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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations
This book discusses the role of gender and participation within the context of budgeting and planning. Gender and participation are two very closely interconnected issues in these processes, and the author explores how these could better promote accountability and transparency. Through chapters on topics such as access to information and mechanisms for public engagement, gender responsive budgeting, and the role of women in combating corruption, the book includes examples of good practices in gender and participation from the international perspective and to what extent they could be applied in Afghanistan. Working in aid-dependent developing countries with a high level of gender inequality and corruption requires additional knowledge of issues in gender, public participation, accountability, and transparency-regardless of whether working in the public sector or in a non-governmental organization (NGO).
Latin America's proximity to the United States made the improvement of relations between the two regions imperative in the first two decades of the 20th century. William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State for Woodrow Wilson until 1915, was largely responsible for this task. Although Bryan had denounced as imperialistic his predecessors' political and economic intervention in Latin America, his own policies also had an imperialistic tone. Bryan resigned in June 1915, but his actions while in office served as the foundation for later intervention in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. This work details Bryan's attitudes toward Latin America prior to assuming the title of secretary of state, his actions while in office, and his political stance after resignation. Six topical chapters cover Bryan's policies toward Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the Panama Canal Tolls Controversy, and the Columbian Treaty. The work concludes with an analysis of Bryan's inconsistent attitude on imperialism.
Linking two defining narratives of the twentieth century, Sutton's comparative study of Hong Kong and Cyprus - where two of the empire's most effective communist parties operated - examines how British colonial policy-makers took to cultural and ideological battlegrounds to fight the anti-colonial imperialism of their communist enemies in the Cold War. The structure and intentional nature of the British colonial system grants unprecedented access to British perceptions and strategies, which sought to balance constructive socio-political investments with regressive and self-defeating repression, neither of which Britain could afford in the Cold War conflict of empires.
This is the first study of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). It provides a concise description of UNIDO's activities as an actor in the field of international industrial cooperation from the 1960's to the present day. The emergence of UNIDO as a specialized agency of the United Nations is analyzed with emphasis on legal and institutional issues, and problems related to UNIDO's efficiency and its dependence upon political consideration, especially with respect to major countries, are examined. Finally, recommendations are made for the improvement of UNIDO's industrial development activities. This work will be of interest to scholars and students in development economics, international economics, international relations, and international organizations.
The book Democratic Imperialism serves as an educated, moderate Muslim's response to the West, particularly to the United States in the ways it attempts to impose its brand of democracy on the Muslim people. Many Americans have never been exposed to this perspective, either through the news media or in personal conversations. This book poses and clearly answers a compelling question: Are Americans qualified to export or impose their brand of democracy in the Middle East? Middle Easterners were once upon a time the pioneers of knowledge, science, justice, and education in their own history and civilization. Islam even helped pave the way for the Renaissance in Europe. Farid Younos, as a scholar of not only social sciences, but also the culture of the Middle East, namely Islam, argues that democracy in the land of Islam is not functional. The deeply rooted value system and way of life of Islam calls for a different system, especially when western democracy has its own problems and has failed to bring justice for all at home. Liberal democracy as a secular system negates the role of faith in the political system of the Middle East, and this negation is the main concern for many Muslims worldwide. The question arises as to why the United States of America tries to impose its brand of political system in the Middle East while knowing that it is not a workable idea. Democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq proved to be fatal. The first objective of any political system should be to bring peace for its people. Unfortunately not only is peace in these countries an elusive idea, but also the needs of the underprivileged, the destitute and the poor are not met. This study provides an alternative approach for Muslim countries: an Islamic political system from a fresh view point. An Islamic system could be an ideal system for Muslim countries if Muslims would make an effort to not only meet the needs of their people, but also meet the needs of the international community. The purpose, presumably, of all parties, is peace in the region, and that peace is not possible if Islamic economic, social and political ideas are ignored and replaced by a manifesto of globalization.
Developing countries comprise a two-thirds majority of the membership of the World Trade Organization, with nearly 30 of these classed by the UN as being among the 48 least-developed countries in the world. In order to ensure the equitable participation of these countries in the benefits of the global trading system, the GATT Uruguay Round Agreements that created the WTO accorded special and differential treatment to developing countries. This guide covers these provisions of the WTO Agreements, with detailed information on how developing countries can benefit from special rules governing such areas as; access to developed country markets in all major commodities and services, the dispute settlement process, trade policy review, foreign direct investment, environmental and labour standards, and technical assistance. The Guide also offers the reader case studies on how some developing country members of the WTO (Uganda, India, and Cote d'Ivoire) are making progress in working with the obligations and the benefits provided to them by the WTO Agreements.
