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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > General
One of the "inventors" of the nuclear bomb, Sir Joseph Rotblat very
soon turned away from weapons research to make a prolonged and
principled stand against the dangers of nuclear proliferation. A
physicist of great brilliance, he metamorphosed into a campaigner
of admired moral conviction and leadership. This series of
dialogues between two leading ethical thinkers brings together the
courage and humanity of Rotblat with the spiritual wisdom and
global visionary outlook of Daisaku Ikeda, the leader of the
world's largest and most influential lay Buddhist organization.
Together they reflect on fundamental issues of war and peace, the
ethics of nuclear deterrence and the trajectory of Joseph Rotblat's
career, from the Manhattan Project to the Pugwash Conference and
his Nobel Prize. Rotblat's life-long mantra was that scientists
have a moral responsibility to save lives, not destroy them. The
integrity of both writers emerges powerfully and inspiringly from
their wide-ranging discussions, which serve as a stark warning
against the dangers of a resurgent atomic weapons race.
In the era of globalization, foreign trade has an immense impact upon modern economies. To succeed in the global marketplace, sustainable development in trade practices is an imperative goal for countries to reach. Global Perspectives on Trade Integration and Economies in Transition is an authoritative reference source for the latest research on the dynamics of transitional economies and how certain obstacles can disrupt the effectiveness of the transition process. Highlighting the value of trade incorporation at the national and international levels, this book is ideally designed for researchers, professionals, government officials, policy makers, and upper-level students interested in the intersection of globalization, trade, and international economics.
The Caspian Sea region is rich in oil and natural gas and can potentially become a major energy supplier. Despite the interest of the three Caspian countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, their energy resources have remained mainly undeveloped a decade after their independence. The main factor that has prevented the full development of the Caspian energy resources has been the difficulty of selecting long-term safe, reliable, and economically viable export routes. The three landlocked Caspian countries have no choice but to depend on their neighbors to access international waters for their exports. For many reasons, including internal stability and extensive oil facilities and pipelines, Iran offers the most suitable routes to all three Caspian countries. However, despite the interest of the Caspian energy-exporters, in using this route, the U.S. policy of containment of Iran has prevented them from doing so. For political, economic, and security reasons, the existing in-use Georgian and Russian routes cannot and will not be a long-term solution for energy exports. The insistence of the American government on imposing the expensive and unreliable Turkish route on the reluctant Caspian energy-exporters and its categorical rejection of the Iranian route have created a major obstacle to the development of the Caspian energy industries. As Peimani suggests, if this policy continues, many oil and gas exporters will opt for the Iranian route without regard to existing U.S. punitive legislation. The results could well be the isolation of the U.S. in the Caspian region and a gradual exclusion of American oil companies from the region. This overview will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and policymakers involved with economic and political issues of the region.
How can established powers manage the peaceful rise of new great powers? With The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations, Michelle Murray offers a new answer to this perennial question in international relations, arguing that power transitions are principally social phenomena whereby rising powers struggle to obtain recognition as world powers. At the center of great power identity formation is the acquisition of particular symbolic capabilities-such as battleships, aircraft carriers or nuclear weapons-that are representative of great power status and which allow rising powers to experience their uncertain social status as a brute fact. When a rising power is recognized, this power acquisition is considered legitimate and its status in the international order secured, leading to a peaceful power transition. If a rising power is misrecognized, its assertive foreign policy is perceived to be for revisionist purposes, which must be contained by the established powers. Revisionism-rather than the product of a material power structure that encourages aggression or domestic political struggles-is a social construct that emerges through a rising power's social interactions with the established powers as it attempts to gain recognition of its identity. To highlight the explanatory reach of the argument, Murray compares the United States and Imperial Germany's contemporaneous rise to world power status at the turn of the twentieth century. Whereas successful acts of recognition constructed American expansionism as legitimate thereby facilitating its peaceful rise, ongoing misrecognition increased German status insecurity, constructing it as a revisionist threat to the international order. The question of peaceful power transition has taken on increased salience in recent years with the emergence of China as an economic and military rival of the United States. Highlighting the social dynamics of power transitions, The Struggle for Recognition in International Relations offers a powerful new framework through which to understand the rise of China and how the United States can facilitate its peaceful rise.
