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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > General
Examines Naval co-operation between Britain and Russia and the
often underappreciated prowess of the Russian navy. Naval
co-operation between Britain and Russia continued throughout the
eighteenth century, with Britain providing huge assistance to the
growth of Russia's navy, and Russia making an essential but often
overlooked contribution to Britain's maritime power in the period.
From 1698 when Tsar Peter the Great served briefly as a trainee
shipwright at Deptford dockyard Russia recruited British, often
Scottish, shipwrights, engineers, naval officers and naval surgeons
who both helped build up the Russian navy and who were also key
advisers to the Russian navy at sea. At the same time, naval stores
from Russia, especially after Britain lost the American colonies,
were vital for the maintenance of Britain's fleet. Moreover, as
this book argues, Russian naval power was much more formidable than
is often realised, with the Russian navy active alongside the
British fleet in the North Sea and winning decisive battles against
the Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean, including the battles of
Cesme in 1770 and Navarino in 1827. Britain did well to have Russia
as a naval ally rather than an enemy. This book provides a
comprehensive overview of this important subject, at a time when
Britain's relationship with Russia is of considerable concern.
Since 2001, Afghanistan has provided New Delhi an opportunity to
underline its role as a regional power. In the rapidly evolving
geo-strategic scenario, India was forced to reconstitute and
reassess its policies towards Afghanistan. India-Afghanistan
Cooperation took a leap forward after the defeat of the Taliban and
the installation of an Interim Authority. India's main focus has
been to support the Afghan government and the political process in
the country mandated under the Bonn Agreement of 2001. In the past
decade, India pursued a policy of high-level engagement with
Afghanistan through wide-ranging humanitarian, financial and
infrastructural project assistance, as well as participation in
international efforts aimed at political and economic rebuilding of
Afghanistan. India has growing stakes in peace and stability in
Afghanistan and the 2011 India-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership
Agreement underlines India's commitment to ensure that a positive
momentum in the Indo-Afghanistan ties in maintained. One of the
foremost aims of India's involvement in Afghanistan has been to
assist in building indigenous Afghan capacity and institutions
which encompasses all the sectors of development. This book, apart
from examining the changing trajectory of India's policy towards
Afghanistan, focuses on two particular areas of Indian intervention
in Afghanistan namely Capacity Building and Education. It also
evaluates its importance in strengthening the Delhi-Kabul ties.
Identification of factors that are aiding or blockading the smooth
functioning of these policies, have been the purpose of this
academic pursuit. Attempts have been made to reach out to the
Afghan beneficiaries in both India and Afghanistan, in order to
understand their perspectives, requirements and disgruntlements.
This research underscores that the purpose behind India's
involvement in Afghanistan should not be defeated and thereby
attempts to put forward certain steps and directions that can be
adopted by Indian Government in order to achieve long-lasting
dividends by smooth implementation of India's aid disbursement
policy. As US led North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces prepare
to leave Afghanistan in 2014, India stands at a crossroads as it
remains keen to preserve its interest in Afghanistan. This book
apart from underlying ever-evolving Indian policy in Afghanistan
provides concrete recommendations that can enhance the
effectiveness of ongoing Indo-Afghanistan cooperation.
This book examines the relationship between national identity and
foreign policy discourses on Russia in Germany, Poland and Finland
in the years 2005–2015. The case studies focus on the Nord Stream
pipeline controversy, the 2008 Russian-Georgian war, the
post-electoral protests in Russian cities in 2011–2012 and the
Ukraine crisis. Siddi argues that divergent foreign policy
narratives of Russia are rooted in different national identity
constructions. Most significantly, the Ukraine crisis and the Nord
Stream controversy have exposed how deep-rooted and different
perceptions of the 'Russian Other' in EU member states are still
influential and lead to conflicting national agendas for foreign
policy towards Russia.
Understand the complexities of the most lethal insurgent group of
America's longest war-the Taliban. Battle hardened, tribally
oriented, and deeply committed to its cause, the Taliban has proven
itself resourceful, adaptable, and often successful. As such, the
Taliban presents a counterinsurgency puzzle for which the United
States has yet to identify effective military tactics, information
operations, and Coalition developmental policies. Written by one of
the Department of the Army's leading intelligence and military
analysts on the Taliban, this book covers the group's complete
history, including its formation, ideology, and political power, as
well as the origins of its current conflict with the United States.
