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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > General
Antisemitism in the twenty-first century remains a major threat to Jewish communities around the world, and a potent challenge to the liberal international order. But it can so often be a more hidden form of racism, relying on codes, images, cues, and ciphers embedded in the cultural mythology of prejudice against Jews. It is about the invocation of the blood libel, attacks on so-called "cosmopolitans," accusations of "dual loyalty," and conspiratorial notions of malign "Jewish power." It is also a highly protean prejudice, ever adaptable to a multitude of changes in political and social circumstances, always ready to mutate and shape-shift to fit a new environment. That is why it has so easily become a feature of the modern anti-Israel movement. This short volume will explore how anti-Israelism has reproduced many of the canards, tropes, and ciphers of historic Jew-hatred and regurgitated them as attacks on Zionism and Israel. The adverse treatment of Jews within Gentile societies has also been replicated in an endless array of double standards against Israel in the international community. Today, the "Jewish question" has been replaced by the "Israel question," with a similarly obsessive and ritualistic form of demonization and delegitimization. Anyone concerned about the future of liberal democracy should take note.
Ulrich Krotz's Flying Tiger takes a relatively obscure episode-the joint Franco-German production of a state-of-the-art and very expensive military helicopter, the Tiger Helicopter (used in the James Bond film Goldeneye, incidentally)-to make a groundbreaking theoretical contribution to international relations scholarship. The rivalry between Germany and France in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is of course well known. It was directly or indirectly responsible for four cataclysmic wars, and until relatively recently, the idea that these two states could become close partners seemed implausible. Yet following World War II and the birth of the European Union, they became the closest of allies. In fact, they collaborated for three decades on the most sophisticated weapon that the EU has produced: the Tiger. How did this occur, and what does this happy albeit unforeseen outcome tell us about how interstate relations really work? Through the lens of the Tiger, Krotz draws from two theoretical approaches-social constructivism and historical institutionalism-to reframe our understanding of how international relationships evolve. International relations scholars have always focused on relations between states, yet have failed to think in any sustained way about how interstate relationships both remold domestic realities and derive from them. How does a relationship between states impact upon a state internally? And how do the internal institutional dynamics of a state limit such relationships? While International Relations scholars have touched on these issues, until now no one has provided a sustained, finely grained, and historically informed analysis that explains how international relations socially constructs domestic realities and how in turn domestic politics and institutions structure interstate relationships. Krotz's account of how the Tiger project was funded and how the device was built perfectly illustrates his theoretical claims about the dialectical relationship of 'high' interstate politics and 'low' domestic politics. Two famous rivals completely reshaped their relationship through a complicated, decades-long process in which the nuts and bolts of domestic politics-approvals for state funding as well as laws regarding corporations and technology transfer, for instance-were instrumental in creating a new reality.
World leaders have not been able to find solutions to the growing problem of global insecurity associated with failed and failing states in many regions. Governance and Security As A Unitary Concept is the first compilation of contemporary commentaries - from twenty contributing authors on six continents - to examine governance and security together rather than as complementary yet separate entities. This is the potency of its design. Governance in modern human affairs determines action or gridlock, wealth or penury, peace or conflict, health or illness, progress or arrested development. Security does not mean just physical security but also human, environmental, economic, resource and cultural security. The construct of the book is an innovative approach to governance and security as a unitary concept. The strength and virtue of the book is the diversity and overlapping perspectives of the authors, looking in, from within. Tom Rippon and Graham Kemp, editors Published by Agio Publishing House in collaboration with Avalon Institute Inc.
