This expert's view into the strategic directions, tactics, leaders, and significant attacks connected to Chechen and North Caucasus terrorists examines the network's operations as well as the success of Russia's counterterrorist responses. This authoritative account traces the emergence of terrorism in the volatile region of the North Caucasus from its origins in the early 1990s through the present day. It presents a detailed examination of local and global counterterrorism strategies-everything from military force, to diplomacy, to politicization-providing valuable insight into effective methods for fighting terrorism here and around the world. This candid work uncovers the roots of Russian terrorism and provides a historical overview of the conditions that advanced terrorism and its unprecedented warfare practices, including radioactive attacks and suicide attacks by women. Author and native Russian speaker, Elena Pokalova, analyzes prominent terrorist groups such as Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, Riyad us-Saliheyn Martyrs' Brigade, and Special Purpose Islamic Regiment, and reveals the regional and global influence of the Caucasus Emirate on the movement. Discusses different strands of terrorist movements that emerged over time in the North Caucasus Includes tables, maps, and charts to help support content and reinforce visual learning Analyzes the significance of the jihadi ideology in the North Caucasus Examines the structural dynamics behind terrorist attacks over time

In recent years the world's focus on South Asia has increased dramatically. With the events of 9/11, the detonation of atomic weapons by both India and Pakistan, the discovery of an illicit nuclear proliferation network based in Islamabad, regime change in an unstable Afghanistan, and the rise of India as an economic power, global interest in the region has reached perhaps an all-time high. Leading experts analyze the key strategic, political, and economic issues touching on South Asia and its role in the world in the essays that make up this inaugural volume in the Current History Books Series.

Focusing on modern South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, this authoritative volume provides an overview of the events and trends that have rocked this increasingly volatile region over the past decade. Edited and with an introduction by Sumit Ganguly, a leading expert on the region, this volume provides a critical introduction to South Asia. South Asia also contains current maps as well as a "Recent Chronology of Events" that provides a decade's worth of information on the region, organized by year and by country. This timely and comprehensive collection of essays provides a definitive account of modern South Asia.

A staggering number of post-World War II White House and agency records pertaining to national security are stored in repositories nationwide, but researchers often find it impossible to locate and access these records. This book provides considerable detail on the quantity, nature, and public accessibility of the records at the National Archives, Federal records centers, the agencies themselves, presidential libraries, and smaller repositories. The author also discusses the critical importance of federal records management policies, classification and declassification policies, and the need for improved compliance with these policies.

The public has never had a comprehensive guide to assist in identifying, locating, and gaining access to agency and White House national security records. The author tells the reader where national security-related records are located, which ones are accessible to the public, and which ones are not. He also discusses the vital role of federal records management policies in determining the ultimate disposition of records and where the records are stored. In addition, he sets forth the policies governing the classification and declassification of records and the reasons the vast majority of records are still inaccessible to the public. Both beginning and experienced researchers will find this work to be of great assistance.

This book examines the process of Spanish integration into the European Community, from 1962 when Spain under the Franco regime applied to the European Community to 1985, when democratic Spain became a member of the EEC. It aims to prove that, first the European Community was the crucial external factor determining political change in Spain, and secondly that Europeanism was a mechanism of political change, as it was the only aim which unified the whole political spectrum from the Francoist establishment to the democratic opposition.

The issue of government or state involvement in the process of economic development and reform has become very popular in the economic development literature. This timely volume examines China's post-Mao economic reforms, and the Chinese government's involvement in the process of managing those reforms. Focusing on management issues, the book considers the state led reforms from a comprehensive and interdisciplinary perspective. The work consists of two parts--the experience of China's post-Mao reforms and major issues associated with the reforms. The first part covers the background, stages and measures, and achievements and problems of economic reforms. The second part addresses major changes in China's regional development, administrative system, and state-society relations. A final chapter considers the lessons of China's economic reforms.

Perfect for promoting student debate, and critical thinking, and ideal for use by Model UN clubs, this ready-reference guide provides information and critical examinations of the 50 most important issues debated in UN history. Since the inception of the UN in 1945, its member nations have hotly debated the most incendiary global political issues, from human rights and Cold War conflicts to many regional and local clashes, most recently in Kosovo. The 50 entries are organized in chronological order based on their first appearance on the UN agenda. Each entry consists of four narrative sections: the significance of the issue; the historical, social and economic background of the issue; the history of the UN debate and intervention on the issue and the positions of various nations; and the outcome of the debate. Each entry concludes with a list of suggested further reading. More than fifty photos accompany the text.

Among the issues debated are those of UN peacekeeping efforts around the globe; issues of concern to Third World countries; the nuclear arms race; regional conflicts in the Middle East, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America; human rights; world population growth; the environment; laws of the sea; issues of food; the status of women; and racism. Cross-references will help the user to locate related topics. A timeline of events in the history of the UN, a bibliographic essay, a glossary, and a number of appendices including lists of UN world years, UN peacekeeping operations, Secretaries General of the UN and Presidents of the UN General Assembly add reference value to the work.

