This book presents a comprehensive overview of current developments in Belarus. It explores how there has been an upswelling of popular support for the idea that Belarus must change. It highlights how the old regime, aiming to retain the Soviet legacy, reluctant to reform, presiding over worsening economic conditions and refusing to take measures to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, has been confronted by increasing bottom-up and horizontal social mobilisation which demands a transformation of state-society relations and a new sense of Belarusian peoplehood. The book outlines how the current situation has developed, considers how the present demands for change are deep-seated and long-brewing trends, and reveals much detail about many aspects of the growing societal mobilisation. Overall, the book demonstrates that, although the old regime remains in power, Belarusian society has changed fundamentally, thereby bringing great hope that change will eventually come about.

Taxation and Inequality in Latin America takes a heterodox political economy approach, focusing on Latin America, where current problems of taxation have existed for a century and great wealth contrasts with abject poverty. The book analyzes the relation of natural resource wealth, allocational politics and the limited role of taxation for redistribution, and progressive resource mobilization. By drawing on the political economy of tax regimes, the book considers the specific conditions of taxation in Latin America, which apply to a large part of the Global South and more than 100 countries specializing in the extraction and export of raw materials. This book will cover: taxation and the dominance of raw material export sectors; taxation and allocational politics; new perspectives on political economy and tax regimes. Scholars and advanced students of political economy, political science, development studies, and fiscal sociology will find several key issues in tax research from a novel angle. The book provides an analytical orientation that relates central questions of taxation to patterns of regional political economy, thereby opening up the debate with tax scholars from other world regions of the Global South.

Analyses evolving doctrines and new and disruptive technologies (including nuclear deterrence), and how these impact the conflict dynamics between India and Pakistan. Evaluates the ways and means by which crisis and deterrence stability is achieved between India and Pakistan. Will help to predict future course of conflicts and offer a future policy framework for arms race / deterrence stability.

Race in Sweden is an introduction to, and a critical investigation of, the Swedish relationship to race in the post-war and contemporary eras. This relationship is fundamentally shaped by an ideology of colourblindness, with any kind of race talk being taboo in public discourse and everyday language use, and in practice forbidden in official and institutional language. A study of a country which was until recently strikingly white but has become extremely diverse, yet where the legacy of Swedish whiteness co-exists with a radical, colourblind, antiracist ideology, Race in Sweden will appeal to scholars across the social sciences and humanities with interests in race and ethnicity, whiteness and Nordic studies.

This book looks at various syncretic traditions in India, such as Bhakti, Nath Yogi, Sufi, Imam Shahi, Ismailis, Khojas, and others, and presents an elaborate picture of a redefined cultural space through them. It also investigates different syncretisms—Hindu–Muslim, Hindu– Muslim–Christian and Aboriginal-Ethnic—to understand diverse aspects of hybridity within the Indian nation space. It discusses how Indian nationalism was composed of different opinions from its inception, reflecting its rich diversity and pluralistic traditions. The book traces the emergence of multiple contours of Indian nationalism through the historical trajectory of religious diversity, lingering effects of colonialism, and experimentation with secularism. This volume caters to scholars and students interested in cultural studies, religion studies, pilgrimage studies, history, social anthropology, historical sociology, historical geography, religion, and art history. It will also be of interest to political theorists and general readers.

Politics and Government in South Africa introduces readers to all aspects of government and politics in South Africa, from local, to provincial, national, and on to international considerations. The perfect guide for students and general readers, this textbook explains how South Africa's key institutions are governed and interact with each other, and how important issues such as economics, gender, race, and class shape relations between citizens and government. Grounded in history and leading theories and debates, the book also brings in alternative perspectives from artists, writers, and popular culture, to demonstrate the diverse ways in which issues of politics and social justice are engaged with within South Africa. Written with the needs of students at the forefront, each chapter includes: Review and discussion questions Key terms and further resources Fun facts in a Did you know? section Supplementary sources and quotations in a The Past as Present section Interactive and engaging, Politics and Government in South Africa invites readers to consider what they would do in tackling issues such as land distribution, peacekeeping, South Africa's role in the African Union, and military engagement abroad. It is an essential read for undergraduate students studying Political Science, International Relations, and African Studies, and for anyone looking to develop a deeper understanding of South Africa.