This volume presents an innovative new analytical framework for understanding the dynamics of violent conflict and its impact on people and communities living in contexts of violence. Bringing together the findings of MICROCON, an influential five year research programme funded by the European Commission, this book provides readers with the most current and comprehensive evidence available on violent conflict from a micro-level perspective. MICROCON was the largest programme on conflict analysis in Europe from 2007-2011, and its policy outreach has helped to influence EU development policy, and supported policy capacity in many conflict-affected countries. Whilst traditional studies into conflict have been through an international /regional lens with the state as the primary unit of analysis, the micro-level perspective offered by this volume places the individuals, households, groups and communities affected by conflict at the centre of analysis. Studying how people behave in groups and communities; and how they interact with the formal and informal institutions that manage local tensions, is crucial to understanding the conflict cycle. These micro-foundations therefore provide a more in-depth analysis of the causes and consequences of violent conflict. By challenging the ways we think about conflict, this book bridges the gap in evidence, allowing for more specific and accurate policy interventions for conflict resolution and development processes to help reduce poverty in the lives of those affected by conflict. This volume is divided into four parts. Part I introduces the conceptual framework of MICROCON. Part II focuses on individual and group motivations in conflict processes. Part III highlights the micro-level consequences of violent conflict. The final section of this volume focuses on policy implications and future research agenda.
Michael Brenner examines European efforts--and American responses--to reduced defense dependency in a post-Cold War world. Unresolved questions abound: institutional form, political direction, resources, and--above all--uncertainty about the place of the United States in security arrangements for and with a new Europe. As he makes clear, the culture of transatlantic security dependency casts a shadow over the ongoing project of reequilibrating the Euro-American alliance. U.S. prestige and power weigh all the heavier because of American ambivalence in coming to terms with its allies' ambitions. Agreeing on a conception of European Security and Defense Identity and measures to implement it has three requirements: clarifying a security agenda dominated by political goals; candid dialogue on the apprehensions the transatlantic partners have about each other; and dedication to perfecting multilateralism as the standard behavioral code for a more egalitarian alliance. Giving life to ESDI unavoidably will generate tensions and amplify a European voice that at times will grate on Washington's ears. However, as Brenner asserts, making multilateralism work is the best way to ensure that those negatives are outweighed by the value ESDI has for advancing U.S. as well as European interests. This is must reading for scholars, students, and policy makers involved with European security and international relations issues.
This first volume of EtYIL focuses on issues concerning the developing world in general and (the Horn of) Africa - and Ethiopia - specifically. It argues that rebalancing the international law narrative to reflect Africa's legitimate interests is an urgent priority, and can only succeed through the fair representation of African countries in the creation and interpretation of international law.The book begins by reflecting on the ICJ's West African Cases and provides a unique perspective on decolonisation as a source of jus cogens and obligations erga omnes. This is followed by a comprehensive analysis of the reception of international law in the Ethiopian legal system, and of the potential implications of Ethiopia joining the WTO. The book then delves into such topical issues as the relationship between competition for natural resources and international investment law, the UN Global Goals and the fledgling international climate change regime, with particular emphasis on the Paris Climate Agreement and their implications for developing countries. Further issues include the Declaration of Principles on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam signed by Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt in light of Nile colonial treaties and contemporary international watercourses law, as well as selected legal implications of the armed conflict in South Sudan. Gathering high-quality scholarship from diverse researchers, and examining a constellation of critical international law issues affecting developing countries, especially African countries, the book offers a unique resource.
Because of Germany's strong reputation in naval construction, the Allies slated the shipbuilding industry for dismantling after 1945; however, by 1955, West German shipbuilders had regained their place among the world leaders in this industry. This study traces the reconstruction through the labyrinth of Cold War diplomacy, foreign aid programs, and West German politics. By linking the histories of U.S. foreign policy, German business, and postwar Americanization, Wend demonstrates not just the impact of U.S. policy on West German reconstruction, but also the influence of local actors on the direction, implementation, and success of U.S. policies. The recovery of German shipbuilding meshed well with most of the Truman administration's critical foreign policy initiatives, including the Marshall Plan. As American commitments became globalized, the U.S. relied heavily on West German actors and their institutions for the successful implementation of its policies. In shipbuilding, this reliance strengthened the role of the industrial association, the vertical integration of shipyards with Ruhr industries, and awakened opposition of British and American interest groups. Although U.S. policies failed to alter this industry's structure, West Germans did accept the American production model in the reconfiguration of individual shipyards in the 1950s.
This rich collection of essays explores the dramatic political, economic, and social transformations in Southeast Asia since 1945. Academics and practitioners trace three themes - transformations within Southeast Asian countries, the actors and processes that contributed to these changes, and new dynamics in foreign relations. These diachronic essays examine how engagement among Southeast Asians, and between regional and outside actors have affected patterns of democracy, development, and international relations. By looking back to understand the contemporary political and economic landscape of Southeast Asia, these essays shed light on how modern Southeast Asia has evolved. Special focus centres on U.S. engagement with the region, by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. Through its macrohistorical synthesis of changes in the region over time, this book offers an accessible lens to understand contemporary Southeast Asia.
