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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political control & freedoms > General
The role of intelligence in US government operations has changed dramatically and is now more critical than ever to domestic security and foreign policy. This authoritative and highly researched book written by Jeffrey T. Richelson provides a detailed overview of America's vast intelligence empire, from its organizations and operations to its management structure. Drawing from a multitude of sources, including hundreds of official documents, The US Intelligence Community allows students to understand the full scope of intelligence organizations and activities, and gives valuable support to policymakers and military operations. The seventh edition has been fully revised to include a new chapter on the major issues confronting the intelligence community, including secrecy and leaks, domestic spying, and congressional oversight, as well as revamped chapters on signals intelligence and cyber collection, geospatial intelligence, and open sources. The inclusion of more maps, tables and photos, as well as electronic briefing books on the book's Web site, makes The US Intelligence Community an even more valuable and engaging resource for students.
How differing forms of repression shape the outcomes of democratic transitions In the wake of the Arab Spring, newly empowered factions in Tunisia and Egypt vowed to work together to establish democracy. In Tunisia, political elites passed a new constitution, held parliamentary elections, and demonstrated the strength of their democracy with a peaceful transfer of power. Yet in Egypt, unity crumbled due to polarization among elites. Presenting a new theory of polarization under authoritarianism, After Repression reveals how polarization and the legacies of repression led to these substantially divergent political outcomes. Drawing on original interviews and a wealth of new historical data, Elizabeth Nugent documents polarization among the opposition in Tunisia and Egypt prior to the Arab Spring, tracing how different kinds of repression influenced the bonds between opposition groups. She demonstrates how widespread repression created shared political identities and decreased polarization-such as in Tunisia-while targeted repression like that carried out against the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt led opposition groups to build distinct identities that increased polarization among them. This helps explain why elites in Tunisia were able to compromise, cooperate, and continue on the path to democratic consolidation while deeply polarized elites in Egypt contributed to the rapid reentrenchment of authoritarianism. Providing vital new insights into the ways repression shapes polarization, After Repression helps to explain what happened in the turbulent days following the Arab Spring and illuminates the obstacles to democratic transitions around the world.
First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
This edited volume places the body at the centre of critical thinking about war and its consequences. War is fundamentally embodied. The reality of war is not just politics by any other means but politics incarnate, politics written on and experienced through the thinking, feeling bodies of men and women. From steeled combatants to abject victims, war occupies innumerable bodies in a multitude of ways, profoundly shaping lives and ways of being human. Giving the body an analytic recognition that it warrants and has often been denied in conventional war studies, this book brings together new interdisciplinary scholarship that explores the numerous affective, sensory and embodied practices through which war lives and breeds. It focuses on how war is prepared, enacted and reproduced through embodied action, suffering and memory. As such, the book promotes new directions in theorising war and transformations in warfare, via an explicit focus on the body. This book will be of much interest to students and scholars of war studies, security studies, sociology, anthropology, military studies, politics and IR in general.
What does contemporary China's diverse and exciting fiction tell us about its culture, and the relationship between art and politics? The Subplot takes us on a lively journey through a literary landscape like you've never seen before: a vast migrant-worker poetry movement, homoerotic romances by "rotten girls," swaggering literary popstars, millionaire e-writers churning out the longest-ever novels, underground comics, the surreal works of Yu Hua, Yan Lianke, and Nobel laureate Mo Yan, and what is widely hailed as a golden age of Chinese science fiction. Chinese online fiction is now the largest publishing platform in the world. Fueled by her passionate engagement with Chinese literature and culture, Megan Walsh, a brilliant young critic, shows us why it's important to finally pay attention to Chinese fiction-an exuberant drama that illustrates the complex relationship between art and politics, one that is increasingly shaping the West as well. Turns out, writers write neither what their government nor foreign readers want or expect, and they work on a different wavelength to keep alive ideas and events that are either overlooked or off limits. The Subplot vividly captures the ways in which literature offers an alternative-perhaps truer-understanding of the contradictions that make up China itself.
