This book reads like a war-time thriller.

We hear for the first time from internationalists who secretly worked for the ANC’s armed wing, Umkhonto We Sizwe (MK), in the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid rule. They acted as couriers, provided safe houses in the neighbouring states and within South Africa, helped infiltrate combatants across borders, and smuggled tonnes of weapons into the country in the most creative of ways. Driven by a spirit of international solidarity, they were prepared to take huge risks and face danger which dogged them at every turn. At least three were captured and served long terms of imprisonment, while others were arrested and, following international pressure, deported. They reveal what motivated them as volunteers, not mercenaries, who gained nothing for their endeavours save for the self-esteem in serving a just cause.

Against such clandestine involvement, the book includes contributions from key role players in the international Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) and its public mobilisation to isolate the apartheid regime. These include worldwide campaigns like Stop the Sports Tours, boycotting South African products, and black American solidarity.

The Cuban, East German and Russian contributions outline those countries’ support for the ANC and MK. The public, global AAM campaigns provide the dimension from which internationalists who secretly served MK emerged.

This is an invaluable historic resource, explaining in highly readable style the significance of international solidarity for today’s youth in challenging times.

Challenging Western depictions, this consideration of Moscow’s post-Cold War Africa policy takes into account both African and Russian decisionmakers.

Three decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Russia has transformed from a fringe player to a resurgent great power in Africa. The October 2019 Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi highlighted the appeal of Russia’s normative agenda, the ubiquity of Russian military technology, and the breadth of Moscow’s presence on the continent. Beneath the pageantry, a darker side of Russia’s African resurgence looms large. From Libya to Madagascar, Russia has used sinister tactics to expand its influence, such as private military contractors, shadowy mining and energy deals with authoritarian regimes, and election interference campaigns.

This book presents a chronological examination of Russia’s post-Cold War foreign policy towards Africa, and outlines the factors that have enabled and impeded the growth of its influence. It pays special attention to the non-material factors behind this rising power; the domestic drivers of Russian decision-making; Moscow’s relationships with fellow external powers; and African perspectives on Russia’s geopolitical role. Samuel Ramani’s analysis cites extensively both Russian-language media and academic sources, and his own interviews with Russian and African elites. His fascinating study challenges popular depictions of Russia as an opportunistic anti-Western actor, instead emphasising Moscow’s strategic commitment to Africa and the endurance of historical memory.

A case for why regionalization, not globalization, has been the biggest economic trend of the past forty years.

The conventional wisdom about globalization is wrong. Over the past forty years as companies, money, ideas, and people went abroad, they increasingly looked regionally rather than globally. O’Neil details this transformation and the rise of three major regional hubs in Asia, Europe, and North America. Current technological, demographic, and geopolitical trends look only to deepen these regional ties. O’Neil argues that this has urgent implications for the United States.

Regionalization has enhanced economic competitiveness and prosperity in Europe and Asia. It could do the same for the United States, if only it would embrace its neighbors.

The transition from President Donald J. Trump to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as one of the most dangerous periods in American history. But as # 1 internationally bestselling author Bob Woodward and acclaimed reporter Robert Costa reveal for the first time, it was far more than just a domestic political crisis.

Woodward and Costa interviewed more than 200 people at the center of the turmoil, resulting in more than 6,000 pages of transcripts—and a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink. This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 campaign, and the Pentagon and Congress, with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened.

Peril is supplemented throughout with never-before-seen material from secret orders, transcripts of confidential calls, diaries, emails, meeting notes and other personal and government records, making for an unparalleled history. It is also the first inside look at Biden’s presidency as he faces the challenges of a lifetime: the continuing deadly pandemic and millions of Americans facing soul-crushing economic pain, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, a world rife with threats, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president.

“We have much to do in this winter of peril,” Biden declared at his inauguration, an event marked by a nerve-wracking security alert and the threat of domestic terrorism.

Peril is the extraordinary story of the end of one presidency and the beginning of another, and represents the culmination of Bob Woodward’s news-making trilogy on the Trump presidency, along with Fear and Rage. And it is the beginning of a collaboration with fellow Washington Post reporter Robert Costa that will remind readers of Woodward’s coverage, with Carl Bernstein, of President Richard M. Nixon’s final days.

Tim Marshall's global bestseller Prisoners of Geography showed how every nation's choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas and concrete. Since then, the geography hasn't changed. But the world has.

