Refugees, Migration, and Conflicts in South Asia: Rethinking Lives, Politics, and Policy is designed to make an interdisciplinary in-depth study of refugees, migration, conflicts, and development in the South Asian context. The region of South Asia is the most populous in the world, with preexisting problems of refugees, migration, conflicts, and violence. Since their formation, most of the South Asian states have been experiencing these problems. This book attempts to critically delineate the inflow and outflow of refugees and migrants. This book also critically addresses civil wars, ethnoreligious conflicts, and political violence in the South Asian region. By depicting the socioeconomic and security aspects of migration along with human security, this book has projected the vulnerability of this region.

This Palgrave Pivot argues that if we are to understand civil conflict we need to grasp how everyday life is shaped by local conflict imaginaries. In order to examine this claim the book sets out to explore the contours of conflict imaginaries from two very different sites of conflict. Both Colombia and Indonesia have suffered from the collective trauma of political violence but in very different social, cultural and political contexts. Sketching out what they mean by a conflict imaginary, and explaining the relationship of this key concept to social imaginaries more broadly, the authors provide a historical overview of how political violence has been represented in both countries. They go on to outline the original qualitative research methods used to provide empirical evidence for the importance of conflict imaginaries, methods which allow them to explore the images and metaphors that underpin the spatial, chronological and emotional cartographies through which people make sense of political violence. With an emphasis on the construction of place-based knowledge, they consider the role of the local, the national and the global in the imagining of civil conflict, and show how film can be used to explore the imaginative worlds of social actors living alongside violence, revealing in the process the need to take seriously their hopes, fears, dreams and fantasies.

This book evaluates China's energy diplomacy across the globe and how it transcends the barriers to maintain both its security and its Chinese characteristics. How China graduated from 'self-sufficiency' to 'Go out' policy. How will China's energy security evolve within the ambit of Chinas new normal? For China, its energy security has been of primary importance, both domestically and internationally. This book explores the foreign dimension. The energy security in the Mao era was a necessity, a policy in the Deng era and a strategy in the period henceforth. The book identifies the evolution of China from a manufacturer to an investor, that is, its outbound direct investments in the energy field and the shift in its focus from traditional fuels to renewable energy sources. It goes beyond the traditional choices of energy like West Asia and Africa and explore the lesser suppliers who could have a stronger say in the future to come.

This volume presents the outcomes of qualitative research on the meaning of religion in selected CEE regions. In several case studies, we reveal some features of social perception of religion present in verbalized and institutionalized social experiences and practices. We argue these societies develop their own social model of religion, which seems to be largely based on cultural, religious, and historical schemes dating back to the Habsburg Monarchy. They locate religious identity on a continuum with civic identity. Historical diversity may be endorsed as "traditional pluralism" while equality and tolerance is considered unnecessary. Capturing contradicting images of historical and contemporary pluralism may offer new insight into the puzzle of religion and politics in the CEE region.

Starting from the observation that the European Union now possesses many of the attributes of modern political systems, Hix and Hoyland take an innovative approach to analysing, researching and teaching the EU. Using the general theories of political science to understand how the EU works, this text covers each of the main processes in the EU political system - executive, legislative and judicial politics, public opinion, interest groups and democracy, and regulatory, monetary and foreign policies - introducing the key political science tools, reviewing the relevant theories, and applying the knowledge in detailed descriptive analysis. As well as incorporating new data and the latest research, this new edition examines the consequences of the dramatic political and policy developments in the EU over the past decade. The methodology used in the text makes the political system of the EU accessible to political science students as a whole, as well as those specifically studying and researching the EU.

The winner of the 2013 Longman-History Today Book Prize is the gripping and largely untold story of the role of the intelligence services in Britain's retreat from empire. Against the background of the Cold War, and the looming spectre of Soviet-sponsored subversion in Britain's dwindling colonial possessions, the imperial intelligence service MI5 played a crucial but top secret role in passing power to newly independent national states across the globe. Mining recently declassified intelligence records, Calder Walton reveals this 'missing link' in Britain's post-war history. He sheds new light on everything from violent counter-insurgencies fought by British forces in the jungles of Malaya and Kenya, to urban warfare campaigns conducted in Palestine and the Arabian Peninsula. Drawing on a wealth of previously classified documents, as well as hitherto overlooked personal papers, this is also the first book to draw on records from the Foreign Office's secret archive at Hanslope Park, which contains some of the darkest and most shameful secrets from the last days of Britain's empire. Packed with incidents straight out of a John le Carre novel, Empire of Secrets is an exhilarating read by an exciting new voice in intelligence history.

