This work is a contemporary chronicle of the Cold War and offers an analysis of policy and rhetoric of the United States and Soviet Union during the 1980s. The authors examine the assumptions that drove political decisions and the rhetoric that defined the relationship as the Soviet Union began to implode. This work demonstrates that while the subsequent unraveling of the Soviet empire was an unintended side effect of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, termination of the Cold War was not. Ronald Reagan deserves full credit for recognizing Gorbachev's sincerity and his determination to change the direction of Soviet policies. For this, Reagan felt the full wrath of anticommunist hawks for "doing business" with a communist leader. But it was Gorbachev who concluded the superpowers had become "mesmerized by ideological myths" which ruled out any meaningful discussions of a possible accommodation of political issues for more than four decades. The evidence is compelling that Gorbachev himself broke the Cold War's ideological straight jacket that had paralyzed Moscow and Washington's ability to resolve their differences. Though politically weakened, Gorbachev conceded nothing to U.S. military superiority. Never did he negotiate from a position of weakness. In doing so, the last Soviet leader faced even greater political and physical risk. Without Gorbachev the end of the Cold War could have played out very differently and perhaps with great danger.

Introduction to Ethnic Studies: Oceanic Connections examines United States and Hawai'i history and contemporary social issues from diverse perspectives to arrive at a plural, multicultural understanding of the U.S. and Oceania. The anthology focuses on issues that affect marginalized groups, highlighting how these groups have acted collectively to change systems, structures, and relations of power. In the first section, students are introduced to core concepts used to student race and relations through the lens of two major processes-colonization and migration. Readers learn why social inequalities persist in the U.S. and how these inequalities are distributed across racial, ethnic, and gender groups. Section two emphasizes the experiences of indigenous people, particularly those of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific peoples and Asian Americans. The readings address the political, cultural, and ecological problems facing a globalized Hawai'i and Pacific, while staking new claims for community alliances and academic interventions. In the final section, students explore the multitude of possibilities of an Oceanic ethnic studies. Introduction to Ethnic Studies is an ideal resource for fundamental course in ethnic studies, especially those with a social justice and community impact focus.

Hamas rules Gaza and the lives of the two million Palestinians who live there. Demonized in media and policy debates, various accusations and critical assumptions have been used to justify extreme military action against Hamas. The reality of Hamas is, of course, far more complex. Neither a democratic political party nor a terrorist group, Hamas is a multifaceted liberation organization, one rooted in the nationalist claims of the Palestinian people. Hamas Contained offers the first history of the group on its own terms. Drawing on interviews with organization leaders, as well as publications from the group, Tareq Baconi maps Hamas's thirty-year transition from fringe military resistance towards governance. He breaks new ground in questioning the conventional understanding of Hamas and shows how the movement's ideology ultimately threatens the Palestinian struggle and, inadvertently, its own legitimacy. Hamas's reliance on armed struggle as a means of liberation has failed in the face of a relentless occupation designed to fragment the Palestinian people. As Baconi argues, under Israel's approach of managing rather than resolving the conflict, Hamas's demand for Palestinian sovereignty has effectively been neutralized by its containment in Gaza. This dynamic has perpetuated a deadlock characterized by its brutality-and one that has made permissible the collective punishment of millions of Palestinian civilians.

The year 2020 was a watershed event in the history of climate change politics. It marked the end of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and the beginning of the ambitious Paris Agreement. It was also the year of the pandemic, where the disruption caused severe implications on a global scale. The pandemic also brought before the world the severity and scale of the transboundary challenges in a globally interconnected world. It exposed the weaknesses of the global institutions and governance structures in tackling the complex and imminent threat of climate change.As states prepare for the future of global climate change negotiations post the COP26 event of 2021, there has been a significant shift in the politics of climate change at all levels. The negotiations took place in the shadows of the pandemic, which has challenged the political lethargy and non-committal attitudes of states on the climate change question.Unlike in the past, climate change is now a hot issue on the political high tables. It has also spilled outside these negotiating spaces and into the public sphere. Whether it is the school strikes led by children or the indigenous struggles of marginalized populations, the politics of climate change today is far more diverse, representative, and active. At the same time, we can witness the shifts in the state's understanding of the problem, which is actively inquiring about its security and geopolitical dimensions. The boundaries between traditional and non-traditional threats to security are getting blurred as climate change, and its myriad impacts wreak havoc on ecosystem resilience, the state's welfare capacity, and people's everyday lives.Hence, this volume seeks to decipher the nature of global climate change politics in the post-pandemic and climate insecure world. Who will be its main actors, main stakeholders, and losers? How will questions of equity, sustainability, and finance interplay at the COP26 event and thereafter? How will developing and poor countries engage with the issue in the next phase of climate politics? Finally, how will the ambition of the Paris Agreement, which is reflected in the language of net-zero targets and the two degrees Celsius temperature goals, be brought into action?