This volume addresses the topic of circular migration with regard to its multiple dimensions and human, political and civil rights implications from a global perspective. It combines theoretical and empirical studies and presents different case studies illustrating circular migration patterns and policies in different world regions. Circular migration processes - understood as the back-and-forth movement of people between countries and regions- form part of the changing nature of migration movements across the world at the beginning of the 21st century. Over the past decades, international, regional and internal migration flows have shown a quantitative increase and have changed in scope, context, origin and nature. Migration projects are every time more open-ended, multi-directional and flexible and often include some type of circularity. Instead of mere "push-pull-scenarios", people migrate for many different reasons, including personal, family, professional, academic or political ones. In the 21st century migration journeys and the reasons underlying them are multiple and more diverse than ever before.
Soviet authorities in 1987-1991 tried to encourage the union republics to use their diplomatic apparatuses, created by Stalin in 1944, to solicit foreign economic trade and aid. In many cases, union republics were able to draw upon diplomatic precedents established during the early Soviet period, or when they were independent states in the period 1918-1921. The many international contacts and ties the former union republics had established abroad helped them to promptly gain diplomatic recognition and establish diplomatic relations with many foreign states, mitigating to some degree the shock to the world order caused by the breakup of the Soviet Union.
This book provides a detailed analysis of the complicated relations between Iran and its Arab neighbours. Arab perceptions of Iran, its regional policies and role in the Arab region, have never been more complicated than today. How is one to make sense of the increasingly complex and at times tense relationship between Iran and its Arab neighbours? Given the strategic significance of this sub-region and the importance of relations between its states to international security, this edited volume systematically accounts for each Arab neighbour's perception, policies and approach towards the Islamic republic, for the first time providing a clear and detailed comparative analysis of these relationships. This book, bringing together a group of leading scholars of the region, not only provides a clear lens for the policy community through which to gauge the causes of change and the reasons for continuity in relations, but also offers an invaluable tool for scholars of the wider region and the growing community of researchers focusing on this sub-region.
This book provides a multilayered analysis of food import dependency and its impact on food security in the Caribbean region. The study analyses the main impact of trade liberalization in the Caribbean within the WTO framework and main policy mechanisms to support domestic food production in order to reduce food import dependency. Moreover, the author evaluates economic and social benefits of food self-sufficiency as a strategy aimed to improve domestic food production by increased availability of locally produced food products.
This book examines how the Cold War had a far-reaching impact on theatre by presenting a range of current scholarship on the topic from scholars from a dozen countries. They represent in turn a variety of perspectives, methodologies and theatrical genres, including not only Bertolt Brecht, Jerzy Grotowski and Peter Brook, but also Polish folk-dancing, documentary theatre and opera production. The contributions demonstrate that there was much more at stake and a much larger investment of ideological and economic capital than a simple dichotomy between East versus West or socialism versus capitalism might suggest. Culture, and theatrical culture in particular with its high degree of representational power, was recognized as an important medium in the ideological struggles that characterize this epoch. Most importantly, the volume explores how theatre can be reconceptualized in terms of transnational or even global processes which, it will be argued, were an integral part of Cold War rivalries.
This accessible introductory text provides a comprehensive and accessible account of the evolution of the Eurozone, from its beginnings in fixed exchange rate systems through to the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis. It examines why the EMU was created, what went wrong to bring about the global financial crisis, and why countries were affected so differently. It assesses the impact of monetary union both in Europe and beyond and evaluates the prospects for the Euro as an international currency. Recognising that political union has long been seen as part of monetary integration, and that Eurozone membership often impacts domestic policy, Chang widens the scope of her evaluation to include consider effects and developments that are not purely economic in scope. Using theories drawn from economics and political science, this book provides students with an up-to-date analysis of the recent reforms undertaken, grounded in a long-term perspective of the trajectory of European integration. As well as suiting upper-level undergraduate and Master's courses on European Monetary Union, this text is beneficial for students of Politics, International Relations and European Studies on more general courses to foster an understanding of the impact of the EMU on the wider functioning of the EU. The text is filled with figures, maps, timelines and other pedagogical features to ensure this topic accessible to students of all levels.
India's emergence of a great power has sensitized its regional neighbours to its growing role as a key security actor in an increasingly interdependent world. Both Australia and ASEAN now view India as a major player in the formulation and application of their own broad security agendas. This emerging trilateral compendium is particularly evident in such policy areas as maritime security, climate change, energy security, law enforcement, "good governance" and the politics of security institutions or "architectures." This book represents one of the first systematic efforts to consolidate these diverse but important concerns into an overarching framework for ascertaining and cross-comparing how these three entities are approaching these policy challenges, individually and collectively. It argues that the dynamics underlying their intensifying security relations are sufficiently important to conceptualize them as a distinct analytical framework that needs to be understood in the larger context of Asia-Pacific security politics.
