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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > General
A history of Japan-United States relations from the point of view of a pro-American Japanese scholar, this work is designed to serve as an analysis of the current situation--the third opening of Japan to the West in the last century. The two earlier openings failed when Japan adopted the policy of sonno-joi (which means literally revere the emperor and expel the foreigners). This book is written to try to forestall the very real possibility of a recurrence of sonno-joi: as a reaction to the current opening by appealing to both the Japanese and the Americans to understand Japanese history and Japanese sensibilities. Japan and the United States share many interests and goals, but they suffer from a tremendous gap in mutual perceptions. Ibe makes an attempt here to explain the Japanese and their view of the world to a non-Japanese audience. He believes Japan is not an inexplicable riddle nor a monolith Japan, Inc. He argues that since time immemorial, forging unity among the many warring groups in Japan has been difficult, whether uniting the warlord clans of the ancient period, the feudalistic domains of premodern times, the political factions of the modernizing period, or the private corporations or government ministries of today. Ibe examines the difficulties the Japanese have encountered in their efforts to unify and to articulate their desires--which is not well understood by non-Japanese. This book is ideal for students, scholars, and the informed citizen interested in Japan and Japanese-American relations.
San Juan, a noted Philippine Marxist now living in the United States, gives a detailed account of the Philippine situation from many perspectives. The essays deal with new-imperialism, the Muslim community, literature, the New People's Army, women, and Filipinos in the United States. While Marcos is gone, many of the issues San Juan raises still need attention and the Marxist perspective he uses gives a very different insight than has been heard previously. Thus the work merits serious consideration for academic libraries. Library Journal Crisis in the Philippines is an unparalleled view of the making of a revolution. E. San Juan offers an insider's examination of the unrelenting avalanche of political events, culminated by the summary killing of opposition leader Benigno Aquino. He dramarically illuminates the Filipino people's struggle for self-determination, the actual activities and growth of the New People's Army, and an analysis of the global forces influencing the current crisis. Unprecedented focus is given to the ways in which certain groups within Phillippine society--particularly the feminist movement and the Church--are coalescing with the Left. Poignantly illustrated with photographs of village life, the New People's Army, protest rallies, press and media clippings, this is the first unrestricted story of the Philippine revolution.
The Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) in Buenos Aires operated for less than a decade, but by the time of its closure in 1971 it had become the undeniable epicenter of Latin American avant-garde music. Providing the first in-depth study of CLAEM, author Eduardo Herrera tells the story of the fellowship program-funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Di Tella family-that, by allowing the region's promising young composers to study with a roster of acclaimed faculty, produced some of the most prominent figures within the art world, including Rafael Aponte Ledee, Coriun Aharonian, and Blas Emilio Atehortua. Combining oral histories, ethnographic research, and archival sources, Elite Art Worlds explores regional discourses of musical Latin Americanism and the embrace, articulation, and resignification of avant-garde techniques and perspectives during the 1960s. But the story of CLAEM reveals much more: intricate webs of US and Argentine philanthropy, transnational currents of artistic experimentation and innovation, and the role of art in constructing elite identities. By looking at CLAEM as both an artistic and philanthropic project, Herrera illuminates the relationships between foreign policy, corporate interests, and funding for the arts in Latin America and the United States against the backdrop of the Cold War.
Consisting of sixteen essays by renowned writers and artists, Caviar with Rum: Cuba-USSR and the Post-Soviet Experience is the first book of its kind to bring to life how and why the Soviet period is revisited in Cuban memory these days and what that means for creative production and the future of geopolitics.
Three men and three women: a plant collector, a merchant and his
novelist wife, a military officer, and two famous women travelers
went to China between the Opium War and the formal end of the opium
trade, 1842-1907. Their range of perspectives, their acquaintance
with one another and their similar scope of travel to Hong Kong,
the treaty ports, and Sichuan lend intensity to their picture of
China and the Western presence there.
This study provides a comprehensive analysis of state-society development in the most volatile region of the world. In the Middle East, various anti-systemic movement and radical Islam often clashed and resisted the political, cultural, economic, and military domination of the region by the world's major imperial powers. Emadi investigates state, revolution, and development in the Middle Eastern states of Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria in the immediate post-World War II period. Maintaining that the state is an instrument of class domination, exhibiting a certain degree of autonomy in the creation and design of domestic development programs, he details the role of class in an attempt to provide a better understanding of the diverse factors at work. Politics of the Dispossessed provides an alternative analysis of development in regional politics and its context in world politics, aspects that are generally neglected by most mainstream studies. It examines state formation, internal development strategies, and how class conflict and ideology led to class alliance on an international basis, as well as the external interference in the internal affairs of these societies. It also explores the process of political and ethnic integration of the Middle East into the global economic system and the resulting counter-strategies of the nationalist and Islamic resistance to the increasing superpower domination of the international system.
