At great cost and risk to the American and world economies, consumers are ripped off billions of dollars every day by oil interests and their malevolent influence on market pricing mechanisms. It's essential Americans and oil consumers throughout the world understand where the money they pay for oil's downstream products goes-including the money paid at the pump, the money paid to heat their homes, and the money paid for the array of other petroleum-based products. In Ruminations on the Distortion of Oil Prices and Crony Capitalism, author Raymond J. Learsy not only discusses the distortion of oil pricing, but also focuses on effects of the crony capitalism that has enriched a select few and left Main Street in the lurch as a result of government mismanagement, moneyed influence, and craven oversight. This collection of previously published writings shows how speculators ratchet up the prices of basic material goods essential to daily lives. Learsy describes how ceding the determination of those prices not to the laws of supply and demand but predominantly to gambling dens on the trading floors of commodity exchanges as well as the price fixing collusion of producer nations (OPEC) is crippling to the world's economy.

Focusing as well on Wall Street's corrupting influence on the price of oil, gasoline, and other commodities, Ruminations on the Distortion of Oil Prices and Crony Capitalism provides an overview of the basic and important theme: the United States' enslavement to oil and the moneyed interests inextricably tied to it.

This volume represents a comprehensive analysis, by the best known experts in the field on both sides of the Atlantic, of how and why Germany and the United States found themselves at war against each other in 1917 and how the end of their confrontation in 1918/19 paved the way for an era of renewed cooperation. Perspectives offered go well beyond the diplomatic and military aspects of the German-American relationship and include cultural and economic questions.
Germany and the United States of America: The Krefeld Historical Symposia

Mutual Perceptions and Images in Japanese-German Relations, 1860-2010 examines the mutual images formed between Japan and Germany from the mid-nineteenth to twenty-first centuries, and the influence of these images on the development of bilateral relations. Unlike earlier research on Japanese-German relations, which focused on the similarity of these countries' historical trajectories, this publication presents a more nuanced picture. It relativizes perceptions of a special "spiritual relationship" between Japan and Germany as well as their commonalities of "national character" through an exploration of previously untapped historical visual and textual sources. With essays by sixteen leading scholars in the field, this collection is an invaluable contribution to the historiography of modern Japan and Germany, and to the field of international relations. Contributors are: Hans-Joachim Bieber, Fukuoka Mariko, Hakoishi Hiroshi, Iwasa Takuro, Kato Yoko, Kawakita Atsuko, Gerhard Krebs, Kudo Akira, Heinrich Menkhaus, Danny Orbach, Peter Pantzer, Sven Saaler, Sato Takumi, Volker Stanzel, Suzuki Naoko, Tajima Nobuo, Tano Daisuke, and Rolf-Harald Wippich.

Reintegration programmes for ex-combatants are supposed to support the wider peace process. This study, based on detailed fieldwork, looks at the way they were carried out in Sierra Leone and Liberia and assesses the degree to which they were conducted in a participatory way.

Through the intervention of the European Union, the lives of people living in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo have been transformed beyond recognition. From the perspective of the Western Balkans today, the EU looks and acts like a development agency with a spectacularly broad brief and very deep pockets. Yet until the end of the 20th century, external relations and foreign policy were minor aspects of EU activity. How and why has the role of the EU changed so dramatically and what does this reveal about the future development of the Balkan states?

"Europe's Balkan Dilemma" offers the first comprehensive analysis of the impact of EU assistance and intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and newly independent Kosovo. In this important new book Adam Fagan places the fundamental question of what has been achieved through the EU's increased involvement in the region in the context of the EU's ambitions in global security and conflict management beyond the Balkan states. "Europe's Balkan Dilemma" will be a vital resource not only for students of International Relations and European Studies but also for anyone involved in helping to equip this tumultuous region for the next phase in its eventful history.

