Governance and Nationbuilding describes how aid donors have attempted to improve the performance of government in developing countries and countries in crisis. Kate Jenkins and William Plowden review the widespread lack of success, tracing the history of international government intervention, the roles of donors and recipient countries, the ways in which expert advice and support have been provided, and the donors' own evaluation of their work. The authors outline and analyse the many obstacles to success, highlighting how the lack of effective learning from experience has led to repeated failures to improve the quality of government. The authors draw on the donors' own assessments of the issues and on their own experience in the British Government and many other countries. They recommend a new approach to improving government: much less grandiose and more modest expectations on the part of the donors, and a new and enhanced role for recipient countries. This is a hard-hitting analysis of the problems and potential proposals for change by two experts in the field. Both have not only advised governments in many different countries but also have first-hand experience of working at a senior level in British Government. The aid community worldwide, academics and students of international politics, international relations and public policy, along with officials and politicians outside the aid community will all find this fascinating book of great value. It will also appeal to journalists and commentators

The history of oil is a chapter in the story of Europe's geopolitical decline in the twentieth century. During the era of the two world wars, a lack of oil constrained Britain and Germany from exerting their considerable economic and military power independently. Both nations' efforts to restore the independence they had enjoyed during the Age of Coal backfired by inducing strategic over-extension, which served only to hasten their demise as great powers. Having fought World War I with oil imported from the United States, Britain was determined to avoid relying upon another great power for its energy needs ever again. Even before the Great War had ended, Whitehall implemented a strategy of developing alternative sources of oil under British control. Britain's key supplier would be the Middle East - already a region of vital importance to the British Empire - whose oil potential was still unproven. As it turned out, there was plenty of oil in the Middle East, but Italian hostility after 1935 threatened transit through the Mediterranean. A shortage of tankers ruled out re-routing shipments around Africa, forcing Britain to import oil from US-controlled sources in the Western Hemisphere and depleting its foreign exchange reserves. Even as war loomed in 1939, therefore, Britain's quest for independence from the United States had failed. Germany was in an even worse position than Britain. It could not import oil from overseas in wartime due to the threat of blockade, while accumulating large stockpiles was impossible because of the economic and financial costs. The Third Reich went to war dependent on petroleum synthesized from coal, domestic crude oil, and overland imports, primarily from Romania. German leaders were confident, however, that they had enough oil to fight a series of short campaigns that would deliver to them the mastery of Europe. This plan derailed following the victory over France, when Britain continued to fight. This left Germany responsible for Europe's oil requirements while cut off from world markets. A looming energy crisis in Axis Europe, the absence of strategic alternatives, and ideological imperatives all compelled Germany in June 1941 to invade the Soviet Union and fulfill the Third Reich's ultimate ambition of becoming a world power - a decision that ultimately sealed its fate.

In this monograph, Aiste Mickonyte examines the compliance of the European anti-cartel enforcement procedure with the presumption of innocence under Article 6(2) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The author maintains that the pursuit of manifestly severe punishment with insistence of the European Commission on administrative-level procedural safeguards is inconsistent with the robust standards of protection under the Convention. Arguing that EU anti-cartel procedure is criminal within the meaning of the Convention, this work considers this procedure in light of the core elements of the presumption of innocence such as the burden of proof and the principle of fault. The author zeroes in on the de facto automatic liability of parental companies for offences committed by their subsidiaries.

Securing the World Economy explains how efforts to support global capitalism became a core objective of the League of Nations. Based on new research drawn together from archives on three continents, it explores how the world's first ever inter-governmental organization sought to understand and shape the powerful forces that influenced the global economy, and the prospects for peace. It traces how the League was drawn into economics and finance by the exigencies of the slump and hyperinflation after the First World War, when it provided essential financial support to Austria, Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, and Estonia and, thereby, established the founding principles of financial intervention, international oversight, and the twentieth-century notion of international 'development'. But it is the impact of the Great Depression after 1929 that lies at the heart of this history. Patricia Clavin traces how the League of Nations sought to combat economic nationalism and promote economic and monetary co-operation in a variety of, sometimes contradictory, ways. Many of the economists, bureaucrats, and policy-advisors who worked for it played a seminal role in the history of international relations and social science, and their efforts did not end with the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1940 the League established an economic mission in the United States, where it contributed to the creation of organizations for the post-war world - the United Nations Organization, the IMF, the World Bank, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization - as well as to plans for European reconstruction and co-operation. It is a history that resonates deeply with challenges that face the Twenty-First Century world.