Secrets and Leaks examines the complex relationships among executive power, national security, and secrecy. State secrecy is vital for national security, but it can also be used to conceal wrongdoing. How then can we ensure that this power is used responsibly? Typically, the onus is put on lawmakers and judges, who are expected to oversee the executive. Yet because these actors lack access to the relevant information and the ability to determine the harm likely to be caused by its disclosure, they often defer to the executive's claims about the need for secrecy. As a result, potential abuses are more often exposed by unauthorized disclosures published in the press. But should such disclosures, which violate the law, be condoned? Drawing on several cases, Rahul Sagar argues that though whistleblowing can be morally justified, the fear of retaliation usually prompts officials to act anonymously--that is, to "leak" information. As a result, it becomes difficult for the public to discern when an unauthorized disclosure is intended to further partisan interests. Because such disclosures are the only credible means of checking the executive, Sagar writes, they must be tolerated, and, at times, even celebrated. However, the public should treat such disclosures skeptically and subject irresponsible journalism to concerted criticism.
Human trafficking has moved from relative obscurity to a major area of research, policy and teaching over the past ten years. Research has sprung from criminology, public policy, women s and gender studies, sociology, anthropology, and law, but has been somewhat hindered by the failure of scholars to engage beyond their own disciplines and favoured methodologies. Recent research has begun to improve efforts to understand the causes of the problem, the experiences of victims, policy efforts, and their consequences in specific cultural and historical contexts. " Global Human Trafficking: Critical issues and contexts" foregrounds recent empirical work on human trafficking from an interdisciplinary, critical perspective. The collection includes classroom-friendly features, such as introductory chapters that provide essential background for understanding the trafficking literature, textboxes explaining key concepts, discussion questions for each chapter, and lists of additional resources, including films, websites, and additional readings for each chapter. The authors include both eminent and emerging scholars from around the world, drawn from law, anthropology, criminology, sociology, cultural studies, and political science and the book will be useful for undergraduate and graduate courses in these areas, as well as for scholars interested in trafficking."
This collection brings together historians, political theorists and literary scholars to provide historical perspectives on the modern debate over freedom of speech, particularly the question of whether limitations might be necessary given religious pluralism and concerns about hate speech. It integrates religion into the history of free speech and rethinks what is sometimes regarded as a coherent tradition of more or less absolutist justifications for free expression. Contributors examine the aims and effectiveness of government policies, the sometimes contingent ways in which freedom of speech became a reality and a wide range of canonical and non-canonical texts in which contemporaries outlined their ideas and ideals. Overall, the book argues that while the period from 1500 to 1850 witnessed considerable change in terms of both ideas and practices, these were more or less distinct from those that characterise modern debates. -- .
Americans preach egalitarianism, but democracy makes it hard for minorities to win. "Changing Minds, If Not Hearts" explores political strategies that counteract the impulse of racial majorities to think about racial issues as a zero-sum game, in which a win for one group means a loss for another. James M. Glaser and Timothy J. Ryan argue that, although political processes often inflame racial tensions, the tools of politics also can alleviate conflict.Through randomized experiments conducted in South Carolina, California, Michigan, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and New Jersey, Glaser and Ryan uncover the racial underpinnings of disputes over affirmative action, public school funding initiatives, Confederate flag displays on government buildings, reparations, and racial profiling. The authors examine whether communities rife with conflict endorse different outcomes when issues are cast in different terms--for example, by calling attention to double standards, evoking alternate conceptions of fairness and justice, or restructuring electoral choices to offer voters greater control. Their studies identify a host of tools that can help overcome opposition to minority interests that are due to racial hostility. Even in communities averse to accommodation, even where antipathy and prejudice linger, minorities can win.With clearly presented data and compelling prose, "Changing Minds, If Not Hearts" provides a vivid and practical illustration of how academic theory can help resolve conflicts on the ground.
