An exploration of the modern history of Bahrain and its international relations, Joyce investigates the country's relations with the US, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the USSR. Placing today's events in context, she covers the history of tension between Sunni and Shia Bahrainis and concludes with the still-unfolding events of the Arab spring.

In Northern Ireland, a once seemingly intractable conflict is in a state of transformation. Lee A. Smithey offers a grassroots view of that transformation, drawing on interviews, documentary evidence, and extensive field research. He offers essential models for how ethnic and communal-based conflicts can shift from violent confrontation toward peaceful co-existence.
Smithey focuses particularly on Protestant unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland, who maintain varying degrees of commitment to the Protestant faith, the Crown, and and Ulster / British identity. He argues that antagonistic collective identities in ethnopolitical conflict can become less polarizing as partisans adopt new conflict strategies and means of expressing identity. Consequently, the close relationship between collective identity and collective action is a crucial element of conflict transformation. Smithey closely examines attempts in Protestant/unionist/loyalist communities and organizations to develop more constructive means of expressing collective identity and pursuing political agendas that can help improve community relations. Key leaders and activists have begun to reframe shared narratives and identities, making possible community support for negotiations, demilitarization, and political cooperation, while also diminishing out-group polarization.
As Smithey shows, this kind of shift in strategy and collective vision is the heart of conflict transformation, and the challenges and opportunities faced by grassroots unionists and loyalists in Northern Ireland can prove instructive for other regions of intractable conflict.

Medland's book is very timely. . . Naval War College This caveat notwithstanding, William Medland proves it can be done. Indeed, his The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is so good that he makes the task look easy. . . . William Medland's The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 is outstanding and necessary to a good understanding of the missile crisis. The Daily Mississippian

A wealth of books exist on the Cuban missile crisis and its aftermath but none examines the different historiographical views of what the crisis meant. Medland surveys various interpretations of the confrontation, approaching the crisis from national, disciplinary, and decision-making perspectives. Although the Soviets' reasons for placing missiles in Cuba in 1962 may never be completely known, Medland explores several possible motives, taking into account views of participants, observers, and right- and left-wing groups. The author also discusses the consequences of the confrontation. As he demonstrates, the end of the crisis brought mixed--and surprising--results.

The 1960s counterculture challenged the mainstream practices that dominated the 1950s, producing such groups as the hippies, Diggers, the National Organization for Women, and the American Indian Movement, all of which demanded societal change. The A-Z entries in this volume provide fascinating details on notable persons who stirred alternative ideas such as Betty Friedan, Abbie Hoffman, Andy Warhol, and Stokely Carmichael; events such as Woodstock, the Moratorium, and various be-ins; and new directions in music, art, clothing, and language.

The Thatcher era was the most dramatic period in British politics since the 1940s. The Keynesian order established then was falling apart thirty years later and the time had come for radical change. As Conservative Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher proved to be the "Iron Lady" at home and abroad. Trade union power was crushed as her Governments strove to bring about an economic renaissance and to reshape the Welfare State, the Civil Service, and local government. This book analyses the politics of the Thatcher era in an incisive and challenging manner.

The end of the 1990s saw increasing criticism of the media's treatment of the scandals in Washington. Critics complained that journalists either had not covered the political crisis well, that they had bungled it, or that they had simply blown it out of proportion. Some went so far as to call the situation Pressgate. As Hayden points out, however, the larger question remained: What was Clinton's overall relationship with the media?

Hayden examines presidential-press relationships in the 1990s, focusing first on the 1992 campaign, then on issues and events over Clinton's two terms. He analyzes the press response to the programs of the Clinton era as well as the scandals, the roles of consultants like James Carville, the effectiveness of various press secretaries, and the use of pollsters like Dick Morris. He also examines the fate of the First Amendment in the 1990s and how Clinton responded to freedom of expression concerns. This analysis will be of interest to media specialists as well as the general public concerned with contemporary Washington politics and journalism.

