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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > International relations
This book explores how and why the labor practices of the world's largest employer, supermarket giant Walmart, were contested by unions and government regulators as it expanded to Latin America starting in the 1990s. With an in-depth case study of Brazil, and a comparative chapter examining Argentina, Chile, and Mexico, this book analyzes the problematic encounter between diffusion of home-office anti-labor practices and evolving national institutional contexts that are quite varied and in some cases enable considerable resistance by unions and/or regulators. Walmart's "repressive familial" and "anti-union" model is found to generate costs and conflicts that contributed to its unprofitability and ultimate exit from Brazil in 2018. This experience, contrasted with country situations where Walmart's overall competitive and labor and human resource practices "fit" better with national markets and institutions, underlines the brittle, problematic nature of diffusionist corporate models lacking adaptive capacity to significant cross-national variations across host countries.
Thomas Sankara was one of Africa's most important anti-imperialist leaders of the late 20th Century. His declaration that fundamental socio-political change would require a 'certain amount of madness' drove the Burkinabe Revolution and resurfaced in the country's popular uprising in 2014. This book looks at Sankara's political philosophies and legacies and their relevance today. Analyses of his synthesis of Pan-Africanism and humanist Marxist politics, as well as his approach to gender, development, ecology and decolonisation offer new insights to Sankarist political philosophies. Critical evaluations of the limitations of the revolution examine his relationship with labour unions and other aspects of his leadership style. His legacy is revealed by looking at contemporary activists, artists and politicians who draw inspiration from Sankarist thought in social movement struggles today, from South Africa to Burkina Faso. In the 30th anniversary of his assassination, this book illustrates how Sankara's political praxis continues to provide lessons and hope for decolonisation struggles today.
Within international law there is no unified concept of peace. This book addresses this gap by considering the liberal conception of peace within Western philosophy alongside the principle of 'peaceful coexistence' supported in the East. By tracing the evolution of the international law of peace through its historical and philosophical origins, this book investigates whether there is a 'right to peace'. The book explores how existing international law and institutions contribute to the establishment of peace, or how they fail to do so. It sets out how international law promotes the negative dimension of peace-the absence of violence-as well as its positive dimension: the presence of underlying conditions for peace. It also investigates whether international actors and institutions have particular obligations in relation to the establishment and maintenance of peace. Discussions include: the relationships between the different regimes of human rights, trade, development, the environment, and regulation of arms trade with peace; the role of women, refugees, and other groups seeking equal treatment; the role of peacekeepers, transitional justice mechanisms, international courts fact-finding missions, and national constitutional frameworks in upholding peace in practice; and how civil society participates in the promotion and safeguarding of peace. The book's comprehensive treatment of the concept of peace in international law makes it an ideal reference work for those working in the field, as well as for students.