The work carefully analyzes the agenda, capabilities, and support
base of the Taliban; forecasts the group's likely course of action
to retake Afghanistan; and details the Coalition forces' probable
counterinsurgency responses. Author Mark Silinsky also reviews the
successes and failures of the latest U.S. counterinsurgency
doctrine to extrapolate the best strategies for future
counterinsurgency campaigns. Provides insights from an author with
academic training in politics and economics as well as a 30-year
defense intelligence community background, including serving as an
Army analyst in Afghanistan Presents information recently obtained
under the Freedom of Information Act Analyzes the tribal,
religious, political, and international elements of the greater
Taliban problem
International Organizations play a pivotal role on the modern
global stage and have done, this book argues, since the beginning
of the 20th century. This volume offers the first historical
exploration into the formative years of international public
administrations, covering the birth of the League of Nations and
the emergence of the second generation that still shape
international politics today such as the UN, NATO and OECD.
Centring on Europe, where the multilaterization of international
relations played out more intensely in the mid-20th century than in
other parts of the world, it demonstrates a broad range of
historiographical and methodological approaches to institutions in
international history. The book argues that after several 'turns'
(cultural, linguistic, material, transnational), international
history is now better equipped to restate its core questions of
policy and power with a view to their institutional dimensions.
Making use of new approaches in the field, this book develops an
understanding of the specific powers and roles of
IO-administrations by delving into their institutional make-up.
How do countries democratize? What route does the way out of
totalitarianism take? Students of Russian politics have pursued
answers to these questions by surveying Russians on a variety of
attitudes, beliefs, norms, and practices. This book attends to
political discourse to demonstrate how it creates and constraints
political opportunities. It examines an important period of Russian
political history: from Boris Yeltsin's second presidential
election in 1996, when democracy was pronounced victorious, through
its gradual slide toward authoritarian practices during Vladimir
Putin's initial two terms in office, and to the election of his
protege Dmitry Medvedev in 2008. This analysis challenges the
assertions of Russian democracy as doomed by the governing
rationalities of the elites. Likewise, it refutes the notion of
Russians as an apathetic nation in chronic need of a "strong hand."
It argues that if we are to understand how Russia lives, how it
endures, and how it can change, we need to pay attention to the
discourses that shape Russian political identities and the nation's
political future.
Composer and cultural official Nicolas Nabokov (1903-78) led an
unusual life even for a composer who was also a high-level
diplomat. Nabokov was for nearly three decades an outstanding and
far-sighted player in international cultural exchanges during the
Cold War, much admired by some of the most distinguished minds of
his century for the range of his interests and the breadth of his
vision. Nicolas Nabokov: A Life in Freedom and Music follows
Nabokov's life through its fascinating details: a privileged
Russian childhood before the Revolution; exile, first to Germany,
then to France; the beginnings of a promising musical career,
launched under the aegis of Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes with
Ode in 1928; his twelve-year "American exile" during which he
occupied several academic positions; his return to Europe after the
war to participate in the denazification of Germany; his
involvement in anti-Stalinist causes in the first years of the Cold
War; his participation in the Congress for Cultural Freedom; his
role as cultural adviser to the Mayor of Berlin and director of the
Berlin Festival in the early 1960s; the resumption of his American
academic and musical career in the late 1960s and 1970s. Nabokov is
unique not only in that he was involved on a high level in
international cultural politics, but also in that his life
intersected at all times with a vast array of people within, and
also well beyond, the confines of classical music. Drawing on a
vast array of primary sources, Vincent Giroud's first-ever
biography of Nabokov will be of interest readers interested in
twentieth-century music, Russian music, Russian emigration, and the
Cold War, particularly in its cultural aspects. Musicians and
musicologists interested in Nabokov as a composer, or in twentieth
century Russian composers in general, will find in the book
information not available anywhere else.