This study examines how the Iranian revolution, the war in Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait affected American security in the Persian Gulf. It shows how regional conflicts in the Middle East made the US better able to protect its own security interests in the area.
In an earlier study, "Toward an Entangling Alliance: American Isolationism, Internationalism, and Europe, 1901-1950," Powaski described the events, factors, and personalities that contributed to the American decision to abandon a century-and-a-half-old isolationist tradition and join an entangling alliance with European nations. This study is a continuation of the story of America's involvement in Europe's security affairs since 1950. In it, Powaski explains why America expanded its military commitment to Europe--including the stationing of U.S. combat forces, both nuclear and conventional, on the continent--and why the U.S. military presence in Europe is now declining. In addition, Powaski describes the issues and personalities that have divided, as well as united, the United States and its European allies, and why, despite these disagreements, America's involvement in the entangling alliance is likely to endure.
At the dawn of the 21st century, it should be evident that the Cold War of 1945-1991 was but the first of its kind. Nichols urges the reader to consider previous resolutions before another such conflict arises. He asserts that the Cold War was essentially a clash of ideologies tempered by the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation. Victory for the West came quietly, without the final and utterly destructive war often envisioned. Undoubtedly, the end of the Cold War was a signal victory for the West, and for the United States in particular. Yet Nichols reminds that enemies of the ideals of democracy, capitalism, and liberty abound and will lash out against western states that hold true to them. When this occurs, it will be imperative for the West to remember key lessons taken from the Cold War. Nichols argues that conflicts driven by dissonant ideologies differ from wars fought over resources and territory, and must therefore be fought differently.
A trapped double-agent, an impending world war and a race to space... Winter Hawk is Craig Thomas at the height of his powers. With the Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty set to be ratified by the US and the USSR in Geneva, it seems that international relations have finally stabilised. But when a double agent reveals that the Soviets are preparing to launch a series of laser weapons into space, the West is suddenly defenceless and vulnerable. A panic-stricken US President puts pilot Mitchell Gant at the head of a mission, code-named "Winter Hawk". The operation is clear: a covert dash in and out of the Soviet Union to retrieve the double agent before the weapons can be launched. But with the clock ticking and the Russian "Hinds" on his tail, Gant's voyage across the snowy Russian border is far from simple... Set against a background of Cold War tension and nuclear threat, Winter Hawk is another icy Craig Thomas thriller, perfect for fans of Desmond Bagley and Frederick Forsyth.
Inequality is becoming an urgent issue of world politics at the end of the twentieth century. Globalization is not only exacerbating the gap between rich and poor in the world but is also further dividing those states and peoples that have political power and influence from those without. While the powerful shape more `global' rules and norms about investment, military security, environmental and social policy and the like, the less powerful are becoming `rule-takers', often of rules or norms they cannot or will not enforce. The consequences for world politics are profound. The evidence presented in Inequality, Globalization, and World Politics suggests that globalization is creating sharper, more urgent problems for states and international institutions to deal with. Yet at the same time, investigations into eight core areas of world politics suggest that growing inequality is reducing the capacity of governments and existing international organizations to manage these problems effectively. The eight areas surveyed include: international order, international law, welfare and social policy, global justice, regionalism and multilateralism, environmental protection, gender equality, military power, and security.
The closing years of the 20th century will be remembered as a time of tumultuous change. The various essays are attempts to understand the changes and ground them in the context of the logic of the contemporary world-system. The essays are divided into two main themes: structural transformations and regional ramifications of global transformations. East Asia, the Pacific Rim, European periphery, and the Middle East are all examined to determine if fundamental changes are occuring. Scholars and upper level and graduate students of economic history, developmental economics, regional economics, international economics, and political economy will find provocative contrasts and insights in this collection of essays, presented at the 18th annual Political Economy of the World-System Conference.