In this revelatory new book, Marshall explores ten regions that are set to shape global politics in a new age of great-power rivalry: Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Greece, Turkey, the Sahel, Ethiopia, Spain and Space. Find out why Europe's next refugee crisis is closer than it thinks as trouble brews in the Sahel; why the Middle East must look beyond oil and sand to secure its future; why the eastern Mediterranean is one of the most volatile flashpoints of the twenty-first century; and why the Earth's atmosphere is set to become the world's next battleground.

Delivered with Marshall's trademark wit and insight, this is a lucid and gripping exploration of the power of geography to shape humanity's past, present - and future.

Economics has the power to make the world a better, happier and safer place: this book shows you how.

Our world is in a mess. The challenges of climate change, inequality, hunger and a global pandemic mean our way of life seems more imperilled and society more divided than ever; but economics can help!

From parenting to organ donation, housing to anti-social behaviour, economics provides the tools we need to fix the biggest issues of today. Far from being a means to predict the stock market or enrich the elite, economics provides a lens through which we can better understand how things work, design clever solutions and create the conditions in which we can all flourish.

With a healthy dose of optimism, and packed with stories of economics in everyday situations, Erik Angner demonstrates the methods he and his fellow economists use to help improve our lives and the society in which we live. He shows us that economics can be a powerful force for good, awakening the possibility of a happier, more just and more sustainable world.

This thought-provoking book explores the concept of energy cultures as a means of understanding social and political relations and how energy injustices are created. Using Eastern Europe as an example, it examines the radical transition occurring as the region leaves behind the legacy of the Soviet Union, and the effects of the resulting power struggle between the energy cultures of Russia and the European Union. In this timely study, Michael Carnegie LaBelle applies an energy justice framework to an analysis of different national energy cultures, exposing both the domestic and international power relations that influence geopolitics in Eastern Europe. He assesses the entire energy value-chain in the region in this context, providing a radical critique of power dynamics within the energy system with the aim of fostering a just energy transition. Scholars interested in energy justice, conflict, policy and culture from across disciplines including law, politics, public policy, sociology and geography will find this book a fascinating read. It will also be useful to scholars of international relations and geopolitics for its analysis of the impact of EU energy policy on the countries examined, as well as of the relationship between the EU and Russia.

Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This innovative Research Agenda draws together discussions on the conceptualization of territory and the ways in which territory and territorial practices are intimately bound with issues of power and control. Expert contributors provide a critical assessment of key areas of scholarship on territory and territoriality across a wide range of spatial scales and with examples drawn from the global landscape. After an introduction to shifting ideas of territory, territoriality and sovereignty, the book deals with territory in its more traditional macro-scale sense at the level of the nation-state before going on to explore questions of territory, identity and belonging at a more micro-scale focusing on issues of citizenship, inclusion and exclusion. A Research Agenda for Territory and Territoriality will be a key resource for scholars and students in geopolitics and social and cultural geography, whilst also being a thought-provoking read for those interested in nations and nationalism, sovereignty, conflict, citizenship, and territory, place and locality.

The definitive story of COVID-19 and how global politics shape our health - from a world-leading expert and the pandemic's go-to science communicator

Professor Devi Sridhar has risen to prominence for her vital roles in communicating science to the public and speaking truth to power. In Preventable she highlights lessons learned from outbreaks past and present in a narrative that traces the COVID-19 pandemic - including her personal experience as a scientist - and sets out a vision for how we can better protect ourselves from the inevitable health crises to come.

In gripping and heartfelt prose, Sridhar exposes the varied realities of those affected and puts you in the room with key decision makers at crucial moments. She vibrantly conveys the twists and turns of a plot that saw: deadlier varients emerge (contrary to the predictions of social media pundits who argued it would mutate to a milder form); countries with weak health systems like Senegal and Vietnam fare better than countries like the US and UK (which were consistently ranked as the most prepared); and the quickest development of game-changing vaccines in history (and their unfair distribution)

Combining science, politics, ethics and economics, this definitive book dissects the global structures that determine our fate, and reveals the deep-seated economic and social inequalities at their heart - it will challenge, outrage and inspire.

A sweeping account of the rise and evolution of liberal internationalism in the modern era.

For two hundred years, the grand project of liberal internationalism has been to build a world order that is open, loosely rules-based, and oriented toward progressive ideas. Today this project is in crisis, threatened from the outside by illiberal challengers and from the inside by nationalist-populist movements. This timely book offers the first full account of liberal internationalism’s long journey from its nineteenth-century roots to today’s fractured political moment.