Academic and accepted orthodoxy maintains that Southeast Asia, and
Asia generally, is evolving into a distinctive East Asian regional
order. This book questions this claim and reveals instead
uncertainty and incoherence at the heart of ASEAN, the region's
foremost institution. The authors provide a systematic critique of
ASEAN's evolution and institutional development, as well as a
unified understanding of the international relations and political
economy of ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific. It is the first study to
provide a sceptical analysis of international relations orthodoxies
regarding regionalization and institutionalism, and is based on
wide-ranging and rigorous research. Students of international
relations, the Asia-Pacific, Southeast Asia, regional studies,
international history and security and defence studies will find
this book of great interest, as will scholars, policy makers and
economic forecasters with an interest in long-term Asia-Pacific
trends.
Most observers who follow nuclear history agree on one major aspect
regarding Israel's famous policy of nuclear ambiguity; mainly that
it is an exception. More specifically, it is largely accepted that
the 1969 Nixon-Meir understanding, which formally established
Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity and transformed it from an
undeclared Israeli strategy into a long-lasting undisclosed
bilateral agreement, was in fact a singularity, aimed at allowing
Washington to turn a blind eye to the existence of an Israeli
arsenal. According to conventional wisdom, this nuclear bargain was
a foreign policy exception on behalf of Washington, an exception
which reflected a relationship growing closer and warmer between
the superpower leading the free world and its small Cold War
associate. Contrary to the orthodox narrative, this research
demonstrates that this was not the case. The 1969 bargain was not,
in fact, an exception, but rather the first of three Cold War era
deals on nuclear tests brokered by Washington with its Cold War
associates, the other two being Pakistan and South Africa. These
two deals are not well known and until now were discussed and
explored in the literature in a very limited fashion. Bargaining on
Nuclear Tests places the role of nuclear tests by American
associates, as well as Washington's attempts to prevent and delay
them, at the heart of a new nuclear history narrative.
Product of a Post-doctoral research done at the University of
Washington, (Seattle), USA, the present work is an attempt to
conceptualise and analyse the postulates underlying India's Foreign
Policy from its formative years in the early fifties to its
maturation in the early eighties of the last century. It subjects
the management of foreign relations by India to a full scale
theoretical examination from the political economy angle-an
exercise few scholars then or now have undertaken .Notions of
security, national interest, diplomatic leverage, decision making
process and so on have, in this work, been revisited in the
decisive context of a domestic-external continuum in which forces
of economic origin were seen as defining the rationale of a foreign
policy that was supposed to take a developing nation to the
fulfilment of its legitimate aspirations. At the same time, the
innovations that were made with practically no earlier precedent to
go by and the kind of institution building required for the purpose
have been dealt with critically so as to bring out the interplay of
domestic development aspirations and the art of ensuring policy
independence by appropriate diplomacy. In the turbulent context of
the Cold War the Indian experiment in the management of foreign
relations and the positive gains it reaped in collectivising the
principle of non-alignment did constitute a subject that demanded a
non-conventional approach to get to the bottom of it. That is
precisely what distinguishes the book by one of the most qualified
experts in International Relations, enjoying intellectual acclaim
both at home and abroad. The book starts with a theoretical
discourse on the applicability or otherwise of the political
economy approach as it stood at the time of writing. In subsequent
chapters it examines a dependent economy's quest for an independent
foreign policy, the central challenge before the external affairs
ministry of the country. It needed, among other things handling of
external aid, and foreign investment to recharge the developmental
enterprises at home in a manner that would not interfere with the
autonomy in judging and reacting to external events. Economic
restructuring at home which brought a strong public sector as
complementary to a fledgling private sector constituted an
essential aspect. So also came up the new experiment of building a
collective economic front with other developing nations. In its
compact, yet well documented, analysis the book provides the most
engaging scholarly presentation of the subject in all its relevant
technicalities.
This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open
Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com.
Global health arguably represents the most pressing issues facing
humanity. Trends in international migration and transnational
commerce render state boundaries increasingly porous. Human
activity in one part of the world can lead to health impacts
elsewhere. Animals, viruses and bacteria as well as pandemics and
environmental disasters do not recognize or respect political
borders. It is now widely accepted that a global perspective on the
understanding of threats to health and how to respond to them is
required, but there are many practical problems in establishing
such an approach. This book offers a foundational study of these
urgent and challenging problems, combining critical analysis with
practically focused policy contributions. The contributors span the
fields of ethics, human rights, international relations, law,
philosophy and global politics. They address normative questions
relating to justice, equity and inequality and practical questions
regarding multi-organizational cooperation, global governance and
international relations. Moving from the theoretical to the
practical, Global Health and International Community is an
essential resource for scholars, students, activists and policy
makers across the globe.
