Its unique ability to sway the masses has led many observers to consider cinema the artform with the greatest political force. The images it produces can bolster leaders or contribute to their undoing. Soviet filmmakers often had to face great obstacles as they struggled to make art in an authoritarian society that put them not only under ideological pressure but also imposed rigid economic constraints on the industry. But while the Brezhnev era of Soviet filmmaking is often depicted as a period of great repression, Soviet Art House reveals that the films made at the prestigious Lenfilm studio in this period were far more imaginative than is usually suspected. In this pioneering study of a Soviet film studio, author Catriona Kelly delves into previously unpublished archival documents and interviews, memoirs, and the films themselves to illuminate the ideological, economic, and aesthetic dimensions of filmmaking in the Brezhnev era. She argues that especially the young filmmakers who joined the studio after its restructuring in 1961 revitalized its output and helped establish Leningrad as a leading center of oppositional art. This unique insight into Soviet film production shows not only the inner workings of Soviet institutions before the system collapsed but also traces how filmmakers tirelessly dodged and negotiated contradictory demands to create sophisticated and highly original movies.

Juhana Aunesluoma considers the ways in which Scandinavia's, in particular neutral Sweden's, relationship was forged with the Western powers after the Second World War. He argues that during the early cold war Britain had a special role in Scandinavia and in the ways in which Western oriented neutrality became a part of the international system. New evidence is presented on British, American and Swedish foreign and defense policies regarding neutrality in the cold war.

Few themes in post-war British foreign policy feature more prominently than relations with the European Union, which themselves have been shaped, to a large extent, by relations with France. Yet, most accounts of bilateral relations between these two countries focus either on background factors to the relationship, or else on contacts at the highest level, between presidents and prime ministers. It is easy to overlook the importance of the resident embassy as the institution that handles day-to-day contacts between them. This collection of essays charts and analyses the activities of British Ambassadors in Paris, from the Second World War to the advent of Margaret Thatcher's government. It combines an examination of policy with a consideration of the role of individual envoys and provides a case study of the significance of the permanent mission to modern diplomatic practice.

This volume examines British and US attitudes towards the means and mechanisms for the facilitation of an Arab-Israeli reconciliation, focusing specifically on the refugee factor in diplomatic initiatives. It explains why Britain and the US were unable to reconcile the local parties to an agreement on the future of the Palestinian refugees.

This volume is a timely survey of the changes that have been occurring in South African politics and society since the unbanning of the exile liberation movements in 1990. It brings together a collection of seasoned scholars who examine the debates over changes in such areas as the economy, the state, the legal system, the position of women and foreign relations. The volume explores the forces pushing for radical change in South African society as well as those resisting it and is particularly notable for bringing a political science perspective to bear on such issues as the restructuring of government and the constitution.

"Richmond... played a significant role in the implementation of the Helsinki accords... His] account of how this was done is useful and peppered with interesting personal details of what it was like to be involved in the day-to-day implementation of the accords. In this respect and others, Richmond has given us an authoritative report of how public diplomacy contributed to the outcome of the Cold War." . Journal of Cold War Studies

"The volume is a useful guide for those who are currently or expecting to be practitioners of public diplomacy and Richmond's experience, particularly in Poland and the former Soviet Union, perhaps provide the answers to how the U.S. State Department and its diplomats should confront the problems of global terrorism and anti-Americanism, especially in the Middle East. Or, as someone suggested, what really is needed is more Yale Richmonds." . The Polish Review

" Richmond] has already contributed a great deal to the history of US public diplomacy through his earlier studies on the practice of dialogue and exchange with the Soviet Union... and] has now compiled his memoirs into a light-hearted but nonetheless highly engaging volume... that is] not just an entertaining chronicle of the Cold War, but also a rich source of comment on issues that continue to plague US public diplomacy today." . Journal of American History

"Richmond's personal account of how public diplomacy was conducted during the Cold War gives the reader a practitioner's perspective on this fascinating period in our history, and underscores public diplomacy's continued importance in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy." . USC Center on Public Diplomacy

"This short, readable volume is a treasure trove of sound advice wrapped in the recollections of one of America's leading public diplomacy practitioners and top Soviet hands whose lengthy US government career spanned 44 years." . WhirledView

"instructive book... is] much more enlightening about down-to-earth public diplomacy than a training manual or abstract academic treatise can ever be...a delightful volume." . AmericanDiplomacy.org

"This book will be a long-term reference source for researchers looking at Cold War history, as the subject goes through its inevitable revisionist cycles...It documents a critical element in U.S. cold-war relations--the effort to reach out ideologically to Soviet and East European audiences in the face of formidable opposition by Communist regimes in the region. The author was involved in this subject more directly and over a longer period of time than any other U.S. government official." . Wilson Dizard, author of Inventing Public Diplomacy, and Member of the Public Diplomacy Council

"It is sometimes said that soft power helped to win the Cold War. To find out what it was like to be on the front lines of these battles, read this fascinating memoir." . Joseph S. Nye, Harvard University and author of Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

Yale Richmond, a retired cultural officer in the US Foreign Service, practiced public diplomacy for thirty years, including postings abroad in Germany, Laos, Poland, Austria (Vienna), and the Soviet Union. A specialist in intercultural communication, his books have been translated and published in China and Korea.