The book is a study on planetary realism in a critical analysis of Australia in the age of the Anthropocene. It contextualises Australia in the degradation of the biosphere deeply harmful to humanity's wellbeing, accelerating the threat of nuclear war and the tensions of a declining democracy. The Anthropocene is a critical period, threatening the viability of the Australian nation-state. It involves the decarbonisation of the economy driven by domestic and foreign corporate power, and the geopolitics of world domination as a close ally of the US. Australia's militarisation for war against China must be contested in the pursuit for a green and just new deal framed in the foreign policy of reconciliation with Asia, including a fully cooperative entente with China

This combination A-Z encyclopedia and primary document collection provides an authoritative and enlightening overview of U.S. anti- and counterterrorism politics, policies, attitudes, and actions related to both foreign and domestic threats, with a special emphasis on post-9/11 events. This book provides a compelling overview of U.S. laws, policies, programs, and actions in the realms of anti- and counterterrorism, as well as comprehensive coverage of the various domestic and foreign terrorist organizations threatening America, including their leaders, ideologies, and practices. These entries are supplemented with a carefully selected collection of primary sources that track the evolution of U.S. anti- and counterterrorism policies and political debate. These documents will not only illuminate major events and turning points in America's fight against terror-both foreign and homegrown-but also help readers understand debates about the effectiveness, morality, and constitutionality of controversial policies that have either been implemented or proposed, from waterboarding to targeted assassination to indefinite incarceration at Guantanamo Bay. In addition, this resource shows how political controversies over anti- and counterterrorism strategies are spilling over into other areas of American life, from debates about privacy rights, government surveillance, and anti-Muslim actions and beliefs to arguments about whether U.S. firearms policies are a boon to terrorists. Wide-ranging encyclopedia section featuring contributions from counterterrorism scholars Primary Document collection that provides additional illumination on major events, laws, policies, and trends Authoritative and evenhanded coverage of counterterrorism threats, issues, events, laws, policies, and organizations Reader's Guide to entries by subject category

The study of foreign policy is usually concerned with the interaction of states, and thus with governance structures which emerged either with the so-called 'Westphalian system' or in the course of the 18th century: diplomacy and international law. As a result, examining foreign policy in earlier periods involves conceptual and terminological difficulties, which echo current debates on 'post-national' foreign policy actors like the European Union or global cities. This volume argues that a novel understanding of what constitutes foreign policy may offer a way out of this problem. It considers foreign policy as the outcome of processes that make some boundaries different from others, and set those that separate communities in an internal space apart from those that mark foreignness. The creation of such boundaries, which can be observed at all times, designates specific actors - which can be, but do not have to be, 'states' - as capable of engaging in foreign policy. As such boundaries are likely to be contested, they are unlikely to provide either a single or a simple distinction between 'insides' and 'outsides'. In this view, multiple layers of foreign-policy actors with different characteristics appear less as a modern development and more as a perennial aspect of foreign policy. In a broad perspective stretching from early Greek polities to present-day global cities, the volume offers a theoretical and empirical presentation of this concept by political scientists, jurists, and historians.

This book advances North Atlantic Treaty Organization (henceforth, NATO) burden analysis through a decomposition of the political, financial, social, and defense burdens members take on for the institution. The overemphasis of committing a minimum of 2% of member state Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defense spending, as a proxy indicator of alliance commitment does not properly reflect how commitments reduce risks should Article V be invoked through attack (i.e., 2% is a political & symbolic target adopted by Defense Ministers in 2006 at Riga). Considering defense burdens multi-dimensionally explains why some members overcontribute, as well as, why burden sharing negotiations cause friction among 30 diverse members with differing threats and risks. In creating a comprehensive institutional burden management model and focusing on risks to members, the book explores the weaknesses of major theories on the study and division of collective burdens and institutional assets. It argues that member risks and threats are essential to understanding how burdens are distributed across a set of overlapping institutions within NATO's structure providing its central goods. The importance of the USA, as a defense underwriter for some, affects negotiations despite its absence from research empirically; new data permit testing the argument (Kavanaugh 2014). This book contributes conceptual innovation and theoretical analysis to advance student, researcher, and policymaker understanding of burden management, strategic bargaining, and defense cooperation. The contribution is a generalizable risk management model of IO burden sharing using NATO as the case for scientific study due to its prominence.

