Winston Churchill understood and wielded the power of words throughout his six decades in the public eye. His wartime writings and speeches revealed both his vision for the future and his own personal feelings, fascinating generation after generation with their powerful style and thoughtful reflection. In this book Churchill's official biographer, Martin Gilbert, has skilfully selected 200 extracts from his entire oeuvre of books, articles and speeches that reflect his life story, career and philosophy. From intimate memories of his childhood to his contributions to half a century of debates on war and social policy, we see how Churchill used words for different purposes: to argue for moral causes; to advocate action in the national and international spheres, and to tell of his own struggles, setbacks and achievements. Martin Gilbert's informed choice of extracts and his illuminating explanations linking them together create a compelling biography of Churchill as recounted in the great man's own inimitable words.

An in-depth exploration of the political economy of the Chinese technology company Baidu which, along with China's other tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, has emerged as a leading global Internet company. Baidu - not Google - is the dominant search company in China, the largest Internet market in the world, whose impact on the political economy is no longer limited to China, but the broader global market, and in particular the US economy. This book outlines the intense competition within the search engine market and illustrates the inter-capitalist dynamic in the contemporary Chinese Internet sector, and highlights Baidu's uniqueness on the global stage as it pivots to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and expands into other industrial sectors. ShinJoung Yeo offers a window into the intensifying geopolitical shaping of the global Internet industry, and the contention and collaboration among multinational firms and states to control the most dynamic capitalist economic sector - the Internet. An important and timely analysis for anyone interested in the political economy of the global media, communication, and information industries, and particularly those requiring a better understanding of the Internet industry in China.

This major new reference book provides an authoritative and thorough analysis of the political changes which have occurred in Eastern Europe since the demise of communism. It offers an historical, comparative perspective of the region and focuses on the social consequences of the transition, historical legacies, and variations between countries in the sequences of the changes. This comprehensive handbook includes detailed examinations of elections, the formation of governments, electoral systems, and constitutional arrangements. It features country case studies on Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, and Bulgaria. These are supplemented by several chapters drawing conclusions on the transition to democracy in the region as a whole, and the consolidation of democracy in a post-communist setting. The Handbook of Political Change in Eastern Europe provides a state-of-the art companion which will be indispensable for students and scholars in the social sciences including transitional economics, comparative economic systems and political science, as well as for policymakers and practitioners.

PERHAPS THE GREATEST VICTORY OF THE OPPRESSED OVER THEIR OPPRESSORS IN ALL HISTORY The end of slavery started in what was then San Domingo. In 1791, the enslaved people of the most prized French sugar plantation colony revolted against their masters. For over twelve years, against a backdrop of the French Revolution, they fought an epic black liberation struggle for control of the island. Theirs was the first and only successful slave revolution. It was the creation of Haiti as a nation, the first independent black republic outside of Africa, and an international inspiration to the persecuted and enslaved. This is the impassioned and beautifully drawn story of the Haitian Revolution and its incredible leader: Toussaint Louverture. The text of this graphic novel is a play by C. L. R. James that opened in London in 1936 with Paul Robeson in the title role. For the first time, black actors appeared on the British stage in a work by a black playwright. The script had been lost for almost seventy years when a draft copy was discovered among James's archives. Now this extraordinary drama has been reimagined by artists Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee.

