This is a multi-generational political history of the Hatoyamas, a family that has participated at the highest levels of Japan's parliamentary government from its inception in the late 1800s. The Hatoyama family is one of the most prominent political families in modern Japanese government. It has produced six members of the Diet, Japan's parliament, many of whom have served as cabinet members and party leaders. Due to the family's political legacy, they have often been likened to the Kennedy family in American politics (though they have been spared the tragedy and scandal visited upon the Kennedys). Despite the significance of the Hatoyamas to modern Japanese politics, this is the first comprehensive study available in English. In tracing the rising political fortunes of this family, it is also possible to study the role of hereditary politicians in Japan, the growth and evolution of Japanese political parties, and, perhaps most importantly, the way political leadership functions in Japan, a society known more for consensus-building than for strong leaders.

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was an enigmatic leader, a resolute and audacious politician who had an immense impact on 20th century world history. Lenin's life and career have been at the center of much ideological debate for decades. The post-Soviet era has seen a revived interest and re-evaluation of the Russian Revolution and Lenin's legacy.
This new biography gives a fresh and original account of Lenin's personal life and political career. Christopher Read draws on a broad range of primary and secondary sources, making use of archive material made available in the Glasnost and post-Soviet eras. Focal points of this study are Lenin's revolutionary ascetic personality; his exploitation of cultural, educational and propaganda means; his relationship to Marxism; his changing class analysis of Russia; and his "populist" instincts.
This biography is an excellent and reliable introduction to one of the key figures of the Russian Revolution and post-tsarist Russia.

This history of Anglo-American efforts to overturn Ireland’s neutrality policy during the Second World War adds complexity to the grand narrative of the Western Alliance against the Axis Powers, exploring relatively unexamined emotional, personalised, and gendered politics that underlay policymaking and alliance relations. Friends and enemies combines the methodologies of diplomatic history through its close reliance on archival documentation with attention to new theoretical understandings regarding the roles played by personal friendships and enmities and competing masculine ideologies among national leaders. Including, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Eamon de Valera, and their close foreign policy advisers in London, Washington DC and Dublin, as they constructed national identities and defined their nations’ special relationships in time of war. -- .

Now with a new chapter on the end of the chumocracy era - and Oxford's upcoming elite for 2050. THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER AND TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022 Power. Privilege. Parties. It's a very small world at the top. 'Brilliant ... traces Brexit back to the debating chambers of the Oxford Union in the 1980s' James O'Brien 'A searing onslaught on the smirking Oxford insinuation that politics is all just a game. It isn't. It matters' Matthew Parris 'A sparkling firework of a book' Lynn Barber, Spectator 'Exquisite and depressing in equal measure' Matthew Syed, Sunday Times Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, David Cameron, George Osborne, Theresa May, Dominic Cummings, Daniel Hannan, Jacob Rees-Mogg: Whitehall is swarming with old Oxonians. They debated each other in tutorials, ran against each other in student elections, and attended the same balls and black tie dinners. They aren't just colleagues - they are peers, rivals, friends. And, when they walked out of the world of student debates onto the national stage, they brought their university politics with them. Thirteen of the seventeen postwar British prime ministers went to Oxford University. In Chums, Simon Kuper traces how the rarefied and privileged atmosphere of this narrowest of talent pools - and the friendships and worldviews it created - shaped modern Britain. A damning look at the university clique-turned-Commons majority that will blow the doors of Westminster wide open and change the way you look at our democracy forever.

* Only synthesis of presidential transitions written by an historian * No direct competition * A synthetic work that brings in important archival research to strengthen its offering * Examining the transitions sheds light on how foreign policies are formulated in the United States government

This engaging new biography dispels many myths surrounding Nehru, and distinguishes between the icon he has become and the politician he actually was. Benjamin Zachariah places Nehru in the context of the issues of his time, including the central theme of nationalism, the impact of Cold War pressures on India and the transition from colonial control to a precarious independence. How did Jawaharlal Nehru come to lead the Indian nationalist movement, and how did he sustain his leadership as the first Prime Minister of independent India? Nehru's vision of India, its roots in Indian politics and society, as well as its viability have been central to historical and present-day views of India. Connecting the domestic and international aspects of his political life and ideology, this study provides a fascinating insight into Nehru, his times and his legacy.