Ever since the death of Mao, China has undergone a transformation almost as radical as the Communist Revolution that Mao instigated. This book tells the stories of the many difficult economic, political, and social struggles that have taken place in post-Maoist China. Using both Chinese and non-Chinese sources, Alfred K. Ho unravels the complexities of life in China during the past generation. As Ho explains, contemporary Chinese are seeking to find solutions to their problems that reflect their own cultural values. As such, reform in China cannot be seen solely as an effort to emulate the West, especially the free market and democratic United States. Rather, Ho places current efforts at reform as part of a prolonged and continual process by Chinese to deal with their internal problems as well as the challenges and opportunities they face as a result of greater contact with the outside world.

With the election of Barack Obama as president of the United States, a retired attorney and patriot began writing a collection of essays commenting on the problems he sees around him.

Lee S. Dimin, who served in the Army Air Force during World War II, shares how the growing power of corporations and governmental corruption is hurting American citizens. In this collection ofessays, he examines issues such as

ways to bridge differences between Democrats and Republicans; Islam's continuing quest to dominate the world; the intentions of the nation's Founding Fathers in writing the Constitution, and how their idealsare being violated; the increasing deficit and its implications on every single citizen; the ways in which mounting divisions between the rich and poor are hurting the country.

The challenges that face the United States continue to grow in number, but they are not insurmountable.In "Corporatocracy," you'll learn equipyourself with the knowledge that will help you take the country back.

How did the United States move from position of nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union at the beginning of the 1960s to a period of arms control based on nuclear parity the doctrine of mutual assured destruction in 1972? Drawing on declassified records of conversations between three presidents and their most trusted advisors, this book provides a new and fascinating answer to this question. John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon struggled to reconcile their own personal convictions on the nuclear arms race with the very different views of the public and Congress. In doing so they engaged in a double game, hiding their true beliefs behind a facade of strategic language while grappling in private with the complex realities of the nuclear age. The book shows how Kennedy and Johnson consistently worried about the domestic political costs of their actions, pushing ahead with an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system for the United States for fear of the domestic political consequences of scrapping both the system and the doctrine of strategic superiority on which it was based. By contrast, the abrupt change in U.S. public and congressional opinion in 1969 forced Nixon to give up America's first ABM and the U.S. lead in offensive ballistic missiles through agreements with the Soviet Union, despite his conviction that the U.S. needed a nuclear edge over the USSR to maintain the security of the West. By placing this dynamic at the center of the story, the book provides a completely new overarching interpretation of this pivotal period in the development of U.S. nuclear policy.

This study attempts to present a broad picture of political and economic developments in Russia after the collapse of the USSR. The book focuses on economics, social, financial and political tendencies that framed Russia's development in 1992-98, including an overview of successes and failures of Russian reform attempts, background and consequences of the collapse of Russia's financial market in August 1998, dynamics of capital flight from Russia, industrial, agricultural, trade and social development indicators. A major part of the study is devoted to a comparative analysis of developments in Russia's eighty nine administrative regions, particularly in the three major groups of regions - with predominantly mining, manufacturing and agricultural orientation. The book also examines voting patterns and political preferences in Russian regions, origins and the evolution of the Russian political system, limitations of the post-Soviet 'nomenklatura revolution' and Russia's search for a new national idea.

This groundbreaking political expose scrutinizes the motivations behind the unparalleled attacks on President Barack Obama that attempt to undermine his eligibility to lead the country. The ascendancy of the first African American president was a watershed moment in American history. In response, President Obama's adversaries have engaged in relentless and systematic mudslinging throughout his campaign and well into his presidency, "othering" him as a foreign and dangerous political figure. Never before has a presidential candidate been so maligned, by so many, in such a variety of ways-and yet won. This provocative study investigates the unrest behind the Obama campaign and election, and the controversial political machine that causes it. Martin A. Parlett, himself a former campaigner for Barack Obama, examines the role identity politics and racialization play in the anti-Obama movement, shows how foreignization is the latest tool for political dissent, and discusses the ways in which the president has successfully utilized the "outsider" label to his own advantage. The book questions the popular-and often contradictory-notions of Obama as illegitimate, Muslim, Marxist/Communist, socialist, Kenyan, terrorist, and angry African American. Additionally, chapters trace political marginalization and race throughout history from slavery to Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement, concluding with the culture of distrust in the American political psyche since the events of September 11, 2001. Analyzes the tactics used by political adversaries to undermine the presidency Considers the mass of literature and filmography which proliferates narratives of the president's foreignization and offers a counter-position Examines the rhetorical frames and motivations of Obama's foreignization Provides insight into the motivations surrounding Obama-era conspiracy theories, such as the Birther movement Underlines the post-20th century emergence and maintenance of an increasingly polarized electoral climate

FULL COLOR publications with many photographs and maps. First published in 2006.