"He who introduces into public office the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world."
--Ronald Reagan, 1967, quoting Benjamin Franklin
Long before George W. Bush's efforts to bring faith-based initiatives--and the identification of evil in the world--to the modern presidency, Ronald Reagan was using his own brand of Christianity to influence the course of world events in a conscious and consistent manner. In this bestselling, definitive spiritual biography of our fortieth president, God and Ronald Reagan, politician historian Paul Kengor presents a meticulously researched, fascinating account of Reagan's life as seen through the lens of his relationship to God, and traces this relationship to its culmination: America's battle against the atheistic Soviet Union.
An intensely private man, Reagan kept his personal religious beliefs relatively quiet over the years. But as Kengor shows, Reagan's own words demonstrate that his religious orientation was shaped in his childhood--and was retained with extraordinary consistency throughout his life. Schooled as a young man in the simple religious ideas of his Protestant mother, Reagan embraced Christianity with the fervor of a lonely boy who had found his first friend. Reagan's earthly father was a distant man who drank heavily and offered little in the way of comfort, so Reagan turned toward a heavenly father, a dependent and accessible God. Eventually, Kengor argues, Reagan's religious framework became a presidential one--and one that ran head-on into an anti-religious war in Moscow. Nothing more strongly clashed with Reagan's belief system than Soviet communism; he saw the victims of Soviet oppressionas weary soldiers in the great struggle for faith in the 20th century. To Reagan, the United States was a divinely ordained beacon of freedom--a Shining City on a Hill--and as Kengor conclusively demonstrates, it was this conviction that compelled him to a series of challenges that would eventually bring down Communism once and for all.
Blending groundbreaking research and fascinating storytelling, God and Ronald Reagan, has forever changed our understanding of one of our most influential presidents.

The land development unit (LDU) was a small; non-government organization (NGO) engaged from 1992 to 2004 in agricultural and rural development in the Western and Northern Cape provinces. At its inception, agriculture was the weakest link in the array of support to rural communities in the region - the small, disadvantaged farmers in the Coloured Rural Areas and black vegetable growers in the townships. The LDU was deliberately established to fill this gap. The title tells the story of this significant NGO that was active during the critical period when South Africa was transforming itself into a democratic nation. Starting work in the early 1990s, it pioneered participatory methods, and was virtually the only organization at that time running operational projects with these communities. A companion online publication traces the LDU's conception and birth, discusses its philosophy and strategy, management, funding and public awareness activities, and analyses why it was so vulnerable and finally faded away. The title breaks new ground in that it is the first detailed account of the work of a small NGO which supported disadvantaged farmers and growers in the arid western part of South Africa. Many other NGOs have disappeared from the South African scene without leaving a proper record of their work. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a supporter of the LDU from the very beginning, has written the foreword of this 200-page book is published under the auspices of the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), School of Government, University of the Western Cape.

The European Union is often attacked for its 'democratic deficit', namely its deficiencies in representation, transparency and accountability, as well as its lack of popular support. Can these shortcomings be counteracted by the development of a viable European public sphere? This book assesses the possible formation of a communicative space that might enable and engender the creation of a transnational or a supranational public. The contributors consider the EU's democratic credentials and how well it communicates, and they also evaluate the major institutions and their links to general publics. The European Union and the Public Sphere emphasizes a 'deliberative democratic' perspective on the public sphere, addressing some key questions: * What are the prospects for a European public sphere? * Should we think in terms of the EU having a single public sphere, or are overlapping public spheres a more viable option? * What do this book's findings on the question of the public sphere tell us about the EU as a political entity? Students and scholars of European democracy, political communication, and the politics of institutions will all be greatly interested by this book.

The complete riveting transcript of the historic case against the president for igniting the January 6 siege of the Capitol Prosecution of an Insurrection is the complete, riveting transcript of the historic case against President Donald J. Trump for igniting the January 6 siege of the Capitol. Following the norm-shattering attempt by his followers to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, the second impeachment trial of the president seared a new lexicon into our collective consciousness and marked a watershed moment in American history. The case, presented to the Senate by impeachment managers from the House, marked a bravura performance by members of Congress who were themselves the targets of the rioters incited by the president only days earlier. Citizens disturbed by the events of January 2021 and Republican attempts to rewrite history will find in these pages the most authoritative record of one of our democracy's darkest hours, including: * The official articles of impeachment against the president for incitement of an insurrection * The response of President Trump to the articles of impeachment, on behalf of the House defense lawyers * The complete trial transcript, including the full text of the arguments made by the House representatives and the full text of the president's defense * Headshots from the trial of all nine House impeachment managers in action, including lead manager Representative Jamie Raskin, as well as all three House defense lawyers * Photographs, timelines, and screenshots of tweets entered as evidence, as well as stills from the videos presented Prosecution of an Insurrection preserves for posterity an episode that ranks with the McCarthy hearings, Watergate, and the Iran-Contra investigation for its importance in American political history.