Often portrayed as an inept and stubborn tyrant, South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem has long been the subject of much derision but little understanding. Philip Catton's penetrating study provides a much more complex portrait of Diem as both a devout patriot and a failed architect of modernization. In doing so, it sheds new light on a controversial regime.

Catton treats the Diem government on its own terms rather than as an appendage of American policy. Focusing on the decade from Dien Bien Phu to Diem's assassination in 1963, he examines the Vietnamese leader's nation-building and reform efforts-particularly his Strategic Hamlet Program, which sought to separate guerrilla insurgents from the peasantry and build grassroots support for his regime. Catton's evaluation of the collapse of that program offers fresh insights into both Diem's limitations as a leader and the ideological and organizational weaknesses of his government, while his assessment of the evolution of Washington's relations with Saigon provides new insight into America's growing involvement in the Vietnamese civil war.

Focusing on the Strategic Hamlet Program in Binh Duong province as an exemplar of Diem's efforts, Catton paints the Vietnamese leader as a progressive thinker trying to simultaneously defeat the communists and modernize his nation. He draws on a wealth of Vietnamese language sources to argue that Diem possessed a firm vision of nation-building and sought to overcome the debilitating dependence that reliance on American support threatened to foster. As Catton shows, however, Diem's plans for South Vietnam clashed with those of the United States and proved no match for the Vietnamese communists.

Catton analyzes the mutually frustrating interactions between Diem and the administrations of Eisenhower and Kennedy, highlighting personality and cultural clashes, as well as specific disagreements within the American government over how to deal with Diem's programs and his hostility toward American goals. Revealing patterns in this uneasy alliance that have eluded other observers, he also clarifies many of the problems, setbacks, and miscalculations experienced by the communist movement during that era.

Neither an American puppet, as communist propaganda claimed, nor a backward-looking mandarin, according to Western accounts, Catton's Diem is a tragic figure who finally ran out of time, just a few weeks before JFK's assassination and at a moment when it still seemed possible for America to avoid war.

In September 2009 Dmitrii Medvedev unveiled the term that was to become the defining objective of his presidency: 'modernization.' The contributors to this book, drawn from the leading scholars in Russian affairs, focus on the contested nature of the concept of modernization and the obstacles that arose in attempting to carry it out.

Steve Itugbu, for many years a foreign policy aide to Obasanjo, draws on an extensive corpus of official documents, interviews, unpublished material and first-hand experience to explore the president's multi-faceted personality in depth. In so doing, Itugbu demonstrates that Nigeria's foreign policy has suffered through a combination of personalisation - that is subjugation to the will of Obasanjo - and the failings of bureaucratic structures. The book focuses specifically on Nigeria's decision not to intervene in Darfur in 2004, which is shown to be attributable to Obasanjo's politicking and inherent focus on shoring up his own position. Ultimately, an important opportunity for the African Union to set a precedent for humanitarian intervention was missed - a pattern which has since repeated itself across Africa. Such personalisation is common in the region, and the book therefore acts as a case study for better understanding the problems facing foreign policy making, diplomacy and leadership in Africa. Throughout, Itugbu provides a reasoned and thorough analysis of the complex and interconnected issues facing Nigeria and Africa today, and the prospects of resolving these in the future. This behind-the-scenes account of the mechanics of Nigerian foreign policy is essential reading for all students, researchers and policy makers working on Africa.

In this compelling look at charismatic leaders and their leadership styles, Abraham Zaleznik asserts that leaders are either '"hedgehogs, '" who view leadership as a single-minded track driven by unwavering rules, or '"foxes, '" who""assess and re-evaluate their goals and strategies based on ever-changing factors in business, politics, and culture. Covering dynamic personalities from Dwight Eisenhower to Martin Luther King, Jr., Zaleznik draws illuminating conclusions about psycho-politics and negotiations of power and command, celebrating innovative problem-solving skills.