Federalism and International Relations is the first comparative study of an increasingly important phenomenon: the international role and activities of component units of major liberal democratic federal States. The first part of the book identifies common concepts and themes and explores the reasons for the proliferation of paradiplomatic activities by these non-traditional actors on the international scene. The subsequent chapters focus on the international role of subnational units in individual countries: Austria, Australia, Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, Switzerland, and the USA; the authors also consider the case of Belgium, not formally a federation, but operating to all intents and purposes like one. They examine in detail the nature and history of foreign-policy federalism of these units and the scope and variety of their international activities. They also explore such topics as the constitutional and institutional contexts in which paradiplomatic activity by component units takes place and the factors which motivate these international activities in each federal State. Finally they assess the implications of the paradiplomatic activities for the conduct of foreign policy in each federation.

In the Post-Cold War Era, the possibility of large-scale military conflict between the superpowers has been replaced by the probability of a series of minor—and perhaps not so minor—regional ones. Many, if not most of those, will take place within reach of seaborne expeditionary forces. France organized such an expedition at the close of World War II, in 1945-1946, to return to Indochina. This account of that expedition provides a good case study of what such expeditions involve and, moreover, illustrates many politico-military lessons—and warnings—for those like the U.S., who would project power from the sea east of the Suez today.

The knowledge disseminated by universities and mobilized by states to govern populations has been globally dominant for more than a century. It first emerged in the early modern period in Europe and subsequently became globalized through colonialism. Despite the historical and cultural specificity of its origins, modern Western knowledge was thought to have transcended its particularities such that, unlike pre-modern and non-Western knowledges, it was "universal," or true for all times and places. In this bold and ambitious book, Sanjay Seth argues that modern knowledge and the social sciences are a product of Western modernity claiming a spurious universality: that what we treat as the "truths" discovered by social scientific reason are instead a parochial knowledge. Drawing upon and deriving its critical energies principally from postcolonial theory, Beyond Reason traverses many disciplines, including science studies, social history, art and music history, political science, and anthropology, and engages with a range of contemporary thinkers including Butler, Habermas, Chakrabarty, Chatterjee, and Rawls. It demonstrates that while global in their impact, the social sciences do not and cannot transcend the Western historical and cultural circumstances in which they emerged. If the social sciences are not explained and validated simply by the fact that they are "true," it becomes possible to ask what purpose they serve, what it is that they "do." A defining feature of modern knowledge is that it is divided into disciplines, each with its own object of inquiry and corresponding protocols, and thus asking what such knowledge "does" requires asking what purpose disciplines serve. It also requires asking what ways of understanding the world they facilitate and what they disallow. Beyond Reason proceeds to anatomize the disciplines of history and political science to ask what representations and relations with the past and with politics these academic disciplines enable, and what ways of understanding and engaging the world they foreclose.

Written as a primary text for introductory courses in foreign policy, but also for the attention of the informed general readers, this volume proposes the concept of national interest as the organizing principle of American foreign policy. Arguing that foreign policy can only be successful if it takes into account both the international and domestic environments, von Vorys shows that by developing national interest as a pre-policy standard--rather than using it as a post-policy justification--foreign policies can be made and implemented that are not only successful abroad but are also widely supported at home. The author offers a general framework of national interest, spells out the hierarchy of national interests that should guide foreign policy, and identifies and classifies the range of appropriate policy options. Von Vorys also shows how in this new post Cold War era national interest can become the standard by which our international relations can be impartially evaluated.

Following an introduction that reviews twentieth century American foreign policy and sets forth the basic concept of national interest, von Vorys examines in turn the three levels of national interest that determine foreign policy options: challenges to our national existence, challenges to our friends and allies, and challenges to the international order. In considering challenges to our national existence, the author addresses such issues as deterrence by strategic offense, the Strategic Defense Initiative, and the SALT treaties. Turning to an examination of challenges to friends and allies, von Vorys analyzes the special obligations inherent in allied relationships, the military and political problems posed by NATO, and the question of hemispheric solidarity. Finally, von Vorys explores basic challenges to the international order. He traces the evolution of the traditional method of hegemony, the balance of power system, the attempt at a decentralized world order, and, recently, detente. Throughout, by blending the practical demands of power and the imperatives of morality, von Vorys demonstrates that by using national interest as the underlying concept, we can identify interests for which we should be ready to fight as well as those for which we should be willing to pay, to work, or, in some cases, to do nothing.