Plasser examines the changing practices of election campaigning worldwide. Based on data of an indepth survey of campaign managers and political consultants from 43 countries, he provides insights into the professional role definitions and strategic orientations determining the future of electioneering in media-centered democracies. The first section gives a state-of-the-art overview of the international literature and modernization theories describing and analyzing the ongoing process of modernization and growing professionalization of electioneering around the world. The second section deals with the topic of an "Americanization" of campaign practices in countries fundamentally different from the United States from a diffusion point of view. A special focus is the role of U.S. overseas consultants in influencing and modifying campaign practices in foreign countries based on indepth interviews about the professional experiences of leading figures of the Americans overseas consultancy business. The third section deals with central features of campaign practices from a comparative perspective and provides information and data about the media infrastructure and political culture indicators for 50 countries as well as a detailed comparison of country-specific campaign regulations, party system features, and campaign styles. The fourth section focuses on the results of Plasser's Global Political Consultancy Survey among 592 campaign professionals from 43 countries. The results of this first worldwide survey offer insights into professional orientations, role definitions, and practices of campaign managers and political consultants throughout the world. The fifth section discusses differentarea- and country-specific campaign styles from a comparative perspective. The final chapters present a global typology of distinct campaign styles across the world, summarize the central findings, and link them to the ongoing debate about the future of electioneering in media-centered democracies. An essential research tool for scholars, students, and other researchers involved with comparative electioneering, political management, and political communication.
This volume provides theoretical treatments of remittance on how its development potential is translated into reality. The authors meticulously delve into diverse mechanisms through which migrant communities remit, investigating how recipients engage in the development process in South Asia.
While much of the work in this field focuses on individual psychology or radical ideology, Bosi, O Dochartaigh, Pisoiu and others take a fresh, innovative look at the importance of context in generating mobilisation and shaping patterns of violence. The cases dealt with range widely across space and time, from Asia, Africa and Europe to the Americas, and from the Irish rebellion of 1916 through the Marxist insurgency of Sendero Luminoso to the `Invisible Commando' of Cote d'Ivoire. They encompass a wide range of types of violence, from separatist guerrillas through Marxist insurgents and Islamist militants to nationalist insurrectionists and the distinctive forms of urban violence that have emerged at the boundary between crime and politics. Chapters offer new theoretical perspectives on the decisive importance of the spatial and temporal contexts, and supportive milieux, in which parties to conflict are embedded, and from which they draw strength.
Does the preventive use of force meet the criteria for just war that prevail (or should prevail) in a democratic system? Or does it endanger the legal and ethical traditions that characterize the history of Western military ethics? This book analyzes the justification of preventive war in contemporary asymmetrical international relations. It focuses on the most crucial aspect of prevention: uncertainty. Luck plays a significant role in these hazardous preventive wars, with unforeseen and sometimes unforeseeable consequences. This book investigates whether the role of uncertainty in preventive war making can be harmonized with a normative account of prevention. It builds a new framework where the role of luck--whether military, political, moral, or normative--is a corrective to the traditional approaches of the just war tradition.
The administrations of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy faced critical international challenges - including, most notably, using nuclear weapons against Japan, intervening militarily in Korea, toppling an emerging regime in Guatemala, restraining the actions of US allies during the Suez Canal Crisis, overthrowing Castro's Cuban regime, and forcing the USSR to remove nuclear missiles from Cuban soil. In this meticulously documented book, Alex Roberto Hybel tests the extent to which today's most important foreign policy decision-making models can explain the actions of the principal figures responsible for addressing each crisis. The book carefully analyses each president's cognitive system, the advisory structure each leader set up, and the pervading mindsets of Washington's insiders from each period. By evaluating the quality of each president's foreign policy decision-making process, readers will become familiar with core foreign policy decisions, how they were formulated, and the types of cognitive impediments that in certain instances undermined the quality of the decision-making process.
This volume provides an introduction to the Eastern Mediterranean region and introduces the concept of the Eastern Mediterranean as a new regional subsystem. Due to recent events in contemporary international politics, the Eastern Mediterranean can be seen as a laboratory where the balance of power among Great Powers and regional states are being tested. Written by leading academics in their respective fields, this book addresses key developments in the area and argues that the Eastern Mediterranean should be viewed as a distinct region. Particular emphasis is given to the initiatives undertaken by Israel, Greece, Cyprus, and Turkey; the role played by the United States and Russia; and the issues of energy, migration, and Islamic terrorism. Bringing together relevant information and theoretical debates, this book will be of interest to graduate students and academics studying international relations and politics in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as policymakers and journalists who want to have a clearer understanding of developments in the region.
This book uniquely applies securitization theory to the mass sexual violence atrocities committed during the Bosnia war and the Rwandan genocide. Examining the inherent links between rape, war and global security, Hirschauer analyses the complexities of conflict related sexual violence.
