Acclaimed historian Michael Burleigh examines assassination as a special category of political violence and asks whether, like a contagious disease, it can be catching.

Focusing chiefly on the last century and a half, Burleigh takes readers from Europe, Russia, Israel and the United States to the Congo, India, Iran, Laos, Rwanda, South Africa and Vietnam. And, as we travel, we revisit notable assassinations, among them Leon Trotsky, Hendrik Verwoerd, Juvénal Habyarimana, Indira Gandhi, Yitzhak Rabin and Jamal Khashoggi.

Combining human drama, questions of political morality and the sheer randomness of events, Day of the Assassins is a riveting insight into the politics of violence.

Xenakis examines the responses of Soviet experts in American academia--primarily political scientists, but also economists and defense scholars who specialized in the USSR--to the unfolding evidence of Soviet reform during the 1970s and 1980s and to its ultimate collapse. He concludes that American Sovietologists and other political scientists were more responsive to the Cold War consensus--to the needs of the State Department, Defense, and CIA policy makers and to the official Washington line of the moment--than to the changing face of the Soviet Union.

As Xenakis makes clear, many of the Cold War ideas and attitudes shared by Sovietologists--the notion that the USSR was an evil empire; the idea that Soviet society was irredeemably xenophobic and indolent; that the Soviet political and economic system could not be fixed or reformed; and the view that the best way for Washington to deal with MoscoW's influence was to contain the USSR through arms races, global, and proxy wars--were reminiscent of the policies and arguments of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations, not to the facts on the ground in the 1970s and 1980s. An important work for scholars, students, and researchers involved with Soviet and Russian studies, international political and military affairs, intellectual history, and the relationship between academia and the government.

In June 1944, after two wars with the Soviet Union, the Finnish region of Karelia was ceded to the Soviet Union. As a result, the Finnish population of Karelia, nearly 11% of the Finnish population, was moved across the new border. The war years, the loss of territory, the resettlement of the Karelian population, and the reparations that had to be paid to the Allied Forces, were experiences shared by most people living in Finland between 1939 and the late 1950s. Using a family's memoirs, the author shows how these traumatic events affected people in all spheres of their lives and also how they coped physically and emotionally.

This book brings together a group of scholars from diverse disciplines to interrogate everyday life events in various interpersonal and organizational contexts so as to answer an age-old question: what happens when (carriers of) cultures meet, or, when East meets West? The contributors to this volume argue that, rather than assume clashes of civilizations, assimilation, conversion and essentialism to be the expected outcomes of cultural encounters, we should focus our analytical attention on processes rather than outcomes; on emergence, dialectics, contradictions, ironies and paradoxes, and complexity. We should focus on attempting to learn and grow, to synthesize and integrate, to create and innovate, to change and transform, at personal, micro, macro and global levels. Or, in one word: hybridity. Contexts of cultural encounters analyzed in this book range from business organizations, through individual travels, to personal philosophies, and from mechanical models to complex systems as social imaginaries. This book is based on a special issue of World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution.

The tension between the aim of creating sustainable multilateral region-building dynamics and the need to find more differentiated and flexible forms of cooperation has been ever-present in Euro-Mediterranean relations. The proliferation of different and partially overlapping initiatives in recent years - the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Union for the Mediterranean - is a plain expression of this tension. The 2011 episodes of regime-change in the Arab world have once again placed the debate about differentiation in EU's relations with Southern and Eastern Mediterranean Countries at the top of the Union's foreign policy agenda. This book contributes to theoretical and practical debates on whether differentiation processes can aid or hinder policy convergence processes and region-building efforts more widely. The contributions to this collection assess the actual significance and consequences of differentiation in Euro-Mediterranean relations through sector-specific in-depth analyses, covering issue areas as varied as environmental policy, migration, foreign and defence policy, trade, energy, civil protection and democracy promotion. The particular angle and comprehensive analysis of this book will make it of great interest for both scholars and policy makers alike in a moment when Euro-Mediterranean are in need of a thorough rethink. This book was based on a special issue of Mediterranean Politics.