Seven leading specialists present chapters devoted to key themes in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian politics. Those themes include: the personal versus the institutional in the political process; legitimacy and legitimation; and change and collapse of a mono-organizational society. While the book focuses on these major themes, individual chapters deal with wide-ranging and even unusual cases: Graeme Gill analyzes the legitimating functions of Moscow's architecture, Sheila Fitzpatrick uses the archives to draw a picture of Stalin 'the boss' dealing with his closest colleagues, Eugene Huskey provides a detailed description of post-Soviet Russian pantouflage, and Archie Brown and Peter Reddaway present their different takes on Gorbachev and the Soviet collapse. Stephen Fortescue provides an overview of policy-making processes from Lenin and Putin, and Leslie Holmes updates the concept of goal-rational legitimacy.

The so-called 'Cedar Revolution' in Lebanon, triggered by the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February 2005, brought to an end three decades of Syrian military presence in the country. Here, Taku Osoegawa challenges the commonly-held claim that Lebanon and its leaders were simple puppets of the Syrian regime during the thirty years characterised as Lebanon under Syrian hegemony. Furthermore, by examining Lebanon's relations with Syria from the establishment of the Asad regime to the current violence in Syria, Osoegawa concludes that the Lebanese government has had its own reasons for aligning with Syria. As the Lebanese-Syrian relationship has had an enormous impact on the international relations of the Middle East, this book is essential reading for those interested in the contemporary regional dynamics.

No President in living memory has entered office with a greater amount of goodwill and broad, bi-partisan support than Barack Obama. And few Presidents in living memory had arrived in Washington proclaiming such dramatically articulated vows to change the tone of politics, to usher in an era of post-partisanship in an effort to rally the nation behind his plan of enacting an ambitious program of social and economic change. He vowed to enact a broad bi-partisan agenda for health care reform, energy transformation, economic revitalization, job growth and restoration of America's standing in the world.
And no President in living memory has more quickly and more completely abandoned his promises.
He enacted a health care plan that far more resembled plans he had bitterly criticized his opponents for supporting rather than the one his campaign outlined
His promised job growth through economic stimulus measures drove up the unemployment rate to double digits leading to millions of job losses
His vows to restore fiscal probity resulted in the most ruinous deficits and public debt in U.S. history
He 'green energy' program collapsed into a cesspool of crony political favoritism
His vows to restore relations with hostile nations like Iran and North Korea had only deepened those nations' disdain for America
Despite his harsh criticisms, Obama adopted nearly every plank in the Bush-era anti-terror policy
His promise to restore science to its rightful place resulted in the most rigidly inflexible program of ideological extremism in modern memory
Even more noteworthy was the fact that the new era of post-partisanship he had vowed to create in Washington resulted in the worst political gridlock in living memory. This book examines in detail hundreds of campaign promises Obama made while running for President, contrasting those with the record of failure and broken promises left in his wake. It is a story that has received too little attention - until now.

In 1999, the first new "Star Wars" movie in sixteen years came to theater screens worldwide. Leading up to the release of the film, the hype and media coverage reached epic proportions. "The Phantom Menace" graced every cover from Vanity Fair to Newsweek to Entertainment Weekly. Fans began camping in line for more than a month in Los Angeles just to be first to see the new film."Anticipation" tells the real-life story of a movie that faced expectations unlike those of any other film in history, but had the advantage of years of anticipation and excitement from eager fans and the public. "The Phantom Menace" deserves a place in film history not only as the most anticipated film ever made, but also for its place as the first film presented to the public with digital projection technology, its status as one of the highest grossing films ever made, and the unbelievable devotion of thousands of fans who demonstrated the great meaning movies can have to people of all ages and social backgrounds.

"This work by Janusz Bugajski should be considered mandatory reading for any student of Eastern Europe. The anatomy of the dissident movement of Czechoslovakia--its scope activities, affiliations at home and abroad--has been well documented and presented in a lucid manner. The author has also accumulated an impressive amount of facts, dates and documents. Failures and successes of Charter 77, as well as its future prospects, are described in a very balanced manner. It is an important study by a well-informed and self disciplined researcher and expert on Eastern Europe. It will be a great assistance to those interested in recent developments within the Soviet orbit." Jan Novak Consultant on Eastern Europe

The question of the Italian colonies played an important part in the breakdown of Allied cooperation after the Second World War. Britain and the United States were closely involved in this question, yet their respective roles have not received the detailed historical attention which they merit. Based on extensive research in British and American archives, this book will seek to analyse British and US policy on this question within its Cold War context.