Examines the causes and consequences of Saudi Arabia's current security policy and the domestic, regional, and international challenges the country's defense program presents to the general welfare of the Middle East. As possessor of a quarter of the world's oil reserves and host to two of the holiest cities in Islam, Saudi Arabia is an integral part of the cultural, economic, and political well-being of the Middle East. From Persian Gulf security, to Middle Eastern politics, to the international energy industry, events in this desert kingdom strongly impact the stability of the region. This comprehensive resource analyzes contemporary Saudi Arabia-its modern history, the role of Islam, and the nature of Saudi foreign relations-and reveals how these and other factors dictate and shape the country's current security policies and priorities. Middle East expert and author Mathew Gray has organized the work into six sections: the first provides an historical overview of the region from the mid-1700s to the 1980s; the second explores the Saudi political and security system; the third discusses Saudi-U.S. relations; the fourth looks at Saudi relations with the Gulf region and the wider Middle East; and the fifth considers Saudi Arabia's role in Sunni extremism and terrorism. The final chapter looks at emerging security threats for Saudi Arabia. The book includes an overview of future challenges and risks including climate change, water shortages, and problems of Saudi identity and social dispersion. Explains the role of oil in sustaining the state-society political bargain, and the impact of population on its effectiveness Links Islam and Islamic extremism to a range of influencing factors, including political pressure, demographic changes, and the role of globalization in fostering more extreme views Weaves together an analysis of politics, economics, foreign relations, and social change, showing how these all relate to and impact each other and, above all, shape Saudi Arabia's and the Middle East's security environment

The fifth in the CAIW series, this title reflects 50 years of experience of Cambridge (UK)-based World of Information, which since 1975 has followed the region's politics and economics. In the period following the Second World War, Saudi Arabia - a curious fusion of medieval theocracy, unruly dictatorship and extrovert wealth - has been called a country of 'superlatives.' The modernisation of the Kingdom's oil industry has been a smooth process: its oilfields are highly sophisticated. However, social modernisation has not kept pace. 'Reform', long a preoccupation among the Peninsula's leaders does not necessarily go hand in hand with religion.

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the French government cultivated images of sensual and sophisticated white French women in an attempt to reestablish its global image as a great nation. French publicists, journalists, and government officials working in the tourism industry began a concerted effort to improve France's international image and win valuable tourist money by promoting the beauty, sexual appeal, and general allure of French women, all while shrinking the boundaries of what was considered beautiful. Charm Offensive explores how this elevation of French femininity created problems on both sides of the equation: the pressure on French women to conform to an exacting physical standard was immense, while the inability of anyone else to access that standard, coupled with the constant prods to try, resulted in a sense of failure. Drawing on cultural figures like Air France air hostesses, tourism workers, and celebrities such as Brigitte Bardot, the book demonstrates how women were mobilized as ambassadors of French superiority. Analysing cultural and political sources simultaneously, Charm Offensive offers an innovative understanding of a tumultuous time of decolonization.