The Impact of Innovation on Globalization is the eighth volume of the series China in the World. Like other volumes in the series, this volume includes views of leading Chinese scholars on China's relations with other countries and regions in the world. In view of the theme of "globalization" in this volume, the contributors in this volume pay attention to how the Covid-19 pandemic impacts and challenges globalization, especially how it affects China, the United States, and their mutual relations. However, this is not to say that some issues surrounding globalization-the orientation and interrelationship of political and economic decision-making in China and the United States-have emerged only after the outbreak of the pandemic. The volume focuses on some long-term trends and innovations, from the past to the future. Chapter 2, "Globalization, Convergence, and China's Economic Development," describes the patterns of globalization. Chapter 3, "The Rejuvenation of the Chinese Nation is Unstoppable," talks about views on current economic and financial issues. Chapter 4, "Reconstructing Global Industrial Chains under the Pandemic, and China's Response," discusses China's pivotal position in global supply chains. Besides answering these basic questions, the book investigates other important issues, such as Global Value Chains, Changes in the International Order, Changes in the International Economic Landscape, WTO Reform, China's Foreign Economic and Trade Strategies, Towards a Climate Resilience Society, Identity Politics, and the AI "Revolution".
Long before sea power, the Panama Canal, and petroleum drew the world's attention to the Caribbean coast, United States leaders recognized Venezuela's potential as the linchpin of the Caribbean's southern rim. In Venezuela and the United States, Judith Ewell provides a historical analysis of the main themes and directions of U.S.-Venezuelan relations from the early 1800s, when Simon Bolivar declared an American Republican identity and Monroe proclaimed U.S. responsibility for the hemisphere to the present, when Venezuelan relations with the United States reflect the growing importance of the developing world and its multilateral challenges to U.S. global hegemony. Authoritatively treating the political, economic, and cross-cultural dynamics of two nations, Ewell approaches her subject from both a Venezuelan and U.S. perspective. Her careful understanding of conflicting interests and purposes shows how other players, from Great Britain to OPEC, have affected the course of the nations' diplomatic relationship. Ewell demonstrates that Venezuela's two-hundred-year history with the United States reflects all of the key moments and issues in inter-American relations, from the Roosevelt and Olney Corollaries to the Monroe Doctrine, the Good Neighbor Policy, the Cold War, the North-South dialogues, the debt controversies, and the post-Cold War era. Using popular literature, folklore, and travel accounts, Ewell examines how Venezuelans and yanquis have perceived each other over the years and relates how the strong U.S. presence in business and popular culture has created in Venezuelans feelings of both love and hatred for the ""American way of life."" The author argues, however, that in a hemisphere clearly dominated by the U.S., a new international order has arisen, giving weak nations like Venezuela greater influence while creating a complex mosaic of alliances. A model history of binational relations, Venezuela and the United States captures both the drama and the significance of the two nations' diplomatic affairs.
Women are significantly underrepresented in politics in the Pacific Islands, given that only one in twenty Pacific parliamentarians are female, compared to one in five globally. A common, but controversial, method of increasing the number of women in politics is the use of gender quotas, or measures designed to ensure a minimum level of women's representation. In those cases where quotas have been effective, they have managed to change the face of power in previously male-dominated political spheres. How do political actors in the Pacific islands region make sense of the success (or failure) of parliamentary gender quota campaigns? To answer the question, Kerryn Baker explores the workings of four campaigns in the region. In Samoa, the campaign culminated in a "safety net" quota to guarantee a minimum level of representation, set at five female members of Parliament. In Papua New Guinea, between 2007 and 2012 there were successive campaigns for nominated and reserved seats in parliament, without success, although the constitution was amended in 2011 to allow for the possibility of reserved seats for women. In post-conflict Bougainville, women campaigned for reserved seats during the constitution-making process and eventually won three reserved seats in the House of Representatives, as well as one reserved ministerial position. Finally, in the French Pacific territories of New Caledonia, French Polynesia, and Wallis and Futuna, Baker finds that there were campaigns both for and against the implementation of the so-called "parity laws." Baker argues that the meanings of success in quota campaigns, and related notions of gender and representation, are interpreted by actors through drawing on different traditions, and renegotiating and redefining them according to their goals, pressures, and dilemmas. Broadening the definition of success thus is a key to an understanding of realities of quota campaigns. Pacific Women in Politics is a pathbreaking work that offers an original contribution to gender relations within the Pacific and to contemporary Pacific politics.
