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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last shah of Iran, is often remembered as a pliant instrument of American power during the Cold War. In this book Roham Alvandi offers a revisionist account of the shah's relationship with the United States by examining the partnership he forged with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. Based on extensive research in the British and U.S. archives, as well as a wealth of Persian-language diaries, memoirs and oral histories, this study restores agency to the shah as an autonomous international actor and suggests that Iran evolved from a client to a partner of the United States under the Nixon Doctrine. Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah offers a detailed account of three key historical episodes in the Nixon-Kissinger-Pahlavi partnership that shaped the global Cold War far beyond Iran's borders. First, the book examines the emergence of Iranian primacy in the Persian Gulf as the Nixon administration looked to the shah to fill the vacuum created by the British withdrawal from the region in 1971. Then it turns to the peak of the partnership after Nixon and Kissinger's historic 1972 visit to Iran, when the shah succeeded in drawing the United States into his covert war against Iraq in Kurdistan. Finally, the book focuses on the decline of the partnership under Nixon's successor, Gerald Ford, through a history of the failed negotiations from 1974 to 1976 for an agreement on U.S. nuclear exports to Iran. Taken together, these three episodes map the rise of the fall of Iran's Cold War partnership with the United States during the decade of superpower detente, Vietnam, and Watergate.
Kenneth Kaunda, the United States and Southern Africa carefully examines US policy towards the southern African region between 1974, when Portugal granted independence to its colonies of Angola and Mozambique, and 1984, the last full year of the Reagan administration's Constructive Engagement approach. It focuses on the role of Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda, the key facilitator of international diplomacy towards the dangerous neighborhood surrounding his nation. The main themes include the influence of race, national security, economics, and African agency on international relations during the height of the Cold War. Andy DeRoche focuses on key issues such as the civil war in Angola, the fight against apartheid, the struggle for Namibia's independence, the transition from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, and bilateral US/ Zambian relations. The approach is traditional diplomatic history based on archival research in Zambia and the USA as well as interviews with key players such as Kaunda, Mark Chona, Siteke Mwale, Vernon Mwaanga, Chester Crocker, and Frank Wisner. The result offers an important new insight into the nuances of US policy toward southern Africa during the hottest days of the Cold War.
The Syrian war has been an example of the abuse and insufficient delivery of humanitarian assistance. According to international practice, humanitarian aid should be channelled through a state government that bears a particular responsibility for its population. Yet in Syria, the bulk of relief went through Damascus while the regime caused the vast majority of civilian deaths. Should the UN have severed its cooperation with the government and neglected its humanitarian duty to help all people in need? Decision-makers face these tough policy dilemmas, and often the "neutrality trap" snaps shut. This book discusses the political and moral considerations of how to respond to a brutal and complex crisis while adhering to international law and practice. The author, a scholar and senior diplomat involved in the UN peace talks in Geneva, draws from first-hand diplomatic, practitioner and UN sources. He sheds light on the UN's credibility crisis and the wider implications for the development of international humanitarian and human rights law. This includes covering the key questions asked by Western diplomats, NGOs and international organizations, such as: Why did the UN not confront the Syrian government more boldly? Was it not only legally correct but also morally justifiable to deliver humanitarian aid to regime areas where rockets were launched and warplanes started? Why was it so difficult to render cross-border aid possible where it was badly needed? The meticulous account of current international practice is both insightful and disturbing. It tackles the painful lessons learnt and provides recommendations for future challenges where politics fails and humanitarians fill the moral void.
As the war on terror rages, another battleground has quickly taken shape and is being waged on daily newscasts around the world. In the Arab world, al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya are leading the fight. But do these news networks simply provide the news? Or, are they, as westerners suspect, tools used by governments and terrorists alike to relay their message to the man on the street as both Arab and Western leaders struggle to win the hearts and minds of millions of people? Fandy examines the impact that these and other news organizations have had on the war on terror, on the Arab world, and on the relationships that Arab nations share with each other, as well as those they share with the West. Focusing on al-Jazeera and other Arab networks, Fandy examines the battle between the Arab world and the West through the popular medium of television. He explores how autocratic governments control the media in order to preserve their own power while simultaneously engaging in a war of words, with their neighbors, the West, or many times, both.
From 2002 to 2008, the Bush administration argued that Iran was developing nuclear weapons, despite years of inconclusive International Atomic Energy Agency inspection reports. In the absence of substantive evidence, much of the debate was conducted via public forums with a heavy persuasive element to the discourse. This book offers an in-depth consideration of the rhetoric surrounding Irans controversial nuclear programme. It takes an interdisciplinary approach, examining speeches, interviews, news reports, online message boards and newspaper layouts during the Bush Presidency (2000-2008). Engaging with visual grammar and narrative, the book looks at layouts from the Associated Press, The New York Times and The Washington Post, amongst others. The book points out, using rhetorical theory and discourse analysis, the conditions that lent credibility to the Bush administrations position by examining the arguments Bush and his political surrogates put forward, and the discourse strategies that influenced which ideas gained salience and which were downplayed. Political communication and Foucaults theory of governmentality are brought in to articulate the implications regarding the influence, importance and expansion of executive power.