'For centuries, it was taken for granted that the West determined the rules of the global game. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was the Europeans. In the 20th century, it was the Americans. Now we find ourselves at the dawn of an epochal, worldwide transformation. For the first time, the global center of power is shifting towards Asia.'Frank Sieren Future? China! is the first book that comprehensively examines the influence of a new superpower on all continents and aspects of life. The book explains how China is changing the western-dominated world order to a multi-polar world order - from the perspective of a European who has been living in China for almost three decades. The book argues that the times in which the West sets the standards are over. For the first time in centuries, an Asian country is assuming the position of being a world power. The Chinese are already questioning values that we consider to be universal.China, the new superpower, already contributes to well over 30 percent of the global economic growth. The author believes China is only at the beginning of its ascent. He explains how the Middle Kingdom is expanding its influence throughout the world: whether in the automobile industry, which China is revolutionizing thanks to electric mobility and autonomous driving; or in the field of digitalization and artificial intelligence, where China is on a level-pegging with the USA; whether in Africa, where China has long since been investing in mineral deposits, infrastructure but also in light industry and creating trillions of jobs; or on the scale of the new Silk Road, a one trillion-dollar project, which reaches up to Duisburg and for which China has won the support of numerous Eastern European states.

'For centuries, it was taken for granted that the West determined the rules of the global game. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, it was the Europeans. In the 20th century, it was the Americans. Now we find ourselves at the dawn of an epochal, worldwide transformation. For the first time, the global center of power is shifting towards Asia.'Frank Sieren Future? China! is the first book that comprehensively examines the influence of a new superpower on all continents and aspects of life. The book explains how China is changing the western-dominated world order to a multi-polar world order - from the perspective of a European who has been living in China for almost three decades. The book argues that the times in which the West sets the standards are over. For the first time in centuries, an Asian country is assuming the position of being a world power. The Chinese are already questioning values that we consider to be universal.China, the new superpower, already contributes to well over 30 percent of the global economic growth. The author believes China is only at the beginning of its ascent. He explains how the Middle Kingdom is expanding its influence throughout the world: whether in the automobile industry, which China is revolutionizing thanks to electric mobility and autonomous driving; or in the field of digitalization and artificial intelligence, where China is on a level-pegging with the USA; whether in Africa, where China has long since been investing in mineral deposits, infrastructure but also in light industry and creating trillions of jobs; or on the scale of the new Silk Road, a one trillion-dollar project, which reaches up to Duisburg and for which China has won the support of numerous Eastern European states.