This book explores the myriad issues that play out in the upstream petroleum industry of Ghana from a legal perspective. Focusing on Ghana as an emerging petroleum country, Thomas Kojo Stephens begins by examining whether the existing constitutional framework will be effective in governing the expanding oil and gas sector. Drawing on various approaches proffered by other experts in the field, Stephens looks at possible institutional structures that could be put in place and juxtaposes these ideas with the experience of Ghana to test the efficacy of these proposals. He also explores the types of contractual frameworks currently implemented in Ghana for comparison with other emerging petroleum economies, examining the barriers to effectiveness, novel provisions that must be incorporated and lessons learned from other regions. Finally, the book highlights how vital it is for the Ghanaian State to monitor the use of petroleum revenue and make ethical investment decisions that prioritise the interests of Ghanaian citizens. Upstream Oil and Gas in Ghana will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy law and policy, oil and gas management and African Studies more broadly, as well as those working in the upstream petroleum industry.

This book explores violent and discriminatory values and beliefs and their interconnectedness between societal echelons. Violence has a foundation and a context. It comes from somewhere and is directed at someone or something, and it has an ambience established through generations of social, cultural, political, financial and religious strategies. It fashions nation-states’ hegemonic ideology and frames individual behaviours and attitudes, thus creating a milieu that enables the normalisation of violence. The focus is on violence-infused behaviours and actions in the public realm, a multifunctional environment for social and cultural activities, as well as a workplace, entertainment and transport hub. It is a public setting, sometimes demanding onerous deftness of individuals to stay safe. Attitudes, values and beliefs around violence, harassment and discrimination in the public realm frequently occur openly without anyone noticing that a crime has been committed, including by close bystanders. An audience steeped in societal hegemonic social and cultural patriarchal ideology might be oblivious to harassing or discriminative behaviours and attitudes against females, minority genders and ethnic minority groups. The habitual nature and normalisation of these invisible crimes make them easy to dismiss. Violence materialises on all societal levels: the hegemonic structural (macro) level, consisting of the society’s dominating political, financial, social, cultural and religious leaders, educational and community institutions (meso) level and the individual-agency (micro) level, hence the nationstate’s populace. Societal order is underpinned by structural, systemic and symbolic violence, all integrated into contemporary society’s cultural and social fabric, thus inconspicuous social norms as ingrained through internalisation. The book is written from a sociological perspective and within the risk society discourse, where the risk of violence in the public domain is omnipresent. Discourses of Arendt, Bauman, Bourdieu, Marx, Foucault, Galtung and Beck and present-day analysis underpin the discussions. The agency and political leadership research emphatically show that violence and discrimination are normalised and ingrained in the contemporary milieu.

Studying the many ideas about how giving charity atones for sin and other rewards in late antique rabbinic literature, this volume contains many, varied, and even conflicting ideas, as the multiplicity must be recognized and allowed expression. Topics include the significance of the rabbis' use of the biblical word "tzedaqah" as charity, the coexistence of the idea that God is the ultimate recipient of tzedaqah along with rabbinic ambivalence about that idea, redemptive almsgiving, and the reward for charity of retention or increase in wealth. Rabbinic literature's preference for "teshuvah" (repentance) over tzedeqah to atone for sin is also closely examined. Throughout, close attention is paid to chronological differences in these ideas, and to differences between the rabbinic compilations of the land of Israel and the Babylonian Talmud. The book extensively analyzes the various ways the Babylonian Talmud especially tends to put limits on the divine element in charity while privileging its human, this-worldly dimensions. This tendency also characterizes the Babylonian Talmud's treatment of other topics. The book briefly surveys some post-Talmudic developments. As the study fills a gap in existing scholarship on charity and the rabbis, it is an invaluable resource for scholars and clergy interested in charity within comparative religion, history, and religion.

The incredible, harrowing account of how American democracy was hacked by Moscow as part of a covert operation to influence the U.S. election and help Donald Trump gain the presidency. Russian Roulette is...the most thorough and riveting account. -- The New York Times Russian Roulette is a story of political skullduggery unprecedented in American history. It weaves together tales of international intrigue, cyber espionage, and superpower rivalry. After U.S.-Russia relations soured, as Vladimir Putin moved to reassert Russian strength on the global stage, Moscow trained its best hackers and trolls on U.S. political targets and exploited WikiLeaks to disseminate information that could affect the 2016 election. The Russians were wildly successful and the great break-in of 2016 was no third-rate burglary. It was far more sophisticated and sinister -- a brazen act of political espionage designed to interfere with American democracy. At the end of the day, Trump, the candidate who pursued business deals in Russia, won. And millions of Americans were left wondering, what the hell happened? This story of high-tech spying and multiple political feuds is told against the backdrop of Trump's strange relationship with Putin and the curious ties between members of his inner circle -- including Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn -- and Russia. Russian Roulette chronicles and explores this bizarre scandal, explains the stakes, and answers one of the biggest questions in American politics: How and why did a foreign government infiltrate the country's political process and gain influence in Washington?