For almost a decade, Col. Ryszard Kuklinski betrayed the Communist leadership of Poland, cooperating with the CIA in one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. But even after freedom came to Poland a riddle remained - was Kuklinski a patriot or a traitor? In August 1972, Ryszard Kuklinski, a highly respected colonel in the Polish Army, embarked on what would become one of the most extraordinary human intelligence operations of the Cold War. Despite the extreme risk to himself and his family, he contacted the American Embassy in Bonn, and arranged a secret meeting. From the very start, he made clear that he deplored the Soviet domination of Poland, and believed his country was on the wrong side of the Cold War. Over the next nine years, Kuklinski rose quickly in the Polish defense ministry, acting as a liaison to Moscow, and helping to prepare for a hot war with the West. But he also lived a life of subterfuge - of dead drops, messages written in invisible ink, miniature cameras, and secret transmitters. In 1981, he gave the CIA the secret plans to crush Solidarity. the West. He still lives in hiding in America. Kuklinski's story is a harrowing personal drama about one man's decision to betray the Communist leadership in order to save the country he loves. Through extensive interviews and access to the CIA's secret archives on the case, Benjamin Weiser offers an unprecedented and richly detailed look at this secret history of the Cold War.
Increasingly the Middle East and its growing population face a highly complex and fragile security system. The rich deposits of natural resources, such as oil and gas, suffer from a strained renewable resource base that includes water and arable land. This leads to water scarcity, desertification, and land degradation. Increasing population, industrialization, and urbanization put more and more demand on the food supply. Energy insecurity may not be generally associated with the Middle East, but the countries in the eastern Mediterranean part have been traditionally vulnerable to it as their fossil fuel endowments have been low. Another issue is the large-scale temporary labor migration and the large number of forced migrants, refugees, and internally displaced persons. The book analyzes these emerging security challenges in a comprehensive and systematic manner. It draws national and regional security issues into both the global security and human security perspectives.
This volume examines European Union policy instruments affecting the urban domain through the lens of Europeanisation. Instead of looking at EU instruments that are formally consecrated to cities, theoretical public policy analysis explores the arenas and causal mechanisms that structure the encounter between the EU and urban governance. The core variables that explain change concern the status of actors' preferences and the payoffs from Europeanisation. Their combination creates a four-dimensional space. We can therefore develop a typology for the modes of Europeanisation that chimes with current theorisations on the EU modes of governance. Dossi considers four modes of Europeanisation, which he analyses to grasp the essence of EU instruments and initiatives. The eventual Europeanisation of urban systems depends on the nature of strategic interaction, not on the legal 'tools' designated explicitly for cities
The revolutionary year of 1958 epitomizes the height of the social uprisings, military coups, and civil wars that erupted across the Middle East and North Africa in the mid-twentieth century. Amidst waning Anglo-French influence, growing US-USSR rivalry, and competition and alignments between Arab and non-Arab regimes and domestic struggles, this year was a turning point in the modern history of the Middle East. This multi and interdisciplinary book explores this pivotal year in its global, regional and local contexts and from a wide range of linguistic, geographic, academic specialties. The contributors draw on declassified and multilingual archives, reports, memoirs, and newspapers in thirteen country-specific chapters, shedding new light on topics such as the extent of Anglo-American competition after the Suez War, Turkey's efforts to stand as a key pillar in the regional Cold War, the internationalization of the Algerian War of Independence, and Iran and Saudi Arabia's abilities to weather the revolutionary storm that swept across the region. The book includes a foreword from Salim Yaqub which highlights the importance of Jeffrey G. Karam's collection to the scholarship on this vital moment in the political history of the modern middle east.
This book traces the development and impact of regional economic communities (RECs) in Africa and addresses a timely question: do REC members, and the REC itself, positively influence member states’ behaviors towards other members and more broadly, regionally and continentally due to REC membership? ‘Changing member states’ behaviors’ is measured across three ‘interconnected, fundamental dimensions of societal-systems’ proposed by Marshall and Elzinga Marshall in CSP’s Global Repot 2017. These are i) the persistence of conflict or its counterpoint, achieving peace, ii) fostering democratization and better governance, and iii) achieving socio-economic development and (as proposed by this research, a fourth dimension), iv) being active participants in multilateralism? Is membership in a REC ultimately beneficial to the member and other countries in the region? While there are no clear and obvious – at least, discernible traditional – benefits such as increase in trade (perhaps because Africa’s overall trade relative to the world is about 3 percent), there are other non trade benefits (e.g., decrease in conflict, coercion to take certain actions towards peace and refrain from others, coups and wars) presenting in REC member states. These in/actions, abilities, coercions, exclusions and cooperation instances are outlined and discussed in the book.
