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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations > International institutions > General
An assessment of the prospects for building down the NATO/Warsaw Pact military confrontation in Europe by negotiated and unilateral measures. The book also gives a far-sighted view of an organization of defence in Europe that will be set up to replace the existing security organizations.
The United Nations is in a time of major crisis in the history of the organization. The product of many leading scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, this work examines whether out of the crisis of mulitlateralism engulfing the organization in the late 1980s there could arise a renewed and strengthened global body. Pursuing the theme of the dynamics of international cooperation, thirteen authors look at three principal issue-areas: the principal UN organs, leading economic subjects, and leading social subjects. Two distinguished American scholars provide concluding commentaries. Running throughout the book is an emphasis on the economic dimension to international politics.
Out of the social and economic turmoil of Europe in the 1930s, the Popular Front emerged as the spearhead of the Left's bid to stop Fascism in its tracks. Fifty years on from the birth of the Popular Front, this edited collection assesses the impact of the idea of bourgeois-proletarian alliance on the European Left as a whole. It also examines the fate of the Popular Front governments, both in France, which remained nominally "at peace", and in Spain, where the bitter strife over social and economic reform erupted into open civil war. Helen Graham is co-author of "The French and Spanish Popular Fronts: Comparative Perspectives" and Paul Preston is author of "The Coming of the Spanish Civil War, "The Spanish Civil War" and co-author of "Spain, the EEC and NATO".
A study of the relationship between the United Kingdom and the United Nations. Topics covered include the UK's involvement in the United Nations peace-keeping forces and co-operation and confrontation between the UK and the UN over the subject of decolonisation.
This study of the US relations with the ILO, IAEA and UNESCO examines three cases in which American sensitivity to politicization has brought about a toughening response of financial sanctions, boycott and, in the cases of the ILO and UNESCO, withdrawal from the agencies in question.
A review of the Commonwealth Secretariat's organization, resources and performance together with an exploration of the role of the Secretary-General and a discussion of the problems of financial stringency and political strain over South Africa. It is aimed at specialists and general readers.
After World War II the United Nations set up a number of special conferences to deal with new problems in international diplomacy which had arisen. This looks at the significance of these conferences and the implications of the changes for the effectiveness of the United Nations framework.
A review of the full range of recent official and non-official schemes for improving NATO's conventional posture, from exploitation of emerging technologies to non-provocative defences, in the light of prevailing military, political, economic and demographic trends.
From the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations to the NATO International Staff and the European External Action Service, international bureaucrats make decisions that affect life and death. In carrying out their functions, these officials not only facilitate the work of the member states, but also pursue their own distinct agendas. This book analyzes how states seek to control secretariats when it comes to military operations by international organizations. It introduces an innovative theoretical framework that identifies different types of control mechanisms. The book presents six empirical chapters on the UN, NATO, and EU secretariats. It provides new data from a unique dataset and in-depth interviews. It shows that member states employ a wide range of control mechanisms to reduce the potential loss of influence. They frequently forfeit the gains of delegation to avoid becoming dependent on the work of secretariats. Yet while states invest heavily in control, this book also argues that they cannot benefit from the services of secretariats and keep full control over outcomes in international organizations. In their delegation and control decisions, states face trade-offs and have to weigh different cost categories: the costs of policy, administrative capacity, and agency loss. This book will be of interest to scholars, postgraduates, and officials in international organizations and national governments, dealing with questions of international political economy, security studies, and military affairs.
This is the second volume of the first full-scale history of the United Nations. This volume deals with a period when the organization was involved with major crises over Suez, Hungary, Lebanon and India, the Congo, the Cuba Missile crisis and armed conflicts in West Irian, Yeman, Cyprus, Kashmir and the Dominican Republic. It covers the first four UN peace-keeping operations: in Sinai, the Congo, West Irian and Cyprus.
This book presents a challenge to the discipline of international relations (IR) to rethink itself, in the light of both its own modern origins, and the two centuries of world history that have shaped it. By tracking the development of thinking about IR, and the practice of world politics, this book shows how they relate to each other across five time periods from nineteenth-century colonialism, through two world wars, the Cold War and decolonization, to twenty-first-century globalization. It gives equal weight to both the neglected voices and histories of the Global South, and the traditionally dominant perspectives of the West, showing how they have moved from nearly complete separation to the beginnings of significant integration. The authors argue that IR needs to continue this globalizing movement if it is to cope with the rapidly emerging post-Western world order, with its more diffuse distribution of wealth, power and cultural authority.
What role should international trade rules and the World Trade Organization (WTO) play in the protection of the environment? While many environmentalists argue that trade rules and procedures must be made more "green," many trade proponents fear that the international trading system will be undermined by extreme demands of environmentalists. In this essay, Gary Sampson scrutinizes these contending views and assesses the effects of trade liberalization on the environment; the role of the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism; the potential impact of WTO rules, including those dealing with production processes; and the relationship that should exist between the WTO and specific multilateral environmental agreements. In his discussion of these issues, Sampson puts forward a priority agenda for trade and environmental ministers and proposes ways to enhance the WTO's environmental protection role and strengthen the trading system at the same time.