South Africa's post-apartheid foreign policy has been a bundle of contradictions and ambiguities. The accession by leading fractions of the African National Congress to the ongoing discourse of neo-liberalism has led to the policy making elite playing to two distinct audiences: its Leftist-inclined constituency within the Government of National Unity and externally oriented domestic and international capital. This second audience is increasingly integrating the GNU elite into a group which more and more reflects the concerns, aspirations, and demands of a transnational class elite. This move mirrors South Africa's ongoing incorporation into the international political economy as a global middle-power, a bridgebuilder between the global hegemons and those reluctant to follow their lead.

Taylor's fundamental theoretical approach that underpins the study--namely a neo-gramscian interpretation of the global political economy and the importance of middle powers--sets it apart from other studies of contemporary South African foriegn policy making. He also provides a useful source for Africanists and South Africa specialists in particular. This is partly because of the accessible style of presentation. But it is also because he has chosen case studies of interaction with multilateral groupings and organizations. This approach marks the volume out as being different from the normal assessment of South African foreign policy--particularly the specific multilateral agencies that he has chosen to focus on.

Established in 1969, Cyril Wecht's Legal Medicine series has, in the words of a review of the 1982 volume, helped validate and develop the field which it reports. Legal Medicine's format assembles articles by experts dealing with a range of topics in the field of legal medicine and forensic science. The contributors provide balanced coverage of timely and practical issues.

Sitting around one oval table for the first time at the Madrid Conference in 1991, historic Arab and Israeli enemies pledge to work toward regional peace and security. From Madrid onward, Middle East diplomacy has been pursued on two tracks--between Israel and its immediate neighbors, and among all the countries of the region. This book reveals, for the first time, an insider's account of the true significance of the Madrid Conference and how a revolution in Middle Eastern affairs was wrought there.

"Making Peace" details the debates, doubts, reversals, and accomplishments that crystallized at the Madrid Peace Conference in October 1991. In the months leading up to this historic event, Eytan Bentsur, today Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, worked closely with his counterparts from other countries to find a formula that might bridge the bitter and seemingly intractable rivalry between Israelis and Arabs. This formula was to become known as the famous two-track approach and is an important source of the incredible progress made toward regional peace and security in recent times. Arguing persuasively that the Middle East peace revolution was triggered by the Madrid gathering, Bentsur sheds new light on the leading personalities and ideas that made the conference a success and a foundation for future progress.

An Israeli official who belonged to an avowed peace group within a hesitant government, Bentsur devised new formulas that made the advantages of peace more palpable to a national leadership and public that were sometimes obsessed with the problems of the peace process. The book elucidates the origins, rationale, and impact of the two-track approach. It is a gripping, behind-the-scenes account of diplomatic efforts in the cause of peace in a war-torn part of the globe.

This volume is the result of a workshop that had the objective to ascertain the facts of ASEAN-U.S. relations and the specific matter of the United States' engagement with ASEAN and East Asia, for possible use by ASEAN in the discussions at the next ASEAN-U.S. Summit Meeting and other ASEAN-U.S. policy forums. The book covers several elements of this relationship, ranging from U.S. military presence in the region, cooperation on maritime security, and recent U.S. policy towards Myanmar, to progress on technical cooperation.

The issue of prisoners in war is a highly timely topic that has received much attention from both scholars and practitioners since the start of the military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and the ensuing legal and political problems concerning detainees in those conflicts. This book analyzes these contemporary problems and challenges against the background of their historical development. It provides a multidisciplinary yet highly coherent perspective on the historical trajectory of legal and ethical norms in this field by integrating the historical analysis of war with a study of the emergence of the modern legal regime of prisoners in war. In doing so, it provides the first comprehensive study of prisoners, detainees and internees in war, covering a broad range of both regular and irregular wars from the crusades to contemporary counterinsurgency campaigns.
The book revolves around two major developments: First, there has been a continuous increase in the political relevance of prisoners in war, in particular since the emergence of POW camps in the nineteenth century. Secondly, and related, the growth in the legal regime pertaining to prisoners had contradictory consequences. Whilst it enhanced the protection of prisoners in regular conflicts, its state-centric bias tends to exclude combatants who do not fit the template of regular inter-state war. Detainees in the 'war on terror' embody both tendencies, the development of which, however, is by no means a novel phenomenon.
This book is a project of the Oxford Leverhulme Programme on the Changing Character of War.