In 2002, the second Berlusconi government, given its parliamentary strength, should have been able to implement its ambitious reform program. This 18th edition of Italian Politics examines the events of that year in light of the opportunities and the domestic and international constraints faced by Italy's center-right government. This volume discusses the actions of the Italian president, the prime minister's function within the cabinet, the overall behaviour of the government vis-a-vis Parliament, majority-opposition clashes in the legislature, foreign affairs, and economic and immigration policy. Moreover, the volume focuses on selected heated issues, including Berlusconi's conflict with the judiciary, reform of the labor market, evolution of banking foundations, and the crisis of Fiat, the nation's largest manufacturing group.

"Stalin7;s Cold War" presents a highly original analysis of the Soviet leader7;s role in the gestation of the Cold War. Drawing on rich new evidence from Soviet, East European and British archives, the book offers fresh and illuminating insights into the evolution of Stalin7;s strategy in the transition from cooperation with the United States and Britain during World War II to ideological and geopolitical confrontation. The book reveals Stalin7;s efforts to grapple with the dynamic interaction between democratic and communist parties in the domestic politics of European countries in the aftermath of World War II, and his key role in the gradual but inexorable shift towards communist monopoly of power in the countries of Eastern Europe.

The evolution of economic organization, political authority, and social values in post-Mao China is the focus of this distinguished investigation which challenges standard interpretations of contemporary China. Mao's death in 1976 made possible a shift from movement politics that produced a gradual dissolution of pre-existing factions and allowed a redefined political agenda to emerge. This post-Mao agenda, in which the notion of class struggle as the key link was explicitly repudiated, formed the foundation for China's post-1978 modernization program. Burton describes this program as post-socialist, arguing that socialism as a definitive category has become irrelevant. He contends that demands for the reform of China's system of economic organization were the direct result of the failure of the Party's post-revolutionary political agenda and that subsequent economic improvements led to calls for modernization of the nation's structure of political authority. The author also describes the dramatic transformation of prevalent social values that has occurred during the same period. The original research and extensive use of vernacular sources, as well as Burton's multi-disciplinary and integrative approach make this volume required reading for students and scholars of contemporary politics, the sociology of China, and contemporary Chinese thought. Political and Social Change in China Since 1978 will fill the background information gap for generalists intrigued by recent events in China.

Among the various secret or staged processes in court that are all to some degree the focus of public attention, the process against Hungarian Prime Minister Imre Nagy of the 1956 Revolution is especially noteworthy. This volume contains the most important documents of this process: the indictment, the death sentence, the prosecutor's motion 31 years later concerning the repeal of the death sentence, and the acquittal. The separate research papers analyze the historical background of the process and the unlawful practices followed in the administration of justice of the communist party-state, best exemplified by the most serious infringements in the process against Imre Nagy. This book may be read with interest not only by lawyers and historians, but by all interested in the struggle of human will against political terror.

The National Health Service has provided Britain's healthcare since 1948. This institution has been the subject of tense political debate since its inception and has undergone a number of complex reforms and restructures. But the meanings of the NHS are not only - or even primarily - lived out in politics. Nearly every Briton comes into contact with the NHS - from cradle to grave - and this system of healthcare shapes society, culture and everyday life. This book charts these multiple meanings, looking at the NHS as a site of work, activism and consumerism, as a space and in cultural representations. Looking in these ways, the book shows how and why the NHS has become a symbol of Britishness and an object of fierce protectiveness, even love, today. -- .

