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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations
Diplomats representing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania continued to perform their functions even after annexation of their countries by the Soviet Union in 1940 and the subsequent elimination of their respective governments. Throughout the Cold War, certain Western nations, including the United States, continued to grant recognition to these diplomats without countries. These aging diplomats persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Baltic independence. Their brave and highly imaginative activities offer an insight into the resiliency of the human spirit, especially in support of ideals such as self-determination and human rights. McHugh and Pacy use this examination to advocate the relevance of political realism within international relations, as well as to challenge the perceived limitations imposed by political superpowers and a rigid international legal system. This book explores these issues in the context of Baltic diplomatic and political history, the letter and spirit of international law, the motivations and strategies of international relations, and the politics of the Cold War. It suggests possible guidelines for applying the lessons of this unique episode to current and future controversies in the areas of self-determination and human rights. Finally, it offers the most extensive array of biographical sketches available on leading Baltic diplomats, including many who sacrificed their lives to continue this struggle.
"Thoughtful, provocative . . . a first-rate study." "Not the least of this book's many virtues is the way in which .
. . it bridges the gap between the concern's of Du Bois's day and
those of the civil rights era." "A rich and moving account of the complex life of one of the
most influential black figures in twentieth-century America." "We need this book to remind us of the competent leadership that
we enjoyed in the past." "This work is a welcome addition to African American studies as
well as to social and cultural history..." Activist, international statesman, reluctant black leader, scholar, icon, father and husband, Ralph Bunche is one of the most complicated and fascinating figures in the history of twentieth- century America. Bunche played a central role in shaping international relations from the 1940s through the 1960s, first as chief of the Africa section of the Office of Strategic Services and then as part of the State Department group working to establish the United Nations. After moving to the U.N. as Director of Trusteeship, he became the first black Nobel Laureate in 1950 and was subsequently named Undersecretary of the U.N. For nearly a decade, he was the most celebrated contemporary African American both domestically and abroad. Today he is virtually forgotten. Charles Henry's penetrating biography counters this historical tragedy, recapturing the essence of Bunche's service to America and the world. Moreover, Henry ably demonstrates how Bunche's riseand fall as a public symbol tells us as much about America as it does about Bunche. His iconic status, like that of other prominent, mainstream black figures like Colin Powell, required a constant struggle over the relative importance of his racial identity and his national identity. Henry's biography shines as both the recovered story of a classic American, and as a case study in the racial politics of public service.
This admirable book contains fascinating autobiographical accounts, by some of Southeast Asia's most eminent scholars, concerning their struggle to find their own voices in interpreting the region to which they belong. The book should be indispensable to anyone interested in thinking about knowledge production and its politics in a postcolonial world. In the views of these scholarly Southeast Asians, we are made to see, in very personal terms, the link between the global crisis in the social sciences and the need to find remedies for it that are neither Eurocentric nor parochially anti-Western.-Professor Alexander WoodsideProfessor of Chinese and Southeast Asian HistoryUniversity of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
International organizations do not always live up to the expectations and mandates of their member countries. One of the best examples of this gap is the environmental performance of multilateral development banks, which are tasked with allocating and managing approximately half of all development assistance worldwide. In the 1980s and 1990s, the multilateral development banks came under severe criticism for financing projects that caused extensive deforestation, polluted large urban areas, displaced millions of people, and destroyed valuable natural resources. In response to significant and public failures, member countries established or strengthened administrative procedures, citizen complaint mechanisms, project evaluation, and strategic planning processes. All of these reforms intended to close the gap between the mandates and performance of the multilateral development banks by shaping the way projects are approved. Giving Aid Effectively provides a systematic examination of whether these efforts have succeeded in aligning allocation decisions with performance. Mark T. Buntaine argues that the most important way to give aid effectively is selectivity - moving towards projects with a record of success and away from projects with a record of failure for individual recipient countries. This book shows that under certain circumstances, the control mechanisms established to close the gap between mandate and performance have achieved selectivity. Member countries prompt the multilateral development banks to give aid more effectively when they generate information about the outcomes of past operations and use that information to make less successful projects harder to approve or more successful projects easier to approve. This argument is substantiated with the most extensive analysis of evaluations across four multilateral development banks ever completed, together with in-depth case studies and dozens of interviews. More generally, Giving Aid Effectively demonstrates that member countries have a number of mechanisms that allow them to manage international organizations for results.