This ambitious Handbook covers the history, functioning and impact of cohesion policy, arguably the most tangible presence of the European Union in its twenty-eight member states. The contributions combine world-renowned scholars and country experts to discuss, in six parts, the policy's history and governing principles; the theoretical approaches from which it can be assessed; the inter-institutional and multi-level dynamics that it elicits; its practical implementation and impact on EU Member States; its interactions with other EU policies and strategies; and the cognitive maps and narratives with which it can be associated. This Handbook will be an invaluable resource to students and scholars of EU policies and politics and other related disciplines. In particular, they will benefit from the clarity with which the history and functioning of cohesion policy is laid out. Policy makers and other practitioners will also find this book of interest, due to its presentation of relevant debates. Contributors include: A. Agh, J. Aprans, R. Atkinson, J. Bachtler, J. Balsiger, J. Baudner, I. Begg, M. Brunazzo, R.L. Bubbico, A. Catalina Rubianes, D. Charles, N. Charron, R. Crescenzi, M. Dabrowski, A. Dahs, F. De Filippis, S. Ganzle, D. Hubner, A. Faina, A. Faludi, V. Fargion, U. Fratesi, P.R. Graziano, E. Gualini, E. Hepburn, C. Holguin, G. Karakatsanis, E. Kazamaki Ottersten, A. Kovacs, A. Lenschow, R. Leonardi, J. Lopez-Rodriguez, E. Massetti, P. McCann, C. Mendez, P. Montes-Solla, T. Muravska, T. Notermans, R.l Ortega-Argiles, I. Palne Kovacs, S. Piattoni, L. Polverari, S. Profeti, A.H. Schakel, J. Schoenlau, M.K. Sioliou, P. Stephenson, I. Toemmel, M. Weber, K. Zimmermann
As David Vine demonstrates, the overseas bases raise geopolitical tensions and provoke widespread antipathy towards the United States. They also undermine American democratic ideals, pushing the U.S. into partnerships with dictators and perpetuating a system of second-class citizenship in territories like Guam. They breed sexual violence, destroy the environment, and damage local economies. And their financial cost is staggering: though the Pentagon underplays the numbers, Vine's accounting proves that the bill approaches $100 billion per year. For many decades, the need for overseas bases has been a quasi-religious dictum of U.S. foreign policy. But in recent years, a bipartisan coalition has finally started to question this conventional wisdom. With the U.S. withdrawing from Afghanistan and ending thirteen years of war, there is no better time to re-examine the tenets of our military strategy. Base Nation is an essential contribution to that debate.
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.
Lethal drones have been used in the last 12 years by the United States to strike targets and eliminate terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen and a few other countries. Details of how armed drones are being used, in or outside of declared wars, are closely guarded secrets by all three states known to use them. However, these drones have also been responsible for killing and injuring thousands of civilians, including women and children, besides destroying homes and property. The US and its allies have claimed that the drone strikes have been spectacularly successful-in terms of both finding and killing targeted enemies. Drones have been projected as a military necessity and their market is growing fast, especially for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The use of unmanned drones to target belligerents raises many complex issues. It is of crucial importance that traditional ethical rules and practices are applied; that rules of international law are observed even while engaging with terrorists. There are a few who justify the use of drones, but their argument is somewhat similar to the argument used for dropping atomic bombs over Japan in WWII. Lethal drones are a weapon of rich nations who have used them to attack poor, defenceless nations. This book discusses the ethical, legal and strategic issues relating to the use of drones in armed conflict.
The twenty-first century is likely to witness Asia s two largest civilizations, China and India, join the United States in an elite club of global superpowers. By some economic indicators, the two Asian giants are already the second and third largest economies in the world, and they are developing world-class militaries to complement that economic clout. While Beijing and Delhi have spent the past half-century free from armed conflict and enjoy cordial diplomatic relations, elements of rivalry have shadowed the relationship since the two countries went to war in 1962 over their disputed Himalayan border. In the twenty-first century, that rivalry has evolved in unpredictable ways, advancing in some arenas and retreating in the face of growing cooperation in others. Cold Peace: China India Rivalry in the Twenty-First Century updates and deepens our understanding of the China India relationship by unraveling the complex layers of the contemporary China India rivalry. This book draws from over 100 interviews with subject-matter experts, government officials, and military officers in India, China, and the United States between November 2011 and July 2013. It also benefits from rare and unique field research at the disputed China India border in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh; at the contested town of Tawang in the Himalayas; at Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan Government in Exile; at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands; and on Hainan Island, which administers China s South China Sea territories. With 14 chapters dedicated to issue-specific studies, including Threat Perceptions in China-India Relations, the border dispute, Tawang, Tibet, the Dalai Lama succession issue, maritime security, and the role of the United States and Pakistan in Sino Indian relations, Cold Peace provides a comprehensive examination of the evolution of China India relations.