The establishment of the IBSA as one of the principal platforms of South-South cooperation is one of the most notable developments in international politics during the first decade of the twenty-first century. While the concept is now frequently referred to in discussions about the Global South, there has not yet been a comprehensive and scholarly analysis of the history of the IBSA grouping and its impact on global order. This book: Offers a definitive reference history of the IBSA grouping (India, Brazil and South Africa) - a comprehensive, fact-focused narrative and analytical account from its inception as an ad hoc meeting in 2003 to the political grouping it is today. Situates the IBSA grouping in the wider context of South-South cooperation and the global shift of power away from the United States and Europe towards powers such as Brazil, India and South Africa. Provides an outlook and critically assesses what the IBSA grouping means for global order in the twenty-first century. Offering the first full-length and detailed treatment of the IBSA, this work will be of great interest to students and scholars of International organizations, international relations and the global south.
Errors in crisis management operations can have deadly consequences. Some international organizations take steps to reform, whereas other organizations tend to repeat the same errors. As budget cuts have led to increased turnover in personnel, how is it that international organizations have maintained any knowledge about past errors? This book introduces an argument for how and why international organizations develop institutional memory of strategic errors. As Heidi Hardt shows, formal learning processes - such as lessons learned offices and databases - can ironically deter elite officials from using the processes to share their relevant knowledge. Elites have few professional incentives to report observed strategic errors. As a result, most memory-building occurs behind the scenes via informal processes. These informal processes include elites' use of transnational interpersonal networks, private documentation, and conversations during crisis management exercises. Such processes ensure that institutional memory develops, but they do so at a price: an organization's memory is vulnerable to knowledge loss if even one critical elite chooses to retire. Hardt tests her argument through extensive, original field research inside one of the world's largest crisis management organizations - the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). She conducted interviews and a survey experiment with 120 NATO elites, including almost all NATO ambassadors and military representatives, all assistant secretary generals, and civilian and military leaders engaged in the decision-making and planning of operations. Her findings provide insights into NATO's institutional memory concerning three cases of crisis management in Afghanistan, Libya, and Ukraine. Ultimately, this book argues that formal learning processes alone are insufficient for an organization to capture knowledge, learn and change.
Fully revised and updated, the second edition of The African Union continues to offer the most comprehensive overview of the work of the African Union (AU), with special emphasis on its capacity to meet the challenges of building and sustaining governance institutions and security mechanisms. This new edition: Re-examines the African Union at the historic moment of the golden jubilee of the OAU, its predecessor. It examines the AU's efforts in its first decade, points out some of the organization's weaknesses, and posits options for addressing more effectively the challenges of peace, security, and governance in coming years. Critically reviews several arrangements and initiatives, including the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM). Analyses performance of key institutions and programs of the AU, including the Commission, the Executive Council, the Assembly, and the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) as well as the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Discusses how far instability and insecurity on the continent are consequences of bad governance and the lack of strategic leadership. Considers how the absence of a clearly articulated ideology may undermine the implementation of the AU Agenda. In addition to offering revised and updated chapters throughout, this edition includes one new chapter, which critically discusses the AU's new international partnerships. With an emphasis on the current work of the AU and a view to the future of the organization, this book is essential reading for students and scholars researching African Politics and international organizations.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has a reputation as one of the worst human rights situations in the world. This book utilizes a unique international law perspective to examine the actions and inactions of North Korea with regard to international security and human rights. Adopting political, military, historical and legal perspectives, the book explores how the two issues of nuclear weapons and the human rights abuses in North Korea are interconnected, and why the international community should apply the same international law framework to find a solution for both. Drawing on eyewitness accounts, such as refugee and defector testimony, Morse Tan offers a real-life story of North Korea that covers the pertinent law, and constructive approaches of its regime. Tan examines the specific objectives and actions of the North Korean government, and measures these according to international legal obligations such as applicable treaty law, jus cogens norms, and customary international law. The book concludes by offering solutions for dealing with international security surrounding the Korean Peninsula, and forwards a proposal for the creation of a tribunal to prosecute those at the top of the regime for international crimes and human rights abuses. As a project exploring the extremes of international law violation, this book will be of great interest and use to readers interested in the history, and political and legal implications of the strategies employed by the North Korea government.
A new edition of a dictionary of international organisations, last published in 1992, which provides an unbiased review of over 200 organisations currently in existence, with membership charts for the UN, specialised agencies and regional institutions, and a table of foundation dates.
