This book analyzes the emergence, rise, and decline of insurgency by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan's North-Western region, also known as Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). It provides a detailed account of the rise and decline of the FATA insurgency and also examines aftereffects of the insurgency. Offering an in-depth analysis of how insurgency in the FATA began in 2004 after Pakistan entered its military forces into the tribal areas, the author illustrates that the insurgency erupted when state repression on masses is combined with a disruption of the previous modus vivendi centered on co-optation of local elites. In the following years, the insurgency became so powerful that most of the FATA region fell under the control of the insurgents. The book further argues that a weak counterinsurgency strategy by the Pakistani government characterised by the overzealous use of force and a failure to win the support of local communities led the insurgency to become stronger and expand its control. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that a more robust counterinsurgency strategy, relying more on a determined and a judicious use of force and attempts to gain the trust and support of local communities, adopted in the later years led to the collapse of the insurgency. In short, this book offers an explanation of what makes an insurgency more likely to occur and how insurgency escalates and declines. In addition, this book sheds light on recent development in FATA including the merger of FATA with the mainstream Pakistan, the rise of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement, a non-violent protest movement, and the resurgence of the Pakistani Taliban especially after the Afghan Taliban capture of Kabul in the wake of US withdrawal of forces in Afghanistan. This book is a timely addition to the literature on South Asian Politics and Security Studies.

The book presents a critical and comparative analysis of the hydropolitical landscape of African transboundary river basins which, for much of the past century, have been affected by water scarcity. River and lake basins can become a source of tension and conflict due to a complicated mix of environmental, demographic, diplomatic, historical and geopolitical factors. This book, however, specifically focuses on the important, and often under looked, role played by scarcity in generating or exacerbating conflicts in shared river basins. Asserting that transboundary river basins tie states into a web of interdependence, this book raises awareness of how water scarcity, or the depletion of water resources, complicates this relationship as nations are forced to look beyond their own borders to meet the demand for water to satisfy multiple needs. Taking a comparative approach, it examines three shared basins: the Orange-Senqu, the Nile and the Niger River basins. While situated in different regions, all three basins are marked by serious environmental challenges that are detrimental to combustible hydropolitics over such shared water resources and they provide fascinating insights into the links between climate variability and change, water resources, human security, conflict, adaptation and regime capacity. Overall, this book argues that conflict over transboundary resources can be prevented given the establishment of norms, rules, and the role of external actors that help regulate state behaviour and control their impacts. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of water resource management, hydropolitics, environmental conflict, resource scarcity and international relations. It will also be of interest to policymakers involved in transboundary water resource governance.

This volume explores the inherent pluralism of Hinduism through ethnographic and philosophical evidence as presented in the Journal of Anthropological Society of Bombay. The essays dated 1886–1936 represent a period that marked the emergence of a European-educated native intelligentsia with a rationalist outlook. The chapters cover a wide range of topics from Tree Worship in Mohenjo Daro, the origin of the Hindu Trimurti, interpretation of Avestic and Vedic Texts, to the second set of more localized chapters that cover the Muhammadan Castes of Bengal, the Tenets and Practices of a Certain Class of Faqirs in Bengal, the Theoretical History of the Goddess Yellamma, and much more. Written during a particular historical as well as intellectual period that reflected certain key patterns – a period just following the Bengal Renaissance of the nineteenth century that ushered in the ideologies of a reformative Hinduism – this volume highlights how religions of all denominations have influenced each other and appear to have mingled beliefs and practices from multiple sources. It shows how tolerance and inclusiveness along with syncretism have been part of India’s religious and social history. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of religions, history, anthropology, sociology, political science, and sociology of religion. It will also be useful to those interested in inter-religious dialogues and civil society.

In managing national security, how Realist is India in terms of cultivating and using power and especially military power? A conventional view of India is that it has been uncomfortable with Realism or 'power politics' as a guide to policy. This volume shows that been more Realist than is generally recognized and that it has increasingly become comfortable with power in the service of its interests. The essays in this volume * Examine the different aspects and types of realism in India's national security policy * Include a range of perspectives from academics as well as former military officers and diplomats * Focus on India's military and foreign policy in dealing with China, Pakistan, the United States, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. This key volume will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, defence and strategic studies, and South Asian studies and to government officials, journalists, and general readers interested in the external dimensions of India's national security

In managing national security, how Realist is India in terms of cultivating and using power and especially military power? A conventional view of India is that it has been uncomfortable with Realism or 'power politics' as a guide to policy. This volume shows that been more Realist than is generally recognized and that it has increasingly become comfortable with power in the service of its interests. The essays in this volume * Examine the different aspects and types of realism in India's national security policy * Include a range of perspectives from academics as well as former military officers and diplomats * Focus on India's military and foreign policy in dealing with China, Pakistan, the United States, Southeast Asia, and West Asia. This key volume will be indispensable to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations, defence and strategic studies, and South Asian studies and to government officials, journalists, and general readers interested in the external dimensions of India's national security