This book discusses the lack of religious understanding in US foreign policy, examining why the US chooses to avoid the religious aspects of international affairs. "Politics in a Religious World" examines why US diplomacy often misunderstands, if not ignores, the role of religion in international conflicts. After the Cold War, it became evident that religion was a key factor in many conflicts, including Bosnia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. However, the US failed to correctly appreciate this role, for example predicting the failure of the Iranian theocrats in 1979. Today, most of the security and foreign relations challenges faced by the US are infused with religious factors, from its relations with Iran to the Iraq war and jihadist terrorists. Religion, however, can also play a transnational role when it comes to human rights, conflict resolution, and political mobilization. Written by an expert in the field, the book analyzes why the US deliberately avoids the religious dimension of international affairs and proposes a comprehensive approach to a religiously literate US foreign policy. "Politics in a Religious World" addresses a needed area and will appeal to anyone studying US foreign policy as well as the interaction of religion and international affairs.
In this groundbreaking study, international relations scholar Hicham Tohme offers a critique of current academic, scholarly, and public understandings of Russia's geostrategic outlook through the lens of the ongoing Syrian crisis. This critique is based on a reassessment of four key concepts that shape our knowledge of Russia's foreign policy. First, the Westphalian state system is an inadequate a point of reference when applied to a country that still perceives itself and behaves as an empire. Second, justifying aggressive foreign policy as a counterweight to a perceived deficiency in the legitimacy of Russian President Vladimir Putin's leadership oversimplifies Russian political culture and public values, which do not overlap with Western norms and institutions. Third, analysis of Russian foreign policy, as well as of Russia's global role, remains restricted to what can be best described as a 'post-Cold War framework', a static image of global history for the past thirty years. Finally, most geopolitical and foreign affairs analyses focus on diplomatic and foreign policy rhetoric, rather than foreign policy praxis, as the primary data on which to draw conclusions. Offering an alternate explanation, this study examines Russia's intervention in the Syrian crisis to reveal practices that have come to characterize its global strategy and outlook for the past decade. As such, Russian policy in Syria will be presented as part of a praxis that can describe many facets of Russian global disposition. This clearly places geopolitical practices, not rhetoric, at the heart of the analysis. Further, this book relies on the concept of habitus to explain how these practices inhere in a long tradition of Russian behavior, advancing the notion that they must be understood as part of a historical continuum of Russia's political culture, mainly when it comes to its perception of its neighbors. By adopting a non-Westphalian framework and escaping the epistemological and methodological foundations of traditional foreign policy analysis, this book seeks to answer two key questions: How can we best describe Russia's geostrategic predispositions? And how can we understand Russia's involvement in the Syrian crisis in light of this analysis?
More than ever before, ethnic struggle finds expression in the growing incidence and scale of displaced persons and refugee flows, as well as in exacerbated levels of ethnic minority abuse and involuntary assimilation. Demographic and political sources of instability in multi-ethnic societies assure the continuing significance of ethnic strife and the potential for intrastate ethnic violence far into the next millennium. While not all disagreements between ethnic groups can be expected to escalate into violence, more than a few have produced intractable and destructive conflicts, and one or more of these conflicts could ultimately reach levels that overwhelm international resources and capabilities. Carment and Harvey examine how regional and international security organizations can prevent destructive ethnic conflict and manage cases in which violence already is at hand. First they develop a conceptual framework for advancing basic research on the prevention and management of intrastate ethnic violence. They evaluate theoretical knowledge about the nature of ethnic conflict, using case material and quantitative assessments, and they apply these assumptions against recent instances of conflict management through an in-depth study of NATO's involvement in Kosovo and Bosnia. This book serves as an important research tool for students, scholars, and policy makers involved with ethnic conflict and international relations.
This book explores the revival under Edward VII of the ceremonial state visit by British monarchs, showing the impact and importance of active royal diplomacy during his reign. Using the Royal Archives, memoirs and newspapers, it reveals the contribution made by the use of ceremony and public display to popular appreciation of the monarchy.
From the mid-19th century to the early Cold War, the United States has a long history with China, and that interaction has not always been positive or productive. This brief history of foreign intervention in China, viewed through the experiences of the United States Marines, examines how the occupying powers dealt with a fellow sovereign nation. In many cases this involved the partition or outright absorption of Chinese territory through naked aggression. Clark contends that, considering the past two centuries, the Chinese have good reason to distrust all foreigners, and he urges the pursuit of a badly needed rapprochement. This is, however, also the story of the evolution of the Marine Corps as a separate service. Although an occupying force, the Marines did make considerable efforts to earn the friendship of the Chinese people. Always on the brink of extinction due to budgetary cuts and the enmity of the army and navy, the Marines managed to perform an onerous and difficult duty in a foreign land. With a resurgent China constantly testing the United States, a fellow Pacific Rim nation, every policymaker should be well aware of the often difficult history that we share and the mistakes that have been made in the past.