There has been little examination of the China policy of the Theodore Roosevelt administration. Works dealing with the topic fall either into brief discussions in biographies of Roosevelt, general surveys of Sino-American relations, or studies of special topics, such as the Chinese exclusion issue, which encompass a portion of the Roosevelt years. Moreover, the subject has been overshadowed somewhat by studies of problems between Japan and the United States in this era. The goal of this study is to offer a more complete examination of the American relationship with China during Roosevelt's presidency. The focus will be on the discussion of major issues and concerns in the relationship of the two nations from the time Roosevelt took office until he left, something that this book does for the first time. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on creating a more complete picture of Teddy Roosevelt and China relations, especially in regard to his and his advisers' perceptual framework of that region and its impact upon the making of China policy. The goal of this study is to begin that process. Special attention is paid to the question of how Roosevelt and the members of his administration viewed China, as it is believed that their viewpoints, which were prejudicial, were very instrumental in how they chose to deal with China and the question of the Open Door. The emphasis on the role of stereotyping gives the book a particularly unique point of view. Readers will be made aware of the difficulties of making foreign policy under challenging conditions, but also of how the attitudes and perceptions of policymakers can shape the direction that those policies can take. A critical argument of the book is that a stereotyped perception of China and its people inhibited American policy responses toward the Chinese state in Roosevelt's Administration. While Roosevelt's attitudes regarding white supremacy have been discussed elsewhere, a fuller consideration of how his views affected the making of foreign policy, particularly China policy, is needed, especially now that Sino-American relations today are of great concern.

This book provides an in-depth look into key political dynamics that obtain in a democracy without parties, offering a window into political undercurrents increasingly in evidence throughout the Latin American region, where political parties are withering. For the past three decades, Peru has showcased a political universe populated by amateur politicians and the dominance of personalism as the main party-voter linkage form. The study peruses the post-2000 evolution of some of the key Peruvian electoral vehicles and classifies the partisan universe as a party non-system. There are several elements endogenous to personalist electoral vehicles that perpetuate partylessness, contributing to the absence of party building. The book also examines electoral dynamics in partyless settings, centrally shaped by effective electoral supply, personal brands, contingency, and iterated rounds of strategic voting calculi. Given the scarcity of information electoral vehicles provide, as well as the enormously complex political environment Peruvian citizens inhabit, personal brands provide readymade informational shortcuts that simplify the political world. The concept of "negative legitimacy environments" is furnished to capture political settings comprised of supermajorities of floating voters, pervasive negative political identities, and a generic citizen preference for newcomers and political outsiders. Such environments, increasingly present throughout Latin America, produce several deleterious effects, including high political uncertainty, incumbency disadvantage, and political time compression. Peru's "democracy without parties" fails to deliver essential democratic functions including governability, responsiveness, horizontal and vertical accountability, or democratic representation, among others.

This book explains changes to Iranian grand strategy over the past four decades, and it does so by advancing a multicausal model that unifies the three main paradigms of International Relations (IR) theory. Hence, ideas (constructivism) mediate between the structure of material capabilities (realism) and agents (liberalism) and interact with each to produce, respectively, threat perception and political preferences. Using these two explanatory factors, the author demonstrates how the Islamic Republic's grand strategy has systematically varied over time to produce a mix of outcomes that includes balancing, expansionism, bandwagoning, appeasement, engagement and retrenchment. Beyond its theoretical contribution, this book is policy-relevant in that it explains - and predicts - the external conduct of what is arguably the Middle East's most consequential actor, with implications reverberating far beyond the region. Academic in conception and rigor, the book is intended not only for specialists and practitioners but appeals to the lay reader interested in the broader Middle East/West Asia, the region's relationship with major powers, and regional conflict dynamics.

Challenging the conventional narrative that the European Union suffers from a "democratic deficit," Athanasios Psygkas argues that EU mandates have enhanced the democratic accountability of national regulatory agencies. This is because EU law has created entry points for stakeholder participation in the operation of national regulators; these avenues for public participation were formerly either not open or not institutionalized to this degree. By focusing on how the EU formally adopted procedural mandates to advance the substantive goal of creating an internal market in electronic communications, Psygkas demonstrates that EU requirements have had significant implications for the nature of administrative governance in the member states. Drawing on theoretical arguments in favor of decentralization traditionally applied to substantive policy-making, this book provides insight into regulatory processes to show how the decentralized EU structure may transform national regulatory authorities into individual loci of experimentation that might in turn develop innovative results. It thus contributes to debates about federalism, governance and public policy, as well as about deliberative and participatory democracy in the United States and Europe. This book informs current understandings of regulatory agency operations and institutional design by drawing on an original dataset of public consultations and interviews with agency officials, industry and consumer group representatives in Paris, Athens, Brussels, and London. The on-the-ground original research provides a strong foundation for the directions the case law could take and small- and larger-scale institutional reforms that balance the goals of democracy, accountability, and efficiency.