During the Cold War, few regions offered the American policy-makers a greater challenge than the Middle East. The Eisenhower administration's attempt to balance its Cold War requirements with the demands of the new forces of nationalism established the blueprint of America's policy toward the Middle East for the next four decades. In a richly comprehensive account, Dr. Takeyh employs new documentary evidence to reevaluate US policy toward the revolutionary Egyptian regime; the dynamics of the Anglo-American relations; the evolving nature of the Arab-Israeli conflict; and the Suez crisis and the Eisenhower Doctrine.

Designed to meet the needs of high school and college students, this one-stop resource features narrative history, analysis, biographical profiles, key primary documents, and other reference tools on the Cold War. Based on the latest scholarship, Sibley provides a concise yet comprehensive overview of the Cold War, which lasted from 1945 until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Following a historical overview, six essays, organized topically, examine the key themes that characterized the Cold War: its origins in the distrust among the World War II allies, the force of American anti-Communism, Washington's enhanced postwar global role, the competing objectives of the U.S. and U.S.S.R. in pursuit of global influence, and the reasons why the Soviet Union did not survive the Cold War. A timeline of events, glossary of terms, biographical profiles of major players, and the text of 17 key documents necessary for student research on the Cold War provide valuable research tools. Following a timeline of events and narrative historical overview, six topical essays discuss the origins of the Cold War; McCarthyism and internal security in the United States; the Cold War in Asia; the Cold War in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa; the end of detente and revived hopes for Soviet-American relations ushered in by Gorbachev, and its denouement; and the legacies and implications of the Cold War. Documents include a variety of speeches, excerpts from the memoirs of leaders on both sides of the Cold War, as well as the text of key government documents. Each document is preceded by an explanatory introduction. An annotated bibliography of works suitable for students, and a selection of photographs enhance the value of this work.

Georgia emerged from the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 with the promise of swift economic and democratic reform. But that promise remains unfulfilled. Economic collapse, secessionist challenges, civil war and the failure to escape the legacy of Soviet rule - culminating in the 2008 war with Russia - characterise a two-decade struggle to establish democratic institutions and consolidate statehood. Here, Stephen Jones critically analyses Georgia's recent political and economic development, illustrating what its 'transition' has meant, not just for the state, but for its citizens as well. An authoritative and commanding exploration of Georgia since independence, this is essential for those interested in the post-Soviet world.

In an effort to restore its world-power status after the humiliation of defeat and occupation, France was eager to maintain its overseas empire at the end of the Second World War. Yet just fifteen years later France had decolonized, and by 1960 only a few small island territories remained under French control.The process of decolonization in Indochina and Algeria has been widely studied, but much less has been written about decolonization in France's largest colony, French West Africa. Here, the French approach was regarded as exemplary -- that is, a smooth transition successfully managed by well intentioned French politicians and enlightened African leaders. Overturning this received wisdom, Chafer argues that the rapid unfurling of events after the Second World War was a complex , piecemeal and unpredictable process, resulting in a 'successful decolonization' that was achieved largely by accident. At independence, the winners assumed the reins of political power, while the losers were often repressed, imprisoned or silenced.This important book challenges the traditional dichotomy between 'imperial' and 'colonial' history and will be of interest to students of imperial and French history, politics and international relations, development and post-colonial studies.

Bill Clinton's administration was filled with new policies and achievements for the nation's future, but those achievements were easily overshadowed by personal flaws and scandal. Despite his personal problems, Clinton captured the American public and served two terms as one of our more memorable presidents. This comprehensive bibliography on Clinton will provide students with information from his childhood, his pre-presidential career, presidency (including assessments of it) and the beginning of his post-presidential life. Key access points to this information are provided in the Table of Contents and detailed author and subject indexes. Also included, is an invited essay providing an overview of the Clinton presidency and an extensive chronology of significant events.

Henry Gurney was the last Chief Secretary of the Mandate Government of Palestine. From mid-March to mid-May 1948, at his HQ in Jerusalem's King David Hotel, he wrote his diary under fire from Jews and Arabs alike, with both groups taking aim at the British Administration as the Mandate drew to a close and the country spiralled into violence.