Although the concept of international public goods has been
established, new international public needs arise by the day. For
example, while there are many taxation problems and debates that
have not yet been resolved internationally, many new tax-related
problems like international transfer pricing, taxation of virtual
profits, and taxation of electronic commerce are being added. These
issues require studies that will discuss a new agenda and propose
solutions for these dilemmas and problems. Global Challenges in
Public Finance and International Relations provides an innovative
and systematic examination of the present international financial
events and institutions, international financial relations, and
fiscal difficulties and dilemmas in order to discuss solutions for
potential problems in the postmodern world. Highlighting topics
such as international aid, public debt, and corporate governance,
this publication is designed for executives, academicians,
researchers, and students of public finance.
In Moral Pressure for Responsible Globalization, Sherrie M. Steiner
offers an account of religious diplomacy with the G8, G7 and G20 to
evoke new possibilities in an effort to influence globalization to
become more equitable and sustainable. Commonly portrayed as 'out
of control', globalization is considered here as a political
process that can be redirected to avoid the tragedy of the global
commons. The secularization tradition of religion depicts
faith-based public engagement as dangerous. Making use of
historical materials from faith-based G-plus System shadow summits
(2005-2017), Steiner provides ample information to arrive at an
interpretation that significantly differs from traditional
accounts. Using broader scope conditions, Steiner considers how
human induced environmental changes contribute to religious
resurgence under conditions of weakening nation states.
Now updated and expanded for its second edition, this book
investigates the role intelligence plays in maintaining homeland
security and emphasizes that effective intelligence collection and
analysis are central to reliable homeland security. The first
edition of Homeland Security and Intelligence was the go-to text
for a comprehensive and clear introduction to U.S intelligence and
homeland security issues, covering all major aspects including
analysis, military intelligence, terrorism, emergency response,
oversight, and domestic intelligence. This fully revised and
updated edition adds eight new chapters to expand the coverage to
topics such as recent developments in cyber security, drones, lone
wolf radicalization, whistleblowers, the U.S. Coast Guard, border
security, private security firms, and the role of first responders
in homeland security. This volume offers contributions from a range
of scholars and professionals from organizations such as the
Department of Homeland Security, the Center for Homeland Defense
and Security at the Naval Postgraduate School, the National
Intelligence University, the Air Force Academy, and the
Counterterrorism Division at the Federal Law Enforcement Training
Center. This breadth of unique and informed perspectives brings a
broad range of experience to the topic, enabling readers to gain a
critical understanding of the intelligence process as a whole and
to grasp what needs to happen to strengthen these various systems.
The book presents a brief history of intelligence in the United
States that addresses past and current structures of the
intelligence community. Recent efforts to improve
information-sharing among the federal, state, local, and private
sectors are considered, and the critical concern regarding whether
the intelligence community is working as intended-and whether there
is an effective system of checks and balances to govern it-is
raised. The book concludes by identifying the issues that should be
addressed in order to better safeguard our nation in the future.