In this collection, practitioners from EU institutions and academics provide unique insight into EU practice in EU external relations and institutional law.
Sayyid Qutb is widely considered the guiding intellectual of
radical Islam, with a direct line connecting him to Osama bin
Laden. But Qutb has too often been treated maliciously or
reductively-"the Philosopher of Islamic Terror," as Paul Berman
famously put it in the New York Times Magazine.
Positing that presidents shape America's foreign policy according to their ethnic heritage, this intriguing volume examines two groups that have dominated the presidency and the distinctly different agendas that have resulted. How is American foreign policy determined? The Great Anglo-Celtic Divide in the History of American Foreign Relations approaches that question from a fascinating perspective, arguing that, to a large extent, the answer lies in the ethnicity of the president. To make its point, this book examines the key foreign policies of American presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush and shows how their most important foreign policy decisions have tended to follow an ethnic pattern. The presidency has been dominated by Americans from English or Celtic backgrounds since the nation's founding, and as readers will discover, the foreign policies of the two groups have been very different. To document those differences, this book analyzes seven alternating periods of political domination by Anglo-Americans and Celtic-Americans, demonstrating how the cycle of change affected the shape and distinguishing characteristics of U.S. foreign policy in matters of war and peace and in relations with other countries. A bibliography
This book offers a unique analytical investigation of the international politics of the EU, China, and India in the context of their security strategies in Central Asia. It shows how the interaction between these three actors is likely to change the frameworks and practices of international relations. This is studied through their interactions with central Asia, using the framework of normative powers and the concept of regional security governance. Briefly, a normative power shapes a target state's attitudes and perceptions as it internalizes and adopts the perspectives of the normative power as the norm. The work comparatively studies the dynamics that have allowed Beijing, Brussels, and New Delhi to articulate security mechanisms in Central Asia, and become rising normative powers. This innovative study does not aim to catalog foreign policies, but to uncover the dominant perceptions, cognitive structures and practices that guide these actors' regional agency, as exemplified through the context of Central Asia. It will be an essential resource for anyone studying international relations, international relations theory, and foreign policy analysis.
On April 25th 1915, during the First World War, the famous Anzacs landed ashore at Gallipoli. At the exact same moment, leading figures of Armenian life in the Ottoman Empire were being arrested in vast numbers. That dark day marks the simultaneous birth of a national story - and the beginning of a genocide. When We Dead Awaken - the first narrative history of the Armenian Genocide in decades - draws these two landmark historical events together. James Robins explores the accounts of Anzac Prisoners of War who witnessed the genocide, the experiences of soldiers who risked their lives to defend refugees, and Australia and New Zealand's participation in the enormous post-war Armenian relief movement. By exploring the vital political implications of this unexplored history, When We Dead Awaken questions the national folklore of Australia, New Zealand, and Turkey - and the mythology of Anzac Day itself.
In 1992 Yugoslavia finally succumbed to civil war, collapsing under the pressure of its inherent ethnic tensions. Existing accounts of Yugoslavia's dissolution, however, pay little regard to the troubled relationship between the Yugoslav Federation and the European Community (EC) prior to the crisis in the early 1990s, and the instability this created. Here, Branislav Radeljic offers an empirical analysis of the EC's relations with Yugoslavia from the late sixties, when Yugoslavia was under the presidency of Josep Broz Tito, through to the collapse of the nation state in 1992, after the rise of Slobodan Milosevic and the beginning of the Yugoslav Wars. Radeljic explores the economic, political and social elements of these discords, and also places emphasis on the role of Slovenes, Croats and other diasporas - focusing on their capacity to affect policy-making at a Europe-wide level. Radeljic argues convincingly that a lack of direction and inadequate political mechanisms within the EC enabled these non-state actors to take centre-stage, and shows how EC paralysis precipitated a bloody conflict in the Balkan region.