The last five years saw a significant return of epidemic infectious disease, culminating in COVID-19. In our new post-COVID-19 world, how do we prevent future illnesses by expanding scientific and vaccine diplomacy and cooperation, especially to combat the problems that humans have brought on ourselves? Modern diseases and viruses have been spurred anew by war and conflict as well as shifting poverty, urbanization, climate change, and a new troubling anti-science/anti-vaccination outlook. From such twenty-first-century forces, we have seen declines in previous global health gains, with sharp increases in vaccine-preventable and neglected diseases on the Arabian Peninsula, in Venezuela, in parts of Africa, and even on the Gulf Coast of the United States. In Preventing the Next Pandemic, international vaccine scientist and tropical disease and coronavirus expert Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, argues that we can-and must-rely on vaccine diplomacy to address this new world order in disease and global health. Detailing his years in the lab developing new vaccines, Hotez also recounts his travels around the world to shape vaccine partnerships with people in countries both rich and poor in an attempt to head off major health problems. Building on the legacy of Dr. Albert Sabin, who developed the oral polio vaccine with Soviet scientists at the height of the Cold War, he explains how he is still working to refresh and redirect vaccine diplomacy toward neglected and newly emerging diseases. Hotez reveals how-during his Obama-era tenure as the US Science Envoy for the Middle East and North Africa, which coincided with both the rise in these geopolitical forces and climate change-he witnessed tropical infectious diseases and established vaccine partnerships that may still combat them up close. He explores why, since 2015, we've seen the decline of global cooperation and cohesion, to the detriment of those programs that are meant to benefit the most vulnerable people in the world. Unfortunately, Hotez asserts, these negative global events kick off a never-ending loop. Problems in a country may lead to disease outbreaks, but those outbreaks can lead to further problems-such as the impact of coronavirus on China's society and economy, which has been felt around the globe. Zeroing in on the sociopolitical and environmental factors that drive our most controversial and pressing global health concerns, Hotez proposes historically proven methods to soothe fraught international relations while preparing us for a safer, healthier future. He hammers home the importance of public engagement to communicate the urgency of embracing science during troubled times. Touching on a range of disease, from leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) to COVID-19, Preventing the Next Pandemic has always been a timely goal, but it will be even more important in a COVID and post-COVID world.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of China's main foreign and defense policies, providing students, policy makers, and general readers with an up-to-date assessment of this most important country. Global Security Watch-China presents a comprehensive overview of the main foreign and defense policies of the People's Republic of China, emphasizing the political-military developments in the modern era since the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident. It provides a historical overview in the first chapter, followed by information on the domestic factors that affect Chinese national security, such as economics, society, and politics; China's external objectives; its global energy strategy; and its defense policies and security objectives. Drawing upon a wide variety of domestic and foreign primary sources, the work details China's policies and its relationships with the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Asia, and Eurasia. It includes biographical sketches of select individuals of importance to modern Chinese history, such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Appropriate for audiences ranging from university students to policy makers to general readers, this book is an excellent resource for academic libraries and suitable as a textbook for courses on contemporary Chinese politics and international relations. A chronology of events A collection of key documents An annotated bibliography of recommended current sources

New from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography; We feel more divided than ever.; This riveting analysis tells you why.; Walls are going up. Nationalism and identity politics are on the rise once more. Thousands of miles of fences and barriers have been erected in the past ten years, and they are redefining our political landscape. ; There are many reasons why we erect walls, because we are divided in many ways: wealth, race, religion, politics. In Europe the ruptures of the past decade threaten not only European unity, but in some countries liberal democracy itself. In China, the Party's need to contain the divisions wrought by capitalism will define the nation's future. In the USA the rationale for the Mexican border wall taps into the fear that the USA will no longer be a white majority country in the course of this century.; Understanding what has divided us, past and present, is essential to understanding much of what's going on in the world today. Covering China; the USA; Israel and Palestine; the Middle East; the Indian Subcontinent; Africa; Europe and the UK, bestselling author Tim Marshall presents a gripping and unflinching analysis of the fault lines that will shape our world for years to come.

Investigating 20th century Chinese ideology through the two main elements of passionate belief and cultivation of rage, this timely book examines how Maoist thinking has influenced Western politics. Tracing the origins of Maoist ideas in Western politics, David Martin Jones and M.L.R. Smith expertly apply the principles of strategic theory to provide an understanding of how Mao's ideas made their way from China into Western societies where they exert a profound and little understood impact on contemporary political conduct. The book offers critical insights into key theoretical discourses and their practical applications, including: Maoism, Orientalism and post-colonial discourse theory, Maoism and the mind, and Maoism and the politics of passion. Forward-thinking in its approach, it addresses the important question of where Maoism will end, analysing the trajectory that Maoism is likely to take and what the cumulative impact of it upon Western societies may be. This invigorating read will be a fascinating resource for scholars of political theory and history wishing to gain an insight into the impact of Maoist ideas in the West. It will also provide students of international politics and international studies with a much greater understanding of China's revolutionary thinking in world politics. 'This insightful volume exposes the influence of Maoism on left wing intellectuals in the West. Jones and Smith reveal how not just Mao's thought but the anti-democratic and often inhumane practices that came to be associated with China's Cultural Revolution are today being rehabilitated in woke form. This superb book is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand what lies behind today's dominant political trends.' - Joanna Williams, Founder and Director of Cieo, UK