This book explores the diverse consequences of Presidents Obama and Castro brokering a rapprochement between the United States and Cuba after more than half a century of estrangement. Economic, political, social, and cultural dynamics are analyzed in accessible fashion by leading experts from Cuba, the United States, Europe, and Latin America. What opportunities arise through the opening of diplomatic relations, and what issues may be obstacles to normalization? What are the implications for the Cuban economy, for its political system, and for ties with members of the Cuban diaspora? What are the implications for US relations elsewhere in Latin America? This up-to-date account addresses these and other questions about this new direction in US-Cuban relations.
Alexander L. George was one of the most productive and respected political scientistsof the late twentieth century. He and his wife, Juliette George, wrote one of the firstpsychobiographies, and Professor George went on to write seminal articles and booksfocusing on political psychology, the operational code, foreign policy decisionmaking,case study methodology, deterrence, coercive diplomacy, policy legitimacy, and bridgingthe gap between the academic and policymaking communities. This book is the firstand only one to contain examples of the works across these fields written by AlexanderGeorge and several of his collaborators. * This is a collection of Alexander L. George's works from the major fields to whichhe contributed.* There are biographical essays by his wife and co-author (Juliette L. George), daughter(Mary George Douglass), former student (Dan Caldwell), and professional colleague(Janice Gross Stein).* There are 25 photographs of Alexander L. George and his family which have notpreviously been published.
International relations at large and Africa's in particular are shaped by the actors' historical location, by what they offer economically and culturally, and by who they are socially. In international relations nations tend to deal with objective conditions as they are or as they are perceived. However, Lumumba-Kasongo demonstrates through case-studies of Liberia and Zaire/Congo that what the objective conditions are may not necessarily be what they ought to be in the national development process. The international struggle for power between the West and the East and their supportive brutal and oppressive states in the South, especially in Africa, created the extremely weak conditions that redefined international relations as the tools of domination, rather than the tools of understanding and cooperation. As Lumumba-Kasongo clarifies, Africa did not gain economically or developmentally from this struggle. An important work for scholars and researchers of contemporary Africa and international relations in general.
President Donald J. Trump's "America First" outlook has inspired both enthusiasm and condemnation among different segments of the American population. This book examines the meaning and implications of that perspective, and how the Trump Administration has implemented it-or failed to do so. Contributors, subject-matter experts with diverse points of view, place the Trump Doctrine within the succession of presidential foreign policy themes, and provide a case-by-case analysis of how it has been applied in specific regions and countries around the world. The book's aim is to provide a fair and balanced assessment, relatively rare in this period of intense partisanship and impending national election.
This volume explores the policy dynamics, economic commitments and social impacts of the fast evolving Sino-LAC relations. China's engagement with Latin America and the Caribbean has entered into an era of strategic transition. While China is committed to strengthening its economic and political ties with Latin America and the Caribbean, Latin America as a bloc is enthusiastically echoing China's endeavor by diverting their focus toward the other side of the ocean. The transitional aspect of China-LAC ties is phenomenal, and is manifested not only in the accelerating momentum of trade, investment, and loan but also in the China-CELAC Forum mechanism that maps out an institutional framework for decades beyond. While Latin America is redefined as an emerging priority to the leadership in Beijing, what are the responses from Latin America and the United States? In this sense, experts from four continents provide local answers to this global question.
Researching War provides a unique overview of varied feminist contributions to the study of war through case studies from around the world. Written by well-respected scholars, each chapter explicitly showcases the role of feminist methodological, ethical and political commitments in the research process. Designed to be useful for teaching also, the book provides insight into feminist research practices for students and scholars wanting to further their understanding what it means to study war (and other issues) from a feminist perspective. To this end, every author follows a four-part structure in the presentation of their case study: outlining a research puzzle, explaining the chosen approach, describing the findings and, finally, offering a reflection on the feminist commitments that guided the research. This book: Provides a multi-disciplinary perspective on war by drawing on disciplines such as anthropology, history, literature, peace research, postcolonial theory, queer studies, security studies, and women's studies; Showcases a multiplicity of experiences with war and violence, emphasizing everyday experiences of war and violence with accounts from around the world; Challenges stereotypical accounts of women, violence, and war by pointing to contradictions and unexpected continuities as well as unexpected findings made possible by adopting a feminist perspective; Teases out linkages between various forms of political violence (against women, but increasingly also by women); Discusses theoretical and methodological innovation in feminist research on war. This book will be essential reading for advanced students and scholars of Security Studies, Gender and Conflict, Women and War, Feminist International Relations and Research Methods.