From its emergence out of the ashes of World War II through to the economic and political challenges of today, Austria has embodied many of the contradictions of recent European history. Written by one of the nation's leading historians, this account of postwar Austria explores the tensions that have defined it for over seven decades, whether in its overlapping policies of engagement and isolationism, its grandiose visions and persistent sense of inferiority, or its position as a model social democracy that has suffered recurrent bouts of xenophobic nationalism. This newly revised edition also addresses the major developments since 2005, including a resurgent far right, economic instability, and the potential fracturing of the European Union.
Garret deals with the issue of humanitarian intervention, of which the recent Kosovo conflict provides a prime example. Even though the writing of this book was completed before NATO began its intervention on behalf of the Kosovars, the book provides a valuable background for assessing the Kosovo issue--it lays out the history of previous humanitarian interventions and analyzes the controversies surrounding them. Garret provides a sophisticated framework by which such interventions can be evaluated both morally and pragmatically. His book offers some particularly relevant material on the American role in humanitarian interventions. This book is valuable for those who wish to make sense of the pros and cons of humanitarian efforts in international hot spots, like Kosovo. After an analysis of the legal and philosophical issues bearing on the idea of humanitarian intervention, defined as the use of force by one or more states to remedy severe human rights abuses in a particular country--this study focuses upon the moral duties that individual members of the international community have toward the welfare of others. Recent events have indicated that humanitarian intervention will likely play a larger role in international relations in the future. Examples in the contemporary period include Kosovo Somalia, Liberia, Haiti, the Kurds in Iraq, Uganda, and East Pakistan. This book emphasizes the role of the United States in humanitarian intervention and argues that increased American involvement is essential. Garrett suggests that the American people as a whole may be more prepared to see the United States take an active role in humanitarian intervention than are certain media and government elites. Strong national leadership that stresses the moral duty of the United States will be necessary to tap this latent altruism in order to contribute to higher standards of international human rights. Individual topics include assessment criteria for the moral legitimacy of intervention, unilateral versus multilateral efforts, and factors that appear to persuade or dissuade states from participating in such intervention. This volume focuses on certain themes and patterns in humanitarian intervention, which are then illustrated by using historical data taken from a variety of different examples.
Why do states similar in size, resources and capabilities significantly differ in their basic orientations and actions across major domains in foreign policy, security and defense? This book addresses this important question by analyzing the major differences between the foreign policies of France and Germany over extended periods of time.
This volume examines cooperation between the United States and Europe on a range of global issues. With the Soviet threat no longer a unifying factor, the transatlantic partners have sought a new basis for acting together in the post-Cold War era. The conditions and strategies that determine the success or failure of cooperation in areas such as restructuring relations with the East countering the threat of weapons proliferation dealing with so called 'rogue' states, and managing the global economy are explored.
This book is an effort by two naval experts, one a retired Russian Naval officer, the other an American naval arms control analyst, to look at the future relationship of the world's two greatest navies following the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union. For the first time in English, readers are provided with a detailed examination of the sweeping changes in the strategy, doctrine, operations and size of both the U.S. and Russian navies in the last few years. The often frightening naval confrontations of the Cold War era have declined dramatically (but not entirely). The first tentative steps are outlined. The book offers a series of specific proposals to expand the current level of cooperation between the U.S. and Russian navies and even envisions a "strategic partnership" in the long term.
Mention the word Europe in today's society and you are greeted with a range of responses, from impassioned debate, to scepticism and outright hostility. Yet long before the emergence of the modern European Union, the concept of Europe played a vital role in the creation of national identity. This book considers the wealth of contemporary and historical attitudes towards Europe and how these vary both within and between nation-states. Why are some countries 'Europhiles' whilst others are 'Europhobic'? How has Europe alternately been perceived as a threat to local culture and identity or as the core of nation-building? Why are individual responses to Europe so diverse? Comparing and contrasting experiences from twelve very different countries, the authors explore the multitude of ways in which established national discourses are reconciled with an emerging identity within the EU. In doing so, this book makes an important contribution to what has proved to be one of the most controversial and heated debates of our time.
Rudolf Kjellen, regularly referred to as "the father of geopolitics," developed in the first decade of the twentieth century an analytical model for calculating the capabilities of great-power states and promoting their interests in the international arena. It was an ambitious intellectual project that sought to bring politics into the sphere of social science. Bringing together experts on Kjellen from across the disciplines, Territory, State and Nation explores the century-long international impact, analytical model, and historical theories of a figure immensely influential in his time who is curiously little-known today.
Despite the sustained scholarly attention that the United Nations and international NGOs have received in the twenty-first century, they still remain under-researched from a management studies perspective. This volume brings together rich analyses of these organizations' functioning, arguing that they are best understood as intermediaries between international decision-making and funding bodies in the developed world and initiatives that take place on the ground, primarily in the Global South. Based on current management research, this follow-up to Rethinking International Organizations (Berghahn, 2002) provides a wealth of both empirical and theoretical insights, along with practical recommendations how these organizations can function more effectively.
