With 30 years having passed since Central Asia and the South Caucasus emerged on the international stage, a new approach to understanding its contemporary dynamics is required. This volume argues for a multidimensional analysis of international, regional, and domestic cooperation and conflicts in the region. The authors analyze foreign policies of great powers such as Russia, China, U.S., EU, Japan, and Iran toward this part of the world. The work looks at regional issues and regionalism, including the Eurasian Union and the Belt and Road Initiative. A series of chapters study domestic processes ranging from clan politics, identity construction, the media, to non-state actors. The publication applies theoretical pluralism and utilizes realism, liberalism, constructivism, and FPA.

"Iuliu-Marius Morariu succeeds in opening the door of our curious gaze on memorialism, letting us get acquainted with the ideas promoted by Virgil Gheorghiu - an interwar diplomat, journalist, poet, novelist and Romanian Orthodox priest, who had to choose the path of exile (moving to France) once with the establishment of the Communist Regime in Romania." (Iulia Medveschi, in Astra Salvensis, X (2022), no. 19). Virgil Gheorghiu, an important but controversial figure in Romanian exile literature, remains one of his country's best-known writers today. Based on his works and their reception, but also on the existing secondary literature, this study examines his reflection on three important ideologies, namely communism, national socialism and capitalism, in order to highlight the specificities of Virgil Gheorghiu's thought and to see what aspects of topicality and contemporary relevance can be found in it.

Social Progress and the Authoritarian Challenge to Democracy examines the authoritarian challenge to present-day democracy through a framing of social progress theory and the idea of the social contract. Building on the author's previous work, this book discusses whether social progress is linear and on a continual upward trajectory to human betterment, or if there are peaks and troughs along the way. More importantly, it questions that, if social progress exists, is it compatible with social and environmental sustainability? At the outset the book introduces the concepts of social contract theory and the idea of human social progress, long considered to be settled conditions, now ripe for further examination. Each chapter carefully analyses the contemporary struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, using examples from the USA as a foundation to discuss and compare democracies from around the world encountering the pressures of rising authoritarianism, including anti-immigration, xenophobia and anti-institutionalism. It argues that if the climate crisis is to be urgently addressed as required, the rise in authoritarian thinking, with its focus on maintaining power and the creation of individual wealth, presents a challenge to both our societal foundations and environmental sustainability. Highlighting and analysing topics of critical importance to today's society, this book will have widespread appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students throughout the social sciences including sociology, political science, philosophy, environmental sustainability and development studies.

This provocative book interrogates the ideology of capitalism as the "default" narrative underpinning various mainstream ideologies in the contemporary world. The book explores the genesis, structure and functioning of this ideological narrative, provides its critical assessment and outlines a possible alternative, beyond the logic of capitalism and toward a truly free and democratic society. The book takes a broad view of the major global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and persuasively argue that, in order to resolve any of the major global problems, from the ongoing ecological crisis to economic and geopolitical issues, we need to confront the capitalist system. To unpack the logic of contemporary capitalist ideology, and the way it structures our inter-personal and political relations, the book gives an analysis of the "end of ideology" narrative and offers a critical assessment of the ideas behind the widely used but fundamentally flawed concept of "Liberal democracy." The book revisits metaphysical foundations behind the ideology of capitalism, exposing their secular-religious dimension, and their immanent oppressiveness. Based on this deconstruction of the metaphysical foundations implicit in (Neo)Liberalism and capitalism, the book offers a way in which alternative metaphysical foundations can be constructed to allow for different socio-political and economic models that would be based on a radical affirmation of freedom and democracy, as well as human responsibility for the natural environment. Beyond Capitalist Dystopia: Reclaiming Freedom and Democracy in the Age of Global Crises will be of great interest to anyone searching for alternatives to the pervasive ideology of capitalism as well as students and researchers active in various fields in the humanities and social sciences.

Are Muslims threatening the core values of the West? Jocelyne Cesari examines this question through the lens of testimonies from Muslims in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Her book is an unprecedented exploration of Muslim religious and political life based on several years of field work in Europe and in the United States. It provides original insights into the ways Muslims act as believers and citizens and into the specifics of western liberalism and secularism, particularly after 9/11, and how the specific constraints of Islam in secular spaces trigger a western politics of fear. Its unique interdisciplinary scope allows for an in depth analysis of data polls, surveys, political discourses, policy programs, interviews, and focus groups with Muslims.