Distinguishing itself from the mass of political biographies of Barack Obama, this first interdisciplinary study of Obama's Indonesian and Hawai'ian years examines their effect on his adult character, political identity, and global world-view. The first 18 years of President Obama's life, from his birth in 1961 to his departure for college in 1979, were spent in Hawai'i and Indonesia. These years fundamentally shaped the traits for which the adult Obama is noted-his protean identity, his nuanced appreciation of multiple views of the same object, his cosmopolitan breadth of view, and his self-rooted "outpost" patriotism. Barack Obama in Hawai'i and Indonesia: The Making of a Global President is the first study to examine, in fascinating detail, how his early years impacted this unique leader. Existing biographies of President Obama are primarily political treatments. Here, cross-cultural psychologist and marketing consultant Dinesh Sharma explores the connections between Obama's early upbringing and his adult views of civil society, secular Islam, and globalization. The book draws on the author's on-the-ground research and extensive first-hand interviews in Jakarta; Honolulu; New York; Washington, DC; and Chicago to evaluate the multicultural inputs to Obama's character and the ways in which they prepared him to meet the challenges of world leadership in the 21st century. Foreword Photographs Timelines Figures Appendices

This book aims to broaden readers' understanding of the issues now facing the European Union by explaining the motivation underpinning the process of integration in Western Europe after 1945. The contributors discuss:
- the part played by the Federal Republic of Germany;
- the role of ideas and political movements in stimulating policy;
- the economic interest of West Germany and West German business; and
- the strategic aspects of Germany's policy.
Also included is a German view of French and British attitudes toward a unified Europe and a discussion of the social history of integration.

This original study based on documents, hitherto not discussed in literature of the Cold War, adds a significant new perspective to an important episode in Cold War history. The subject of this book is the policy of the two Germanies toward the talks on Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR) in Europe during the 1970s. Negotiations on MBFR continued for a long time without progress. There has been much speculation about the motivations of the Eastern side. This book makes use of newly declassified files and, for the first time, reveals the true purposes and intentions of the Warsaw Pact in those negotiations.

Ten years after the end of the war, Bosnian ethnicity continues to matter and the country remains dependent on international intervention. The Dayton Peace Accord signed in 1995 successfully ended the war, but froze the ethnic conflict in one of the most complex systems of government in the world. The book provides an in-depth analysis of governance in this divided post-war country, providing important lessons for international intervention elsewhere around the world, from Afghanistan to Iraq.

Exploring the ways in which the GDR has been remembered since its demise in 1989/90, this volume asks how memory of the former state continues to shape contemporary Germany. Its contributors offer multiple perspectives on the GDR and offer new insights into the complex relationship between past and present.

A well-balanced and detailed look at the East German Ministry for State Security, the secret police force more commonly known as the Stasi. "This is an excellent book, full of careful, balanced judgements and a wealth of concisely-communicated knowledge. It is also well written. Indeed, it is the best book yet published on the MfS."-German History The Stasi stood for Stalinist oppression and all-encompassing surveillance. The "shield and sword of the party," it secured the rule of the Communist Party for more than forty years, and by the 1980s it had become the largest secret-police apparatus in the world, per capita. Jens Gieseke tells the story of the Stasi, a feared secret-police force and a highly professional intelligence service. He inquires into the mechanisms of dictatorship and the day-to-day effects of surveillance and suspicion. Masterful and thorough at once, he takes the reader through this dark chapter of German postwar history, supplying key information on perpetrators, informers, and victims. In an assessment of post-communist memory politics, he critically discusses the consequences of opening the files and the outcomes of the Stasi debate in reunified Germany. A major guide for research on communist secret-police forces, this book is considered the standard reference work on the Stasi.

The national cinemas of Czechoslovakia and East Germany were two of the most vital sites of filmmaking in the Eastern Bloc, and over the course of two decades, they contributed to and were shaped by such significant developments as Sovietization, de-Stalinization, and the conservative retrenchment of the late 1950s. This volume comprehensively explores the postwar film cultures of both nations, using a "stereoscopic" approach that traces their similarities and divergences to form a richly contextualized portrait. Ranging from features to children's cinema to film festivals, the studies gathered here provide new insights into the ideological, political, and economic dimensions of Cold War cultural production.