This book introduces Ali Mazrui's delightfully stimulating scholarship about intercultural relations, calling it Postcolonial Constructivism, and shares elements of his intellectual vitality in an original way. It begins with a chronicle of Mazrui's eventful, sixty-year journey as a scholar of International Relations. It then proceeds to present some of the most remarkable yet least remarked up on features of his intellectualism, including his paradoxes, his perceptive typologies, his neologisms as well as his interactions with historical figures. The book draws on materials which were either unavailable until now or were found scattered in time and space. Designed as an invitation to a wider audience to the supermarket of Mazrui's ideas, this book also seeks to underscore the timeliness and possible durability of many of his observations about intercultural relations.Thorough, comprehensive and up-to-date, this book is a concise account of the core of Mazrui's vast body of work.
This book provides a new understanding of the eurozone crisis across three of the worst hit cases: Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. In contrast to accounts which stress the 'immaturity' of the European 'periphery', as well as more critical narratives that understand these countries as victims of German and core 'economic domination', this book recognises that individual peripheral countries have followed dramatically different paths to crisis, making it difficult to speak of the eurozone crisis as a single phenomenon. Bringing literature from Comparative Political Economy into dialogue with scholarship on Europeanisation, this book contributes the concept of 'divergence via Europeanisation'. It explores the much-overlooked ways in which the negotiation of a 'one size fits all' project of European financial integration has been generative of precarious patterns of economic growth across Greece, Portugal, and Ireland. The book shows that far from their failure or inability to do so, it has been the European periphery's attempt to 'follow the rules' of European integration that explains their current difficulties. This novel understanding of the eurozone crisis should appeal to students and scholars in International Political Economy, European and European Union Studies, Comparative Political Economy, Irish Politics, Greek Politics, and Portuguese Politics.
Power inequalities and mistrust have characterized many interstate relationships. Yet most international relations theories do not take into account power and mistrust when explaining cooperation. While some scholars argue that power relations inhibit cooperation between states, other scholars expect interstate cooperation regardless of the power relations and level of trust. Strategic Cooperation: Overcoming the Barriers of Global Anarchy argues that although states benefit from cooperation, they are also wary of the power relations between states, making cooperation difficult. Successful and cooperative bilateral relationships are formed between strong and weak states that are power asymmetric and have mistrust of one another, but they are built in such as way as to overcome the problem of power asymmetry and mistrust. This book answers how and why states that are in power asymmetry and have mistrust of one another are able to build a cooperative bilateral relationship. It argues that states forge a relationship due to strategic needs such as economic or security needs. Slobodchikoff has developed a database composed of the whole population of bilateral treaties between Russia and each of the former Soviet republics, and examines all of these bilateral relationships. He finds that Russia indeed forged relationships with the former republics based on its strategic interests. However, despite Russia's strategic interests, it had to build a bilateral relationship that would address the issues of mistrust and power asymmetry between the states. To achieve this, Russia and the former Soviet republics created treaty networks, which served to legitimize as well as legalize the independent status of each of the former republics while also increasing the cost to Russia of violating any of the treaties. This book argues that strong treaty networks account for a more cooperative relationship between states, allowing both states to cooperate by alleviating the problems of mistrust and power asymmetry.
Humanitarianism and Security contends that the search for stability and peace remains central to the political environment within the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Despite some positive political and economic progress observed in the Central African Region and the DRC in particular, the future of the region remains uncertain. Due to many unaddressed issues, including the multidimensional manifestations of humanitarian crises, the region is fragile with the potential for a relapse into violent conflict. Moreover, the DRC's humanitarian crises have yet to be effectively addressed as consequences and promoters of insecurity and violence. Based on the "humanitarian-security-development" paradigm as an inclusive operational framework, Humanitarianism and Security articulates the trend of peace recovery in the DRC as contingent upon issues of security and the refugee/internally displaced population crisis. It claims and demonstrates that effective solutions must incorporate considerations of pre-colonial security dynamics, the place and role of identity within the humanitarian discourse/strategies, the determinants of transitional public security (TPS), and the various dynamics regarding the return and re/integration processes, into one operational framework. This framework must be accompanied by a continued effort to build strong local institutions as a critical component to the sustainability of operations.