Addresses the most recent changes in homeland security and
intelligence, explains the dynamics and structure of the
intelligence community, and assesses the effectiveness of new
intelligence processes Focuses on the evolving structure of the
intelligence community and its processes in the age of ISIS and
organized, widespread terrorist threats as witnessed by the events
in Boston, San Bernardino, and Paris Contains seven new chapters as
well as revisions and updates throughout this second edition
Underscores how intelligence can work-and needs to function-across
homeland security efforts at the federal, state, and local levels
Historians of American environmentalism have long given religion
either a negligible role or a negative one in the development of
the field. According to the standard view, Christianity fostered
attitudes hostile or indifferent to nature, with Protestantism the
worst offender. While virtually all leading environmental figures
did eventually leave organized religion, a large majority however
had religious childhoods, usually in Reformed Protestant churches,
and often counted clergy as close relatives. And although popular
support for conservation and environmentalism was relatively
non-denominational, Congregationalists provided the foundational
ideas of conservation, while the rise and decline of
environmentalism as a powerful national movement coincided with the
prevalence of Presbyterian leadership. By tracing the history of
American environmentalism from a perspective that puts religion at
the center rather than the margins, Mark Stoll opens up a
fundamentally new and much needed narrative in environmental
studies. Inherit the Holy Mountain argues against the divide
between religion and American environmentalism, demonstrating how
religion necessarily provided environmentalists with
deeply-embedded moral and cultural ways of viewing the world giving
content, direction, and tone to the environmental causes they
espoused. The book demonstrates how individuals' denominational
origins corresponded with characteristic sets of ideas about nature
and the environment, with each denomination fostering a distinctive
culture with its own moral framework and its own placement of
humans within the natural world. Stoll also demonstrates how each
denomination also fostered a distinctive aesthetic reaction to
nature, beginning each chapter of the book with an analysis of a
representative work of art. Inherit the Holy Mountain also provides
insight into the possible future of environmentalism in the United
States, concluding with an examination of the current religious
scene and consideration of what it may tell us. Whatever form the
response to these problems will take in the twenty-first century,
Stoll says, it will look very different, with different values,
goals, and styles of leadership, than it did when the children of
the Reformed churches created and led it.
Despite the boycott Hamas was subjected to since its victory in the
2006 parliamentary elections, it has become a significant player on
the international stage. It boasts a territory identifiable by its
borders, internationally recognized cease-fire lines and effective
authority over a population. This book, a study in international
relations, shows how Hamas willingly mobilizes Palestinian internal
issues to establish its legitimacy on a global scale, and at the
same time, uses its relations with non-Palestinian players to
compete against its political rivals on the Palestinian national
stage. Leila Seurat reveals that Hamas's foreign and internal
policy are strongly intertwined and centred mainly on Hamas's quest
for recognition. The book then is a comprehensive diplomatic
history of Palestine, focused on the political orientations of
Hamas towards both Israel and other countries. Its coverage spans
the movement's victory in 2006 up until more recent momentous
events, including, Hamas' response to Trump's 'deal of the century'
and Israel's announcement of the annexation of the Jordan Valley,
as well as the proclamation of normalization accords between Israel
and the United Arab Emirates and the impact of Covid19. The book is
based on Leila Seurat's extensive fieldwork and interviews with
Hamas's leading officials across the West Bank, Gaza, Damascus,
Geneva and Beirut in addition to recent video-conferences planned
by various NGOs and attended by West Bank, Gaza and Diaspora
Palestinians.
The Chinese (Taiwan) Yearbook of International Law and Affairs
includes articles and international law materials relating to the
Republic of China on Taiwan and contemporary Asia-Pacific issues.
This volume provides insight into the South China Sea Arbitration,
investment and financial integration in Asia, the Ma-Xi Summit in
Singapore, the Taiwan-Philippines Fisheries Agreement, and the 70th
Anniversary of the ROC's War of Resistance against Japan. Questions
and comments can be directed to the editorial board of the Yearbook
by email at [email protected]
This Palgrave Pivot argues that if we are to understand civil
conflict we need to grasp how everyday life is shaped by local
conflict imaginaries. In order to examine this claim the book sets
out to explore the contours of conflict imaginaries from two very
different sites of conflict. Both Colombia and Indonesia have
suffered from the collective trauma of political violence but in
very different social, cultural and political contexts. Sketching
out what they mean by a conflict imaginary, and explaining the
relationship of this key concept to social imaginaries more
broadly, the authors provide a historical overview of how political
violence has been represented in both countries. They go on to
outline the original qualitative research methods used to provide
empirical evidence for the importance of conflict imaginaries,
methods which allow them to explore the images and metaphors that
underpin the spatial, chronological and emotional cartographies
through which people make sense of political violence. With an
emphasis on the construction of place-based knowledge, they
consider the role of the local, the national and the global in the
imagining of civil conflict, and show how film can be used to
explore the imaginative worlds of social actors living alongside
violence, revealing in the process the need to take seriously their
hopes, fears, dreams and fantasies.
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