After 20 years of freedom in South Africa we have to ask ourselves difficult questions: are we willing to perpetuate a lie, search for facts or think wishfully? Freedom has been enabled by apartheid's end, but at the same time some of apartheid's key institutions and social relations are reproduced under the guise of 'democracy'. This collection of essays acknowledges the enormous expectations placed on the shoulders of the South African revolution to produce an alternative political regime in response to apartheid and global neo-liberalism. It does not lament the inability of South Africa's democracy to provide deeper freedoms, or suggest that since it hasn't this is some form of betrayal. Freedom is made possible and/or limited by local political choices, contemporary global conditions and the complexities of social change. This book explores the multiplicity of spaces within which the dynamics of social change unfold, and the complex ways in which power is produced and reproduced. In this way, it seeks to understand the often non-linear practices through which alternative possibilities emerge, the lengthy and often indirect ways in which new communities are imagined and new solidarities are built. In this sense, this book is not a collection of hope or despair. Nor is it a book that seeks to situate itself between these two poles. Instead it aims to read the present historically, critically and politically, and to offer insights into the ongoing, iterative and often messy struggles for freedom.

The Franklin Book Programs (FBP) was a private not-for-profit U.S. organization founded in 1952 during the Cold War and was subsidized by the United States' government agencies as well as private corporations. The FBP was initially intended to promote U.S. liberal values, combat Soviet influence and to create appropriate markets for U.S. books in 'Third World' of which the Middle East was an important part, but evolved into an international educational program publishing university textbooks, schoolbooks, and supplementary readings. In Iran, working closely with the Pahlavi regime, its activities included the development of printing, publishing, book distribution, and bookselling institutions. This book uses archival sources from the FBP, US intelligence agencies and in Iran, to piece together this relationship. Put in the context of wider cultural diplomacy projects operated by the US, it reveals the extent to which the programme shaped Iran's educational system. Together the history of the FBP, its complex network of state and private sector, the role of U.S. librarians, publishers, and academics, and the joint projects the FBP organized in several countries with the help of national ministries of education, financed by U.S. Department of State and U.S. foundations, sheds new light on the long history of education in imperialist social orders, in the context here of the ongoing struggle for influence in the Cold War.

This handbook presents a comprehensive, concise and accessible overview of the field of Historical International Relations (HIR). It summarizes and synthesizes existing contributions to the field while presenting central themes, approaches and methodologies that have driven the development of HIR, providing the reader with a sense of the diversity and research dynamics that are at the heart of this field of study. The wide range of topics covered are grouped under the following headings: Traditions: Demonstrates the wide variety of approaches to HIR. Thinking International Relations Historically: Different ways of thinking IR historically share some common concerns and areas for further investigation. Actors, Processes and Institutions: Explores the processes, actors, practices, and institutions that constitute the core objects of study of many HIR scholars. Situating Historical International Relations: Critically reflects about the situatedness of our objects of study. Approaches: Examines how HIR scholars conduct and reflect about their research, often in dialogue with a variety of perspectives from cognate disciplines. Summarizing key contributions and trends while also sketching out challenges for future inquiry, this is an invaluable resource for students, academics and researchers from a range of disciplines, particularly International Relations, global history, political science, history, sociology, anthropology, peace studies, diplomatic studies, security studies, international political thought, political geography, international law.

Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan in October 2007, after eight years of exile, hopeful that she could be a catalyst for change. Upon a tumultuous reception, she survived a suicide-bomb attack that killed nearly two hundred of her compatriots. But she continued to forge ahead, with more courage and conviction than ever, since she knew that time was running out--for the future of her nation and for her life.

In Reconciliation, Bhutto recounts in gripping detail her final months in Pakistan and offers a bold new agenda for how to stem the tide of Islamic radicalism and to rediscover the values of tolerance and justice that lie at the heart of her religion. She speaks out not just to the West but also to the Muslims across the globe. Bhutto presents an image of modern Islam that defies the negative caricatures often seen in the West. After reading this book, it will become even clearer what the world has lost by her assassination.

Cell phone apps share location information; software companies store user data in the cloud; biometric scanners read fingerprints; employees of some businesses have microchips implanted in their hands. In each of these instances we trade a share of privacy or an aspect of identity for greater convenience or improved security. What Robert M. Pallitto asks in Bargaining with the Machine is whether we are truly making such bargains freely - whether, in fact, such a transaction can be conducted freely or advisedly in our ever more technologically sophisticated world. Pallitto uses the social theory of bargaining to look at the daily compromises we make with technology. Specifically, he explores whether resisting these 'bargains' is still possible when the technologies in question are backed by persuasive, even coercive, corporate and state power. Who, he asks, is proposing the bargain? What is the balance of bargaining power? What is surrendered and what is gained? And are the perceived and the actual gains and losses the same - that is, what is hidden? At the center of Pallitto's work is the paradox of bargaining in a world of limited agency. Assurances that we are in control are abundant whether we are consumers, voters, or party to the social contract. But when purchasing goods from a technological behemoth like Amazon, or when choosing a candidate whose image is crafted and shaped by campaign strategists and media outlets, how truly free, let alone informed, are our choices? The tension between claims of agency and awareness of its limits is the site where we experience our social lives - and nowhere is this tension more pronounced than in the surveillance society. This book offers a cogent analysis of how that complex, contested, and even paradoxical experience arises as well as an unusually clear and troubling view of the consequential compromises we may be making.