The dangerous, decades-long arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War begged a fundamental question: how did these superpowers actually plan to survive a nuclear strike? In Armageddon Insurance, the first historical account of Soviet civil defense and a pioneering reappraisal of its American counterpart, Edward M. Geist compares how the two superpowers tried, and mostly failed, to reinforce their societies to withstand the ultimate catastrophe. Drawing on previously unexamined documents from archives in America, Russia, and Ukraine, Geist places these civil defense programs in their political and cultural contexts, demonstrating how each country's efforts reflected its cultural preoccupations and blind spots, and revealing how American and Soviet civil defense related to profound issues of nuclear strategy and national values. This work challenges prevailing historical assumptions and unearths the ways Moscow and Washington developed nuclear weapons policies based not on rational strategic or technical considerations, but in power struggles between different institutions pursuing their own narrow self-interests.

Examining how the press in Britain, Sweden and Finland responded to the Holocaust immediately after the Second World War, Holmila offers new insights into the challenge posed by the Holocaust for liberal democracies by looking at the reporting of the liberation of the camps, the Nuremberg trial and the Jewish immigration to Palestine.

This study is the first comprehensive assessment of warfare in Angola to cover all three phases of the nation's modern history: the anti-colonial struggle, the Cold War phase, and the post-Cold War era. It also covers, in detail, the final phase of warfare in Angola, culminating in Jonas Savimbi's death and the signing of the Luena Accord

This volume provides a lucid, concise analysis of the development of British policy in Southeast Asia in the twenty years following the defeat of Japan. The principal themes concern nationalism and communism and how Britain worked to achieve accommodation with nationalism while containing communist challenges.

Over the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti-Semitism. For example, the parable of the "wicked husbandmen," who kill the son of their landlord in order to seize the land, has been used to blame the Jews for the death of Christ. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized and rejected this inheritance. In Parables for Our Time Tania Oldenhage seeks to fashion a biblical hermeneutics that consciously works with memories of the Holocaust.

New Testament scholars have not directly confronted the horror of Nazi crimes, Oldenhage argues, but their work has nonetheless been deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust. By placing twentieth-century biblical scholarship within its specific historical and cultural contexts, she is able to trace the process by which the Holocaust gradually moved into the collective consciousness of New Testament scholars, both in Germany and in the United States. Her focus is on the scholarly interpretation of the parables of Jesus. She sets the stage with the work of Wolfgang Harnisch who exemplifies the problems surrounding Holocaust remembrance in the Germany of the 1980s and 1990s. She then turns to Joachim Jeremias's eminent work on the parables, first published in 1947. Jeremias's anti-Jewish rhetoric, she argues, should be understood not only as a perpetuation of an age-old interpretive pattern, but as representative of German difficulties in responding to the Holocaust immediately after the war. Oldenhage goes on to explore the way in which Jeremias's approach was challenged by biblical scholars in the U.S. during the 1970s. In particular, she examines the turn to literature and literary theory exemplified in the works of John Dominic Crossan and Paul Ricoeur. Nazi atrocities became part of the cultural reservoir from which Crossan and Ricoeur drew, she shows, although they never engaged with the historical facts of the Holocaust. In conclusion, Oldenhage offers her own reading of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, demonstrating how the turn from historical to literary criticism opens up the text to interpretation in light of the Holocaust. If the parables are to be meaningful in our time, she contends, we must take account of the troubling resonances between these ancient Christian stories and the atrocities of Auschwitz.

"It is easy in retrospect to ascribe inevitability to Germany's unification in 1990. But in fact, such events are the product of decisions made when the outcomes of a process are not yet clear. A dramatic opening in international relations, an ongoing upheaval in East German politics that put the old state's existence into question, and an economic collapse in East Germany forced policy-makers to seek not only a way out of the crisis but also new, stable structures at all levels. This volume examines these intertwining strands, taking into account both short-term interests and the long-term consequences"--

France's political leaders have been deeply committed both to maintaining France's independence and to asserting its leadership role in Europe. The end of the Cold War, the demise of the "Europe of Yalta," as well as the unification of Germany, have forced France to rethink its European and international strategies. The purpose of this study is to analyze France's effort to redefine its role in the post-Cold War era and in an integrated Europe, and what that redefined role might mean to France, to Europe, and to the United States. In examining France's international role after the Cold War, Steven Philip Kramer seeks to answer the question, "does France still count?"