Before it became a federation, the United States was briefly a confederation, a much looser union composed of states rather than of peoples. Unions of states to promote ecomomic well-being and to prevent war are now being revived. Mr. Lister analyzes modern confederalism, and how it is functioning in the single market of the Europen Union and how it might function if the collective security system of the United Nations could be carried out, as originally planned, by a confederal-style partnership of the world's independent states. Political scientists have traditionally classified voluntary polities as confederations, federations, or unitary states. But they have ignored the first of these classes, perhaps because Alexander Hamilton, wishing to mobilize support for the new federal constitution, discredited not only the United States Confederation but the whole class of confederations as a viable method of governance. More than 200 years later, confederation as a form of governance is still under a cloud. Yet it has been resurfacing, largely unrecognized for what it is, in the repertory of government. In the treaties of Rome and Maastricht and in the collective security system of the Charter, the European Union and the United Nations are already involved in forms of governance that are confederal in all but name. Lister's book describes confederal governance and how such unions of states differ from intergovernmental organizations on the one hand and federations on the other. Meticulously researched and carefully argued, it draws upon his five years of study of confederal unions from Ancient Greece through the 19th-century Germanic Confederation and the German Zollverein. But his book is not a history of confederations. Instead, it shows how long-term alliances sometimes evolve into unions of states and, in time, into communities of the peoples who live in those states. It also shows how the ties of confederal union have been institutionalized in modern times in the EU and how they might be institutionalized in a global collective security body.^L ^L Finally, the book stresses the urgency of moving in this direction because we shall face a very serious security problem in the next century. With the steady leakage of nuclear materials in Russia, the non-proliferation approach to controlling weapons of mass destruction appears to be breaking down. Lister argues that if and when governments are confronted with this looming problem, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, the confederal model may be the one that they will need to have updated and at their disposal.
England's capture of Canada in 1760 was the culmination of the French and Indian War and of a century and a half of conflict between Britain and France for control of the North American continent. During that long period, there were several English military efforts to evict the French, but all failed. Therefore, at the war's start, few among the English entertained serious thoughts of totally evicting France from all of Canada. Nor did the French consider such a result a serious possibility. Drawing heavily on primary sources, Brecher tells the dramatic story of why the war's outcome differed so sharply from original expectations. He does so from the vantage point of France, while demonstrating in greater depth than has been available to date the linkages between France's American policy and involvement in the Seven Years' War. Brecher provides an unprecedently full-scale analysis of the political, military, social, and economic conditions of mid-18th-century France and its North American colony, New France. That analysis also examines the direct connection between those internal conditions and the results for France of the war that ended in 1763. In doing so, Brecher assesses France's military strategy and major battles in Europe and America, as well as the diplomatic goals Versailles set for itself in the conduct of the war. Further, he describes why France concurred in leaving not only Canada, but also the vast Louisiana territory, to be divided between England and France's belated wartime ally, Bourbon Spain. Finally, Brecher explains the longer-term implications of the war for North American development and for the future of France. This is an important study for students and scholars of French and colonial American history and for the broad reading public, as well as those interested in the more recent Quebec problem.
The end of the Cold War has brought about significant changes in the political, economic, social, and cultural structure of the international system. Absent a distinct enemy and the threat of global thermonuclear war, the United States today faces a host of new security challenges that require policymakers to make difficult decisions with significant domestic and international implications. The range of conflicting goals, expectations, and capabilities demands fresh solutions to international conflicts and civil unrest, new strategies for conducting peace support operations, and the preparation of America's forces for completing operational assignments under increasingly uncertain conditions. The case studies and exercises constructed for this book examine some of the most pertinent management, leadership, and accountability issues related to U.S. national security. Each case places readers at the center of difficult decisions, illustrates more general policy dilemmas, and is designed to stimulate discussion of those issues beyond the classroom. Cases highlight dilemmas at two levels: pertaining specifically to the case and pertaining to its larger policy implications. The absence of a one-sided argument, specific policy recommendations, or "logical" conclusions, enables readers to recognize the importance of the issues at hand and their greater policy implications and to discern lessons that might apply more generally to public policy, administration, and management. Particularly useful in courses dealing with national security, international relations, public/policy administration, civil-military relations, and organizational management. An instructor's manual is available uponrequest. |
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