Creating an international “space” for liberal democracy, preserving rights and protections within and between countries, and balancing conflicting values such as liberty and equality, openness and social solidarity, and sovereignty and interdependence—these are the guiding aims that have propelled liberal internationalism through the upheavals of the past two centuries. G. John Ikenberry argues that in a twenty-first century marked by rising economic and security interdependence, liberal internationalism—reformed and reimagined—remains the most viable project to protect liberal democracy.

'Fascinating revelations' Max Hastings, Sunday Times 'An immensely valuable guide to a great and terrible industry' The Economist 'The book I have long been waiting for... Essential reading' Michael Klare Petroleum has always been used by humans: as an adhesive by Neanderthals, as a waterproofing agent in Noah's Ark and as a weapon during the Crusades. Its eventual extraction from the earth in vast quantities transformed light, heat and power. A Pipeline Runs Through It is a fresh, in-depth look at the social, economic, and geopolitical forces involved in our transition to the modern oil age. It tells an extraordinary origin story, from the pre-industrial history of petroleum through to large-scale production in the mid-nineteenth century and the development of a dominant, fully-fledged oil industry by the early twentieth century. This was always a story of imperialist violence, economic exploitation and environmental destruction. The near total eradication of the Native Americans of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio has barely been mentioned as a precondition for the emergence of the first oil region in the United States. The growth of Royal Dutch-Shell involved the genocidal subjugation of people of the Dutch East Indies and the exploitation of oil in the Middle East arose seamlessly out of Britain's prior political and military interventions in the region. Finally, in an entirely new analysis, the book shows how the British navy's increasingly desperate dependence on vulnerable foreign sources of oil may have been a catalytic ingredient in the outbreak of the First World War. The rise of oil has shaped the modern world, and this is the book to understand it.

Vladimir Putin's first invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, set off a global economic clash, as the West used its clout with international markets to deter and penalise the Kremlin. The battlelines of this 'war by other means' traversed a series of deep economic connections, built up during Russia's oil, gas and commodities boom: global equity and capital markets, and transnational kleptocracy. Maximilian Hess's startling book lifts the lid on Russia's response to Western sanctions, and the ensuing skirmishes in London's courts, on Swiss trading desks and in boardrooms in New Delhi. He explores how pipelines, mines, loans and crypto-markets were weaponised. This narrative sets the stage for Putin's all-out assault on Kyiv in February 2022, which turned financial, food and fuel markets into bona fide battlefields, bringing the fight into everyone's home, from Pennsylvania to Pakistan. Rather than a 'new Cold War', we are witnessing a conflict over finance, energy and capital markets. How such economic warfare turns out will determine the future of liberalism and democracy; it will also set a precedent for economic relations between the West and China, as the two diverge into rival spheres of influence and power.

The diaries of the last British Governor of Hong Kong, published on the 25th anniversary of the handover.

In June 1992 Chris Patten went to Hong Kong as the last British governor, to try to prepare it not (as other British colonies over the decades) for independence, but for handing back in 1997 to the Chinese, from whom most of its territory had been leased 99 years previously. Over the next five years he kept this diary, which describes in detail how Hong Kong was run as a British colony and what happened as the handover approached.

The book gives unprecedented insights into negotiating with the Chinese, about how the institutions of democracy in Hong Kong were (belatedly) strengthened and how Patten sought to ensure that a strong degree of self-government would continue after 1997. Unexpectedly, his opponents included not only the Chinese themselves, but some British businessmen and civil service mandarins upset by Patten's efforts, for whom political freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong seemed less important than keeping on the right side of Beijing.

The book concludes with an account of what has happened in Hong Kong since the handover, a powerful assessment of recent events and Patten's reflections on how to deal with China - then and now.

The South Caucasus is the key strategic region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and the regional powers of Iran, Turkey and Russia and is the land bridge between Asia and Europe with vital hydrocarbon routes to international markets. This volume examines the resulting geopolitical positioning of Georgia, a pivotal state and lynchpin of the region, illustrating how and why Georgia's foreign policy is 'multi-vectored', facing potential challenges from Russia, int ernal and external nationalisms, the possible break-up of the European project and EU support and uncertainty over the US commitment to the traditional liberal international order.

