This collection examines change within the major regional organizations of the Asia Pacific: The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). It has two simultaneous foci: the nature of institutional change in regional organizations, and the process of regionalism in the Asia Pacific. It combines the views of both officials and practitioners, providing new insights into both its major questions.

Combining impartial analysis with reliable facts and figures, this fully revised and updated 19th edition provides up-to-date commentary on these vast North American nations. General Survey Essays by leading experts analyse topics of regional importance, including: - US-Canadian integration, immigration, and the treatment of Indigenous peoples in North America. Country Surveys Each country is dealt with in greater detail within its own section. Country chapters include: - a chronology of political events - essays covering key socio-political and economic themes, including: recent political developments; foreign policy; constitution; the economy; energy policy; agriculture; trade; health and social policy - additional essays examining timely subjects such as US-Chinese economic competition, religion in US politics and the US Judicial system - historical, political and economic surveys of each of the US states and Canadian provinces and territories - statistical surveys of economic and demographic indicators - comprehensive directory sections covering public affairs, the economy and society, which provide contact details and other useful information for the most significant institutions in the region. Detailed results of the presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial elections held in the USA in November 2016 are also included.

This pioneering and authoritative study considers the profound impact of the growing global water crunch on international peace and security as well as possible ways to mitigate the crisis. Although water is essential to sustaining life and livelihoods, geostrategist Brahma Chellaney argues that it remains the world's most underappreciated and undervalued resource. One sobering fact is that the retail price of bottled water is already higher than the international spot price of crude oil. But unlike oil, water has no substitute, raising the specter of water becoming the next flashpoint for conflict. Water war as a concept may not mesh with the conventional construct of warfare, especially for those who plan with tanks, combat planes, and attack submarines as weapons. Yet armies don't necessarily have to march to battle to seize or defend water resources. Water wars-in a political, diplomatic, or economic sense-are already being waged between riparian neighbors in many parts of the world, fueling cycles of bitter recrimination, exacerbating water challenges, and fostering mistrust that impedes broader regional cooperation and integration. The danger is that these water wars could escalate to armed conflict or further limit already stretched food and energy production. Writing in a direct, nontechnical, and engaging style, Brahma Chellaney draws on a wide range of research from scientific and policy fields to examine the different global linkages between water and peace. Offering a holistic picture and integrated solutions, his book promises to become the recognized authority on the most precious natural resource of this century and how we can secure humankind's water future.

This unique Handbook examines the impacts on, and responses to, economic geography explicitly from the perspective of the behavior, mechanics, systems and experiences of different firms in various types of industries. The industry studies approach allows the authors to explain why the economic geography of these different industries exhibits such particular and diverse characteristics. The sectors and industries covered include:- traditional heavy industry and engineering - creative and cultural industries - knowledge sectors - natural resource-based and environmental sectors - knowledge, networks and communications issues. The Handbook of Industry Studies and Economic Geography will strongly appeal to students, scholars and researchers interested in all aspects of industrial location and economic geography. Contributors include: Y. Aoyama, D. Bailey, F. Bellusi, G. Bentley, M. Bokhorst, F. Bruinsma, K. Buzard, G. Carlino, M.C. Carroll, J. Cooper, L. de Propris, P. Doeringer, E.L. Echeverri-Carroll, C. Forman, P. Foster, A. Gadwa Nicodemus, F. Giarratani, N. Green Leigh, G. Gruver, G.J.D. Hewings, H. Izushi, R. Jackson, T. Klier, S. MacNeill, R. Madhavan, S. Manning, A. Markusen, C. Martinez, H. Mayer, P. McCann, R. Mudambi, R. Ortega-Argiles, L. Oxley, R. Rama, N. Reid, A. Reynolds-Feighan, J. Rubenstein, H. Shangqin, S. Sheppard, D. Terkla

This book provides information about the customs and people of Kuwait and Sau'di Arabia. It reveals all aspects of the lives of the nomadic desert Arabs, from social systems to marriage and children, from faith to food, sandstorms, warfare and hunting.

In 1944, the British Fourteenth Army and the Japanese Fifteenth Army clashed around the town of Imphal, Manipur, in North East India in what has since been described as one of the greatest battles of the Second World War. Over 200,000 soldiers from several nations fought in the hills and valley of Manipur on the India-Burma (Myanmar) frontier. This book is the first systematic mapping of the main scenes of the fighting in the critical Battle of Imphal. It connects the present with the past and links what exists today in Manipur with what happened there in 1944. The events were transformative for this little-known place and connected it with the wider world in an unparalleled way. By drawing on oral testimonies, written accounts and archival material, this book revisits the old battlefields and tells the untold story of a place and people that were perhaps the most affected by the Second World War in India. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of military history, especially the Second World War, defence and strategic studies, area studies, and North East India.