Shortlisted for the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022 Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction The Cold War was not just a contest of power. It was also about ideas, in the broadest sense - economic and political, artistic and personal. In The Free World, the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning scholar and critic Louis Menand tells the story of American culture in the pivotal years from the end of World War II to Vietnam and stresses the rich flow of ideas across the Atlantic. How did elitism and an anti-totalitarian scepticism of passion and ideology give way to a new sensibility defined by experimentation and loving the Beatles? How was the ideal of 'freedom' applied to causes that ranged from anti-communism and civil rights to radical acts of self-creation via art and even crime? With the wit and insight familiar to readers of The Metaphysical Club, Menand takes us inside Hannah Arendt's Manhattan, the Paris of Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir and the post-war vogue for French existentialism, structuralism and post-structuralism. He also shows how Europeans played a vital role in promoting and influencing American art and thought, revealing how America's once neglected culture became respected and adored. With unprecedented verve and range, this book offers a masterly account of the main characters and minor figures who played part in shaping the post-war world of art and thought.

Transatlantic Relations Since 1945 offers a comprehensive account of transatlantic relations in the second half of the 20th century (extending to the present-day). The transatlantic relationship has been the bedrock of international relations since the end of World War II. This new textbook will focus on the period since the defeat of Nazi Germany, when the multitude of links between United States and Western Europe were created, extended, and multiplied. Written in an accessible style, it emphasizes transatlantic interactions, and avoids the temptation to focus on either U.S. 'domination' or European attempts to 'resist' an American effort to subjugate the old continent. That influence has travelled across the Atlantic in both directions is one of the starting points of this text. Structured chronologically, the book will be built around three key themes: Security: From the Cold War to the War on Terror Economics: Integration and Competition 'Soft power' and Transatlantic Relations. This book will be of great interest to students of transatlantic relations, NATO, US Foreign Policy, Cold War History, European History and IR/International history.

This book offers a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the history of passports, border surveillance, border crossing, and other elements of European border regimes in the 20th century. Border regime is interpreted widely, including inbound and outbound travels, permanent and temporary movements, distance and local border traffic, borderland fortifications, penalties for borderland offences, and also restrictions of free movement, even inside a given country. Based on archival sources from Hungary and the Czech Republic, extensive literature and more than two decades of research, the author distinguishes between two basic border regimes: the restrictive eastern and the permissive western systems, and a transitional zone between them. The historical development of these regimes is discussed in the framework of waves of globalisation and territorialisation. Border Regimes in Twentieth Century Europe offers the first-ever systematic comparison of European border regimes for students, scholars, and any readers who are interested in travel history, border studies, globalisation, area studies and 20th century Europe, including everyday history. By presenting their different historical experiences, the book contributes to a better understanding between old and new member states of the European Union, as well as between member and non-member states.

Military occupations and interventions have a gendered impact on both those engaged in occupying, and those whose lands have been occupied, yet little has been published about this effect either historically or in contemporary times. This collection redresses this neglect by examining and analyzing the impact of occupation on men and women, both occupied and occupier, in a variety of geographical spaces from Japan to the Philippines to Iraq. The gendered perspectives offered are also intimately tied to analyses of power' how power is enacted by the occupier; how powerlessness is experienced by the occupied; how power is negotiated, shared, compromised, subverted, reclaimed; institutional power; and contested power in post-conflict societies. This collection covers a variety of geographical and period contexts in the Asia Pacific and Middle East since 1945, offering the reader a comparative view across time and space of post-WWII military occupations and interventions. The term military occupation' is interpreted broadly to include military interventions, the presence of military bases, and peacekeeping/post-conflict operations, allowing space to demonstrate that the lines between each definition are blurred. Including perspectives from established and emerging scholars, aid workers, and activists from around the world, this volume incorporates voices from those conducting research on and those with direct experience of military occupations and interventions.