In the decades since the "forgotten war" in Korea, conventional wisdom has held that the Eighth Army consisted largely of poorly trained, undisciplined troops who fled in terror from the onslaught of the Communist forces. Now, military historian Thomas E. Hanson argues that the generalizations historians and fellow soldiers have used regarding these troops do little justice to the tens of thousands of soldiers who worked to make themselves and their army ready for war.
In Hanson's careful study of combat preparedness in the Eighth Army from 1949 to the outbreak of hostilities in 1950, he concedes that the U.S. soldiers sent to Korea suffered gaps in their professional preparation, from missing and broken equipment to unevenly trained leaders at every level of command. But after a year of progressive, focused, and developmental collective training--based largely on the lessons of combat in World War II--these soldiers expected to defeat the Communist enemy.
By recognizing the constraints under which the Eighth Army operated, Hanson asserts that scholars and soldiers will be able to discard what Douglas Macarthur called the "pernicious myth" of the Eighth Army's professional, physical, and moral ineffectiveness.

The thirst for post-World War II justice transcended the Cold War and mobilized diverse social groups. This is a story of their multilayered and at times conflictual interactions. In this edited collection, sixteen historians develop a new approach to the trials against persons accused of war crimes and mass murder in Europe during the ascendancy of Nazism and the Second World War (1933-1945). Focusing on the social aspects of the demand for justice and making use of previously underexploited local and international sources, contributors put to the test the notion of "show trials" and explore a range of judicial and political cultures from Germany to the Soviet Union. Essays uncover the expectations around accountability and forms of mobilization on the part of a range of citizens involved in the trials: survivors, witnesses, perpetrators, Nazi hunters, and civic activists. In addition to the perspective of these citizens, contributors invoke the expertise of reporters, filmmakers, historians, investigators, and prosecutors who shaped public representations of justice. These shaping efforts, the authors show, often supported the desire of political authorities to benefit from the publicity of the trials and to contain the spontaneous dissemination of information. The book's close examination of interactions between citizens and authorities thus demonstrates the extent and limits of what might be called a "coproduction" of justice, in the process shedding light on the interdependence between historical knowledge and legal prosecution of mass crimes.

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. Between 1914 and the present day the political makeup of the Balkans has relentlessly changed, following unpredictable shifts of international and internal borders. Between and across these borders various political communities were formed, co-existed and (dis)integrated. By analysing one hundred years of modern citizenship in Yugoslavia and post-Yugoslav states, Igor Stiks shows that the concept and practice of citizenship is necessary to understand how political communities are made, un-made and re-made. He argues that modern citizenship is a tool that can be used for different and opposing goals, from integration and re-unification to fragmentation and ethnic engineering. The study of citizenship in the 'laboratory' of the Balkands offers not only an original angle to narrate an alternative political history, but also an insight into the fine mechanics and repeating glitches of modern politics, applicable to multinational states in the European Union and beyond.

The history of the Balkans has been a distillation of the great and terrible themes of 20th century history-the rise of nationalism, communism, fascism, genocide, identity and war. Written by one of the leading historians of the region, this is a new interpretation of that history, focusing on the uses and legacies of nationalism in the Balkan region. In particular, Professor Veremis analyses the influence of the West-from the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the rise and collapse of Yugoslavia. Throughout the state-building process of Greece, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria and later, Albania, the West provided legal, administrative and political prototypes to areas bedevilled by competing irredentist claims. At a time when Slovenia, Rumania, Bulgaria and Croatia have become full members of the EU, yet some orphans of the Communist past are facing domestic difficulties, A Modern History of the Balkans seeks to provide an important historical context to the current problems of nationalism and identity in the Balkans.

The Second Nagorno-Karabakh war - fought between Armenia and Azerbaijan between September 24 and November 10, 2020 face=Calibri>- was the first war in history won primarily by unmanned systems. This 44-day war resulted in a decisive military victory for Azerbaijan. Armenia was outfought, outnumbered, and outspent and lost even though they controlled the high ground in a mountainous region that favored traditional defense. Azerbaijan's alliance with Turkey, and close technological support from Israel, strategically isolated Armenia. In addition, Turkey's posturing influenced the Russians not to intervene to support Armenia. That Azerbaijan attacked Armenia during the pandemic was an additional factor. The fact that Azerbaijan won the war is not extraordinary, considering the correlation of forces arrayed against Armenia. What is exceptional is that this was the first modern war primarily decided by unmanned weapons. In this war the Turkish-made BAYRAKTAR TB2 Unmanned Air Combat Vehicle (UCAV) and the Israeli-made HAROP Loitering Munition (LM) dominated the fighting and provided Azerbaijan with a war-winning advantage.