'One of the most electrifying writers at work in America today, among the sharpest and most supple thinkers of her generation' OLIVIA LAING What can freedom really mean? In this invigorating, essential book, Maggie Nelson explores how we might think, experience or talk about the concept in ways that are responsive to our divided world. Drawing on pop culture, theory and the intimacies and plain exchanges of daily life, she follows freedom - with all its complexities - through four realms: art, sex, drugs and climate. On Freedom offers a bold new perspective on the challenging times in which we live. 'Tremendously energising' Guardian 'This provocative meditation...shows Nelson at her most original and brilliant' New York Times 'Nelson is such a friend to her reader, such brilliant company... Exhilarating' Literary Review * A New York Times Notable Book * * A Guardian and TLS 'Books of 2021' Pick *
Three to four dozen international and local organizations, up to one hundred thousand individuals, and millions of supporters are part of the phenomenon of Global Jihad. The Global Jihad Movement endeavors to name and differentiate these organizations and to explain their infrastructure, operational capabilities, and activities. It also analyzes their mutual and multi-lateral relations inside and outside the "jihadi framework." In essence, this is a "who's who" in the Global Jihad. The first section deals with ideology, focusing on the emergence of the Salafi and the Salafi-jihadi ideologies, which are still the most important factors behind the operational performance of Global Jihadi elements. The second section addresses the "affiliate groups" of al-Qaeda, such as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and al-Qaeda in Iraq. This section focuses mainly on the groups that adopted al-Qaeda's Global Jihad strategy by incorporating Western targets in their vicinity of operations in their targeting policies. The next section discusses the different jihad arenas that have emerged over the last three decades, absorbing jihadi fighters from Islamic communities around the world. Finally, tThe last section examines the long process of radicalization, from regular and normative lifestyle patterns to the final jihadi stage-which in many cases involves martyrdom as suicide bombers in the name of radical Islam.
Dogmatism, prejudice and bigotry are becoming ever more evident in Western politics. Divisive governments looking to cement their power strive to close down anyone who disagrees with them: political opponents, members of their own parties, the mainstream media, educators, protesters and, ultimately, voters. A Call to Dissent defends dissent as an essential part of democracy. Stuart Sim argues that the political left are falling into despair in the face of growing right-wing populism and extremism, rather than challenging and standing up to it. Taking a wide view, he identifies how dissent works in philosophy, religion, science and the arts as well as in politics. Ultimately, he calls on all of us to become dissenters ourselves in order to challenge authority and counter the growth of prejudice and bigotry in public life.
As an upbeat and peaceful uprising quickly and brutally descended into a zero-sum civil war, Syria has crumbled from a regional player into an arena in which a multitude of local and foreign actors compete. The volatile regional fault lines that run through Syria have ruptured during this conflict, and the course of events in this fragile yet strategically significant country will profoundly shape the future of the Levant.
John Grisham's first work of nonfiction, an exploration of small
town justice gone terribly awry, is his most extraordinary legal
thriller yet.
This work explores the economic lives of gays and lesbians in the United States. It debunks common stereotypical ideas about gay privilege, income and consumer behaviour. By studying the ends and means of gay life from an economic perspective, the author disproves the assumption that gay men and lesbians are more affluent than heterosexuals, that they inspire discrimination when coming out of the closet, that they consume more conspicuously, and that they lead a more hedonistic lifestyle. Badgett analyzes crucial issues that affect the livelihood of gay men and lesbians: discrimination in the workplace, denial of healthcare benefits to domestic partners and children, lack of access to legal institutions, such as marriage, the corporate wooing of gay consumer dollars and the use of gay economic clout to inspire social and political change.
Peace operations are increasingly on the front line in the international community's fight against organized crime; this book explores how, in some cases, peace operations and organized crime are clear enemies, while in others, they may become tacit allies. The threat posed by organized crime to international and human security has become a matter of considerable strategic concern for national and international decision-makers, so it is somewhat surprising how little thought has been devoted to addressing the complex relationship between organized crime and peace operations. This volume addresses this gap, questioning the emerging orthodoxy that portrays organized crime as an external threat to the liberal peace championed by western and allied states and delivered through peace operations. Based upon a series of case studies it concludes that organized crime is both a potential enemy and a potential ally of peace operations, and it argues for the need to distinguish between strategies to contain organized crime and strategies to transform the political economies in which it flourishes. The editors argue for the development of intelligent, transnational, and transitional law enforcement that can make the most of organized crime as a potential ally for transforming political economies, while at the same time containing the threat it presents as an enemy to building effective and responsible states. The book will be of great interest to students of peacebuilding, peace and conflict studies, organised crime, Security Studies and IR in general.