The monograph it attempts to identify the definitions of the past, present, and future used by Polish political elites in electoral discourse from 1989 to 2015. It aims not just to identify these definitions, but to compare and contrast them, and show how they evolved over this period. At all times, the dominant definitions were a resource of temporal consciousness for society. For this reason, they can be taken as a basis for scholarly "diagnosis." They can reveal key insights not only into social imaginations of the three dimensions of time, but into social change itself. Therefore, the fundamental aim of this work is to show how society developed its approach to the past, present, and future from 1989 to 2015.

This book probes the interconnections of time and ecology in order to spark our imagination and inspire us to re-think the planetary, ecology, and otherwise. It presents debates that interrogate and elucidate the anxieties of the known and the unknown of this world and the planetary beyond, sifting through temporal accounts of the Anthropocene, human beings, and climate change. The chapters in this edited volume spur conversations with different thought systems and their underlying assumptions about the composition of structures of time and contingent temporalities. The authors engage rising temperatures in the oceans and air, the consequences, intended and unintended, of investments in various forms of "development", and the potential catastrophe unfolding in real time. Recent temporal strategies such as mitigation and adaptation to the "climate crisis" are challenged as they further compound and commodify the inquiry, the understanding and responses to environmental degradations, extractions, and displacements. Anti-colonial and decolonial debates about the structures of time, the planetary, and ecology are crucial contributions of this volume. Further, privileging the vantage points of the colonized and enslaved, the authors of this volume challenge dominant universal, cyclical, and retrospective structures of time and the planetary. Through research, poetry, art, and popular cultural analyses, the authors attend to the ways that the struggles of the "submerged," indigenous and black communities for climate justice become coded as a global warming crisis. This volume grapples with how racial climate struggles and unrest become mobilized both as a source of paralysis and as an opportunity for further expropriation and expansion of data accumulation markets for settler planetary projects all in the name of global warming. Ultimately, the authors in this volume argue that conventional attempts at exploiting the planetary all depend upon ideas of conquest and the mastery and control of ecologies, global governance, and individual behaviors. In this sense, fears about the unknown future of our planet miss what is at stake in the structures of time, the question of creation and invention. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Globalizations.

Foreign and security policy have long been removed from the political pressures that influence other areas of policymaking. This has led to a tendency to separate the analytical levels of the individual and the collective. Using Lacanian theory, which views the subject as ontologically incomplete and desiring a perfect identity which is realised in fantasies, or narrative scenarios, this book shows that the making of foreign policy is a much more complex process. Emotions and affect play an important role, even where 'hard' security issues, such as the use of military force, are concerned. Eberle constructs a new theoretical framework for analysing foreign policy by capturing the interweaving of both discursive and affective aspects in policymaking. He uses this framework to explain Germany's often contradictory foreign policy towards the Iraq crisis of 2002/2003, and the emotional, even existential, public debate that accompanied it. This book adds to ongoing theoretical debates in International Political Sociology and Critical Security Studies and will be required reading for all scholars working in these areas.

This book offers a nuanced and muti-layered approach towards comprehending the possibilities of democratization or likelihood of authoritarian resilience in the Muslim world. The volume highlights the complex diversity within Islamist movements and parties- characterised by internal tensions, struggles and contestations. The very existence of this diversity within and among Islamist movements, and their general willingness to partake in mainstream politics, signals an important transformation in the Muslim world over recent decades. It demonstrates that the Muslim world has gravitated from the simplistic focus on the compatibility or incompatibility of Islam and democracy. Islamist movements and parties embody the multiple manifestations and trajectories within political Islam. The granular case-studies and theological analyses in this volume draw attention to the policy refinements, socio-political reforms and ideological transformations engendered by Muslim intellectuals and Islamist movements and ideologues. The diverse political landscape in the Muslim world is inextricably linked to the socio-political and theological shifts within Islamism-in particular, the yearning for greater social, economic and political justice, a yearning that lies at the core of an inclusive wasatiyyah Islam.