This major new study examines the nature of Chinese power and its impact on the international order. Drawing on an extensive range of Chinese-language debates and discussions, the book explains the roles of different actors and interests in Chinese international interactions, and how they influence the nature of Chinese strategies for global change. It also gives a unique perspective on how assessments of the consequences of China's rise are formed, and how and why these understandings change. Providing an important challenge to scholars and policy makers who seek to engage with China, the book demonstrates just how far starting assumptions can influence the questions asked, evidence sought and conclusions reached.
National security has always been an integral consideration in immigration policy, never more so than in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. This is the first history of American immigration policy written in the post-9/11 environment to focus specifically on the role of national security considerations in determining that policy. As LeMay makes clear, this is not the first time America has worried about letting "foreigners" through our "gates." By the time readers reach the final chapter, in which current policies regarding the interplay between immigration and national security are discussed, they have the historical perspective necessary to assess the pros and cons of what is happening today. They are able to more clearly answer questions such as: Does putting the Immigration and Naturalization Service under the Department of Homeland Security make the country more secure? Do vigilantes improve border security? How are we handling the balance between national security and civil liberties compared to the ways in which we handled it during World Wars I and II and the Cold War? LeMay does not advocate a specific policy; rather, he gives citizens and students the tools to make up their own minds about this enduringly controversial issue.
US foreign policy in the Middle East has faced a challenge in the years since World War II: balancing an idealistic desire to promote democracy against the practical need to create stability. Here, Cleo Bunch puts a focus on US policy in Jordan from the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 to 1970 and the run up to 'Black September'. These years saw a phase where the Middle East became a stage on which Cold War rivalries were played out, as the US was keen to encourage and maintain alliances in order to counteract Soviet influence in Egypt and Syria. Therefore, Bunch's analysis of US foreign policy and diplomacy vis-a-vis Jordan will appeal to those researching both the history and the contemporary implications of the West's foreign policy in the Middle East and the effects of international relations on the region.
Singapore is America's closest security partner in Southeast Asia. The United States has decided to help India become a major world power in the 21st century, an objective that is furthered by the nuclear agreement between them. Singapore's relationship with India is an increasingly pertinent feature of Southeast Asia's political and strategic landscape. Whether these three realities, taken together, lay the basis of a triangular relationship among Singapore, America, and India is the question that this book seeks to answer. The book begins with a review of the notion of Pax Americana and goes on to describe the state of bilateral relations among the three countries as they have evolved since the end of the Cold War. Subsequently, it analyses three core issues - the Global War on Terror, the rise of China, and the agency of democracy in international relations - that play a defining role in relations among Singapore, the United States, and India. The book concludes by suggesting some directions in which these relations might move.
When the Wall Street banker takes the side of the indebted developing countries in his feature articles reviewing the impact of the global sovereign debt crisis of the 1980s in the Dutch daily NRC-Handelsblad, it is time to leave banking. He is attracted to Unicef's vision and goal of Health for All and its tireless pursuit of structural economic adjustment programmes with a human face. In Africa, Boudewijn Mohr jumps into Unicef's hands-on work in the field. He spearheads the clearing of landmines in Unicef project areas in Mozambique, and engages with children throughout his travels on the continent. Thus he can be found playing football with former child soldiers in Monrovia; touring Nouakchott with street children who show him the tricks of pick pocketing; or gate crashing a diamond mine that exploits child labour near Kenema in the rebel-infested east of Sierra Leone. His stories are both an adventure and the search of fulfilment but at the same time a call to all those who want to do more and are uncertain of what the world holds. Part of the proceeds of this book are going to 'Hands-Up Foundation', a British charity working with Syrian doctors and nurses in Syria under harsh circumstances.
In The Warsaw Pact, 1969-1985, young Czech scholar Mat?j Bily analyzes the internal tensions of the Soviet-led Cold War alliance as its careened toward its end. Starting with the peak of the alliance's power under Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, the book follows its ossification to its increasing haplessness under Brezhnev's successors Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. Rooted in detailed research in Czech, Polish, and German archives, this book presents much previously unknown information about the alliance's mechanisms as it served as one of the Kremlin's increasingly ineffective tools for managing the Eastern Bloc. Bily's findings prove that the Warsaw Pact never became an initiator of political processes within the Soviet sphere of interest and only reactively addressed military issues. The alliance's framework did not allow it to become an incubator or agent of any independent development in the Soviet sphere of influence. To the contrary, events within the Warsaw Pact reflected the overall dismal situation in the Eastern Bloc and the changing policy of the Kremlin toward its East European satellites. Because of the alliance's lack of flexibility and cumbersome internal mechanisms, it was unable to react to the dynamic challenges of the 1980s and helplessly followed a path to its own end.