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for governments to generate the necessary capacity to address important security and institutional challenges; this volume deepens our understanding of the nature and extent of state governance in Latin America. State capacity is multidimensional, with all elements interacting to produce stable governance and security. As such, a collection of scholars and practitioners use an explicit interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the contributions of history, political science, economics, public policy, military studies, and other fields to gain a rounded understanding of the link between security and democracy. Democracy and Security in Latin America is divided in two sections: Part 1 focuses on the challenges to governance and key institutions such as police, courts, armed forces. and the prison system. Part 2 features country case studies that illustrate particularly important security challenges and various means by which the state has confronted them. Democracy and Security in Latin America should appeal not only to those seeking to learn more about the capacity of the democratic state in Latin America to effectively provide public security in times of stress, but to all those curious about the reality that a democracy must have security to function.

This volume responds to the challenges posed by the rapid developments in satellite TV and digital technologies, addressing media ethics from a global perspective to discuss how we can understand journalism practice in its cultural contexts. An international team of contributors draw upon global and non-Western traditions to discuss the philosophical origins of ethics and the tension that exists between media institutions, the media market and political/ideological influencers. The chapters then unveil the discrepancies among international journalists in abiding by the ethics of the profession and the extent to which media ethics are understood and applied in their local context/environment. Arguing that the legitimacy of ethics comes not from the definition per se, but from the extent to which it leads to social good, the book posits this should be the media's raison d'etre to abide by globally accepted ethical norms in order to serve the common good. Taking a truly global approach to the question of media ethics, this volume will be an important resource for scholars and students of journalism, communication studies, media studies, sociology, politics and cultural studies.

* Provides a devoted, fuller space for anthropological insight when existing anthropological writing on the topic is scattered. * Highlights the value that anthropology can bring to the discussion and its relevance for investigating modern state-level cultural phenomena. * Assembles an impressive team of anthropologists, including contributions by some leading figures in the discipline.

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics in the relationship between the African continent and the EU, provided by leading experts in the field. Structured into five parts, the handbook provides an incisive look at the past, present and potential futures of EU-Africa relations. The cutting-edge chapters cover themes like multilateralism, development assistance, institutions, gender equality and science and technology, among others. Thoroughly researched, this book provides original reflections from a diversity of conceptual and theoretical perspectives, from experts in Africa, Europe and beyond. The handbook thus offers rich and comprehensive analyses of contemporary global politics as manifested in Africa and Europe. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations will be an essential reference for scholars, students, researchers, policy makers and practitioners interested and working in a range of fields within the (sub)disciplines of African and EU studies, European politics and international studies. The Routledge Handbook of EU-Africa Relations is part of the mini-series Europe in the World Handbooks examining EU-regional relations and established by Professor Wei Shen.

Why did Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine come as such a surprise to the West? This is a key question considered by this reflective and wide-ranging book. The book argues that Russia and the West were playing different games: while Russia under Putin had become obsessed with using hard power to restore the Cold War security architecture in Europe, the major Western powers had become equally obsessed with value promotion that would ensure a global triumph for the values of the West, touted as “universal values.� The Russian play for spheres of interest was clearly defined and demarcated, the Western play for values was, by definition, without limits. Hence there could be no common ground, no constructive communication, and no common understanding. While Russia convinced itself that it would be successful in forcing the West to accept its claims for a new security order, based on hard power, Western governments deluded themselves into believing that value promotion would transform Russia into a liberal democracy and a rules-based market economy. Examining the full situation, exploring political, military, economic and business spheres, the book provides a deep analysis of how the present confrontation has come about.