The War for America is a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the conflict between the liberal left and the conservative right. It's the perfect book for anyone who's interested in the future of American politics and concerned about the growing power of the conservative movement. Praise for The War for America Finally, from outside the beltway, a primer to help the rest of America cut through the punditry and pettifoggery. compelling overview of the most important trends of the future. Pascal R. Baudry President, WDHB Consulting Group and author of the best-selling book Francais et Americains: L'autre rive Enjoyable, informative, and disturbing--a rare combination of wisdom and wit. Faith Gabelnick President Emerita, Pacific University A passionate and insightful book. Mick Malisic Founder and Editor, Left Bank Magazine A compelling, pithy, and entertaining analysis. Ben Fuller Link TV A crash course in the human condition at the start of the 21st century. Richard Young Co-founder of ReformDemocrats Digs deep to examine the important underlying realities that deserve our attention. Michael Hannigan President and Co-Founder, Dan Carol Founding Partner, Carol/Trevelyan Strategy Group Finally, someone is connecting the dots Mark Tuchman Creator, www dumbanddubya.com An expansive treatment of the issues facing modern society. Dr. Hylan B. Lyon Jr. Former Staff Member, White House Science Advisor

This book lies at the intersection of two important and expanding fields of study: Political Islam and International Relations (IR). It contributes to both fields by analyzing the discourses of six moderate-reformist (mainstream) scholar sheikhs from the Sunni and Shii Arab World of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Four of the scholar sheikhs are Sunni Egyptians who received their education at al-Azhar and/or maintained a long-term affiliation with the institution. They are Mahmoud Shaltut (1893-1963), Muhammad Abu Zahra (1897-1974), Muhammad al-Bahi (1905-1982), and Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1926- ). The fifth is the Sunni Syrian Sheikh Wahbah al-Zuhaili (1932-2015). Finally, there is Sayyid Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935-2010), a renowned Lebanese Shia cleric, who received his religious training at al-Hawza in Najaf, Iraq, the Shia equivalent of al-Azhar. The aims of the book are three: (1) to demonstrate the presence of a moderate-reformist (mainstream) strand within political Islam that advocates a different perspective on international relations from that of the radical Islamists; (2) to identify and scrutinize the principal elements of this mainstream perspective, while underscoring the variations with it; and (3) to situate the international relations' discourses of the examined mainstream Islamist scholar sheikhs within their proper historic and ideational contexts. The book appeals to a wide and diverse readership that is not restricted to specialists. While academics and graduate students working on political Islam and/or the Middle East are its primary audience, the work is written in an accessible style, that is kept free of academic jargon, that any reader who is proficient in English and interested in political Islam and/or theories of international relations can enjoy reading and engage with the main arguments.

The Putin regime and its propagandists have long claimed to be fighting the heirs of Nazi Germany. From its crackdown on domestic dissent to its aggression on the international stage, the Kremlin has regularly smeared its adversaries as fascists and fascist collaborators. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Putin claimed would achieve its 'denazification', brought this propaganda to a new level of intensity. This book shines a spotlight on the disturbing reality behind Putin's anti-fascist posturing. It shows how his regime mobilised neo-nazis as proxies during Russia's descent into authoritarianism. Using court records and extensive media and internet sources, it analyses the relationship between the Kremlin and Russkii Obraz, a neo-nazi organization that became a major force on Russia's radical nationalist scene in 2008-10. It shows how Russkii Obraz's rise was boosted by the regime's policy of 'managed nationalism,' which mobilised radical nationalist proxies against opponents of authoritarianism. In return for undermining moderate nationalists and pro-democracy activists, Russkii Obraz received official support and access to public space. This collaboration became politically hazardous for the Kremlin because of Russkii Obraz's neo-Nazi ideology and its connections to BORN, a terrorist group responsible for a series of high-profile killings. When security forces captured the ringleader of BORN, they precipitated the destruction of Russkii Obraz, but veterans of the organisation went on to play a prominent role in Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2014.

This book outlines the possibilities and perspectives of an intertwining of European integration historiography with the history and concept of capitalism. Although debates on capitalism have been making a comeback since the 2008 crisis, to date the concept of capitalism remains almost completely avoided by historians of European integration. This book thus conceptualizes 'capitalism' as a useful analytical tool that should be used by historians of European integration and proposes three major approaches for them to do so: first, by bringing the question of social conflict, integral to the concept of capitalism, into European integration history; second, by better conceptualizing the link between European governance, Europeanization and the globalization of capitalism; and thirdly by investigating the economic, political and ideological models or doctrines that underlie European cooperation, integration, policies and institutions. This analytical encounter between European integration history and capitalism allows for a better understanding of how today's "Europe" resulted from a complex social, economic and political conflict that took place in part at the European level. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, the European Review of History.