Bukowski, Rajagopalan and their contributors seek to cross both analytical and geographic boundaries in the study of why and how authority shifts both within and beyond the modern nation-state. They develop a conceptualization of the re-distribution of authority, that is, when the capacity of governmental and societal units involved in carrying out the tasks and responsibilities of governance change over time, relative to each other. They argue that this is a more comprehensive alternative to extant conceptualizations used to study the shifting of authority, such as decentralization, regionalism, or federalism. Nine diverse cases are then presented: Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the United States, Russia, Spain, Portugal, Senegal, and South Africa. Each case addresses the questions: Which are the factors that explain the re-distribution of authority? Under what conditions are some of these factors more important than others?

Despite the diversity of the cases in both geographic location and levels of economic and political development, four major explanatory factors emerge as common across all nine cases: identity-related claims, economic imperatives, considerations of administrative efficiency, and political agency. Moreover, discerning the complex interaction of these factors is necessary in understanding the re-distribution of authority in both its centralizing and decentralizing forms, across all levels of governance. Of particular interest to scholars, students, and policy researchers involved with international relations, comparative politics, public administration, political development, and state formation, and ethnonational politics.

Polls show that a sizeable portion of the American population believes that troops found WMD in Iraq and that Saddam Hussein was somehow responsible for the attacks of September 11. Even after the 9/11 Commission Report and numerous other reports have concluded that our intelligence was flawed, people in the freest nation on earth continue to be misinformed about something that could not be more vital to understand—the reasons for sending troops into harm's way. This insightful analysis argues that the media should have done a better job of performing its traditional role of skeptic and watchdog, and it examines what went wrong. There are, of course, many people whose support for going to war in Iraq was not contingent on the existence of WMD or a connection to al-Qaeda. But many others based their support for the war on misinformation. Dadge explores why the media did not aggressively investigate the claims made by the administration and intelligence agencies; in short, why they did not do their job: to fully inform the citizenry to the best of their ability. He examines pressures from the Bush administration, pressures from corporate consolidation of media ownership, patriotism and self-censorship, and other factors. He concludes with recommendations for ways in which the media can improve their reporting on government.

The Mexican expropriation of British and American properties in March 1938 marked the first time any oil-producing country successfully stood up to foreign companies who claimed to own oil properties in that country and who had the support of their respective governments. Totally reliant on overseas oil at a time when war seemed imminent, British officials responsible for policy toward Mexico immediately emphasized the importance of preventing other oil-exporting nations from following Mexico's lead. Washington also sought to make an example of Mexico--one that would guarantee respect for U.S. businesses operating abroad.

Although both Washington and London wanted to return to the pre-expropriation status quo, Washington was unwilling to work with London to achieve this goal, and Washington's attitude paralleled its reaction to British efforts to get U.S. support on certain defense issues during this critical period. The resulting Anglo-American strife over how to handle Mexico was also consistent with Anglo-American commercial competition and the oil rivalry in Mexico early in the century.

The subjects covered in this collection will appeal to a range of scholars, specialists, and general readers. The contributions of the Japanese scholars will not go unnoticed either for they draw on many primary sources in Japan that have yet to be translated into English and therefore offer a unique perspective on the events and individuals discussed in the essays. By focusing on both the US and Japan, this work provides easy access to the competing perspectives of the two nations, a competition that is enhanced by examinations of individuals and events, which have often been overlooked. The evolution of Japanese strategic goals prior to WWII, for example, was not limited to the vision of Yamamoto any more than the post-war relationship that emerged was defined exclusively by Douglas Macarthur. The Cold War has ended, but the relationship shared by the US and Japan plays a central roll in the GWOT. Overall, the range of topics covered by these essays adds depth to any understanding of the strategies and relations pursued by the two countries while providing a foundation for understanding the relationship as it continues to evolve today.