The 1970s and 1980s heralded the rise of neoliberalism in United States culture, fundamentally reshaping life and work in the United States. Corporate culture increasingly penetrated other aspects of American life through popular press CEO autobiographies and management books that encouraged individuals to understand their lives in corporate terms. Propelled into the public eye by the publication of 1989's The Art of the Deal, ostensibly a CEO autobiography, Donald Trump has made a career out of reversing the autobiographical impulse, presenting an image of his life that meets his narrative needs. While many scholars have sought a political precedent for Trump's rise to power, this book argues that Trump's aesthetics and life production uniquely primed him for populist political success through their reliance on the tropes of popular corporate culture. Trump and Autobiography contextualizes Trump's autobiographical works as an extension of the popular corporate culture of the 1980s in order to examine how Trump constructs an image of himself that is indebted to the forms, genres, and mechanisms of corporate speech and narrative. Ultimately, this book suggests that Trump's appeal and resilience rest in his ability to signify as though he is a corporation, revealing the degree to which corporate culture has reshaped American society's interpretive processes.

* A unique take on how school principals can manage their overwhelming day-to-day demands while still fighting for long-term success and stability at school. * Offers strategies and practices that can be adapted by school leaders across a variety of distinct K-12 contexts. * Can serve as an ideal resource for professional development sessions or book study groups among school staff.

A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how three successive presidents and their military commanders deceived the public year after year about America's longest war, foreshadowing the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan, by Washington Post reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Craig Whitlock. Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives. Distracted by the war in Iraq, the US military become mired in an unwinnable guerrilla conflict in a country it did not understand. But no president wanted to admit failure, especially in a war that began as a just cause. Instead, the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations sent more and more troops to Afghanistan and repeatedly said they were making progress, even though they knew there was no realistic prospect for an outright victory. Just as the Pentagon Papers changed the public's understanding of Vietnam, The Afghanistan Papers contains "fast-paced and vivid" (The New York Times Book Review) revelation after revelation from people who played a direct role in the war from leaders in the White House and the Pentagon to soldiers and aid workers on the front lines. In unvarnished language, they admit that the US government's strategies were a mess, that the nation-building project was a colossal failure, and that drugs and corruption gained a stranglehold over their allies in the Afghan government. All told, the account is based on interviews with more than 1,000 people who knew that the US government was presenting a distorted, and sometimes entirely fabricated, version of the facts on the ground. Documents unearthed by The Washington Post reveal that President Bush didn't know the name of his Afghanistan war commander-and didn't want to meet with him. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that he had "no visibility into who the bad guys are." His successor, Robert Gates, said: "We didn't know jack shit about al-Qaeda." The Afghanistan Papers is a "searing indictment of the deceit, blunders, and hubris of senior military and civilian officials" (Tom Bowman, NRP Pentagon Correspondent) that will supercharge a long-overdue reckoning over what went wrong and forever change the way the conflict is remembered.

Explore the effects women have had on Congress Containing vital insights into the role women play in Congress, Women and Congress: Running, Winning, and Ruling is a unique look into the political standing of female candidates and congresswomen. Chapters written by noted political scientists consider the challenges of being a congresswoman in the male-dominated political arena, illustrate the fundamental and advanced techniques vital to winning an election, and show how congresswomen have been most effective once in office.Women and Congress brings you thoughtful discussions of: how campaign finance, speaking on the floor, introducing new legislation, and political action committees have contributed to the success of women politicians the effect of media on election outcomes, including the media's portrayal of women and the ways female candidates present themselves to the media discrimination against women in media coverage differences in the ways Democratic and Republican women view political issues the political glass ceiling (how incumbency, gender, and strategy play a role in elections) and much more

This book demonstrates how particular values and 'notions of leadership', which underpinned traditional Malay leadership, have played a crucial role in the political evolution of the modern Malaysian nation. The author discusses the nature of Malay 'notions of leadership', and considers this throughout the Malay world at the local as well as at the national level, and goes on to describe and analyse leadership from pre-independence leadership in the colonial period through the rule of Malaysia's four prime ministers. He draws on anthropology, psychology, and political and economic history to show how Malay leaders have kept within the established track of the Malay value system, responding in particular to the expectation of their people to provide a sense of national identity and unity against the complex background of the Malaysian 'mosaic', while addressing the needs of the wider multi-ethnic community.