Explore the numerous paradoxes at the heart of the theory and practice of democracy promotion. The Democracy Promotion Paradox raises difficult but critically important issues by probing the numerous inconsistencies and paradoxes that lie at the heart of the theory and practice of democracy promotion. For example, the United States frequently crafts policies to promote democracy that rely on cooperation with undemocratic governments; democracy promoters view their work as minor yet also of critical importance to the United States and the countries where they work; and many who work in the field of democracy promotion have an incomplete understanding of democracy. Similarly, in the domestic political context, both left and right critiques of democracy promotion are internally inconsistent. Lincoln A. Mitchell provides an overview of the origins of U.S. democracy promotion, analyzes its development and evolution over the last decades, and discusses how it came to be an unquestioned assumption at the core of U.S. foreign policy. His discussion of the bureaucratic logic that underlies democracy promotion offers important insights into how it can be adapted to remain effective. Mitchell also examines the future of democracy promotion in the context of evolving U.S. domestic policy and politics and in a changed global environment in which the United States is no longer the hegemon.

"A first-rate survey of the various strands of domestic extremism, from far left to far right, that are increasingly convulsing our country. A must-read for students, scholars, officials, and others entering this important field."--Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center "With contributions on areas ranging from anti-abortion extremism to modern anarchism and black nationalism, this is a fascinating study of an often neglected and vital area of American politics."--Martin Durham, author of White Rage: The Extreme Right and American Politics The American Republic was born in revolt against the British crown, and ever since, political extremism has had a long tradition in the United States. To some observers, the continued presence of extremist groups--and the escalation of their activities--portends the fragmentation of the country, while others believe such is the way American pluralism works. The word extremism often carries negative connotations, yet in 1964 Barry Goldwater famously said, "Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice." Extremism in America is a sweeping overview and assessment of the various brands of bigotry, prejudice, zealotry, dogmatism, and partisanship found in the United States, including the extreme right, the antiglobalization movement, Black Nationalism, Chicano separatism, militant Islam, Jewish extremism, eco-extremism, the radical antiabortion movement, and extremist terrorism. Many of these forms of single-minded intolerance are repressed by both the state and society at large, but others receive significant support from their constituencies and enjoy a level of respectability in some quarters of the mainstream. The essays in this volume examine the relationship between these movements and the larger society, dissect the arguments of contemporary American anarchist activists, look at recent trends in political extremism, and suggest how and why such arguments resonate with a considerable number of people.

Contesting Austerity compares the contentious responses to austerity in Portugal and Spain between 2008 and 2015. While in Spain a sustained wave of mobilisation lasted for three years and led to a transformation of the party system, in Portugal social movements mobilised only in specific instances, trade unions dominated protest and institutional change was limited. Contesting Austerity shows that trajectories and outcomes in these countries are linked to the nature and configurations of the players in the mobilisation process.

Islam in Europe delves into the daily routines of European Muslim communities in order to provide a better understanding of what it means to be a European Muslim today. Instead of positing particular definitions of being Muslim, this volume invites and encourages a diverse body of 735 informants from Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the UK to reflect on who they are and on the meaning and place Islam has in such considerations. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork and suggesting novel ways of seeing the phenomenon of European Islam and the continent's Muslim communities, Islam in Europe examines how through their practices, discourses, face to face and mediated interaction, European Muslims construct notions or identity, agency, solidarity and belonging, or how they negotiate and redefine religion, tradition, authority and cultural authenticity. Theoretically and methodologically innovative, Islam in Europe makes a significant contribution to better understanding European Islam and Europe's Muslims.

The book introduces readers to the basic knowledge about changes in the political party system, which started to take place after the parliamentary elections in 2010.The introductory part introduces the basic development of the political party system in the Czech Republic, discusses the characteristics of new actors and described the two concepts used, i.e. the business firm-party and the far-right populist parties. On the basis of this introductory chapter, new political parties are introduced in more detail, namely Public Affairs, the Dawn of Direct Democracy and Freedom and Direct Democracy (associated with Tomio Okamura) and Andrej Babis's ANO movement.

In this book, some of Philip Towle's major contributions are brought together to shed light on the Cold War and its aftermath. Topics include the build-up of chemical and nuclear weapons, the attack on New York's World Trade Center in 2001, intervention in overseas conflicts and the role of the Church. The first section concentrates on the ways in which the West has interfered in conflicts around the world from the Vietnam War to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq, and explains why intervention worked in former Yugoslavia but not in countries such as Vietnam, Afghanistan or Libya. The second section focuses on arms control and disarmament, how they were linked to intervention - particularly through the fear of terrorism - and how and why some arms control measures succeeded, and some did not. Intervention and Disarmament: In a Culturally Diverse World is useful for postgraduates and scholars interested in international affairs and warfare in the modern world.