The Peace of Utrecht (1713), which brought an end to the War of the Spanish Succession, was a milestone in global history. Performances of Peace aims to rethink the significance of the Peace of Utrecht by exploring the nexus between culture and politics. For too long, cultural and political historians have studied early modern international relations in isolation. By studying the political as well as the cultural aspects of this peace (and its concomitant paradoxes) from a broader perspective, this volume aims to shed new light on the relation between diplomacy and performative culture in the public sphere. Contributors are: Samia Al-Shayban, Lucien Bely, Renger E. de Bruin, Suzan van Dijk, Heinz Duchhardt, Julie Farguson, Linda Frey, Marsha Frey, Willem Frijhoff, Henriette Goldwyn, Cornelis van der Haven, Clare Jackson, Lotte Jensen, Phil McCluskey, Jane O. Newman, Aaron Alejandro Olivas, David Onnekink. This book is available in Open Access.
Israel's military doctrine was aimed at defeating powerful Arab militaries, mostly those of Egypt, Syria and Jordan. In the years 1948-1982 Israel and Arab states had a series of wars i.e. high intensity wars. Israel, since 1948, also dealt with guerrilla and terror attacks. Since 1982 and mostly in the last 15 years Israel faced hybrid forces, Hamas and Hezbollah. Those groups are a mix between a conventional military and a guerrilla group. Israel fought against Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 and against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, mostly in two wars, in 2008-2009 and in 2014. This book begins with explaining Israel's national security policy. Then it focuses on how the IDF (Israel defense forces) had to adjust its doctrine and build up to confront hybrid forces, by examining Israel's air and the ground corps and major issues such as offense and defense, infrastructure and manpower. The IDF can inflict heavy casualties and damages to a hybrid foe. Yet destroying the latter is a tall order because Hezbollah and Hamas are too elusive, they hide inside populated areas etc. However, compared with past wars against Arab states, there is much less danger to Israel let alone to its survival since even a coalition between Hezbollah, Hamas and other groups can't defeat the IDF. Furthermore since fighting a hybrid force is less demanding than running a high intensity war against an Arab state, then Israel does not rely that much on the United States in receiving weapon systems, ammunition and spare parts.
Arguing about matters of public policy is ubiquitous in
democracies. The ability to resolve conflicts through peaceful
contestation is a measure of any well-ordered society. Arguing is
almost as ubiquitous in international affairs, yet it is not viewed
as an important element of world order. In The Power of
Deliberation: International Law, Politics and Organizations, Ian
Johnstone challenges the assumption that arguing is mere lip
service with no real impact on the behavior of states or the
structure of the international system. Johnstone focuses on legal
argumentation and asks why, if the rhetoric of law is
inconsequential, governments and other international actors bother
engaging in it.
This is a critical analysis of the modern myth of 'religion' and its distinction from 'secular politics' as it appears in recent International Relations literature. Scholars in International Relations concerned with religion and its relations to world politics are rhetorically constructing a powerful modern myth. A component of this myth is that religion is inherently violent and irrational unless controlled by the secular state, which is inherently rational and only reluctantly violent. Timothy Fitzgerald discusses how, in this modern myth, 'religion' appears as a force of nature which either assists or threatens the sacred secular order of things, and how religion is portrayed as a kind of universal essence which takes many forms, its recent most dangerous manifestation being 'Islamic terrorism'. This book illustrates that the essential distinction between irrational religion and rational secular politics appears as an unquestioned preconception on the basis of which policy is conducted, countries invaded and wars fought. Arguing that this rhetorical construction of religion provides the foundation for faith in the rationality of modern liberal capitalism, Fitzgerald demonstrates how a historically contingent discourse has been transformed into a powerful set of global assumptions.
