.
This three volume reference series provides an authoritative and comprehensive set of volumes collecting together the most influential articles and papers on tourism, heritage and culture. The papers have been selected and introduced by Dallen Timothy, one of the leading international scholars in tourism research. The second volume 'The Heritage Tourist Experience' focuses on the nature of the heritage experience, the demand for heritage, and managing visitors and their experiences. Sold individually and as a set, this series will prove an essential reference work for scholars and students in geography, tourism and heritage studies, cultural studies and beyond.
This three volume reference series provides an authoritative and comprehensive set of volumes collecting together the most influential articles and papers on tourism, heritage and culture. The papers have been selected and introduced by Dallen Timothy, one of the leading international scholars in tourism research. The third volume 'The Political Nature of Cultural Heritage and Tourism' addresses contemporary issues such as heritage dissonance, the debate on authenticity, conflict, and contested heritage. Sold individually and as a set, this series will prove an essential reference work for scholars and students in geography, tourism and heritage studies, cultural studies and beyond.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, warnings about a 'new Cold War' proliferated. In fact, argues Gilbert Achcar in this timely new study, the Cold War has been ongoing since the turn of the century. Racing to solidify its position in the 1990s as the last remaining superpower, the US alienated Russia and China, pushing them closer and rebooting the 'old' Cold War with disastrous implications. Vladimir Putin's consequent rise and imperialist reinvention, along with Xi Jinping's own ascendancy and increasingly autocratic tendencies, would, respectively, culminate in the murderous invasion of Ukraine and mounting tensions over Taiwan and trade. Was all this inevitable? Will these three world powers' permanent readiness to war write the story of the twenty-first century? What comes after Ukraine? What might the contours of a more peaceful world look like? These questions and many others are addressed in this essential book by one of the most astute and seasoned analysts of international relations. |
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