Two men from Connecticut, each embarked on a dangerous mission, slipped onto Long Island in September 1776. Only a few weeks earlier, British forces had routed the Continental Army and taken control of New York City. The future of the infant American republic, barely two months old, looked bleak. One of the men, a soldier disguised as a schoolmaster, made his way to the British fortifications on Manhattan and began furtively taking notes and making sketches to bring back to the beleaguered American general, George Washington. The second visitor had quite different plans. He had come to Long Island to accept a captain's commission in a loyalist regiment, an undertaking that obligated him to return to Connecticut and recruit more farmers to join the King's forces. As events turned out, neither man completed his mission. Instead, each met his death at the end of a hangman's rope, one executed as a spy for the American cause and the other as a traitor to it. In this book, Virginia Anderson traces the lives of these two men, Nathan Hale and Moses Dunbar, to explore how middle-class men made decisions on a daily basis amidst the uncertainties of war that determined not just their own fates but also the ways in which they have been remembered or forgotten in history. Hale uttered a line that has become famous ("I only regret, that I have but one life to lose for my country") and, after being captured and executed as a spy by the British, and the Americans winning the war, has been memorialized as a martyr to the Revolutionary cause. His life is neatly contrasted with Dunbar, a Loyalist who was captured and sentenced to death by the Connecticut Assembly. This braided narrative, intertwining the lives of Hale and Dunbar, offers a poignant snapshot of the political loyalties men forge in momentous times, how their families shaped and reacted to those decisions, and how difficult it is to judge individuals' decisionmaking in wartime without the benefit of hindsight, when the outcome is dependent on complex factors. This book bridges"great man" biographies about the American Revolution and the "bottom up" social histories of common men, and the histories of patriots and loyalists. Its accessible style makes it appropriate for anyone interested in Revolutionary America.
Recent transatlantic relations have been plagued by a seemingly endless series of disputes over trade and other economic and political interests. Some of these disputes have been amongst the most prominent of the WTO era: the Bananas Case, the Beef Hormones Case and the furore over the Helms-Burton Act. This book analyses the sources of transatlantic disputes, and the means employed to prevent and settle such disputes both bilaterally and through the multilateral dispute settlement mechanism of the of the WTO, and identifies promising areas for reform.
This volume honors the lifetime achievements of the distinguished activist and scholar Elise Boulding (1920-2010) on the occasion of her 95th birthday. Known as the "matriarch" of the twentieth century peace research movement, she made significant contributions in the fields of peace education, future studies, feminism, and sociology of the family, and as a prominent leader in the peace movement and the Society of Friends. She taught at the University of Colorado, Boulder from 1967 to 1978 and at Dartmouth College from 1978 to 1985, and was instrumental in the development of peace studies programs at both institutions. She was a co-founder of the International Peace Research Association (1964), the Consortium on Peace Research Education and Development (1970), and various peace and women's issues-related committees and working groups of the American Sociological Association and International Sociological Association.
'Literally impossible to put down' New York Times Book Review Gordon Thomas has a grasp of history... this is one of the few books to have captured the true nature of the Israeli Government and the thorough process of the Israeli power elite. Ari Ben-Menashe, Former Adviser on Intelligence to the Israeli Government Created in 1951 to ensure an embattled Israel' s future, the Mossad has been responsible for the most audacious and thrilling feats of espionage, counterterrorism and assassination ever ventured. Gideon' s Spies has been created from closed-door interviews with Mossad agents, informants and spymasters, and drawing from classified documentsand top-secret sources, revealing previously untold truths about the Israeli intelligence agency. Bang-up-to-date, this new paperback edition of this best-selling book includes startling new information on subjects ranging from Weapons of Mass Destruction, international terrorism, North Korea' s bird-flu war games and ' ethnic bombs' . The riveting text is supported by glossaries, appendices and shows a Mossad as it has historically been: brilliant, ruthless, flawed but ultimately fascinating.
Recent developments in both the EU and the global legal order call for a reassessment of the role of international law within the European Union. "International Law as Law of the European Union" explores how, and to what extent, international law still forms part of, and plays a role in, the current legal order of the European Union. Recent case law of the European Court of Justice prompted both scholars and practitioners to reconsider the relationship between EU law and international law. This volume reveals the practical development and consequences of this relationship, and places it in a conceptual framework by pointing to key arguments in the current debate. "International Law as Law of the European Union" thus forms an essential guide for academics, students and practitioners interested in the impact of new case law and conceptual thinking on the relationship between EU and international law. |
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