Working from a unique viewpoint, this volume demonstrates how the European Union's fear of its neighbors reflects Europe's identity crisis—and challenges its survival. Taking a novel approach to the current situation in Europe, foreign policy analyst Fabrizio Tassinari transforms external policy concerns about Europe's neighborhood into questions about Europe's internal future. His contention: that the situation on Europe's periphery is an unforgiving mirror of its identity crisis, institutional paralysis, ineffectual foreign policy, and morbid fear of migrants and multiculturalism. Looking at each of the countries and regions surrounding Europe, from Russia and Turkey to the Western Balkans and North Africa, Tassinari unravels the challenges facing the EU, weighs the record of its policies, and explains how both can be traced back to Europe's inherent insecurity. Turning conventional wisdom on its head, he argues that gradual and diversified forms of integration with its many neighbors is Europe's best alternative to a progressive, but inexorable fragmentation of the EU. The ability to meet this challenge will not only test Europe's unfulfilled global aspirations, it will be crucial to its very survival.
As international political and economic relations have become increasingly complex, so have the pressures on international boundaries and the borderlands which surround them. Although there are still many examples of "traditional" boundary problems associated with disputes between states concerning control over territory and maritime space, the papers in this volume demonstrate the vulnerability of borderlands to other forces, most notably illegal immigration and cross-border crime. This study aims to investigate the causes and implications of borderland stress. The first section explores changing concepts of sovereignty and their impact on the meaning and functions of international boundaries. The contributions in the second and third sections offer a combination of regional appraisals and individual case studies highlighting the range of problems affecting borderlands around the world, together with an assessment of some of the initiatives launched in response to those problems. While many of the conclusions drawn are rather sobering, it is clear that in some parts of the world new and imaginative approaches to territorial organization and management are helping to create safer, more dynamic and more prosperous borderlands. The papers in this volume represent the proceedings of the fifth International Conference of the International Boundaries Research Unit, held at the University of Durham on 15-17 July 1998.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a major new international principle, adopted unanimously in 2005 by Heads of State and Government. Whilst it is broadly acknowledged that the principle has an important and intimate relationship with international law, especially the law relating to sovereignty, peace and security, human rights and armed conflict, there has yet to be a volume dedicated to this question. "The Responsibility to Protect and International Law" fills that gap by bringing together leading scholars from North America, Europe and Australia to examine R2P s legal content. "The Responsibility to Protect and International Law" focuses on questions relating to R2P s legal quality, its relationship with sovereignty, and the question of whether the norm establishes legal obligations. It also aims to introduce readers to different legal perspectives, including feminism, and pressing practical questions such as how the law might be used to prevent genocide and mass atrocities, and punish the perpetrators.
EtYIL 2018 comes at a time when multilateralism and its underpinning norms of international law and institutions are under siege. At the same time, in 2018, Africa stood out for upholding multilateralism and international law. From the adoption of the Agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area to the signing of peace agreements that brought to an end two decades of hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia, 2018 was indeed a remarkable year for international law in Africa. EtYIL 2018 covers some of these issues, including the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission decisions on jus ad bellum, jus in bello, evidentiary and procedural matters and the role of arbitration in upholding the international rule of law. Such new developments as the lifting of UN sanctions against Eritrea and the agreements signed between Eritrea and Ethiopia are also covered in this volume. The volume further devotes considerable attention to other legal issues including: the use and misuse of European patent law to the detriment of developing countries' interests, sharing transboundary resources, production sharing agreements on extractives , evolving rules governing economic relations between Africa and the European Union in the context of Brexit, contract-farming in the African cocoa and chocolate industry, the International Criminal Court and human rights law, and cyber-attacks and the role of international law in tackling them. These chapters, authored by experts from Africa, Asia, Europe and North America not only bring new and diverse voices to the international law discourse; they also contribute to EtYIL's overarching goal of contributing to the effort to rebalance the narrative of international law.
Providing an insider's examination of China's economic reform and its political implications, this text uses wide ranging primary materials, including interviews, surveys and author's own recollections of Deng Xiaoping and Zhao Ziyang. It aims to shed new light on the Chinese approach to reform, including its dual goal, dynamic gradualism and reform leadership. It assesses the vast social and political changes set forth by the reform, especially multiplying socio political problems, and the international ramifications of China's rise.