Chop suey. Sushi. Curry. Adobo. Kimchi. The deep associations Asians in the United States have with food have become ingrained in the American popular imagination. So much so that contentious notions of ethnic authenticity and authority are marked by and argued around images and ideas of food. Eating Asian America: A Food Studies Reader collects burgeoning new scholarship in Asian American Studies that centers the study of foodways and culinary practices in our understanding of the racialized underpinnings of Asian Americanness. It does so by bringing together twenty scholars from across the disciplinary spectrum to inaugurate a new turn in food studies: the refusal to yield to a superficial multiculturalism that naively celebrates difference and reconciliation through the pleasures of food and eating. By focusing on multi-sited struggles across various spaces and times, the contributors to this anthology bring into focus the potent forces of class, racial, ethnic, sexual and gender inequalities that pervade and persist in the production of Asian American culinary and alimentary practices, ideas, and images. This is the first collection to consider the fraught itineraries of Asian American immigrant histories and how they are inscribed in the production and dissemination of ideas about Asian American foodways. Robert Ji-Song Ku is Associate Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Binghamton University. He is the author of Dubious Gastronomy: The Cultural Politics of Eating Asian in the USA. Martin F. Manalansan IV is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Global Divas: Filipino Gay Men in the Diaspora. Anita Mannur is Associate Professor of English and Asian /Asian American Studies at Miami University. She is the author of Culinary Fictions: Food in South Asian Diasporic Culture.

The dramatic transformations of the the 1990s - the end of the Cold War, the establishment of political liberties and market economies in Eastern Europe, German unification - quickly led commentators to proclaim the end of all ideologies and the complete triumph of liberal capitalism. Just as quickly, however, right-wing extremism began a surge in Europe that has not significantly abated to this day. Fascism and Neofascism is a collection of essays that is distinctive in two important ways. First, unlike most volumes, which cover either historical fascism or the recent radical right, Fascism and Neofascism spans both periods. Secondly, this volume also aims to bring newer modes of inquiry, rooted in cultural studies, into dialogue with more 'traditional' ways of viewing fascism. The editors' approach is deliberately interdisciplinary, even eclectic.

This book crosses the conventional border between the analysis of on-screen and off-screen intersections of law and cinema. It not only addresses the representation of law on screen (for example, through discussions of how lawyers, police, and prisons are depicted, or how courtroom sequences function as narratives), but also focuses on how the state shapes and regulates cinema. The volume addresses the distinct contexts of China, India, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Vietnam, along with an integrative introduction that puts the essays and themes into context for scholars and students alike.

One of the key mission objectives of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) was to disarm and repatriate foreign combatants in the eastern region of the country. To achieve this, MONUC adopted a "push and pull" strategy. This involved applying military pressure while at the same time offering opportunities for voluntary disarmament and repatriation for armed combatants of the elusive but deadly Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - a predominantly Rwandan Hutu armed group in eastern DRC. As part of its "pull" strategy, MONUC embarked on one of the most sophisticated Information Operations (IO) campaigns in UN history with the core objective of convincing thousands of individual combatants and commanders of the FDLR to voluntarily disarm and join the UN's Demobilization, Disarmament, Repatriation, Resettlement and Reintegration programme (DDRRR). This book is derived from studies of the narratives, coordination and effectiveness of the UN's IO in support of DDRRR and how the UN has integrated IO as part of its Mission peace support operations. This book advances contemporary understanding of the relative importance of communication models and their interactions within conflict settings. It provides instruments with which conflict and communication analysts can compare predictions and rationalize Information impacts for future conflicts. About the author Dr. Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob teaches Communications & Media Studies at the American University of Nigeria. He earned his PhD in Communication Studies from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Europe's research and technology system is about to change with the introduction of a novel approach, labelled 'European Research Area' (ERA). This concept makes an attempt to break with the established mode of governance in Europe and seeks to advance European research collaboration and co-ordinate national research policies. Changing Governance of Research and Technology Policy is a unique collection analysing and commenting on the development of the ERA. The contributors include leading scholars of European integration and technology policy, and high-level administrators. They discuss the potential impacts, benefits and limits to research and innovation policy within Europe both in the short and long term. Moreover, the debate about ERA is placed firmly in the context of the overall changes in governance at the European level. The book will be essential reading for international researchers, policymakers and students interested in research, technology and innovation policy in Europe.

Cecil B. DeMille, David Selznick, Louella Parsons, Joan Crawford--these legendary men and women built an empire called Hollywood. In Movie Crazy, meet another group of powerful players who shaped the film industry--the fans. MGM, for example, struggled to find a screen name for an actress named Lucille LeSeur. A fan--one of thousands who responded to a contest sponsored by the studio--called her Joan Crawford. Using fan club journals, fan letters, and studio production records, Samantha Barbas reveals how the passion, enthusiasm, and sometimes possessive advocacy of fans transformed early cinema, the modern mass media, and American popular culture. Barbas sheds new light on the development of the cult of celebrity in America, and demonstrates that while fans were avid consumers of the film industry, they did not mindlessly accept the images presented to them by the studios. Fans reacted to movies and stars with excitement, anger, confusion, joy, or boredom. Far from a united force, fans were often complex, and never predictable.