This book explores Mexico's foreign policy using the 'principled pragmatism' approach. It describes and explains main external actions from the country's independence in the nineteenth century to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's administration. The principal argument is that Mexico has resorted to principled pragmatism due to geographic, historical, economic, security, and political reasons. In other words, the nation uses this instrument to deal with the United States, defend national interests, appease domestic groups, and promote economic growth. The key characteristics of Mexico's principled pragmatism in foreign policy are that the nation projects a double-edged diplomacy to cope with external and domestic challenges at the same time. This policy is mainly for domestic consumption, and it is also linked to the type of actors that are involved in the decision-making process and to the kind of topics included in the agenda. This principled pragmatism is related to the nature of the intention: principism is deliberate and pragmatism is forced; and this policy is used to increase Mexico's international bargaining power.

The Allied Occupation of Japan lasted from 2 September 1945 to 28 April 1952 and ushered in an era of unprecedented change for that country. Although British Commonwealth participation played only small part in that story - involving only some 30,000 troops from the various Commonwealth countries compared with the vast numbers of the United States Eighth Army - it nevertheless prompts a discussion, hitherto largely undocumented, concerning its role and relevance. In The British Commonwealth and the Allied Occupation of Japan, Ian Nish who himself was a member of BCOF presents papers by twenty-three authors, partly biographical, partly academic, on subjects grouped in five themes: Origins of the Allied Occupation, Attitudes on the Occupation, Personal Views, the Commonwealth and Peace Negotiations, and the Commonwealth and the Japanese Treaties.

Nepal has a non-neutral history. As an imperial and expansionist power in the Himalayas from the days of its unification in 1769 AD to the Anglo-Nepal war of 1815, Nepal never remained neutral. Also, during the period of Colonialism in South Asia, and particularly after losing the war with the British in 1816, Nepal never exercised the policy of neutrality. Rather, Nepal was raiding Tibet; assisting British India in Sepoy Mutiny; and stood by Britain in the two world wars. Besides, Nepal militarily backed independent India in 1948 over Hyderabad question. But why Nepal suddenly had to take a refuge in neutrality after the political change of 1950? Was it because of Nepal's internal politics, or an attempt to cope with new arrangements in regional security? Nepal's fascination with neutrality was so swifter and inadvertent that Kathmandu, hitherto, has never initiated any policy debates over the all-weather choice. Power elites in Nepal still misperceive neutrality as non-alignment. The aim of the book, however, is not only limited to distinguishing neutrality with non-alignment in the Nepali context but weighs Nepal's claim to neutrality through the Indian and Chinese perceptions to underline the presence of ambiguity and uncertainty in Nepal's claim to neutrality. Illustrating Nepal's attempt to neutrality as a mere survival strategy, this study is less hopeful about Nepal's foreign policy institutions abandoning their Cold War worldview by embracing the strategy of sustenance in today's interdependent and globalized world. Because, as the book suggests, power elites in Kathmandu are customarily lured by the ephemeral yet sporadic geopolitical ambitions, either through discourses or deeds.

The story of Anglo-American relations in Saudi Arabia during the Second World War has generally been viewed as one of discord and hegemonic rivalry, a perspective reinforced by a tendency to consider Britain's decline and the ascent of US power as inevitable. In this engaging and timely study, Matthew Hinds calls into question such assumptions and reveals a relationship that, though hard-nosed, functioned through interdependence and strategic parity. Drawing upon an array of archives from both sides of the Atlantic, Hinds traces the flow of key events and policies as well as the leading figures who shaped events to show why, how and to what extent the allies and Saudi Arabia became 'mixed up together', in the words of Winston Churchill. Perhaps most fundamentally, Britain and the United States were enthralled by the promise of Saudi Arabia serving as an auxiliary to Allied strategy. Obtaining King Ibn Saud's tacit support or more specifically, his 'benevolent neutrality', meant having vital access, not only to the country's prospective oil reserves, but to its prized geographic location, its centrality within Islam and, as international politics increasingly followed an anti-colonial path, to its credentials as a sovereign and independent Arab state. Given what was at stake, London and Washington saw their engagement in Saudi Arabia as seminal; a genuine blueprint for how to forge a lasting 'Special Relationship' throughout the Middle East. Hinds' bold new interpretation is a vital work that enlarges our understanding of the Anglo-American wartime alliance.