The apex of Soviet science as seen through the lives of twelve of the USSR's most eminent researchers Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery is the final resting place of some of Russia's most celebrated figures, from Khrushchev and Yeltsin to Anton Chekhov, Sergei Eisenstein, Nikolai Gogol, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Using this famed cemetery as symbolic starting point, Buried Glory profiles a dozen eminent Soviet scientists-nine of whom are buried at Novodevichy-men who illustrate both the glorious heights of Soviet research as well as the eclipse of science since the collapse of the USSR. Drawing on extensive archival research and his own personal memories, renowned chemist Istvan Hargittai bring these figures back to life, placing their remarkable scientific achievements against the tense political backdrop of the Cold War. Among the eminent scientists profiled here are Petr L. Kapitza, one of the most brilliant representatives of the great generation of Soviet physicists, a Nobel-Prize winner who risked his career-and his life-standing up for fellow scientists against Stalin. Yulii B. Khariton, who ran the highly secretive Soviet nuclear weapons laboratory, Arzamas-16, despite being Jewish and despite the fact that his father Boris had been sent to the labor camps. And Andrei D. Sakharov, the "father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb " and a brilliant fighter for human rights, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Along the way, Hargittai shines a light on the harrowing conditions under which these brilliant researchers excelled. Indeed, in the post-war period, Stalin's anti-Semitism and ongoing anti-science measures devastated biology, damaged chemistry, and nearly destroyed physics. The latter was saved only because Stalin realized that without physics and physicists there could be no nuclear weapons. The extraordinary scientific talent nurtured by the Soviet regime belongs almost entirely to the past. Buried Glory is both a fitting tribute to these great scientists and a fascinating account of scientific work behind the Iron Curtain.
This book offers a unique perspective on changing gender practices in post-conflict societies, looking at when and how masculinities change after armed conflicts. Building on original research data from Liberia, chapters look at the pathways of change in societal discourses, security sector institutions, and at the level of formatter combatants. Scrutinising the potential of peacebuilding for making conflict-related masculinities change after armed conflicts, the book develops a theoretical model that helps to understand both how violence-centred masculinities change after armed conflicts, and why profound changes of violent gender practices occur only rarely. What this book hopes to show is that masculinities can and do change after armed conflicts. Illuminating the intricate interrelationship between gendered practices within societal discourses, security sector institutions, and at the individual level in post-conflict societies, this book constitutes an invitation to rethinking our understanding of peacebuilding practices and their interconnectedness with gender, violence, and peace.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc had a profound effect on Turkey economically and politically. On the one hand, the collapse further marginalized Turkey's position in Western Europe, as some of the newly liberated Central and Eastern European countries raced ahead of Turkey to join the European Union. On the other hand, the collapse presented Turkey with new opportunities and challenges stemming from geographic proximity and cultural/historical ties with countries that emerged from the Soviet bloc and from the former Soviet Union. In articles focusing on the 1990s and beyond, this book explores how the economic and political fortunes of Turkey have changed since the end of the Cold War. Two main sections of the book examine Turkey's relations with the European Union and with the former Soviet Union and Soviet bloc countries. Each section opens with a chapter providing an overview of Turkey's political relationship with the respective region, followed by chapters that examine facets of the politico-economic relationships. Located in a potentially volatile portion of the world, Turkey plays an important role in maintaining peace and prosperity in its region. The analysis in this volume allows an understanding of the critical factors that influence the political economy of Turkey, and therefore, its ability to contribute to world peace and stability.
For Russia, it was a time of troubles: war, famine, and social upheaval the likes of which the world had never seen before. World War I, two revolutions in 1917, and the subsequent civil war and Allied intervention completely eradicated one regime and replaced it with a radically new one. Now an award-winning diplomatic historian ties these events together to reveal their far-reaching consequences for the future of not only the new Soviet Union but of the United States as well. In War and Revolution, Norman Saul offers a fresh analysis of this troubled era in Russia and of the American reaction to it. Tracing the events surrounding America's entry into the European conflict and its encouragement of continued Russian participation even in the face of domestic unrest, he shows how those circumstances adversely affected relations between two nations and shaped their futures in the century ahead. Drawing on rarely accessed military and diplomatic archives in both countries, Saul reaches beyond official actions to give readers a vivid sense of those times. He surveys the vast panorama of events while providing not only detailed accounts of the activities of consular, diplomatic, and military staffs but also colorful vignettes of ordinary Americans in Russia involved in humanitarian relief and other activities. Businessmen and artists, Red Cross volunteers and journalists -- all were caught up in the immediacy of war and revolution, and all contributed to the shifting sentiments of two nations. War and Revolution is the third volume in Saul's sweeping history of U.S.-Russian relations, already hailed for setting "a new standard for how the history of international relations ought to bewritten" (TLS). Here he further develops the theme of "mirror-imaging", describing ways in which Americans and Russians saw themselves as having a common relationship distinguished from other European or Asian nations. Despite the turmoil of this era, he explains, Russians continued to look to America for ideas and models while Americans expected Russians to follow their lead in developing resources and reforming institutions. By 1921, Americans were in a quandary about Russia as its former friend pursued a hostile course beyond U.S. control. Saul's account of those years clearly shows how this parting of the ways came about -- and how it set the stage for a cold war that would test both country's wills later in the century.