As a writer at Vanity Fair covering the Trump family, Emily Jane Fox has spent the last year doing a deep dive into the lives of the President's children. Born Trump is the explosive narrative of her findings as an insider within the most influential family in America. Journalist Emily Jane Fox has developed a personal relationship with Ivanka and has cultivated sources close to Eric, Donald Jr., and Tiffany. She has scoured their Instagram accounts, combed through all their public speeches, spoken to their childhood friends, college acquaintances, business associates, close advisors, and campaign operatives. She's become the foremost expert on the Trump kids and, now, in this exclusive account, Fox chronicles the experiences of the Trump children, individuals who possess more control than any other First Children in the history of the presidency. Wonderfully gossipy, Born Trump examines what shaped the Trump children into who they are - a shared familial history that will inevitably form American history in the coming years. Born Trump explores what it was like to grow up Trump and what this reveals about living in Trump's America, in turn painting an intimate portrait of the 45th President of the United States from the perspective of his most inner circle. Given their father's need to be in the spotlight, his bellicose and litigious nature, and how often his personal life played out in public, it seems astonishing that his children remain so close to him. And yet this is part of the Trump ethos - like royalty, they stand together, encased not in palaces, but in Trump Tower. Fox looks at the childhood privileges and traumas, the individual adolescences and early adulthoods that have been lightly chronicled in the tabloids but never detailed thoughtfully or in depth, the family business that brought them back together and the dynamics therein, the campaign that tested the family in ways the children could not have imagined, and now, the wide-open slate in front of them in Washington, D.C. Full of surprising insights and previously untold stories, Born Trump will quench the ever-increasing desire for a greater understanding of who these people are, how they were raised, and what makes them tick.

This book is among the first serious looks at the first 18 months of the Biden administration and its many challenges. From a tortured transition to a raging pandemic, a fragile economy, and the threat of international insecurity, Joe Biden entered office at a time even more fraught than that he faced as a new vice president. Confronting a nation divided sharply along political, cultural, and sociodemographic lines, Biden and Kamala Harris promised to unify the country, change the tone in Washington, mend fences with allies, and "build back better" a world assailed from stem to stern. This book assesses the successes and shortfalls of the Biden administration's first 18 months in office, putting all in perspective of the current state of democracy in America. Intended to introduce students of American government to the person (Biden) and the institution (presidency) within a particular system (separation of powers), this book will appeal broadly to citizens, media, and general interest readers in the United States and abroad.

Eight Days in September is a riveting, behind-the-scenes account of the turbulent eight-day period in September 2008 that led to the removal of Thabo Mbeki as president of South Africa.

As secretary of the cabinet and head (director-general) of the presidency at the time, Frank Chikane was directly responsible for managing the transition from Mbeki to Kgalema Motlanthe, and then on to Jacob Zuma, and was one of only a few who had a front-row seat to the unfolding drama.

Eight Days in September builds substantially on the so-called Chikane Files, a series of controversial articles Chikane published with Independent Newspapers in July 2010, to provide an insider's perspective on this key period in South Africa's recent history, and to explore Thabo Mbeki's legacy.

"An examination of the Moroccan monarchy's religious authority and its use of rituals of power, this book look at how the monarchy limits the ability of Islamist and non-Islamist opposition groups to contest the its legitimacy in Morocco. The author explores the micro-dynamics of symbolic power and the extent to which the regime uses rituals of power to create a political culture conducive to the monarchy's supremacy in the socio-political realm, thus promoting regime stability in Morocco. These rituals have been institutionalized in the political system and have become part of the political discourse in Morocco. The monarchy's religious authority and its use of rituals of power impede the ability of Islamist and other opposition groups to mobilize and to penetrate Moroccan society. The prevalence of this cultural and social hegemony contributes to the stability and resilience of the monarchical authoritarian regime in Morocco"--