Reconceptualizing Security in the Americas in the Twenty-First Century illustrates the various security concerns in the Americas in the twenty-first century. It presents the work of a number of prolific scholars and analysts in the region. The book offers new theoretical and analytical perspectives. Within the Americas, we find a number of important issues security issues. Most important are the threats that supersede borders: drug trafficking, migration, health, and environmental. These threats change our understanding of security and the state and regional process of neutralizing or correcting these threats. This volume evaluates these threats within contemporary security discourse.

This book aims to give readers an insight into two dynamics that influence the phenomenon of autonomous public bodies (APBs) in the European legal sphere today. Stephanie De Somer first studies both phenomena-EU impulse and national restraint-as standalone trends and then addresses the tensions between them. The first trend covers EU legislation that obliges Member States to entrust the implementation of substantive supranational rules to entities that enjoy a considerable degree of autonomy vis-a-vis central government institutions. The second trend refers to a counter-movement at the national level, where initiatives have been taken to rationalize and restrain the use of APBs. Central to the book is the somewhat controversial question of whether the EU, which is itself often criticized for lacking democratic legitimacy, is disregarding fundamental principles regarding the democratic legitimacy of national administrations when imposing these institutional obligations on its Member States. As far as domestic law is concerned, the book offers an integrated approach that truly compares national legal systems. De Somer also incorporates the results of in-depth interviews with representatives of APBs in different Member States. Focusing on these two contemporary trends, this book demonstrates the extent to which two fundamental systems of rules and principles increasingly influence and transform the phenomenon of APBs This book is relevant not only for legal academia, but also for scholars working in the fields of political science and public administration. National legislatures, governments, regulatory bodies, data protection authorities and other APBs may also find this book useful.

Central to the book are Gbigbil women's experiences with different ""reproductive interruptions"": miscarriages, stillbirths, child deaths, induced abortions, and infertility. Rather than consider these events as inherently dissimilar, as women do in Western countries, the Gbigbil women of eastern Cameroon see them all as instances of ""wasted wombs"" that leave their reproductive trajectories hanging in the balance. The women must navigate this uncertainty while negotiating their social positions, aspirations for the future, and the current workings of their bodies. Providing an intimate look into these processes, Wasted Wombs shows how Gbigbil women constantly shift their interpretations of when a pregnancy starts, what it contains, and what is lost in case of a reproductive interruption, in contrast to Western conceptions of fertility and loss. Depending on the context and on their life aspirations-be it marriage and motherhood, or rather an educational trajectory, employment, or profitable sexual affairs with so-called ""big fish""-women negotiate and manipulate the meanings and effects of reproductive interruptions. Paradoxically, they often do so while portraying themselves as powerless. Wasted Wombs carefully analyzes such tactics in relation to the various social predicaments that emerge around reproductive interruptions, as well as the capricious workings of women's physical bodies.

Although the concept of international public goods has been established, new international public needs arise by the day. For example, while there are many taxation problems and debates that have not yet been resolved internationally, many new tax-related problems like international transfer pricing, taxation of virtual profits, and taxation of electronic commerce are being added. These issues require studies that will discuss a new agenda and propose solutions for these dilemmas and problems. Global Challenges in Public Finance and International Relations provides an innovative and systematic examination of the present international financial events and institutions, international financial relations, and fiscal difficulties and dilemmas in order to discuss solutions for potential problems in the postmodern world. Highlighting topics such as international aid, public debt, and corporate governance, this publication is designed for executives, academicians, researchers, and students of public finance.

Agriculture is often under the threat of invasive species of animal pests and pathogens that do harm to crops. It is essential to have the best methods and tools available to prevent this harm. Biosecurity is a mixture of institutions, policies, and science applications that attempts to prevent the spread of unhealthy pests. Tactical Sciences for Biosecurity in Animal and Plant Systems focuses on the tactical sciences needed to succeed in the biosecurity objectives of preventing plant and animal pathogens from entering or leaving the United States. This book explores a divergence of tactics between plant and animal exotic disease response. Covering topics such as animal pests and pathogens, tactical management, and early detection, this book is an essential resource for researchers, academicians, university faculty, government biosecurity practitioners, customs officers, clinical scientists, and students.