The United States and her allies have found themselves plunged into 'a war over [humanity's] future social and political organization' with criminal challengers to the nation-state form. These new wars are currently being fought globally with Al Qaeda, in Iraq with shifting coalitions of criminal gangs, insurgents, and Jihadi groups and throughout the Americas with the Maras (the first group of 3rd GEN Gangs to emerge). More new wars are poised to develop and the on-going ones are far from over, with more attacks upon the homelands of the US and her allies expected. This cutting edge book looks initially at the theoretical and legal side of criminal-state and criminal-soldier emergence and growth, before focusing on criminal-states and criminal-soldiers themselves, with particular attention paid to Al Qaeda, Hizballah, Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13), Caliphate and Mahdi concerns, Islamic Fundamentalist Use of Beheadings, Criminalization of Russian State Security, Nuclear Materials Trafficking, and Outlaw Private Security Firms. With the contributions from international experts, this book makes for critical reading for political scientists and criminal justice students and researchers, policy makers, and military and law enforcement practitioners. This book was previously published as a special issue of Global Crime.

The United States and her allies have found themselves plunged into 'a war over [humanity's] future social and political organization' with criminal challengers to the nation-state form. These new wars are currently being fought globally with Al Qaeda, in Iraq with shifting coalitions of criminal gangs, insurgents, and Jihadi groups and throughout the Americas with the Maras (the first group of 3rd GEN Gangs to emerge). More new wars are poised to develop and the on-going ones are far from over, with more attacks upon the homelands of the US and her allies expected. This cutting edge book looks initially at the theoretical and legal side of criminal-state and criminal-soldier emergence and growth, before focusing on criminal-states and criminal-soldiers themselves, with particular attention paid to Al Qaeda, Hizballah, Mara Salvatrucha (MS 13), Caliphate and Mahdi concerns, Islamic Fundamentalist Use of Beheadings, Criminalization of Russian State Security, Nuclear Materials Trafficking, and Outlaw Private Security Firms. With the contributions from international experts, this book makes for critical reading for political scientists and criminal justice students and researchers, policy makers, and military and law enforcement practitioners. This book was previously published as a special issue of Global Crime.

Women, Men, and Elections sheds new light on gendered political behaviour by analysing the relationship between policy supply and gender gaps in vote choice across elections in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and multiple Western European countries. Rosalind Shorrocks argues that the electoral context, and specifically policy supply, are associated with the ways in which vote choice at election time is gendered. Using data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the Comparative Manifesto Project, Shorrocks finds that the extent to which men and women differ in their vote choice is contingent on the policy choices that parties off er to voters. Women and men respond to party policy positions in ways that are linked to both their gender and their socioeconomic position, producing variation in gendered political behaviour across elections, across countries, and across subgroups in society. Women, Men, and Elections offers a much- needed fresh perspective on our understanding of political behaviour, representation, and party competition. It serves as an excellent supplementary text for students and scholars of comparative politics, gender and politics, and political behaviour.

Europe's rapacious hunger for other people's lands is one of the key shaping forces of our contemporary world. Everything is touched by our colonial past, from the way we see the world to the food we eat. Our contemporary preoccupations and ills - from globalization to humanitarian intervention to international terrorism - have colonialism somewhere in their genetic make-up. The character and policies of contemporary international organizations - from the United Nations to the European Union - have also been deeply affected by the colonial inheritance of their members, whether as perpetrators or "victims". Weaving together the complex strands of history and politics into one compact narrative, this book addresses the key theories of colonialism, examining them against contemporary realities. It goes on to looks at how the different policies of colonisers have had profoundly contradictory effects on the way different empires ended in the 20th century. These endings in turn affected the entire nature of modern day international relations. It also exposes the moral ambiguities of colonialism and the hypocrisies, which underlay colonial policies in the 19th and 20th centuries.