Examines the role of the masses in the collapse of the East German regime and state in 1989 in the northern district of Schwerin. The study shows the extent to which citizens of the GDR dictatorship were instrumental in their state's demise. The "bottom up" approach employed, in contrast to the study of power wielding elites and "opposition", explores the shift in mood and behaviour of citizens which brought about the internal collapse of the state.

"Nickel On The Grass" is a series of vignettes that capture the life of an extraordinary aviator, fighter pilot and leader, Colonel Phil Handley. In a career that spanned 26 years "Hands" earned a reputation as an exceptional pilot and leader in war and peace. I do not know anybody who served with him who does not admire him for his dedication, integrity and courage. The central theme of the stories he relates is that the fraternity of true fighter pilots is made up of men who share a love of adventure, have exceptional flying skills, are willing to risk all rather than admit defeat and believe earning the respect of their peers is their greatest accomplishment. The really good ones possess a sixth sense about people and machines that gives them an edge over mere mortals in the air and on the ground. This is a book about a man who lived most of the stories and counts among his friends and acquaintances the central characters in the others. It has been my privilege to have been his friend and fellow fighter pilot for the past 30 years. General Ron Fogleman, USAF, Ret. Chief of Staff, USAF, 1994-1997

This book looks into the role played by mediated communication, particularly new and social media, in shaping various forms of struggles around power, identity and religion at a time when the Arab world is going through an unprecedented period of turmoil and upheaval. The book provides unique and multifocal perspectives on how new forms of communication remain at the centre of historical transformations in the region. The key focus of this book is not to ascertain the extent to which new communication technologies have generated the Arab spring or led to its aftermaths, but instead question how we can better understand many types of articulations between communication technologies, on the one hand, and forms of resistance, collective action, and modes of expression that have contributed to the recent uprisings and continue to shape the social and political upheavals in the region on the other. The book presents original perspectives and rigorous analysis by specialists and academics from around the world that will certainly enrich the debate around major issues raised by recent historical events.

A comprehensive look at how the 'establishment' responded to the Italian student revolt of 1968. Using oral interviews, media analysis and archival evidence, the book explores the reactions of those who became the frequent targets of student protests - professors, police, activists' parents, the clergy, journalists, lawyers and auto workers.

In Rwanda's Genocide , Kingsley Moghalu provides an engrossing account and analysis of the international political brinkmanship embedded in the quest for international justice for Rwanda's genocide. He takes us behind the scenes to the political and strategic factors that shaped a path-breaking war crimes tribunal and demonstrates why the trials at Arusha, like Nuremberg, Tokyo, and the Hague, are more than just prosecutions of culprits, but also politics by other means. This is the first serious book on the politics of justice for Rwanda's genocide. Moghalu tells this gripping story with the authority of an insider, elegant and engaging writing, and intellectual mastery of the subject matter.

The historic myths of a people/nation usually play an important role in the creation and consolidation of the basic concepts from which the self-image of that nation derives. These concepts include not only images of the nation itself, but also images of other peoples. Although the construction of ethnic stereotypes during the "long" nineteenth century initially had other functions than simply the homogenization of the particular culture and the exclusion of "others" from the public sphere, the evaluation of peoples according to criteria that included "level of civilization" yielded "rankings" of ethnic groups within the Habsburg Monarchy. That provided the basis for later, more divisive ethnic characterizations of exclusive nationalism, as addressed in this volume that examines the roots and results of ethnic, nationalist, and racial conflict in the region from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives.

This book aims to fill some of the gaps in historical narrative about labor unions, Nigerian leftists, and decolonization during the twentieth century. It emphasizes the significance of labor union education in British decolonization, labor unionism, and British efforts at modernizing the human resources of Nigeria.

In keeping with the tenets of socialist internationalism, the political culture of the German Democratic Republic strongly emphasized solidarity with the non-white world: children sent telegrams to Angela Davis in prison, workers made contributions from their wages to relief efforts in Vietnam and Angola, and the deaths of Patrice Lumumba, Ho Chi Minh, and Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired public memorials. Despite their prominence, however, scholars have rarely examined such displays in detail. Through a series of illuminating historical investigations, this volume deploys archival research, ethnography, and a variety of other interdisciplinary tools to explore the rhetoric and reality of East German internationalism.

Condemned as a fascist putsch in the East and praised as a 'people's uprising' in the West, the uprising of 17 June 1953 shook East Germany. Drawing on interviews and archive research, this book examines East German citizens' memories of the unrest and reflects on the nature of state power in the GDR.

This offers an alternative to the colonialist and nationalist explanations of the Mau Mau revolt, examining a widely studied period of Kenyan history from a new perspective.