Cohn lays out a new strategy of how states can produce economic development in poor nations - by considering barber shops, beauty parlours, hotels and restaurants in Brazil. Cohn considers the case of nations with budgetary limits that cannot afford to follow the East Asian model, and finds alternative policies that create jobs and reduce poverty.

This book explains how issues of governance lie at the heart of understanding and combating the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa. It reviews the debates surrounding the root causes of the pandemic and its continuing proliferation and examines the local and global socio-political forces that have contributed to the spread and impact of the disease.

The study of quality of urban life involves both an objective approach to analysis using spatially aggregated secondary data and a subjective approach using unit record survey data whereby people provide subjective evaluations of QOL domains. This book provides a comprehensive overview of theoretical perspectives on QOUL and methodological approaches to research design to investigate QOUL and measure QOL dimensions. It incorporates empirical investigations into QOUL in a range of cities across the world.

Exhaustively researched and updated, South Asia 2016 is an in-depth library of information on the countries and territories of this vast world region. General Survey Essays by specialists examine issues of regional importance, including: - the USA's 'AfPak' strategy, population and environmental issues, security issues, the politics of water and political Islam. Country Surveys Individual chapters on each country, containing: - essays on the geography, recent history and economy of each nation - up-to-date statistical surveys of economic and social indicators - a comprehensive directory providing contact details and other useful information for the most significant political and commercial institutions. In addition, there are separate sections covering each of the states and territories of India. Regional Information - detailed coverage of international organizations and their recent activities in South Asia - information on research institutes engaged in the study of the region - a survey of the major commodities of South Asia - bibliographies of relevant books and periodicals. Additional features - biographical profiles of almost 300 prominent individuals in the region.

Drawing on a vast expertise, the authors of the books in this collection each present a different aspect of the society of a variety of Middle Eastern countries for analysis. They examine, among other topics, the formation of new states from tribal beginnings, the impact of oil and war, population movements, education, human rights and urbanisation. Together these books form an essential reference collection.

With the largest population in the world, China has experienced significant demographic, social, and economic changes in recent decades. Extraordinary demographic changes took place in China in the second half of the twentieth century having wide-ranging consequences. This book, written by a group of leading experts, examines these profound changes in an effort to understand their long term impact and provide an up-to-date account of China's demographic reality. The volume provides a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of a wide range of issues such as China's unprecedented family planning program, the impact of falling birth rates coupled with increasing life expectancy, changes in marriage patterns, and increasing rural-urban migration. Anyone who is interested in China and its recent demographic changes will benefit from the rich materials and thorough analysis provided in this book.

This book covers numerous areas and aspects of Chinese domestic and external politics and policies, the Chinese economy, Chinese society and culture, and Chinese literature and history. It is divided into four sections, the first of which focuses on China's place in world politics, including its relations with the European Union, Russia, India, Japan, the United States, and Africa. The second section among others addresses issues and areas related to China's role in and impact on the international economy, the strategies and positioning of Chinese multinational companies investing in Europe, the problems and challenges of China's banking and financial systems and China's foreign economic strategies. The final two sections are devoted to Chinese politics and society, and Italian views on Chinese culture, language, and literature. The volume is multidisciplinary in nature, with contributions from experts of politics, economics, history, law, literature, gender studies, and the media. It will appeal to a wide range of China scholars and analysts as well as to all who have an interest in international relations, Chinese politics, the Chinese economy, and Chinese society, culture, literature, and history.

First published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Jamaica is known widely for its beautiful beaches and the reggae music scene, but there is much more to this Caribbean country. "Culture and Customs of Jamaica" richly surveys the fuller wealth of the Caribbean nation, focusing on its people, history, religion, education, language, social customs, media and cinema, literature, music, and performing and visual arts. Jamaican Creole and the education system, which are not often discussed in volumes aimed at a general audience, are also examined here. Students and other interested readers will witness the unveiling of this complicated and unique country within this volume. Indispensable for the its insights on the making of modern Jamaica.

Written by Jamaicans the island receives needed attention in this work. The history of Jamaica is well covered, from pre-Colombian times through slavery, to the impact of social activist Marcus Garvey, and the relatively new state of independence. Rastfarianism to Revivalism are covered as Jamaica's multitude of religious denominations is outlined. Various topics such as geography, demography, climate, cuisine, and the visual and performing arts are detailed. Accompanied by a chronology, this magical country comes to life in this wide-ranging volume. Anyone with an interest in Jamaica and its culture and customs will be indebted to the authors for their timely presentation. Students and general readers will find this volume indispensable.

Originally published in 1914, this text describes L.T. Headland and his wife's experience in China in the early twentieth century. With a focus on home life this study explores issues such as children, marriage and education as well as food, religion and concubinage as well as presenting anecdotes and personal stories from the families Headland interacted with. This title will be of interest to students of Asian Studies and Anthropology.