What do we mean by 'gifts' in International Relations? Can foreign aid be conceptualized as a gift? Most foreign aid transactions are unilateral and financially unreciprocated, yet donors expect to benefit from them.Previous research dealing with foreign aid has analyzed the main donor motives and interests in providing financial support. This book offers an in-depth analysis of the invisible political or social 'exchange' taking place between recipient countries and donors when a grant agreement is signed. Focusing on Egypt, Jordan, Palestine and Israel - the main beneficiaries of Western foreign aid - the book uses gift theories and theories of social exchange to show how international social bonds are shaped by foreign aid and in what ways recipient countries are obliged to return the 'gift' they receive. Foreign aid is a means of buying 'stability' or 'democracy' in the region but Beata Paragi is interested here to understand the actual feasibility of Western assistance. Looking at the context of the Arab Spring, the book examines how aid impacts on a recipient country's domestic political events such as war, the quest for self-determination, the struggle against occupation and the fight for dignity. An original contribution to Middle East Studies and International Relations, the research presents an alternative interpretation of foreign aid and show how external funds interact with local developments and realities.

Three scenarios for future approaches to peace and conflict diplomacy, explored through the lens of regional perspectives and security threats Diplomacy in pursuit of peace and security faces severe challenges not seen in decades. The reemergence of strong states, discord in the UN Security Council, destabilizing transnational nonstate actors, closing space for civil society within states, and the weakening of the international liberal order all present new obstacles to diplomacy. In Diplomacy and the Future of World Order, an international group of experts confronts these challenges to peace and conflict diplomacy-defined as the effort to manage others' conflicts, cope with great power competition, and deal with threats to the state system itself. In doing so, they consider three potential scenarios for world order where key states decide to go it alone, return to a liberal order, or collaborate on a case-by-case basis to address common threats and problems. These three scenarios are then evaluated through the prism of regional perspectives from around the world and for their potential ramifications for major security threats including peacekeeping, nuclear nonproliferation, cyber competition, and terrorism. Editors Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall conclude the volume by identifying emerging types of diplomacy that may form the foundation for global peacemaking and conflict management in an uncertain future.

European unity is a dream that has appealed to the imagination since the Middle Ages. Its motives have varied from a longing for peace to a deep-rooted abhorrence of diversity, as well as a yearning to maintain Europe's colonial dominance. This book offers a multifaceted history that takes in account the European imagination in a global context.

Ten years after the end of the war, Bosnian ethnicity continues to matter and the country remains dependent on international intervention. The Dayton Peace Accord signed in 1995 successfully ended the war, but froze the ethnic conflict in one of the most complex systems of government in the world. The book provides an in-depth analysis of governance in this divided post-war country, providing important lessons for international intervention elsewhere around the world, from Afghanistan to Iraq.

A social scientist with global affiliations, among others with Columbia University in New York, University of Oslo in Norway, and La Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, Lindner takes us across history and into nations worldwide to show how emotion spurs hierarchies of domination and therefore causes subjugation, human rights violations, abuse, conflict, and fighting. She spotlights results ranging from the binding and subsequent deforming of Chinese women's feet, to periods of slavery, bondage, feudalism, apartheid, and other events across time. Related actions from political domination internationally, to spousal or child abuse on the homefront are addressed. Lindner looks at how widely divergent societies--from the Japan of Samurais to the Meso America of Aztecs, up to the modern Iraq at war--are driven by hierarchies of emotionally-fueled control with rigid domination.

Combining classic literature with emerging research, Lindner explains how similar dynamics are at work also in contemporary societies of the West, albeit more covert. What is still lacking, almost everywhere, is access to the full range of our emotions, together with the skills to regulate these emotions so that they become a liberating force in our lives, play a constructive role for productive, fair, and so-called "good conflict," and inform our institution building. Lindner concludes her book by laying out a road map for how to reduce domination and increase human dignity, both in our lives and in the world, by using the power of emotion to implement global systemic change.

Ho-Won Jeong and a cast of experts explore the ways in which the dynamics of post-conflict situations can be transformed to sustainable peace. Contributors focus on designs and models of peacebuilding, functions of peacekeeping, capacity building through negotiations, reconciliation, the role of gender in social reconstruction, and policy coordination among different components of peacebuilding. The analysis illustrates past and current experiences of peacebuilding and suggests conceptual and policy approaches that can overcome the weaknesses of existing strategies.

Petra Scho nemann-Behrens provides an informative review of the life and times of Alfred H. Fried (1864-1921), a significant if underappreciated German pacifist of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In response to the militarism and international anarchy of the European states, Fried developed his unique notion of "revolutionary" or "scientific" pacifism, differentiating it from reform pacifism, in order to address the material causes of war. As theorist, practitioner, and journalist, Fried advanced radical ideas at the time: the formation of a pan-European union, the establishment of an effective international court of arbitration, the elimination of a secretive diplomatic class, and the expansion of international economic and cultural cooperation. This book is a translation of the German biography Alfred H. Fried: Friedensaktivist - Nobelpreistra ger, published by Ro merhof Verlag in 2011, and commemorates the 100th anniversary of Fried's death.