An international and interdisciplinary perspective on the adoption and governance of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in defence and military innovation by major and middle powers. Advancements in AI and ML pose pressing questions related to evolving conceptions of military power, compliance with international humanitarian law, peace promotion, strategic stability, arms control, future operational environments, and technology races. To navigate the breadth of this AI and international security agenda, the contributors to this book include experts on AI, technology governance, and defence innovation to assess military AI strategic perspectives from major and middle AI powers alike. These include views of how the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, the European Union, and Russia see AI/ML as a technology with the potential to reshape military affairs and power structures in the broader international system. This diverse set of views aims to help elucidate key similarities and differences between AI powers in the evolving strategic context. A valuable read for scholars of security studies, public policy, and STS studies with an interest in the impacts of AI and ML technologies.

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.

When 170 000 black farmers occupied 4 000 white farms in Zimbabwe in 2000, it caused world-wide shockwaves. A decade later, Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land finds that the new farmers are doing relatively well, improving their lives and becoming increasingly productive, especially since the US dollar became the local currency. While not minimising the depredations of the Mugabe government, and accepting that many of President Mugabe's supporters benefited from the ruler's largesse, the book counters the dominant media narratives of oppression and economic stagnation in Zimbabwe. The book is based on a detailed study of what is actually happening on the ground, drawing on the authors' own fieldwork and extensive other research. Hanlon, Manjengwa, and Smart show how, despite political violence and mind-boggling hyperinflation, "ordinary" Zimbabweans took charge of their destinies in creative and unacknowledged ways. This raises important questions for the upcoming elections, and also presents new issues for the international community, because United States and European Union sanctions are not just against a corrupt and dictatorial elite, but also against 170 000 ordinary farmers who now use more of the land than the white farmers they displaced and are already producing nearly as much as those white farmers. With stories and pictures, real farmers tell of their own experiences of setting up the farms and building up production. Fanuel Mutandiro tells how he built up his farm and the 70 trips to Mbare Market in Harare with a tractor and trailer full of tomatoes before he could afford a truck. Esther Makwara shows off her maize field with 8 tonnes per hectare - better than nearly all white farmers. And Mrs Chibanda shows off with pride her new tobacco barn where she cures the tobacco from her 1.5 hectare. But these stories are backed up by data - from the authors' own fieldwork and extensive other research.

A revised edition of the Notting Hill Editions essay collection by the late Sir Roger Scruton with a new introduction by Douglas Murray. Confessions of a Heretic is a collection of provocative essays by the influential social commentator and polemicist Roger Scruton. Each "confession" reveals aspects of the author's thinking that his critics would probably have advised him to keep to himself. In this selection, covering subjects from art and architecture to politics and nature conservation, Scruton challenges popular opinion on key aspects of our culture: What can we do to protect Western values against Islamist extremism? How can we nurture real friendship through social media? Why is the nation-state worth preserving? How should we achieve a timely death against the advances of modern medicine? This provocative collection seeks to answer the most pressing problems of our age. In his introduction, the bestselling author and commentator Douglas Murray writes of what it cost Scruton to express views considered unpalatable, and of the importance of these ideas after Scruton's death.

The European Union is often attacked for its 'democratic deficit', namely its deficiencies in representation, transparency and accountability, as well as its lack of popular support. Can these shortcomings be counteracted by the development of a viable European public sphere?

This book assesses the possible formation of a communicative space that might enable and engender the creation of a transnational or a supranational public. The contributors consider the EU's democratic credentials and how well it communicates, and they also evaluate the major institutions and their links to general publics.

The European Union and the Public Sphere emphasizes a 'deliberative democratic' perspective on the public sphere, addressing some key questions:

- What are the prospects for a European public sphere?
- Should we think in terms of the EU having a single public sphere, or are overlapping public spheres a more viable option?
- What do this book's findings on the question of the public sphere tell us about the EU as a political entity?