This is the story of Philip Kerr and a group of Oxford graduates that founded The Round Table (Journal of International Affairs) in 1910, and influenced British foreign policy over the following thirty years. As the principal thinker of the group, Kerr saw the need for a supra-national grouping and wanted to organize the British Empire into a federal superstate. The group also sought an Anglo-American alliance, and in 1939, joined a world federation movement that would help to inspire NATO after the war. Important questions raised by this group remain relevant today. Can a supra-national community impose laws and regulations on its members without its governing institutions being more fully accountable to a community-wide electorate? Can hostile nationalism be tamed with such a union. Can it reasonably exclude the United States?
Contemporary Cosmopolitanism is the first, much-needed, introduction to contemporary political cosmopolitanism. Although it has its roots in classical philosophy and politics, Cosmopolitanism has undergone a major revival in the last forty years, stirring far-reaching and intense international debates. Cosmopolitanism is a way of thought and life which entails an identification of the individual with the whole humankind, and implies a moral obligation to promote social and political justice at the global level. Contemporary cosmopolitanism reflects a global state that is already in itself highly cosmopolitan, and represents an attempt to solve the new problems raised by this situation, to reappraise a number of traditional conceptual categories in the light of changes having already occurred or that are still taking place, to develop new ones, as well as to encourage and guide political-institutional reform projects. Taraborrelli provides clear descriptions of the three main forms of contemporary cosmopolitanism - moral, political-legal and cultural - described through the thought of various figures representative of the more significant approaches: Appiah, Archibugi, Beitz, Benhabib, Bhabha, Held, Kaldor, Nussbaum, Pogge, Sousa Santos. This book provides a sound and comprehensive basis for the study of cosmopolitanism, ideal as a starting point for the discussion of issues of widespread interest such as human rights, global justice, migration, multiculturalism.
Bringing to light a long-neglected aspect of Thomas Jefferson's political philosophy - the "ward republic" - Gary Hart here offers a wholly original blueprint for republican restoration in which every citizen can participate democratically in the governing of his or her own life. Of crucial relevance for contemporary society, including its startlingly prescient plan for homeland security, Restoration of the Republic provides original insights into issues of national urgency as well as the timeless questions that bedevil the American democratic experiment.
Islam vs. Islamism introduces the Islamic world's diversity, conflicts, and dilemmas—its origins, extraordinary creativity, and current crisis, the result of its unhappy encounter with Western modernity. Particular attention is given to Islamism, Islam's radically antimodern and often violent revision that is causing turmoil in the Middle East and beyond. Islam vs. Islamism introduces the reader to the Islamic world, to its diversity and conflicts, and to possible solutions to those conflicts. Steering clear of either Islamophilia or Muslim-bashing, yet avoiding blandness, Demant explains the origins of Islam, its history, and its position in today's world. After a period of extraordinary expansion and creativity, and a long sequel of decline, the Islamic world is now in deep crisis, caused by Islam's unhappy encounter with the West and its modernity. Islamic societies have tried a variety of approaches to escape from their predicament, but the result has only been to deepen Muslim powerlessness and Muslims' feelings of frustration. Then came Islamism (Islamic fundamentalism) with its revolutionary but antimodern proposal to refashion Muslim society after the Prophet's original model. Islamism has had unsettling results, first in Islam's heartlands, then along its multiple frontiers, and finally in confrontation with the West itself. Among the outcomes has been an ascending wave of terrorism. But violence is not the whole story. Extremism represents no more than a minority within Islam. Although co-existence with violent fundamentalists is a hopeless task, the questions Islamists raise are serious and evoke echoes in the hearts of many more Muslims. To prevent a war of civilizations, dialogue with the moderate majority of Muslims is more urgent than ever. This book is one step on that long road.
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