Based on interview material with a wide range of Protestant clergy in Northern Ireland, this text examines how Protestant identity impacts on the possibility of peace and stability and argues for greater involvement by the Protestant churches in the transition from conflict to a 'post-conflict' Northern Ireland.

This study exmines peace processes in Israel/Palestine, South Africa, the Basque Region, Sri Lanka, and Northern Ireland for over two years. It identifies factors that facilitate or block political movement in deeply divided societies, and highlights issues of negotiation and constitutional change, political violence, economics, external influences, public opinion, and symbolism to challenge accepted notions about peace processes.

In Pursuit of Composite Beauty is a study of the life and thought of Yanagi Soetsu (1889-1961), known primarily as the founder of Japan's mingei (folk crafts) movement. Yanagi was a thinker who believed that world peace could not be achieved by 'painting the world in one single colour'. Before and during World War II, when Japan was invading Asia and enforcing its cultural assimilation policy in its colonies and occupied territories, Yanagi aspired to realise a world in which multiple races and cultures could coexist. His pacifist thought rests on the idea of 'composite beauty', an ideal of creating a world in which heterogeneous entities can accept their differences and learn from each other. Tracing Yanagi's intellectual development, this insightful and comprehensive book presents a positive reevaluation of the contemporary significance of his thought from the viewpoint of international relations, shedding light on the ways to achieve interdependence and mutual respect.

Volume II in this series of five volumes deals with relations between Japan and Britain in the poetical-diplomatic sphere from 1931 to the present day. From the political-diplomatic standpoint, it discusses the deteriorating relationship of the 1930s and leads on to the development of increasingly healthy postwar relations. The book consists of parallel essays from Japanese and British academic specialists.

Of the enormous number of books published on the Arab-Israeli conflict, most focus on its history or the political dimensions of the current peace process. None, however, has provided an in-depth look at the relationship between those who shape the events and the Western journalists who cover them. In this bold new study, Mohammed A. el-Nawawy explores the ways in which government officials try to manipulate the news media, how the reporters contend with such interference, the professional and newsmaking roles of the journalists, and how their demographic and educational backgrounds influence their coverage of this crucial time and place. Through interviews with 168 Western correspondents--94 in Israel and 74 in Egypt--who, together, represent more than 88 percent of the whole population of foreign correspondents in the Middle East, the author provides an invaluable source of information on the day-to-day activities of reporters in the region, as well as their interactions with government officials.

Much is known about the media's role in conflict, but far less is known about the media's role in peace. Graham Spencer's study addresses this deficiency by providing a comparative analysis of reporting conflicts from around the world and examining media receptiveness to the development of peace. This book establishes an argument for the need to rethink journalistic responsibility in relation to peace and interrogates the consequences of news coverage that emphasizes conflict over peace.

Sadly enough, war, conflicts and terrorism appear to stay with us in the 21st century. But what is our outlook on new methods for preventing and ending them? Present-day hard- and software enables the development of large crisis, conflict, and conflict management databases with many variables, sometimes with automated updates, statistical analyses of a high complexity, elaborate simulation models, and even interactive uses of these databases.

In this book, these methods are presented, further developed, and applied in relation to the main issue: the resolution and prevention of intra- and international conflicts. Conflicts are a worldwide phenomenon. Therefore, internationally leading researchers from the USA, Austria, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Switzerland have contributed.

Do international bureaucracies have a meaningful influence on world politics? Using the UN Secretariat and the evolution of UN peacekeeping as an example, this book shows that even international bureaucracies with limited autonomy can shape international politics. Peace operations are the UN's flagship activity. Over the past decades, UN Blue Helmets have been sent all over the globe and have been performing an expanding set of intrusive tasks, while being supported by increasingly professional institutional structures. Silke Weinlich covers these operational, conceptual and institutional dimensions and focuses on three specific decisions that have been crucial to the evolution of UN peacekeeping: the establishment of the UN transitional administration in East Timor, the development of a peacekeeping doctrine, and the establishment of the Standing Police Capacity. With its integrative framework of analysis, this book makes a valuable contribution to the debate on the agency of international organisations.

Focusing on Irish speakers in Catholic West Belfast, this ethnography on Irish language and identity explores the complexities of changing, and contradictory, senses of Irishness and shifting practices of 'Irish culture' in the domains of language, music, dance and sports. The author's theoretical approach to ethnicity and ethnic revivals presents an expanded explanatory framework for the social (re)production of ethnicity, theorizing the mutual interrelations between representations and cultural practices regarding their combined capacity to engender ethnic revivals. Relevant not only to readers with an interest in the intricacies of the Northern Irish situation, this book also appeals to a broader readership in anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, history and political science concerned with the mechanisms behind ethnonational conflict and the politics of culture and identity in general.