International Humanitarian NGOs and State Relations: Politics, Principles and Identity examines the often discordant relationship between states and international non-governmental organisations working in the humanitarian sector. INGOs aiming to provide assistance to populations suffering from the consequences of conflicts and other human-made disasters work in the midst of very politically sensitive local dynamics. The involvement of these non-political international actors can be seen as a threat to states that see civil war as a state of exception where it is the government's prerogative to act outside 'normal' legal or moral boundaries. Drawing on first-hand experience of humanitarian operations in contexts of civil war, this book explores how the relationship works in practice and how often clashing priorities can be mediated. Using case studies of civil conflicts in Sri Lanka, Darfur, Ethiopia and Chechnya, this practice-based book brings together key issues of politics, principles and identity to build a 'negotiation structure' for analysing and understanding the relationship. The book goes on to outline a research and policy development agenda for INGOs to better adapt politically to working with states. International Humanitarian NGOs and State Relations will be a key resource for professionals and policy makers working within international humanitarian and development operations, as well as for academics and students within humanitarian and development studies who want to understand the relationship between states and humanitarian and multi-mandate organisations.
When is it permissible to move an issue out of normal politics and treat it as a security issue? How should the security measures be conducted? When and how should the securitization be reversed? Floyd offers answers to these questions by combining security studies' influential securitization theory with philosophy's long-standing just war tradition, creating a major new approach to the ethics of security: 'Just Securitization Theory'. Of interest to anyone concerned with ethics and security, Floyd's innovative approach enables scholars to normatively evaluate past and present securitizations, equips practitioners to make informed judgements on what they ought to do in relevant situations, and empowers the public to hold relevant actors accountable for how they view security.
This book critically examines the possible dilution of the neutrality principle of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in internal armed conflicts. It begins with the proposition that the intervention of ICRC in internal armed conflicts led to compromises in neutrality, and questioned the autonomy and independence of the organization. The book also argues that the field operations of the international humanitarian organizations during internal armed conflicts are dependent on the authority exercised by the state in whose territory the conflict persists. The ICRC's involvement in Sri Lanka and Sudan provides empirical support to validate these propositions and arguments. The cases also show that for the ICRC, it is hard to be neutral and impartial in situations of internal armed conflicts and such conflicts present formidable challenges to maintain its organization autonomy as well. The larger purpose of the book is to contribute to the policy re/formulation of the international humanitarian organizations in internal armed conflict, the most significant challenge in the field at present.
The field of peacemaking is in turbulent change. There are more peacemaking actors than before but fewer success stories, and an increasing number of violent conflicts tend to resist negotiated agreements. Tools and practices created for traditional inter- and intra-state conflicts have become ineffective and revision of old mediation practices is called for. This book examines how the private peacemaking organisations have faced this challenge. In the 21st century, private peacemakers have become a central part of peace diplomacy and have appeared as flexible actors whose innovative thinking paves the way for reconsidering and reinventing old practices of mediation. Instead of emphasizing the act of resolution, a new emphasis is given to the transformation of violence into a peace system, the complexity of conflict and the inadequateness of rational management. Furthermore, this shift has brought civic society actors from the field of reconciliation to the field of peace mediation. This new pragmatic approach under development can be called dialogic mediation.
Pan-regional constructions in the Indian Ocean are of relatively recent origin, are contested and remain relatively weak at present. Sub-regional constructions, on the other hand, have tended to be more focussed, especially in terms of security, and have generally been more successful. The principal purpose of this volume is to critically evaluate the debates surrounding these issues and to elucidate some of the main strengths and weaknesses of regionalism at both scales. The discussion begins at the pan-regional scale with an evaluation of pan-regional contestation, followed up by a chapter on the main pan-regional grouping Indian Ocean Region-Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) which was renamed Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) in 2013. Thereafter, key examples of sub-regional groupings South Asia, ASEAN, SADC and GCC are critically discussed in turn. The principal readership for this volume will be: scholars of geography, politics and international relations; students of Indian Ocean studies; regionalism experts; bureaucrats and politicians both within and outside the Indian Ocean Region who wish to gain insights into Indian Ocean matters; scholars who appreciate a view of regional relations from the inside . This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of the Indian Ocean Region."
This volume is a key text for understanding the major regional international organizations of the Middle East. Analysing the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and the Arab-Maghreb Union in a concise and accessible format, it explores their successes and failures across their full range of activities (economic, social, and political), while contextualising the reasons why many consider that these organizations have stalled. The book: - assesses the reasons why IOs in the Middle East are under-developed relative to neighbouring regional organizations; - explores their history, evolution, and structure, while considering the successes and failures of each IO; - analyses the reasons for the specific difficulties faced by each organization through the context of intra-regional relations; - develops a new framework for analysing the forces that have shaped these bodies and challenges the existing narrative that largely ignores the achievements and prospects of the organizations; - considers the likely impact of the Arab Spring upon the future development of these frequently overlooked regional international organizations. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Middle East studies, international organizations, and global governance, as well as diplomats and policymakers |
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