Success in negotiation is not a matter of chance, but the result of careful planning and specialized skills. Some of these skills are inborn, others need to be learnt. In this book the social scientist and economist Professor Dr. Raymond Saner draws on his long years of experience as a negotiation adviser, teacher, trainer, researcher and university lecturer to show that twothirds of negotiation practice is learnable. Yet very few people are specifically trained in this everyday task. Without sacrificing scientific accuracy, Professor Saner offers a highly readable and fascinating guide to the subject. In so doing, he does not limit himself to the over-simplified tips generally put out on successful bargaining in every imaginable situation. Rather, he treats the different aspects of negotiation practice in a way that is useful to both academics and practitioners, such that the general laws and principles gradually become evident as and of themselves. The aim of this approach is to reveal the essence of negotiation through the experience of both the author and the reader. Such an understanding of the processes involved in negotiation is of far greater practical value than a mere collection of recipes with no discussion of the underlying theory, while the most comprehensive treatment of the theory without reference to its application in practice would be only half the story. Thus, the text is supplemented by a series of illustrative examples and case studies from the business, political, NGO and international organization arenas, plus some seventy figures and tables. With all this, the author has paid considerable attention to writing a text that is both entertaining to read and rigorous in content.
Many have long suspected that when America takes up arms it is a
rich man's war, but a poor man's fight. Despite these concerns
about social inequality in military sacrifice, the hard data to
validate such claims has been kept out of public view. In The
Casualty Gap Douglas Kriner and Francis Shen renew the debate over
unequal sacrifice by bringing to light mountains of new evidence on
the inequality dimensions of American wartime casualties. They
demonstrate unequivocally that since the conclusion of World War II
communities at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder have borne
a disproportionate share of the human costs of war. Moreover, they
show for the first time that when Americans are explicitly
confronted with evidence of this inequality, they become markedly
less supportive of the nation's war efforts.
One of the most peculiar byproducts of media globalization is the creation of audiences close by but out of reach, and far away but within reach. Within Tweeting Distance is a study of one of the most compelling, emerging subfields at the crossroads of the fields of international relations and communications: Twitter Diplomacy. Noor Suwwan's groundbreaking new book proposes a new theoretical classification framework for Twitter Diplomacy and then applies it to four Arab state-actors. Within Tweeting Distance is the first book to engages with the creative transformation that the emergence of Twitter Diplomacy has imposed on approaches to international relations.
Future Oil Demands of China, India, and Japan examines how Chinese oil energy will likely shape future Sino-Indian and Sino-Japanese relations under conditions of dependency and non-dependency, and whether competition or cooperation for scarce energy resources will result. The author lists and describes three possible Chinese oil energy futures or scenarios (Competitive Dependency, Competitive Surplus, and Cooperative Surplus) using Scenario Analysis and the PRINCE Method to subsequently estimate their associated likelihoods. Further, this book discusses and evaluates their strategic implications for India and Japan and estimates the most likely oil energy future. This book argues that China's rising dependence on imported oil, along with its adroit use of soft power, economic prowess, strategic engagement of the world as an alternative model of political and economic development, military modernization, and rapid economic growth can only mean that it will alter the global status quo and become the dominant actor in world affairs in the near future. India and Japan will be less influential economically because China is skillfully harnessing and strategically exercising the elements of national power (diplomatic, informational, military, and economic) to acquire scarce oil energy resources in the Near East, Western Hemisphere, and Sub-Saharan Africa.
The first of a new series, the Contemporary Archive of the Islamic World, this title draws on the resources of World of Information, a British publisher that since 1975 has published analyses of the politics and economics of all the Middle East countries. For decades Syria lay at the heart of Middle Eastern affairs. Under Assad rulers, and sharing a border with Israel, Syria's fortunes have been complex. Strategic alliances were formed and fell apart. Domestic rebellions were quelled, often violently. Since 2011, Syria has been in the world's headlines every day, riven by a civil war that has risked bringing the world's major powers into open conflict. The CAIW provides an essential background to a complex international problem.
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