From government ministers and spies to activists, drag queens and celebrities, Odd men out charts the tumultuous history of gay men in 1950s and 60s Britain. It takes us from the earliest tentative steps towards decriminalisation to the liberation movement of the early 1970s. Along the way, it catalogues shocking repression, including laws against homosexual activity and the use of brutal medical 'treatments'. Odd men out draws on medical data and opinion polls, broadcast recordings, theatrical productions, and extensive interviews with key players, as well as an in-depth analysis of the Wolfenden Report and the circumstances surrounding its creation. It brings to life pivotal moments in gay mens' cultural representation, ranging across the West End and emerging writers like Joe Orton, the British film industry, the BBC, national newspapers, fashion catalogues and music magazines. Celebrating the joy of gay lives as well as the hardships, Odd men out preserves the voices of a disappearing generation who revolutionised what it meant to be a gay man in twentieth-century Britain. -- .

Britain since 1945 is the established textbook on contemporary British political history since the end of the Second World War. David Childs' authoritative chronological survey discusses domestic policy and politics in particular, but also covers external and international relations. This new and improved seventh edition of this important book brings the picture to the present by including the following additions: Tony Blair's resignation and Gordon Brown's accession to power immigration the financial crisis from 2007: the first bank run in Britain since 1866 the 'Special-relationship' with the US and Obama the 2010 General elcetion and the first coalition government since 1945 'Broken Britain' and Crime the era of 'owned by China' and Britain's place in a turbulent world. Britain since 1945 is essential reading for any student of contemporary British history and politics.

This collection brings to the public ten of the best articles in American history published in the last year and selected from over three hundred learned and popular journals. Topics range from the general to the specific and cover all aspects of American history, from the early days of the republic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It highlights and showcases the questions that today's historians are asking.

China's rise and processes of Sinicization suggest that recombination of new and old elements rather than a total rupture with or return to the past is China's likely future. In both space and time, civilizational politics offers the broadest social context. It is of particular salience in China. Reification of civilizations into simple categories such as East and West is widespread in everyday politics and common in policy and academic writings. This book's emphasis on Sinicization as a specific instance of civilizational processes counters political and intellectual shortcuts and corrects the mistakes to which they often lead. Sinicization illustrates that like other civilizations China has always been open to variegated social and political processes that have brought together many different kinds of peoples adhering to very different kinds of practices. This book tries to avoid the reifications and celebrations that mark much of the contemporary public debate about China's rise. It highlights instead complex processes and political practices bridging East and West that avoid easy shortcuts. The analytical perspectives of this book are laid out in Katzenstein's opening and concluding chapters. They are explored in six outstanding case studies, written by widely known authors, which over questions of security, political economy and culture. Featuring an exceptional line-up and representing a diversity of theoretical views within one integrative perspective, this work will be of interest to all scholars and students of international relations, sociology and political science.

This collection of essays examines women in the Krushchev era, using both newly-accessible archival material and a re-reading of published sources. Exploring diverse subjects including housing, space flight, women workers, cinema, religion and consumption, the volume places the analysis of specific events or issues within a broader discussion of economic, political, ideological and international developments to provide a full analysis of the era.

This book examines the process of political and social reform that Colombia has experienced in the past decade. As the relationship between the state, the economy and the society are redefined in Latin America, Colombia has also undergone substantial transformations. This story offers a Colombian dimension to the increasing interest in processes of state reform elsewhere. The approach is interdisciplinary and will be of interest to political scientists, economists, sociologists, geographers and historians.

On December 18, 1972, more than one hundred U.S. B-52 bombers flew over North Vietnam to initiate Operation Linebacker II. During the next eleven days, sixteen of these planes were shot down and another four suffered heavy damage. These losses soon proved so devastating that Strategic Air Command was ordered to halt the bombing. The U.S. Air Force's poor performance in this and other operations during Vietnam was partly due to the fact that they had trained their pilots according to methods devised during World War II and the Korean War, when strategic bombers attacking targets were expected to take heavy losses. Warfare had changed by the 1960s, but the USAF had not adapted. Between 1972 and 1991, however, the Air Force dramatically changed its doctrines and began to overhaul the way it trained pilots through the introduction of a groundbreaking new training program called "Red Flag." In The Air Force Way of War, Brian D. Laslie examines the revolution in pilot instruction that Red Flag brought about after Vietnam. The program's new instruction methods were dubbed "realistic" because they prepared pilots for real-life situations better than the simple cockpit simulations of the past, and students gained proficiency on primary and secondary missions instead of superficially training for numerous possible scenarios. In addition to discussing the program's methods, Laslie analyzes the way its graduates actually functioned in combat during the 1980s and '90s in places such as Grenada, Panama, Libya, and Iraq. Military historians have traditionally emphasized the primacy of technological developments during this period and have overlooked the vital importance of advances in training, but Laslie's unprecedented study of Red Flag addresses this oversight through its examination of the seminal program.