The US Hispanic segment represents the most prominent demographic growth in the country, and a huge and untapped business opportunity for companies willing to move away from preconceived notions and market effectively to Hispanic customers. This book shows you how. Now more than ever, corporations operating in the US should see the Hispanic population at the core of their existing and future strategies, but many leaders believe Hispanic marketing is the same marketing you run for Anglos but translated into Spanish, or that all Hispanics are undocumented immigrants with no purchasing power, or that using Mariachis in their communications is the way to connect with this diverse segment. It's time for a modern approach, and in this book, Isaac Mizrahi, one of the country's leading voices in multicultural marketing, uses his unique experience as a corporate executive, agency CEO, and industry leader to help businesses grow by leveraging the booming Hispanic consumer segment to drive sales. Filled with straightforward talk, illustrative case studies, and pragmatic suggestions and recommendations, this book counterbalances academic books on the topic with little connection to day-to-day reality and other books with a more political standpoint. This is a business book created by a marketer for other marketers and business leaders looking to succeed in the US.

The twentieth-century reality in the Unites States was harsh for Japanese immigrants who attempted to settle down and follow their dreams in the new land. Prejudice and discrimination against the newcomers, rife among Americans, were exacerbated by the ramifications of World War II events, including the Pearl Harbor attack, which irrevocably changed the pattern of immigrant lives. In the aftermath, internment camps that ensued became an inexorable part of their already miserable existence. The book delves not only into the painful past of the Japanese immigrants and their immediate descendants but also illustrates a wide array of Japanese customs that the immigrants brought with them as their rich cultural legacy. It also engages in discourse on acculturation and acculturation strategies adopted by the two generations. Japanese-American authors, in their fictional and non-fictional literary accounts, reveal the search for their ethnic identity and resulting tensions between their American and Japanese selves. An examination tool employed for the purpose of the study has been developed by John Widdup Berry, a cross-cultural psychologist, who has formulated acculturation theory with its strategies of assimilation, integration, separation and marginalisation. The book attempts to examine cultural attitudes (preferences) of Japanese immigrants and their offspring, and their cultural practices (reflected in acculturation strategies). It also presents the reader with a wide array of cultural aspects of life in the United States that—through the lens of acculturation strategies—reflect a rich literary matrix of intersecting sociocultural, historical and political factors inscribed in the twentieth-century reality of Japanese immigrants and their Japanese-American offspring. Engaging not only for academic professionals but also for those curious readers who long to inspect the past and its cultural interrelations through the memories of witnesses and their literary heritage they have left.

Writing Manchuria details the lives and translates a selection of fiction from one of the mid-twentieth century’s "four famous husband-wife writers" of China’s Northeast, who lived in the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo: Li Zhengzhong (1921–2020) and Zhu Ti (1923–2012). The writings herein were published from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, in Manchukuo, north China, and Japan; their writings appeared in the most prominent Japanese-owned, Chinese-language journals and newspapers. This volume includes materials that were censored or banned by the Manchukuo authorities: Li Zhengzhong’s "Temptation" and "Frost Flowers," and Zhu Ti’s "Cross the Bo Sea" and "Little Linzi and her Family." Li Zhengzhong has been characterized as "an angry youth" while Zhu Ti’s work questioned contemporary gender ideals and the subjugation of women. Their writings – those that were censored or banned and those published – shed important light on Japanese imperialism and the Chinese literature that was produced in different regions, reflecting both official support and suppression. Writing Manchuria is the first English-language translation of their writings, and it will appeal to those interested in Chinese wartime literature, as well as contribute to understandings of imperialism and the varied forms it took across Japan’s vast war-time empire.

For years, China’s rapid economic transformation was hailed as a successful project that lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. However, in recent times, the Chinese narrative has taken a more negative turn in the eyes of the West. Much of this has to do with the US perception about the role of the Chinese state in its economy and its military build-up, especially in the South China Sea. There’s no question, China’s complex economy can be difficult to understand. Information is often unclear and incomplete, and its data are not always reliable. However, this book presents the reader with a clear picture of China’s economy and how it compares to other advanced economies, mainly the United States. The book unwraps the key features and structures of China’s economy. Moreover, it examines and shows the similarities and differences in comparison with other like economies. In that effort, it underscores the differences by evaluating their benefits as well as their disadvantages, against the backdrop of China’s incomplete transition to a market economy. This along with its governance structure becomes the crucial components shaping the way key stakeholders will act and react to opportunities and incentives as that economy evolves. The book supplements the definition of globalization for the academic, the student, the professional and anyone else interested in its positive and negative effects. It is also a good fit for anyone who wants to understand China’s three elements of political economy: global trade, political power and its image on the global stage.