The tragedy of poverty is that it happens in a wealthy world. Despite global prosperity unrivalled in human history, a new wave of dramatic crises at the turn of the millennium is evident in armed conflict, civil unrest, ethnic violence, disease and economic jeopardy. Hardest hit are developing regions like sub-Saharan Africa, which are the focus of this book. This edited volume deals with conflict and the safety of entire communities in Africa as a whole, and Kenya in particular. The authors spell out the meaning and nuances of human security in today's global economy and discuss policy options and alternative approaches to enhance the well-being and protection of communities affected by conflict.

Clearly and accessibly written and based on original research, Paul Dixon's book provides a lively introduction to the nature and politics of the Northern Ireland conflict and of successive attempts to resolve it. The comprehensively revised second edition has been updated to take account of new information throughout and an entirely new chapter has been added on implementing the Good Friday Agreement.

Spanning continents as well as disciplines, the first volume of the miniseries 'Many Peaces' presents a panorama of diverse interpretations of peace in world history and culture. Dietrich takes the reader on a fascinating journey through time and space, exploring the so-called five families of peace - energetic, moral, modern, post-modern and trans-rational. He stresses the importance of combining rationality and reason with human properties such as emotion and spirituality in applied peace work. This innovative book indicates a paradigm shift and proposes a new epistemological understanding of peace with enormous consequences for conflict work.

The trend of globalization has led to a high level of interdependence among people from different cultures. With its large population and impressive economic accomplishments over the last two decades, China has become a major player on the world stage. This collection of essays takes critical steps toward understanding the way the Chinese manage and resolve conflict. 20 chapters form the most comprehensive book ever published on the subject, one that explores both its theoretical and practical aspects. This work holds certain appeal for communication scholars, Asian Studies scholars, and business people alike.

Peace education includes lessons about conflict sources, transformation and resolution. While featuring field-based examples in multiple disciplines, including political science, anthropology, communication, psychology, sociology, counseling, law and teacher training, this book presents real cases of conflict work. Explained are concepts underlying conflict transformation and strategies that have been adapted for use in professional practice. The contributors describe formal peace education with university students in different fields of study and informal learning of adults in community settings. Comprehensively, this book supports professionals who specialize in conflict work as well as instructors and learners in several disciplines which all respond to conflict.

Scholarship on the psychology of peace has been accumulating for decades. The approach employed has been predominantly centered on addressing and preventing conflict and violence and less on the conditions associated with promoting peace. Concerns around nuclear annihilation, enemy images, discrimination, denial of basic human needs, terrorism and torture have been the focal points of most research. The Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace moves beyond a prevention-orientation to the study of the conditions for increasing the probabilities for sustainable, cooperative peace. Such a view combines preventative scholarship with a promotive-orientation to the study of peaceful situations and societies. The contributors to this volume examine the components of various psychological theories that contribute to the promotion of a harmonious, sustainable peace. Underlying this orientation is the belief that promoting the ideas and actions which can lead to a sustainable, harmonious peace will not only contribute to the prevention of war, but will also lead to more positive, constructive relations among people and nations and to a more sustainable planet. The Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace is valuable and stimulating reading for researchers in peace psychology, political psychology, and conflict resolution as well as others who are interested in developing a sustainable, harmonious world.

Presents the case for an exciting new research program in the social sciences based on the theory of recognition developed by Axel Honneth and others in recent years. The theory provides a frame for revealing new insights about conflicts and the potential of recognition theory to guide just resolutions of these conflicts is also explored.

Will there be war with China? This book provides the most complete and accurate assessment of the probability of conflict between the United States and the rising Asian superpower. Equally important, it lays out an in-depth analysis of the possible pathways to peace. Written like a geopolitical detective story, the narrative encourages reader interaction by starting each chapter with an intriguing question that often challenges conventional wisdom. Based on interviews with more than thirty top experts, the author highlights a number of disturbing facts about China's recent military buildup and the shifting balance of power in Asia: the Chinese are deploying game-changing "carrier killer" ballistic missiles; some of America's supposed allies in Europe and Asia are selling highly lethal weapons systems to China in a perverse twist on globalization; and, on the U.S. side, debilitating cutbacks in the military budget send a message to the world that America is not serious about its "pivot to Asia." In the face of these threatening developments, the book stresses the importance of maintaining US military strength and preparedness and strengthening alliances, while warning against a complacent optimism that relies on economic engagement, negotiations, and nuclear deterrence to ensure peace. Accessible to readers from all walks of life, this multidisciplinary work blends geopolitics, economics, history, international relations, military doctrine, and political science to provide a better understanding of one of the most vexing problems facing the world.