High-ranking government officials, defense analysts, and scholars focus on the geopolitics and security of the Nordic region at a time when East-West relations in Europe are undergoing momentous changes. Experts from Scandinavia, Europe, and the United States examine the impact of the United States and the Soviet Union on Scandinavian security in terms of defense doctrines and deployment and the evolving technologies of defense, paying particular attention to neutral Finland and Sweden. This strategic analysis, edited by Ciro Zoppo, is intended for academicians and policymakers in the fields of military studies, political science, Nordic and European affairs, and East-West relations. This survey of key problems and prospects in the Northern cap of the globe offers the historical background necessary for understanding the foreign policies and domestic politics of Norway, Finland, Sweden, Iceland, and Denmark. The study is unique in its detailed examination of military policy and emerging technologies alongside a discussion about their economic consequences for the countries in the region. The cross-national team of experts also considers the significance of the changing politicial and technological environment for the future of Swedish and Finnish defense and neutrality.
Featuring first hand accounts by international politicians and diplomats along with analyses by leading scholars, this unique collection of essays provides insights from multiple perspectives to foster better understanding of international relations during and after the Cold War. Experts from both sides of the "iron curtain" shed light on the origins, struggles, ending, and legacy of the conflict that dominated the second half of the twentieth century and that still affects current East-West relations, the securing and dismantling of weapons of mass destruction, and the instability of many regions. With a particular focus on diplomatic relations, the book looks at the origins of the conflict from Yalta to Korea, the prelude to Detente from Cuba to Vietnam, followed by the move from Detente to dialogue. It then addresses such issues as strategic weapons, the impact of the war on scientific research, intelligence, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Lastly, it examines the legacy of the Cold War across regions of the world, including Europe, Japan, India, China, and the lessons to be drawn for today's diplomatic relations and intelligence. With contributions from Howard Baker, Jr., Sir Anthony Brenton, Susan Eisenhower, Grigoryi Karasin, Alexander Likhotal, Kishan Rana, Ying Rong, and more, the volume presents a truly international treatment of a subject of global dimensions and importance. Students of politics and international relations will find it invaluable as will Foreign Service practitioners, and instructors teaching the Cold War and foreign affairs.
The US military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan made use of private military and private security companies on an unprecedented scale. In this environment, actions and operations can greatly affect the efficacy of the US military - creating unintended diplomatic and tactical consequences. Lovewine provides a much-needed analysis of the interaction between commercial entities, military operations, and policy objectives.
This book is devoted to the issue of how we can learn to live together in the face of division and conflict. It is dedicated to the life and work of a remarkable human being, Dr Epimenidis Haidemenakis, scientist, statesman, visionary leader, President Emeritus of the International S.T.E.P.S. Foundation and founding father of The Olympiads of the Mind (OM). The monograph consists of a collection of papers presented at the 8th and 9th Olympiads of the Mind held in Washington, DC and Chania, Crete respectively. Distinguished international scholars, government and corporate representatives, leading researchers and academics from multiple disciplines and Nobel Laureates Leon Lederman (Physics, 1988), Martin Perl (Physics, 1995) and Yuan T. Lee (Chemistry, 1986) address a broad range of issues all with the aim of improving the human condition and achieving cooperation among the people of the world. The topics include the environment, sustainability and security; diversity and how to achieve integration and peace among people in a fractured world; the important role of brain research; how to overcome poverty and inequality; how to enhance creativity and improve education at all levels; and how new technologies and tools can be used for common benefit. The culmination of the book is a call to action, to join what one might call the "OM Movement"-bringing the best minds in the world together to create solutions to world issues so that we can all live together in harmony.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is more than a local or regional dispute. Its ongoing and escalating nature increases the risk that the violence will spill over its present borders and contribute to both extremism and terrorism. While the Intifada from 1987 to 1993 was largely a popular uprising and a political struggle, the recent clash is a war with a steady escalation between conventional and unconventional forces. It is in the interest of all major powers, the international community, and the United Nations to press both sides to accept a realistic peace plan. Noted Middle East expert Anthony Cordesman details this continuing struggle by explaining the issues at stake for each side; the various combatants (both directly and indirectly engaged); as well as the course of the war in its various incarnations. The situation on the ground is complex and the quest for peace is ever more uncertain. If the Intifada was a struggle for recognition that a peace had to be reached that was just for both sides, the Israeli-Palestinian War has polarized both sides away from peace, convincing them of the justice of their own cause and tactics and the fundamental injustice of the other side's tactics and goals. Each side has used human rights, international law, and civilian casualties as political weapons. The history of a near century of conflict is used to justify war rather than a search for peace. |
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