A highly original and critical introduction to the revolutionary and napoleonic conflicts. It illuminates the less well-known areas of the subject, such as the changing atttitude of the French people towards Napoleon, as well as providing a balanced account of the campaigns of Wellington and Napoleon.
Based on current historiography, this book discusses the expansion of France, the extent to which Napoleon was responsible for this success, and the events leading up to his subsequent exile. It also provides a clear examination of each of the coalitions which fought against France.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203209745

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mao Tse-tung and Genghis Khan are among the 200 well-known historical figures included in this volume. Examples of other lesser-known, yet important, individuals covered in this work are: Adolphus Gustavas, Swedish empire creator; Hatshepsut, queen of ancient Egyptian dynasty; and Jean Jaures, French socialist leader and pacifist. Each synopsis provides information on each individual's enduring impact on the common understanding of fundamental themes of human existence.

In 1922 Winston Churchill prepared to defend his parliamentary seat of Dundee in the General Election. He had represented the city since 1908, enjoyed a majority of more than 15,000 and, after five previous victories, confidently described it as a 'life seat'. But one man had other ideas, and Churchill was in for the fight of his life. This is the story of how god-fearing teetotaller Edwin Scrymgeour fought and won an election against Britain's most famous politician. It begins with their first electoral contest in 1908 and follows their political sparring over the next 15 years until Scrymgeour's eventual victory in 1922, when he became the only prohibitionist ever elected to the House of Commons. As well as vividly bringing to life an extraordinary personal and political rivalry, the book also explores for the first time Churchill's controversial relationship with Scotland, including his attitude to devolution.

Recent populist movements online and around the globe have drawn the attention of news media, social and political analysts, and scholars, all of whom seek to understand the patterns of influence which have produced and are produced by this populist surge. Whether nationalist or revolutionary, ideological or geopolitical, these movements have changed the way we relate to one another as leaders and followers. In its various forms, populism is changing the face and geography of global politics and society. Leadership, Populism and Resistance draws upon the study of history, politics, policy, media, virtue, and heroism to examine the ways in which populism and popular movements have evolved, what we have learned (and failed to learn) from them, how we depict and discuss them through popular media and the press, and, finally, how we can understand virtue and heroism as a consequence or-reaction to-populism and popularity. This volume uses a multidisciplinary approach to examine the causes and impacts of populism and popular movements across time and around the world which would appeal to a wide variety of scholars and practitioners. Its chapters provide potential teaching tools within individual disciplines (history, psychology, media studies, political science, literature, education, leadership studies) which are useful for educators at all levels concerned with social movements, populism and democracy. The interdisciplinary nature of the volume is also accessible to non-academic audiences interested in modern populist and popular socio-political trends.

This enriching book explores a theoretical gap in international relations and the role of leader ambition. It presents the idea that some leaders transcend political constraints and as a result, they fundamentally reshape their domestic polity while introducing change to the international system.Mark Menaldo revisits what is a fundamental question in the study of international politics: the role of statesmanship in foreign affairs. He critiques prevailing realist, rational choice, and personality theories of international relations for conceiving of leadership too narrowly. This book introduces the novel theory of transformative ambition, the idea that some leaders transcend domestic and international political constraints and, as a result, fundamentally reshape their domestic polity while introducing change to the international system. Drawing on Aristotle's idea of magnanimity and Niccolo Machiavelli's lessons to princes through his examples of great founders, the author shows how leaders throughout time accomplish great goals through the force of their vision, character, and practice of statesmanship. Case studies include Otto Von Bismarck, Latin America's autocrats, Woodrow Wilson, Charles de Gaulle, and Pericles. Providing a critique of international relations theory and a critical examination of how leaders with transformative ambition change domestic and international politics, this book will appeal to leadership, politics and international relations academics and students. Contents: Introduction 1. Realism and Ambition: Otto von Bismarck Reconsidered 2. The Strategic Perspective of Leadership: Ambition as Political Survival 3. Personality and Political Ambition 4. Transformational Leadership: A Theoretical Critique 5. Aristotle's Idea of Magnanimity and Transformative Ambition 6. Pericles' Transformative Ambition (1): Regime Politics and Character 7. Pericles' Transformative Ambition (2): Democracy, Empire, and the Peloponnesian War Conclusion References Index