This book explores the reasons for the creation of humanity on Earth from the perspective of ancient and contemporary Muslim thinkers, aiming to lay the outlines of a Qurʾanic theory of human existential function. The author proceeds from the assumption that, until now, contemporary Islamic scholarship has suffered from the absence of theorisation about a Qurʾanic conception of human existential function (vicegerency), lacking a unified philosophical and epistemological frame of reference. Challenging common perceptions among contemporary Muslim reformists regarding the human existential function, the author examines both classical and contemporary thought as well as conducting a thorough and comprehensive analysis of Qurʾanic passages that ground the theory of vicegerency within a cosmic scheme. Ultimately, a new approach for understanding the human existential function from within the Qurʾanic worldview is proposed. For the first time then, this book offers an integral induction and categorisation of Qurʾanic teleological concepts, combining them within a coherent framework that reveals the outlines of a vicegerency theory and a Qurʾanic worldview. Suitable for both scholars and laypersons, the book serves as a landmark textbook in the fields of Islamic Philosophy, Theological Anthropology and Qurʾanic Studies.

1) This book, first of its kind, brings to the fore the subject of women in state politics of India. 2) With the help of in-depth studies of seventeen states, it discusses the gender profile of the state; women's minuscule representation in legislative assemblies etc. 3) This book will of interest to departments of South Asian Studies, Gender Studies across UK and USA.

This book provides an interdisciplinary study about the migration of approximately 9 million people who became end of empire migrants in East Asia following the collapse of the Japanese Empire in 1945. Through the collection of first-hand testimonies and examination of four key themes, the book uncovers how the Japanese government’s repatriation policy intersected with people’s experiences of end of empire migration in East Asia. The first theme, repatriation as historiography and discourse, examines how repatriation has been studied, debated and represented in Japan since the end of the Second World War. The second theme, finding home in the former empire, reveals the diversity of experiences of the peoples of former colonies as the borders ‘shifted under their feet’ through first-hand testimony. The third theme, government policy, explores the changing Japanese government policy from the 1950s to the 1970s. The fourth theme, integration after repatriation, reveals how Japanese former colonial residents integrated into Japanese society following repatriation. Presenting the collective research of 14 international authors, this book will be of interest for researchers of East Asian history, modern Japanese history, migration studies, postcolonial studies, Japanese studies, Korean studies, post-war international relations and Cold War history.

• Provides insights into the Chinese people’s experience of one of the most rapid modernization and urbanization processes in history, as expressed through science fiction • Offers a useful introduction to a host of Chinese writers who are not well known outside of the world of sci-fi but who should be read by anyone wanting to grasp the realities of urban and rural life in China. • Highlights how the experience of modernization in developing countries is qualitatively different from that of Western countries, which could provide references for scholars from other developing countries

This book explores the determination of China’s carbon emission targets, especially with regard to the allocation of responsibility of China’s import and export carbon emissions, and carbon emission quota allocations across different time periods, industries, and regions. Research outside of China tends to focus on methods and approaches of carbon emission reduction policies and the impact of their implementation. Instead, within China, the focus has been on discussion of the necessity and conditions for China's development of a low-carbon economy as well as its introduction as a concept in the light of overseas comparisons. This book utilizes game theory, mechanism design, input-output theory, econometric theory and other methods to scrutinize China's carbon emissions and carbon emissions targets across different periods, industries, and regions. The result is a detailed theoretical and empirical investigation of carbon emission issues in the Chinese context. The book will be essential reading for students and scholars of economics, especially those with a focus on Chinese economic development and policymakers in the low-carbon economy sphere.

The Forgotten Appeasement of 1920 examines a turning point in East European history: the summer of 1920, when Lenin's Soviet Russia decided to challenge the Versailles system and launch a military attack on the continent. The outcome of this attack might have been the occupation of all of Poland and East Central Europe, and a Red Army sweep further west. This book probes the British-Soviet negotiations and diplomatic operations behind the scenes. Professor Nowak uses hitherto unexamined documents from Russian and British archives to show how (and why) top British politicians were ready to accept a new Russian imperial control over the whole of Eastern Europe. Nowak unravels this previously untold story of that first and forgotten appeasement, stopped only by the Polish military victory over the Red Army. His excellent historical craftsmanship and new sources contribute to the book's quality, filling up a lacuna in contemporary historiography. This book will appeal to researchers of geopolitical affairs and the Great Powers, the history of Poland, and the political mentality of Western elites. It will also be of interest to university students and tutors, scholars of history and international relations and - thanks to the book's brisk and fascinating narrative - amateur historians and history aficionados.