This book is about the issues and challenges facing the implementation of the Responsibility To Protect (R2P) principle in the case of Sri Lanka. It addresses the political, legal and practical challenges that such possible implementation could confront. There have been numerous events in recent years that have led to the acceptance of R2P, including Sierra Leone, Darfur and Kosovo. The extent (or lack) of international intervention in each of these cases differs, but each raised the question of the responsibility of the international community and the role of international law. However, the R2P is not universally endorsed and has strong international opponents, including many countries noted to be signatories to the convention. Critical among those opponents to R2P is Sri Lanka. This book provides a study of the war by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to create a separate state in Sri Lanka, and the ways in and extent to which this war might have invoked R2P principles and in which the continuing humanitarian and political crisis may still do so. By considering the example of Sri Lanka, this book makes a unique contribution by focusing on what conditions could satisfy, or in principle demand, the application of R2P. Further, it offers an insight into the nature and consequences of the Sri Lanka war, presenting a case as to why this conflict was and may still be the normative responsibility of the international community. This book will be of much interest to students of SE Asian politics, ethics, human rights, international law, ethnic conflict, security studies and IR in general.

First published in 1991, Glasnost in Action: Cultural Renaissance in Russia is a comprehensive portrait of a society in transition as Professor Nove reflects on the changes taking place in the USSR at that time. While in English, glasnost' means ?openness?, the author questions what ?openness? actually means in the USSR. How is Soviet culture ? their art, literature, theatre, music and social life ? affected by the new freedom of speech and thought that resulted from glasnost'? Was it Gorbachev's power and charisma that propelled glasnost' or would it build up enough momentum in Soviet society to continue independently? Professor Nove uses examples from each area of Soviet life in his exploration of the new openness, referring to the release of previously banned films, writings, plays and works of art, while reflecting on the newfound honesty about the country's Stalinist past and the problems faced today.

This volume focuses on Japan over the last one hundred years, with special emphasis on the twentieth century and the contemporary period. Chapters on cultural, intellectual and economic history, domestic politics and foreign relations trace the complex and multi-faceted process through which Japan has been transformed from an isolated agricultural society to an economic world power and model for the other developing nations. The authors demonstrate the adaptibility of Japan's native tradition in its encounter with the world beyond its own shores, and show how many aspects of traditional Japanese culture and society have been transformed while others have survived, giving contemporary Japan that distinctive flavour of an old insular culture which continues to delight and baffle foreign and native scholars alike.

This book examines Pakistan's strategies in the war against Islamist armed groups that began late 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.

The significance of the war inside Pakistan can hardly be understated. Starting in the tribal territories adjacent to Afghanistan, Pakistan 's war has come to engulf the majority of the country through a brutal campaign of suicide bombings. Thousands of Pakistani lives have been lost and the geostrategic balance of the region has been thrown into deep uncertainty.

Pakistan's War on Terrorism is an account of a decade-long war following the 9/11 attacks, that is yet to be chronicled in systematic fashion as a campaign of military manoeuvre and terrorist reprisal. It is also an analytic account of Pakistan 's strategic calculus during this time, both in military and political terms, and how these factors have been filtered by Pakistan 's unique strategic culture.

This text will be of great interest to students of Asian Politics, Terrorism and Political Violence, and Security Studies in general.