Has the existence of nuclear weapons transformed the traditional relationship between power and its use in international affairs? If it has, are we then in a period of transition to a new system based on entirely different principles? How would such a transition affect the lives of individuals? A number of writers address these questions in Power and Policy in Transition. The three basic themes of the book are the nature of power, its use in the pursuit of national interests, and the susceptibility to change of the relationship between power and policy. Essays by scholars, professionals, and laymen grapple therein with the uses and abuses of power. The first of three sections addresses the changing nature of power since World War II. The second concentrates on those who either question or disregard the precepts of realism in international politics. The third considers how the changing nature of power in the world challenges American foreign policy.

This book is the inaugural edition of the Nigerian Yearbook of International Law. The Yearbook is a necessary and timely publication that provides a forum for critical discourse on developments in international law, particularly where this has relevance for Nigeria, Africa and its people including those in the diaspora. The articles in this first volume explore topics under the following themes: International Law and Regional Systems, Contemporary Challenges/Emerging Issues, Criminal Law and Natural Resources/Environmental Law. There is also a section, which provides a comprehensive review of key decisions in African and International Courts/Tribunals. Contributors to this edition are international law jurists from across the world, including eminent judges of international tribunals, leading academics and an international diplomat.

Martin Wight was perhaps the most profound thinker in international relations of his generation. In a discipline for too long mesmerized by the pseudo-science of the historically and philosophically illiterate, his work stands out like a beacon. Yet it is only in the decades since his death that his achievement has attained its true recognition.
Of the first volume of posthumously published lectures-- International Theory: The Three Traditions (1991)--one reviewer wrote: ' it] stands as a classic in the genre of printed lectures stretching from Aristotle to Ruskin... It is exhilarating... for there is nothing quite like it and-- which is a measure of Martin Wight's stature--there is not likely to be'.
That volume is here complemented and completed. In these four lectures Wight takes the archetypal thinkers of this three traditions--Machiavelli, Grotius, and Kant--to whom he adds Mazzini, the father of all revolutionary nationalism, and so the prototype of such as Nehru, Nasser, and Mandela, and subjects their writings and careers to a masterly analysis and commentary. The volume also contains an important new introduction to Wight's thought by Professor David S. Yost.

Ukraine played a key role in the dissolution of the former USSR, and its continued independence will have a decisive impact upon the transformation of Russia itself into either a new empire or Western democracy. The economic crisis and mismanagement that engulfed Ukraine during 1993 through 1994 led many in the West and among Ukraine's neighbors to question the country's long-term viability as an independent state. In 1995 Ukraine has entered a new era reflecting its importance as a linchpin of regional security and stability in Europe. This study discusses Ukrainian security policies and their implications for Western policy. It makes a compelling case for greater Western aid and political support for Ukrainian independence and territorial integrity.

The only apparent consensus about the Nixon Presidency is that his accomplishments in the foreign policy area far outshadowed those in the domestic arena. The advances for which he was responsible--in particular, the opening to China--brought the most significant improvement in foreign relations among the great powers in decades. The Nixon diplomacy worked, while many of his domestic programs failed. This was true, the editors of this Hofstra-sponsored volume maintain, because there was more of a sense of realism and caution in his dealings with foreign governments and a willingness to compromise and accommodate their interests--a tolerance he often lacked in the domestic area.

This volume outlines the main components of the Nixon foreign policy, beginning with the significant effort to bring China into the world community. The manner in which the Vietnam war was ended is examined, as are the evolution of American policy in the Middle East and the efforts at detente. With essays and observations from scholars and participants in the making of that policy, this volume is significant reading for all students of American foreign policy and the presidency.

In the last three decades, Turkey has attempted to build close relationships with Russia, Iran and the Turkic World. As a result, there has been ongoing debate about the extent to which Turkey's international relations axis is shifting eastwards. Ozgur Tufekci argues that Eurasianist ideology has been fundamental to Turkish foreign policy and continues to have influence today. The author first explores the historical roots of Eurasianism in the 19th century, comparing this to Neo-Eurasianism and Pan-Slavism. The Ozal era (1983-1993), the Cem era (1997-2002) and Davutoglu era (since 2003) are then examined to reveal how foreign policy making has been informed by discourses of Eurasianism, and how Eurasianist ideas were implemented through internal and external socio-economic and political factors.