In her international bestseller The Bookseller of Kabul, Ã…sne Seierstad studied life in Afghanistan during the final days and after the fall of the Taliban regime. Now twenty years later, the Taliban is back in power, and Seierstad returns with a book to help us understand the present and future of Afghanistan. The fall of the western-backed government mirroring the Taliban's own swift fall two decades earlier. The West promoted ideals of democracy, gender equality and human rights. Why did these ideas not take root? How did the lives of ordinary people change across these two decades? What do the Afghan people think about their country now? Following on from The Bookseller of Kabul, Land of Many Truths tells the story of Afghanistan now. To do so, Seierstad takes us inside the live of her three main protagonists - Jamila, Bashir and Ariana - and their families, friends, foes and co-fighters. Jamila is a prominent women's rights activist; Bashi is a Taliban commander; Ariana is a law student who had one semester left when the Taliban came to power. Through their stories, we experience what has happened on the ground since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, how the first year of Taliban rule unfolded, and where this leaves Afghans such as Jamila and Bashir today, and tomorrow. 'Seierstad is masterful . . . her book is world class' Aftonbladet 'Gripping . . . Seierstad succeeds in transforming the demonised stereotype - a Taliban terrorist - into a living, comprehensible human being' Expressen 'Enthralling and heart-breaking' Dagens Noeringsliv

CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY SUNDAY TIMES AND HISTORY TODAY 'Absolutely stunning. . . a formidable achievement. A six-part historical thriller that is essential reading for both our politicians and the ordinary citizen' Kai Bird Best-selling historian Serhii Plokhy returns with an illuminating exploration of the atomic age through the history of six nuclear disasters In 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown, and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst. . . In Atoms and Ashes, acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy tells the tale of the six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Based on wide-ranging research and witness testimony, Plokhy traces the arc of each crisis, exploring in depth the confused decision-making on the ground and the panicked responses of governments to contain the crises and often cover up the scale of the catastrophe. As the world increasingly looks to renewable and alternative sources of energy, Plokhy lucidly argues that the atomic risk must be understood in explicit terms, but also that these calamities reveal a fundamental truth about our relationship with nuclear technology: that the thirst for power and energy has always trumped safety and the cost for future generations.

How did Vladimir Putin win Russians’ support for his genocidal war in Ukraine and why are so many of them willing to embrace fascism? This vivid, bottom-up narrative reveals the dark realities of youth fascism in Russia—and the darker future awaiting the country if that hold cannot be broken. Wartime Russia is drowning in fascist symbols. Zealous patriots attack journalists, opposition activists, and anyone suspected of betraying the motherland. Hordes of online trolls and sleek videos of angry young men urge citizens to join the cause. State television terrifies viewers with false tales of anti-Russian conspiracies and genocidal yearnings. Child soldiers proudly parade across Red Square. This is Russia in the 2020s: a land of performative rage and nationalist untruth, where pretence and broken promises are a way of life, and an apocalyptic mindset is seizing tomorrow’s Russians. As compelling as it is chilling, Z Generation shows how Russia has ended up here, and where its young people may be headed: a fascist generation more violent and ideological than anything the country has seen before.

The paradox of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia The Obama administration's pivot-to-Asia policy establishes an important place for Southeast Asia in U.S. foreign policy. But Washington's attention to the region has fluctuated dramatically, from the intense intervention of the cold war era to near neglect in more recent years. As a consequence, countries in Southeast Asia worry that the United States once again will become distracted by other problems and disengage from the region. This book written by an astute observer of the region and U.S. policy casts light on the sources of these anxieties. A main consideration is that it still is not clear how Southeast Asia fits into U.S. strategy for Asia and the broader world. Is the region central to U.S. policymaking, or an afterthought? Ambivalent Engagement highlights a dilemma that is becoming increasingly conspicuous and problematic. Southeast Asia continues to rely on the United States to play an active role in the region even though it is an external power. But the countries of Southeast Asia have very different views about precisely what role the United States should play. The consequences of this ambivalence will grow in importance with the expanding role of yet another outside power, China.

A Vanishing West in the Middle East covers the history of Western cooperation in the Middle East and North Africa since the end of the Cold War. Based on more than fifty interviews with diplomats and experts as well as consultations of the academic literature, it describes the operational and political frameworks through which the United States and European countries have intervened in the Arab world, and how their relations with the region have changed. Practitioner testimonies and detailed case studies illuminate U.S. successes and failures in enlisting allies for campaigns in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. This analysis goes to the heart of the American debate on “endless wars� but also questions the very concept of Western intervention in a region where the Arab Spring and subsequent uprisings have profoundly changed the geopolitical landscape. Today, whereas the United States wishes to pull back from the region, Europe understands it must become more involved. Whatever their particular motivations, both must adapt to an increasingly fragmented Middle East, influenced specifically by more assertive Chinese, Russian, Iranian, Emirati, and Turkish foreign policies.