Students and scholars of European democracy, political communication, and the politics of institutions will all be greatly interested by this book.

The dramatic and meticulously researched new book from former criminal defence attorney and criminal investigator Seth Abramson into the complex web of ties surrounding Donald Trump, showing how Proof of Collusion was only the beginning of the story. In late 2015, international dealmaker and current cooperating witness in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation George Nader convened a secret meeting aboard a massive luxury yacht in the Red Sea. Nader pitched to several Middle Eastern leaders a plan for a new pro-US, pro-Israel alliance of Arab nations that would fundamentally alter the geopolitics of the Middle East while marginalising Iran, Syria and Turkey. To succeed, the plan would need a highly placed American politician willing to drop sanctions on Russia so that Vladimir Putin would in turn agree to end his support for Iran. The gathered leaders agreed their perfect American partner was Donald Trump, who had benefited immensely from his Saudi, Emirati and Russian dealings for many years, and who had, months earlier, become the only US presidential candidate to argue for a unilateral end to Russian sanctions. So begins New York Times bestselling author Seth Abramson's explosive new book Proof of Conspiracy: How Trump's International Collusion Threatens American Democracy, a story of international intrigue whose massive cast of characters includes Israeli intelligence operatives, Russian oligarchs, Saudi death squads, American mercenary companies, Trump's innermost circle and several members of the Trump family - all part of a clandestine multinational agreement that takes us from Washington, DC and Moscow to the Middle Eastern capitals of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Jerusalem, Cairo, Tehran and Doha. Proof of Conspiracy is a chilling and unforgettable depiction of the dangers the world now faces.

Russian Politics Today: Stability and Fragility provides an accessible and nuanced introduction to contemporary Russian politics at a time of increasing uncertainty. Using the theme of stability versus fragility as its overarching framework, this innovative textbook explores the forces that shape Russia's politics, economy, and society. The volume provides up-to-date coverage of core themes - Russia's strong presidency, its weak party system, the role of civil society, and its dependence on oil and gas revenues - alongside path-breaking chapters on the politics of race, class, gender, sexuality, and the environment. An international and diverse team of experts presents the most comprehensive available account of the evolution of Russian politics in the post-Soviet era, providing the tools for interpreting the past and the present while also offering a template for understanding future developments.

An elegant, revealing portrait of a remarkable family that helped to shape the politics, arts and sciences of modern Britain. The Times hailed Richard Burdon Haldane as 'one of the most powerful ... intellects' British statesmanship had ever seen. His brother John, a great physiologist, invented the first gas masks used in World War One. Their sister Elizabeth was among the first women to become a senior public servant. Their mother Mary, friend and advisor to top politicians and churchmen, nurtured these exceptional minds. Mary's grandchildren swapped her traditional roots for radical socialism, but continued the brilliant family legacy. Naomi Mitchison was a doyenne of Scottish literature; one Nobel prizewinner called her brother, the geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, 'the cleverest man I ever knew'. Like the Darwins and Keyneses, this clan of thinkers lived in rapidly changing times, and helped to remake the world around them. Drawing on extensive family interviews and previously unseen private papers, Serious Minds details scandal, tragedy and achievement within a dynasty that shaped modern Britain-from the welfare state, education system and military, to our understanding of energy, the human body, and the origins of life itself.

In his annual presidential address on 8 January 1986, ANC president Oliver Tambo called on South Africans to make apartheid ungovernable through militant action. But unknown to the world, the quiet-spoken mathematics teacher and aspirant priest turned reluctant revolutionary had also on that very day set up a secret think tank in Lusaka, which he named the Constitution Committee, giving it an ‘ad hoc unique exercise’ that had ‘no precedent in the history of the movement’.