The Center for Complex Operations (CCO) has produced this edited volume, Convergence: Illicit Networks and National Security in the Age of Globalization, that delves deeply into everything mentioned above and more. In a time when the threat is growing, this is a timely effort. CCO has gathered an impressive cadre of authors to illuminate the important aspects of transnational crime and other illicit networks. They describe the clear and present danger and the magnitude of the challenge of converging and connecting illicit networks; the ways and means used by transnational criminal networks and how illicit networks actually operate and interact; how the proliferation, convergence, and horizontal diversification of illicit networks challenge state sovereignty; and how different national and international organizations are fighting back. A deeper understanding of the problem will allow us to then develop a more comprehensive, more effective, and more enduring solution.
This book provides over 260 entries on U.S. presidents, Latin American politicians, covert operations, policies, and major events since the early 1800s that define the contentious relations between the United States and the Latin American and Caribbean region. From the Monroe Doctrine to NAFTA, the tone of U.S.-Latin America relations has been set by the United States, and largely to its benefit. Dent compiles more than 260 A-to-Z entries that detail the key people, events, treaties, wars, and concepts that have gone into the making of the often contentious relations between the United States and the Latin American and Caribbean region. Entries conclude with suggested readings and are thoroughly cross-referenced. A thematic index guides users to related entries, and an extensive bibliography includes a list of key works central to the study of U.S.-Latin American relations. There is also a separate list of relevant online resources. The entire work is also thoroughly indexed. Useful for students and researchers of international politics within the Western hemisphere, Dent's historical dictionary covers items ranging from pro-slavery filibusterers adventuring in Central America, Dollar Diplomacy, Anti-Americanism, Banana Wars, the Reagan Doctrine, Sandinistas, friendly Dictators, Che Guevara, to the impact of the events of September 11, 2001 on Latin America, among many others.
The eurozone crisis has raised fundamental questions about the EU's future and has also sparked debate about the wider functions and future direction of European integration in the 21st century. This engaging book provides a broad-ranging reassessment of the whole experience of integration to date and the challenges which face Europe today.
The importance of international politics in Niccolo Machiavelli's thought cannot be denied. Although the familiar ideas expressed in the Prince and the Discourses are obviously relevant, the Art of War, the History of Florence, the dispatches that he wrote during his diplomatic missions, several minor political writings, and the private letters contain a number of additional insights and observations that refine and enrich his views. This anthology gathers together for the first time all of Machiavelli's writing on international affairs. About 60 excerpts are organized around key themes, such as: the idea that political action takes place in a context that constrains decisions and affects outcomes; the central role played by fear in influencing foreign policy; the ways in which domestic politics and international politics interact; the fundamental functions performed by the armed forces; the similarities and differences in the foreign policy of republics and principalities; the ambivalent relationship between defence and expansion; the curse of neutrality and the ambiguities of alliances; the precariousness of international arrangements and the inherent instability of any settlement. An introductory chapter and accompanying illustrative materials guide the reader through the conceptual world of Machiavelli and the complex political events of his time.
The Real World of EU Accountability reports the findings of a major
empirical study into patterns and practices of accountability in
European governance. The product of a 4-year, path-breaking
project, this book assesses to what extent and how the people that
populate the key arenas where European public policy is made or
implemented are held accountable. Using a systematic analytical
framework, it examines not just the formal accountability
arrangements but also documents and compares how these operate in
practice. In doing so, it provides a unique, empirically grounded
contribution to the pivotal but often remarkably fact-free debate
about democracy and accountability in European governance.
Middle East Studies after September 11: Neo-Orientalism, American Hegemony and Academia will show the long-term implications of current approaches to Middle East scholarship on the internal transformation of Middle Eastern societies. It describes the complex relationship between American academia and state government: a relationship which has influenced and restructured the state, society and politics in the Middle East as well as in the United States. It engages the disciplines of Sociology, Political Science, Anthropology, History and International Studies, while maintaining the epistemological, methodological, and ontological insights of a sociological approach to the Middle East. Contributors are: Beyazit H. Akman, Mahmoud Arghavan, Dunya D. Cakir, Emanuela C. Del Re, Babak Elahi, Manuela E. B. Giolfo, Shah Mahmoud Hanifi, Merve Kavakci, Tugrul Keskin, Seyed Mohammd Marandi, Ameena Al-Rasheed Nayel, Staci Gem Scheiwiller, Francesco L. Sinatora, Zeinab Ghasemi Tari |
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