In Going Stealth Toby Beauchamp demonstrates how the enforcement of gender conformity is linked to state surveillance practices that identify threats based on racial, gender, national, and ableist categories of difference. Positioning surveillance as central to our understanding of transgender politics, Beauchamp examines a range of issues, from bathroom bills and TSA screening practices to Chelsea Manning's trial, to show how security practices extend into the everyday aspects of our gendered lives. He brings the fields of disability, science and technology, and surveillance studies into conversation with transgender studies to show how the scrutinizing of gender nonconformity is motivated less by explicit transgender identities than by the perceived threat that gender nonconformity poses to the U.S. racial and security state. Beauchamp uses instances of gender surveillance to demonstrate how disciplinary power attempts to produce conformist citizens and regulate difference through discourses of security. At the same time, he contends that greater visibility and recognition for gender nonconformity, while sometimes beneficial, might actually enable the surveillance state to more effectively track, measure, and control trans bodies and identities.
The U.S. immigration debate has raised some of the most difficult
questions our nation has ever faced: How can we preserve the
integrity of sovereign borders while also respecting the dignity of
human beings? How should a border-that imaginary line in the
sand-be humanely and effectively maintained? And how should we
regard "the stranger" in our midst?
This clandestine history of Operation Ajax to overthrow the Prime Minister of Iran was written for the US Central Intelligence Agency in March 1954 by Dr. Donald N. Wilber. It gives a unique insight into the extent to which the CIA and its British ally went in pursuit of their aim to remove Iran's elected head of government in 1952-53. It also includes many interesting parallels with contemporary developments in the Middle East. Dr. Mohammad Mossadeq was Prime Minister of Iran for just over two years, from April 1951 to August 1953, when he was removed from power in a complex plot prepared by the British and US intelligence agencies. Shortly after coming to office, Mossadeq enforced the Oil Nationalisation Act, which involved the expropriation of Anglo Iranian Oil Company's assets. In response, the British foreign secretary, Herbert Morrison, announced that the Mossadeq government would not be allowed to export any oil produced in the formerly British-controlled refinery at Abadan. In October 1952, Mossadeq declared Britain 'an enemy', and cut all diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. In November and December of that year, British intelligence officials suggested to American intelligence that he should be ousted. Near the end of April 1953, Donald N. Wilber, covert consultant to Near East and Africa Division of the CIA, was selected by the Division to go to Nicosia, and in close collaboration with the SIS (the British Secret Intelligence Service), draw up a plan for the overthrow of Mossadeq...
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Everyone worried about the state of contemporary politics should read this book." -Anne-Marie Slaughter "A trenchant survey from 1989, with its democratic euphoria, to the current map of autocratic striving." -David Remnick, New Yorker The world is in turmoil. From Russia and Turkey across Europe to the United States, authoritarian populists have seized power as two core components of liberal democracy-individual rights and the popular will-are increasingly at war. As the role of money in politics has soared, a system of "rights without democracy" has taken hold. Populists who rail against this say they want to return power to the people. But in practice they create something just as bad: a system of "democracy without rights." Yascha Mounk offers a clear and trenchant analysis of what ails our democracy and what it will take to get it back on track. "Democracy is going through its worst crisis since the 1930s... But what exactly is the nature of this crisis? And what is driving it? The People vs. Democracy stands out in a crowded field for the quality of its answers to these questions." -The Economist "Brilliant... As this superb book makes clear, we need both the liberal framework and the democracy, and bringing them back together is the greatest challenge of our time." -Los Angeles Times "Extraordinary...provides a clear, concise, persuasive, and insightful account of the conditions that made liberal democracy work-and how the breakdown in those conditions is the source of the current crisis of democracy around the world." -The Guardian
In this book, Paul Midford engages claims that since 9/11 Japanese
public opinion has turned sharply away from pacifism and toward
supporting normalization of Japan's military power, in which
Japanese troops would fight alongside their American counterparts
in various conflicts worldwide.