Studying paradiplomacy comparatively, this book explains why and how sub-state governments (SSG) conduct their international relations (IR) with external actors, and how federal authorities and local governments coordinate, or not, in the definition and implementation of the national foreign policy. Sub-state diplomacy plays an increasingly influential international role as regions, federal states, provinces and cities seek to promote trade, investments, cooperation and partnership on a range of issues. This raises interesting new questions about the future of the state system. Schiavon conducts a comparative study of paradiplomacy in 11 federal systems which are representative of all the regions of the world, stages of economic development and degree of consolidation of their democratic institutions (Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States). The author constructs a typology to measure and explain paradiplomacy based on domestic political institutions, especially constitutional provisions relating foreign affairs and the intergovernmental mechanisms for foreign policy decision making and implementation. This comparative, systematic and theoretically based analysis of paradiplomacy between and within countries will be of interest to scholars and students of comparative politics, diplomacy, foreign policy, governance and federalism, as well as practitioners of diplomacy and paradiplomacy around the world.
Written by one of the premier scholars on the European Union and hailed as the best undergraduate text on the subject, this book has been thoroughly revised and updated to include the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. Clear and comprehensive, it 'demystifies' one of the world's most important and least understood institutions. Roy H. Ginsberg contextualizes European integration through the foundation blocks of history, law, economics, and politics. He then breaks the EU down into its components so that they can be understood individually and in relation to the whole. Reconstructing the EU as a single polity, Ginsberg evaluates the EU's domestic and foreign policies and their effects on Europeans and non-Europeans alike. The author thus challenges students to see what the European Union truly represents: a unique experiment in regional cooperation and a remarkable model of conflict resolution for the world's troubled regions.
Since its signing in 1993, the Oslo Agreement has been the key to peace in the Middle East. But, fives years on, its potential to establish a lasting peace is clearly reaching an end. This volume examines how the Palestinians and Jews from East Jerusalem themselves view the peace process.;Based in Gaza, Graham Usher has witnessed many of the key events in the Middle East since the beginning of the post-Oslo peace process. This volume draws together in one volume his reports, dispatches, interviews and analytical articles from Gaza. As well as presenting the view of the ordinary Palestinians "on the street", Usher has also interviewed many of the key players and prominent religious leaders from Palestinian Hamas, Lebanese Hizballah, and Shas (the Shevardic Jews within Israel). The pieces cover such topics as the political and military strategy of Hamas, Hizballah and Fatah under Palestinian autonomy.
This book discusses recent brain research and the potentially dangerous dual-use applications of the findings of these research projects. The book is divided into three sections: Part I examines the rise in dual-use concerns within various state's chemical and biological non-proliferation regime's during this century, as well as the rapid technologically driven advances in neuroscience and the associated possible misuse considerations in the same period. Part II reviews the brain research projects in the EU, USA, Japan, China and several other countries with regard to their objectives, achievements and measures to deal with the problem of dual-use. Part III assesses the extent to which the results of this civil neuroscience work, which is intended to be benign, are being, and could be protected against future hostile applications in the development of novel chemical and biological weapons.
These are extraordinary times in U.S. national security policy. America remains engaged in both Iraq and Afghanistan while facing a global economic downturn. Homeland security concerns still abound in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Even as the financial crisis places considerable pressure on the U.S. budget, President Obama will have to spend a great deal of time and money on national security, hard power, and war. How should these competing demands be prioritized? How much money will be needed? How much will be available, and how should it be spent? "Budgeting for Hard Power" continues the long and proud tradition of Brookings analysis on defense spending. As with previous volumes, this book examines the budgets of the Pentagon and the Department of Energy's nuclear weapons programs. But Michael O'Hanlon takes his analysis further, addressing the wide range of activities crucial for American security as a result of 9/11 and the ongoing wars. He considers homeland security resources and selected parts of the State Department and foreign operations budgets --offering a more complete overall look at the elements that make up America's "hard power" budget, a concept that he and Kurt Campbell wrote about in "Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security" (2006). With future federal deficits projected to top $1 trillion, O'Hanlon calls for Defense, State, and Homeland Security budgets to be as frugal as possible. At the same time, he recognizes that resources should be selectively increased in certain areas to compensate for years of systematic underfunding, especially in certain areas of homeland security, diplomacy, and foreign assistance. In his typically clear and concise manner, O'Hanlon shows policymakers how to wrestle with the resource allocation decisions affecting the national security of the United States.