In her international bestseller The Bookseller of Kabul, Ã…sne Seierstad studied life in Afghanistan during the final days and after the fall of the Taliban regime. Now twenty years later, the Taliban is back in power, and Seierstad returns with a book to help us understand the present and future of Afghanistan. The fall of the western-backed government mirroring the Taliban's own swift fall two decades earlier. The West promoted ideals of democracy, gender equality and human rights. Why did these ideas not take root? How did the lives of ordinary people change across these two decades? What do the Afghan people think about their country now. Following on from The Bookseller of Kabul, Land of Many Truths tells the story of Afghanistan now. To do so, Seierstad takes us inside the live of her three main protagonists - Jamila, Bashir and Ariana - and their families, friends, foes and co-fighters. Jamila is a prominent women's rights activist; Bashi is a Taliban commander; Ariana is a law student who had one semester left when the Taliban came to power. Through their stories, we experience what has happened on the ground since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, how the first year of Taliban rule unfolded, and where this leaves Afghans such as Jamila and Bashir today, and tomorrow. 'Seierstad is masterful ... her book is world class' Aftonbladet 'Gripping ... Seierstad succeeds in transforming the demonised stereotype - a Taliban terrorist - into a living, comprehensible human being' Expressen 'Enthralling and heart-breaking' Dagens Noeringsliv

It’s often said that China is in a cold war with America. The reality is far worse: the war is hot, and the body count is one-sided.

China is killing Americans and working aggressively to maximize the carnage while our leaders remain passive and, in some cases, compliant. Why?

If anyone could crack the code, it’s the renowned nonpartisan investigator Peter Schweizer. Schweizer’s previous three number one New York Times bestsellers sent shock waves through official Washington, sparking FBI investigations and congressional probes that continue to this day.

For Blood Money, Schweizer and his team of forensic investigators spent more than two years scouring a trove of restricted Chinese military documents, data-mining a mountain of American financial records, and tracking US political leaders’ investments and family businesses. Schweizer unloads bombshell after bombshell, exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s covert operations in the American drug trade, social justice movement, and medical establishment to sow chaos and decadence in the United States.

A towering achievement of investigative journalism, Blood Money is one of those rare books that makes you clearly see the world anew.

China’s Belt and Road strategy is acknowledged to be the most ambitious geopolitical initiative of the age. Covering almost seventy countries by land and sea, it will affect every element of global society, from shipping to agriculture, digital economy to tourism, politics to culture. Most importantly, it symbolises a new phase in China’s ambitions as a superpower: to remake the world economy and crown Beijing as the new centre of capitalism and globalisation. Bruno Maçães traces this extraordinary initiative’s history, highlighting its achievements to date, and its staggering complexity. He asks whether Belt and Road is about more than power projection and profit. Might it herald a new set of universal political values, to rival those of the West? Is it, in fact, the story of the century?

In his foreword to this work, Valery Giscard d'Estaing characterizes the recent changes in Central and Eastern Europe as a great victory for the values of liberal democracy and a testament to the firmness and cohesion of the Atlantic Alliance. But as Karel De Gucht and Stephan Keukeleire go on to point out, these events were neither a necessity nor an accident, as they were the consequence of many small steps and measures whose effects were incalculable at the time as well as of fundamental long-term developments. De Gucht and Keukeleire see these developments as the building blocks for Europe's future and the opportunities for choice that could allow these European nations to once again take control of their history.

Giscard d'Estaing's foreword and the authors' preface set the stage for a complete discussion of the myriad elements that have gone into the European upheaval. The work then explores a wide range of events and topics that had and will further have an impact on the formation of the new Europe, including growing doubts about the United States and nuclear deterrence, French independence, the pressure for reform in the Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, and the growing role of the European Community. Also discussed at length is the nation of Germany, its view of its own identity, the change in the German perception of security, and the German contribution to the European upheaval. The authors conclude their book with a policy-oriented blueprint for a future European security structure. This timely study will be an essential resource for students and scholars of European studies and political science, as well as an important addition to both academic and public libraries.