Knowing that all wars end at a negotiating table, and judging the balance of forces to be moving in favour of the liberation movement, he wanted the ANC to be prepared and to be holding the initiative after the political collapse of apartheid. Guided by a brilliant analysis by Pallo Jordan, Tambo instructed his new think tank to prepare a constitutional framework for a liberated, non-racial, democratic South Africa. Their task was to formulate the principles and draft the outlines of a constitution that could unite South Africa when the time came to talk in the fledgling days of freedom and democracy.

The seven-member team, including Albie Sachs, Kader Asmal and Zola Skweyiya, started deliberating and reporting to Tambo. In correspondence, they typically addressed him as ‘Dear Comrade President’.

Drawing on the personal archives of participants, Dear Comrade President explains how this process, which fundamentally influenced the history of contemporary South Africa, unfolded. Why and how did it happen? What were the first written words? When and where were they put on paper? By whom? What values did they espouse? And how did the committee’s work fit into the broader struggle? This book answers these questions in ways that have not been done before and provides paradigm-changing insights into the purposeful first steps taken in the making of South Africa’s Constitution.

A deliciously irreverent and humorous insider’s account of 25 years working at the very top of British political television ‘A delicious read’ – Emily Maitlis 'Very funny’ – Steve Coogan Why Is This Lying Bastard Lying to Me? – a question famously asked by master TV inquisitor Jeremy Paxman – is a history of thirty years in British politics viewed through the prism of political television, from Thatcher’s fall to the crash and burn of Liz Truss, via the Iraq War, austerity, Brexit and Partygate. Rob Burley’s deliciously irreverent insider’s account of a career spent trying to get straight answers from politicians offers a unique insight into the British political class and their complicated relationship with the truth. Rob Burley has prepared, practised and helped prosecute political interviews with eight prime ministers over more than twenty-five years, working alongside the biggest names in television. This book is his love letter to the political interview and, with the help of exclusive conversations with TV giants from Jeremy Paxman and Andrew Neil to Andrew Marr and Emily Maitlis, will take you inside the process like never before.

Nearly two decades after he was anointed by Nelson Mandela as his successor, Cyril Ramaphosa has at last taken office as the president of South Africa. But the country Ramaphosa has inherited is very different from the rainbow nation that Mandela led in the 1990s.

The South Africa of 2018 is divided and caught in a web of state capture, corruption, poverty and despair. The Zuma years have left the country and its institutions battered and bruised.

Can Ramaphosa pull South Africa out of the quagmire and restore it to its former glory, as so many people desperately hope? Is his turn at the presidency really the beginning of a new dawn.

Ralph Mathekga answers these questions, and more, in this riveting book.

This book maps out how political networks and centres of power, engaged in patronage, corruption, and illegality, effectively constituted the Afghan state, often with the complicity of the U.S.-led military intervention and the internationally directed statebuilding project. It argues that politics and statehood in Afghanistan, in particular in the last two decades, including the ultimate collapse of the government in August 2021, are best understood in terms of the dynamics of internal political networks, through which warlords and patronage networks came to capture and control key sectors within the state and economy, including mining, banking, and illicit drugs as well as elections and political processes. Networked politics emerged as the dominant mode of governance that further transformed and consolidated Afghanistan into a networked state, with the state institutions and structures functioning as the principal "marketplace" for political networks' bargains and rent-seeking. The facade of state survival and fragmented political order was a performative act, and the book contends, sustained through massive international military spending and development aid, obscuring the reality of resource redistribution among key networked elites and their supporters. Overall, the book offers a way to explain what it was that the international community and the Afghan elites in power got so wrong that brought Afghanistan full circle and the Taliban back to power.

'The young dictator comes under close scrutiny in this intelligent account' Sunday Times When Kim Jong Un became the leader of North Korea in 2011, many expected his rule to be short. Years later, he remains the unchallenged dictator of a nuclear rogue state with weaponry capable of threatening the West. In this behind-the-scenes look, former CIA analyst and North Korea expert Jung H. Pak reveals the explosive story of Kim Jong II's third son: the spoilt and impetuous child, the mediocre student, the ruthless murderer, the shrewd grand strategist.