"China threat" has been one of hotly debated topics since the early 1990s, and this book is an effort to test the China threat thesis. The author argues that a test of the China threat thesis requires addressing two fundamental questions: whether China has the capabilities to challenge the international system and whether China has the motivations to do so. This book will offer a systematic study of China's foreign policy motivations by resorting to an image approach. The conclusion as to whether China is a status quo or a revisionist country will be reached by exploring how consideration of national interests and how China's perceptions of key characters of the U.S. affect China's foreign policy orientation. A summary of the dominant Chinese images of the U.S. will also contribute to understanding China's motivations vis-a-vis the U.S.
Economic Policy in the European Union analyses the key issues confronting Europe as we enter the 21st century. It focuses mainly on the transition problems linked with the creation of European Monetary Union as well as more specific issues such as social, labour, environmental and science and technology policy. It addresses major questions, including: * is it true that the disappearance of exchange risks will benefit trade and growth? * can the EMU function if integration is not speeded up in other areas? * will the EMU enhance internal cohesion? * is the creation of a single currency a popularly accepted idea in the member states? The authors also examine some more specific issues including European Work Councils, the possibility of coordinated environmental policy within the European Union, employment rights and technological collaboration. This topical book will be welcomed by those scholars, students and policymakers interested in some of the most important issues currently faced by Europe.
Since the September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the United States has been at war with Al-Qaida. Over the past 10 years, counterterrorism efforts have disrupted its main training facilities and eliminated much of the core leadership structure, including the mastermind Usama Bin Ladin. Despite this, Al-Qaida has proved resilient. While the core leadership has been compromised, regional Al-Qaida offshoots and affiliated Islamist terrorist groups have formed, developed, and become prominent in their own right. To aid in examining and explaining Al-Qaida's trajectory, the Minerva Initiative at Marine Corps University hosted a conference in the spring of 2011, just days before Bin Ladin's demise. The panels at this conference addressed diverse issues such as Al-Qaida's overarching strategy; the degree of control that central Al-Qaida leadership maintains over regional franchises; and the strategies, tactics, successes, and failures in each theater of operation. The resulting papers in Al-Qaida after Ten Years of War contribute to the ongoing and ever-evolving net assessment of Al-Qaida and its future prospects, and they help inform the crafting of a war termination phase with Al-Qaida.
Over the past decade, the international political system has come to be characterized as a Great Power Competition in which multiple would-be hegemons compete for power and influence. Instead of a global climate of unchallenged United States dominance, revisionist powers, notably China and Russia alongside other regional powers, are vying for dominance through political, military, and economic means. A critical battleground in the Great Power Competition is the Middle East, the Horn of Africa, and the Central Asia South Asia (CASA), also known as the Central Region. With the planned withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan, the U.S. has stated its intention of shifting attention away from the CASA Region in favor of a more isolationist foreign policy approach. This book provides an in-depth understanding of the implications for this shift related to regional diplomacy & politics, economic opportunities & rivalries, security considerations & interests, and the information environment. Amplifying the vital importance of success in the Central Region to U.S. prosperity and security, this volume advances dialogue in identifying key issues for stakeholders within and beyond the Central Region to gain a holistic perspective that better informs decision-making at various levels. This collection of work comes from scholars, strategic thinkers, and subject matter experts who participated in the Great Power Competition Conference hosted by the University of South Florida, in partnership with the National Defense University Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Strategies in January 2020. |
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