What might COVID-19 mean for, and reveal about, China's place in the world? The coronavirus pandemic started in Wuhan, home to the leading lab studying the SARS virus and bats. Was that pure coincidence? This book explores what we know, and still don't know, about the origins of COVID-19, and how it was handled in China. We may never get all the answers, but much is already clear: China's record as the origin of earlier pandemics, and its struggle to bring contagious diseases under control; its history as both a victim of biological warfare and a developer of deadly bioweapons. When Covid broke out, Wuhan was building science parks to realise Beijing's ambitions in biotech research. Whoever achieves global leadership of the gene-editing industry stands to harvest great power and wealth. China has already challenged Western technological supremacy with 5G and in other industries. Yet this tiny, invisible virus has cruelly exposed a critical flaw in the Chinese political system: obsessive secrecy. The West wanted to trust the PRC, hoping that, as it prospered, it would become an open society. Made in China reveals how Beijing's leaders have betrayed that trust.

Informed by international law, international relations and environment management scholarship, this interdisciplinary analysis of environmental regimes in Asian subregions proposes a new regime for the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau based on China's cooperation with its south Asian neighbors. After evaluating the nine existing environmental regimes across the subregions of southwest, central, southeast and northeast Asia, Simon Marsden proposes a tenth regime for the cross subregion in south and east Asia known as the Third Pole. The role of China in connection with each of the existing agreements-as lender, dialogue partner or Party-is a key aspect of the analysis, considering it in developmental, legal and political contexts. Conclusions recommend future research to progress efforts in developing such a regime and caution the need for context in any legal transplant. This book will have a strong appeal for international environmental law and environmental planning and management researchers. Meanwhile those in international relations or international politics will find valuable insights in the book's exploration of relationships between the states of each subregion and China, whilst coverage of the regulation of oil and gas, hydroelectricity and exploitation of other resources will be of great interest to energy law scholars and practitioners.

This book provides a succinct and accessible interpretation of the major event and ideas that have shaped U.S. foreign relations since the American Revolution-historical factors that now affect our current debates and commitments in the Middle East as well as Europe and Asia. American Foreign Relations since Independence explores the relationship of American policies to national interest and the limits of the nation's power, reinterpreting the nature and history of American foreign relations. The book brings together the collective knowledge of three generations of diplomatic historians to create a readily accessible introduction to the subject. The authors explicitly challenge and reject the perennial debates about isolationism versus internationalism, instead asserting that American foreign relations have been characterized by the permanent tension inherent in America's desire to engage with the world and its equally powerful determination to avoid "entanglement" in the world's troubles. This work is ideally suited as a resource for students of politics, international affairs, and history, and it will provide compelling insights for informed general readers.

This book examines how Africa can secure a 'just transition' to low-carbon, climate-resilient economies.

The Kremlin's ability to shape global affairs appeared decimated following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Coupled with the internal instability that gripped Russia in the 1990s, Moscow struggled to develop a coherent and effective foreign policy for almost a decade. But under President Vladimir Putin, Russia has steadily reemerged as one of the most significant countries in the world-and one that is increasingly willing to challenge the United States. In Budget Superpower, geopolitics journalist John P. Ruehl explores how Russia has achieved this feat, despite its relatively limited economic strength. The book is divided into eight chapters, each exploring a tool or approach of the Kremlin's and how and where it has used this method to maximize Russia's influence. Each chapter also analyzes the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of Russia's strategies, as well as cautious predictions for how they may evolve in the future. Russia's determination to confront the United States has become increasingly apparent over the last decade, culminating in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. In addition to demonstrating how Russia has effectively undermined the American-led global order, Budget Superpower will help readers understand why Russia has committed to this policy in the face of increasing push back and globally destabilizing consequences.