Certain English writers of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, whom scholars often associate with classical republicanism, were not, in fact, hostile to liberalism. Indeed, these thinkers contributed to a synthesis of liberalism and modern republicanism. As this book argues, Marchamont Nedham, James Harrington, Henry Neville, Algernon Sidney, and John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, the co-authors of a series of editorials entitled Cato's Letters, provide a synthesis that responds to the demands of both republicans and liberals by offering a politically engaged citizenry as well as the protection of individual rights. The book also reinterprets the writings of Machiavelli and Hobbes to show that each contributed in a fundamental way to the formation of this liberal republicanism.

Encompassing five continents and twenty centuries, this book puts ruler personality cults on the crossroads of disciplines rarely, if ever, juxtaposed before: among its authors are historians, linguists, media scholars, political scientists and communication sociologists from Europe, the United States and New Zealand. However, this breadth and versatility are not goals in themselves. Rather, they are the means to work out an integrated approach to personality cults, capable of overcoming both the dominance of much-discussed 20th century poster examples (Bolshevism-Nazism-Fascism) and the lack of interest in the related practices of leader adoration in religious and cultural contexts. Instead of reiterating the understandable but unfruitful fixation on rulers as the cults' focal points, the authors focus on communicative patterns and interactional chains linking rulers with their subjects: in this light, the adoration of political figures is seen as a collective enterprise impossible without active, if often tacit, collaboration between rulers and their constituencies.

Have you ever wondered what libertarians think about vaccine mandates? About gun control? About racial and sexual inequalities? While libertarianism is well known as a political theory relating to the scope and justification of state authority, the breadth and depth of libertarian work on a wide range of other topics in social and political philosophy is less well known. This handbook is the first definitive reference on libertarianism that offers an in-depth survey of the central ideas from across philosophy, politics, and economics, including applications to contemporary policy issues. The forty chapters in this work provide an encyclopedic overview of libertarian scholarship, from foundational debates about natural rights theories vs. utilitarian approaches, to policy debates over immigration, punishment and policing, and intellectual property. Each chapter presents a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of historical and contemporary libertarian thought on its subject, and thus serves as an essential guide to current scholarship, and a starting place for discovering future lines of research. The book also contains a section on criticisms of libertarianism, written by leading scholars from the feminist, republican, socialist, and conservative perspectives, as well as a section on how libertarian political theory relates to various schools of economic thought, such as the Chicago, Austrian, Bloomington, and Public Choice schools. This book is an essential and comprehensive guide for anyone interested in libertarianism, whether sympathizer or critic.

The Third Birth of Confucius deals with the Chinese sage and philosopher Confucius and his philosophical and politico-cultural legacies. As the title suggests, Confucius has once again taken birth in China. Confucius 'died' for the first time when he gave way to Buddhism in the tenth century, but was reinvented again (Neo-Confucianism). This was the second birth of Confucius. In the twentieth century, under the influence of western ideas, China's liberals and Marxists abandoned Confucius again. But how long can a civilization live without any ideational orientation? Hence, the third birth of Confucius from AD 2000 onwards. Confucius is emerging as a proxy word for cultural nationalism. In fact, it is not one Confucius who is taking birth in China but two. One is the common man's Confucius, which is authentic and genuine. The other Confucius is promoted by the Chinese Government. The author believes that soon either China will embrace democracy or it may implode and disintegrate like the former Soviet Union. This book is an attempt to unravel the muddled reality of China and will definitely prove a landmark work in the field of Chinese Studies.

The current cultural climate in France is often described as one of "declinisme" or "sinistrose," a mixture of pessimism about the national future, nostalgia for the past, and a sinister sense of irreversible decline concerning the present. The notion of "democratic melancholia" has become widely popular, cropping up time and again in academic papers and newspaper articles. In Melancholy Politics, Jean-Philippe Mathy examines the development of this disenchanted mood in the works of prominent French philosophers, historians, and sociologists since the beginning of the 1980s. This period represents a significant turning point in French intellectual life, as the legacy of major postwar and sixties theorists such as Levi-Strauss, Derrida, and Foucault was increasingly challenged by a younger generation of authors who repudiated both Marxism and structuralism. The book is not a classic intellectual or cultural history of post-1968 France, but rather a contribution to the understanding of the present--a collection of soundings into what remains largely a complex, ongoing process.