Beyond the Arab Cold War brings the Yemen Civil War, 1962-68, to the forefront of modern Middle East History. During the 1960s, in the wake of a coup against Imam Muhammad al-Badr and the formation of the Yemen Arab Republic (YAR), Yemen was transformed into an arena of global conflict. Believing al-Badr to be dead, Egypt, the Soviet Union, and most countries recognized the YAR. But when al-Badr unexpectedly turned up alive, Saudi Arabia and Britain offered support to the deposed Imam, drawing Yemen into an internationally-sponsored civil war. Throughout six years of major conflict, Yemen sat at the crossroads of regional and international conflict as dozens of countries, international organizations, and individuals intervened in the local South Arabian civil war. Yemen was a showcase for a new era of UN and Red Cross peacekeeping, clandestine activity, Egyptian counterinsurgency, and one of the first largescale uses of poison gas since WWI. Events in Yemen were not dominated by a single power, nor were they sole products of US-Soviet or Saudi-Egyptian Arab Cold War rivalry. Britain, Canada, Israel, the UN, the US, and the USSR joined Egypt and Saudi Arabia in assuming varying roles in fighting, mediating, and supplying the belligerent forces. Despite Cold War tensions, Americans and Soviets appeared on the same side of the Yemeni conflict and acted mutually to confine Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to the borders of South Arabia. The end of the Yemen Civil War marked the end of both Nasser's Arab Nationalist colonial expansion and the British Empire in the Middle East, two of the most dominant regional forces. This internationalized conflict was a pivotal event in Middle East history, overseeing the formation of a modern Yemeni state, the fall of Egyptian and British regional influence, another Arab-Israeli war, Saudi dominance of the Arabian Peninsula, and shifting power alliances in the Middle East that continue to lie at the core of modern-day conflicts in South Arabia.

In 1950 the British government accorded diplomatic recognition to the newly founded People's Republic of China. But it took 22 years for Britain to establish full diplomatic relations with China. How far was Britain's China policy a failure until 1972? This book argues that Britain and China were involved in the 'everyday Cold War', or a continuous process of contestation and cooperation that allowed them to 'normalize' their confrontation in the absence of full diplomatic relations. From Vietnam and Taiwan to the mainland and Hong Kong, China's 'everyday Cold War' against Britain was marked by diplomatic ritual, propaganda rhetoric and symbolic gestures. Rather than pursuing a failed policy of 'appeasement', British decision-makers and diplomats regarded engagement or negotiation with China as the best way of fighting the 'everyday Cold War'. Based on extensive British and Chinese archival sources, this book examines not only the high politics of Anglo-Chinese relations, but also how the British diplomats experienced the Cold War at the local level.

1968 for me was not simply the year I found myself away from home for the first time. It was not just the year I donned the uniform of a soldier and took up arms against communist aggression, traveling to the jungles of Southeast Asia to do my patriotic duty. To characterize that year merely as my coming of age fails to recognize the significance of the year itself. Few intervals of similar duration in the history of our nation have been as important as those twelve months. Perhaps only 1776 surpasses 1968 in its impact on who and what we as a nation will become thereafter. The eras of the Civil War and the two World Wars, although of equal or greater significance unfolded over longer spans of time, each more gradually evolving the beliefs and practices of American citizens. 1968 seems to have struck with impatient tenacity, delivering to the United States of America a wake up call from our cultural complacency and the natural acceptance of our assumed righteousness. 1968 began the polarization of America. Neutrality of belief or philosophy was no longer to be valued or even tolerated. The lines were being drawn; lines between left and right; between the old and the new, between generations and perhaps even between clarity and confusion. What we were as a people, who we were and what we stood for was cast in 1968 under the unflattering spotlight of war and internal conflict as a reaction to that war. College students, the children of World War II veterans, raised their voices in opposition to the edicts of the American Government. Extremists took matters into their own hands and murdered Martin Luther King Junior and Robert Kennedy. American soldiers committed atrocities at My Lai thatshocked a citizenry unable to accept this dissonant view of Americans in uniform and our military and governmental leaders threw up their hands behind closed doors, coming to the same conclusion; we can't win this war. On the home front popular music transitioned away from the malt-shop themes of the fifties and early sixties and became a vehicle for conveying political messages, for drawing young people away from the dreamy and into the heuristic. Being twenty-one in America in 1968 was different than being twenty-one in America in 1967 or any time before. American soldiers in Vietnam in 1968 were caught in a vortex of three worlds; the remembered world they left back home, the real world of violent struggles within the jungles, villages and rice paddies of South Vietnam and the rapidly transitioning world of the United States of America, nine-thousand miles away. This is the story of one twenty-one year old American caught in that vortex.