Security threats in Asia fast become issues for the rest of the world. This introductory and wide-ranging text on the subject takes a thematic approach to assess how localized security issues - from territorial rivalry to the rise of China - materialize as 'ripple effects' across the whole region.

China's rise to become a leading global power challenges both Western policy makers and business leaders. Written from a Chinese perspective, this book addresses the following question: does the Chinese strategic mind have its own idiosyncrasies that differ considerably from the West? The expert author, Hong Liu, systematically explores the processes of the Chinese strategic mind by expounding and unraveling the particular characteristics: what they are, how they have evolved and what strategic implications they have. With detailed case studies to elucidate how the Chinese strategic mind has worked, this book successfully synthesises knowledge from distinct academic fields such as military studies, philosophy, psychology, history, sociology, linguistics and strategic management. Providing a framework for Western practitioners to consider Chinese ways of thinking, this book will be of interest to decision-makers in business and government. It will also be of use to academics in the fields of strategic management, international relations and politics looking for a new perspective in their research.

This book aims to highlight the efforts by the international community to facilitate solutions to the conflicts in the South Caucasus, and focuses particularly on the existing challenges to these efforts. The South Caucasus region has long been roiled by the lingering ethno-national conflicts-Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia conflicts within Georgia-that continue to disrupt security and stability in the entire region. Throughout different phases of the conflicts the international community has shown varying degrees of activism in conflict resolution. For clarity purposes, it should be emphasized that the notion of "international community" will be confined to the relevant organizations that have palpable share in the process-the UN, the OSCE, and the EU-and the states that have the biggest impact on conflict resolution and the leverage on the conflicting parties-Russia, Turkey, and the United States.

How are the deals and decisions of the EU made - in the meeting rooms and at the conference tables, or by informal networks in the back corridors of power? This book addresses an issue of paramount importance concerning the politics of the European Union: aspects of governance and policy making in the EU that are labelled 'informal'. Much of the literature on the EU focuses on the formal facets of EU politics, but uniquely, the subject matter within this book deals with informal aspects such as: the role of personal relationships, the presence of non-hierarchical policy-networks and non-institutional channels of interest representation, and the relevance of the unwritten rules and routines which govern these aspects of EU politics. The contributors ascertain that the study of sectoral policy making in the EU is incomplete without attention to this informal governance, which is normatively and conceptually more complex than is generally assumed. They provide a number of different approaches to the subject, illuminating the nature of informal governance in the EU and demonstrating the way in which its analysis can contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of politics and policy making in the EU. This highly original book will be a fascinating read for a wide-ranging audience - including academics, students, researchers and practitioners - with an interest in the governance of the EU.

This collection of essays demonstrates how chronic state failure and the inability of the international community to provide a solution to the conflict in Somalia has had transnational repercussions. Following the failed humanitarian mission in 1992-93, most countries refrained from any direct involvement in Somalia, but this changed in the 2000s with the growth of piracy and links to international terrorist organizations. The deterritorialization of the conflict quickly became apparent as it became transnational in nature. In part because of it lacked a government and was unable to work with the international community, Somalia came to be seen as a "testing-ground" by many international actors. Globalizing Somalia demonstrates how China, Japan, and the EU, among others, have all used the conflict in Somalia to project power, test the bounds of the national constitution, and test their own military capabilities. Contributed by international scholars and experts, the work examines the impact of globalization on the internal and external dynamics of the conflict, arguing that it is no longer geographically contained. By bringing together the many actors and issues involved, the book fills a gap in the literature as one of the most complete works on the conflict in Somalia to date. It will be an essential text to any student interested in Somalia and the horn of Africa, as well as in terrorism, and conflict processes.

In an ever more globalized world, sustainable global development requires effective intercultural co-operations. This dialogue between non-western and western cultures is essential to identifying global solutions for global socio-political challenges. Modern Japanese Political Thought and International Relations critiques the formation of non-western International Relations by assessing Japanese political concepts to contemporary IR discourses since the Meji Restoration, to better understand knowledge exchanges in intercultural contexts. Each chapter focuses on a particular aspect of this dialogue, from international law and nationalism to concepts of peace and Daoism, this collection grapples with postcolonial questions of Japan's indigenous IR theory.