Reconciliation in Divided Societies Finding Common Ground Erin Daly and Jeremy Sarkin "Erin Daly and Jeremy Sarkin . . . offer a breath-taking "tour de force" of the theory and practice of reconciliation. Their work is integrated and interdisciplinary. It moves effortlessly from law to literature, seamlessly from philosophy to psychology, and inclusively from art to history."--"International Journal of Transitional Justice" "An invaluable contribution to our understanding of conflict and reconciliation."--"Negotiation Journal" "As nations struggling to heal wounds of civil war and atrocity turn toward the model of reconciliation, "Reconciliation in Divided Societies" takes a systematic look at the political dimensions of this international phenomenon. . . . The book shows us how this transformation happens so that we can all gain a better understanding of how, and why, reconciliation really works. It is an almost indispensable tool for those who want to engage in reconciliation"--from the foreword by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu As societies emerge from oppression, war, or genocide, their most important task is to create a civil society strong and stable enough to support democratic governance. More and more conflict-torn countries throughout the world are promoting reconciliation as central to their new social order as they move toward peace and stability. Scores of truth and reconciliation commissions are helping bring people together and heal the wounds of deeply divided societies. Since the South African transition, countries as diverse as Timor Leste, Sierra Leone, Fiji, Morocco, and Peru, among others, have placed reconciliation at the center of their reconstruction and development programs. Other efforts to promote reconciliation--including trials and governmental programs--are also becoming more prominent in transitional times. But until now there has been no real effort to understand exactly what reconciliation could mean in these different situations. What does true reconciliation entail? How can it be achieved? How can its achievement be assessed? This book digs beneath the surface to answer these questions and explain what the concepts of truth, justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation really involve in societies that are recovering from internecine strife. Erin Daly is Professor of Law at Widener University in Wilmington, Delaware, specializing in American and comparative constitutional law. She is a member of the American Society of International Law and the U.S. Association of Constitutional Law. Jeremy Sarkin is Senior Professor of Law at the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. A former acting judge in the Cape High Court, his recent books include "Carrots and Sticks: The TRC and the South African Amnesty Process" and "The Administration of Justice: Comparative Perspectives." Pennsylvania Studies in Human Rights 2006 344 pages 6 x 9 ISBN 978-0-8122-3976-8 Cloth $65.00s 42.50 ISBN 978-0-8122-2124-4 Paper $26.50s 17.50 World Rights Political Science, Anthropology Short copy: As nations struggling to heal wounds of civil war and atrocity turn toward the model of reconciliation, "Reconciliation in Divided Societies" takes a systematic look at the political dimensions of this international phenomenon.
After a year of trading colorful barbs with the American president and significant achievements in North Korea's decades-long nuclear and missile development programs, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared mission accomplished in November 2017. Though Kim's pronouncement appears premature, North Korea is on the verge of being able to strike the United States with nuclear weapons. South Korea has long been in the North Korean crosshairs but worries whether the United States would defend it if North Korea holds the American homeland at risk. The largely ceremonial summit between US president Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un, and the unpredictability of both parties, has not quelled these concerns and leaves more questions than answers for the two sides' negotiators to work out. The Korean Peninsula's security situation is an intractable conflict, raising the question, "How did we get here?" In this book, former North Korea lead foreign service officer at the US embassy in Seoul Patrick McEachern unpacks the contentious and tangled relationship between the Koreas in an approachable question-and-answer format. While North Korea is famous for its militarism and nuclear program, South Korea is best known for its economic miracle, familiar to consumers as the producer of Samsung smartphones, Hyundai cars, and even K-pop music and K-beauty. Why have the two Koreas developed politically and economically in such radically different ways? What are the origins of a divided Korean Peninsula? Who rules the two Koreas? How have three generations of the authoritarian Kim dictatorship shaped North Korea? What is the history of North-South relations? Why does the North Korean government develop nuclear weapons? How do powers such as Japan, China, and Russia fit into the mix? What is it like to live in North and South Korea? This book tackles these broad topics and many more to explain what everyone needs to know about South and North Korea.
In Defense of Japan provides the first complete, up-to-date, English-language account of the history, politics, and policy of Japan's strategic space development. The dual-use nature of space technologies, meaning that they cut across both market and military applications, has had two important consequences for Japan. First, Japan has developed space technologies for the market in its civilian space program that have yet to be commercially competitive. Second, faced with rising geopolitical uncertainties and in the interest of their own economics, the makers of such technologies have been critical players in the shift from the market to the military in Japan's space capabilities and policy. This book shows how the sum total of market-to-military moves across space launch vehicles, satellites and spacecraft, and emerging related technologies, already mark Japan as an advanced military space power. |
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