This book argues that the world order is no longer unipolar, and the war in Ukraine proves this fact. As this study describes and theorizes, it has been transformed into a Multipolar World Order 2.0 stage. This title critically examines Chinese, US, Russian, EU, Indian, and a number of other powers’ cooperation and competition over security, diplomatic, economic and cyberspace issues. Accomplished scholars from various regions of the Eurasian continent consider the impact of the Russo–Ukrainian war, the Sino–Russian strategic partnership, China’s relations with the United States and the European Union, the influence of the Belt and Road Initiative, the expansion of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Eurasian Economic Union, China’s policies in the Middle East, Central Asia, Indo-Asia Pacific, the South Caucasus, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as focus on details of growing contradictions and collaboration in the Eurasian continent over markets, technologies, digital leadership, vaccine distribution, and financial institutions in the Era of Multipolar World Order 2.0. Showing that the US-centred unipolar world order is replaced by Multipolar World Order 2.0 where conflicting powers fight to keep or extend their spheres of influence, this volume is of great interest to decision makers, diplomats, scholars and students of international relations, politics, global governance, Eurasian studies, Chinese studies, cybersecurity, and economics, and for those studying human security, international organizations, and geopolitics.

At Home With Ivan Vladislavic is the first comprehensive analysis of the works of Ivan Vladislavic. Bringing a flaneur's "internal GPS" to postcolonial Johannesburg, Vladislavic established a critical sense of home via an intimate knowledge of geography and history. This sense of belonging can have positive ecological effects as we tend to protect what we know. The flaneur's deep word hoard also helped him to develop a minimalist style, which was not only a means of living sustainably in the city, but in its humour and close attention to detail a way to make greening the city more of a joy than a duty. In this way, Vladislavic created a culture of sustainability.

This book brings together new perspectives on India's foreign policy in the light of a constantly shifting world order. From India's relations in its immediate neighborhood to its China policy, from India-US relations under Biden to Quad, from Grand Strategy to peacekeeping this book brings to the fore the shifting terrains of global politics and India's significant place in it. The essays in the volume: Critically examines changing preoccupations of India's foreign policy and its geopolitical interests, including its Act East Policy; Includes comprehensive inputs on India's China policy and relations with Japan; Explores India's relations with the USA, the Middle-East, Afghanistan, and Central Asia; Discusses at length India's nuclear, energy, and foreign investment policies; Analyses India's positioning on the emergence of the Indo-Pacific discourse. This volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of political science and international relations. It will also be of use to foreign policy and diplomacy practitioners, career bureaucrats, and government think tanks.

This is the third volume to appear in The Oxford Regional Environments Series. It covers most of the territory of the former USSR and is divided into three main areas of interest. The first establishes the framework by discussing individual components of the physical environment, while the second concentrates on regional analysis. In the concluding part the effects of anthropogenic activities on the physical environment are discussed. The approach adopted is an integrative one, tying together various aspects of the physical environments with the environmental implications of human activites. Bringing together experts in their fields, the book will provide the most comprehensive and complete evaluation of the physical environment of Northern Eurasia available to date.

Written for early-career scholars still in the planning stages of their research, this book explores some of the challenges researchers face when conducting fieldwork in the former Soviet region. It addresses key questions, including: What difficulties do scholars, especially females, encounter when researching in the region? How does an early-career scholars' positionality - especially their nationality, ethnicity, and sexuality - contribute to their experiences of inclusion, exclusion, and access while conducting fieldwork? How do early-career scholars navigate issues of personal safety in the field? How do junior academics successfully conduct high-risk research? The book includes contributors from both the region and Western countries, paying particular attention to the ways researchers' subjectivities shape how they are received in the region, which, in turn, influence how they write about and disseminate their research. The book also explores ways to continue research away from the field through the use of digital methods when physical access is not possible.

This book focuses on Indonesia and investigates why competition between various identity-affiliated groups to claim a new province increases conflict severity. It includes a quantitative study, along with complementary case studies of provinces in Indonesia, which provide evidence that group fragmentation plays a role in determining conflict during a new province's struggle. Against the background of the Indonesian government's territorial autonomy (TA) strategy, regional proliferation, or pemekaran, the author examines the long-term decentralization project in Indonesia, which has an ethnically and religiously divided population. The book provides answers to the questions of how the new province claim increases conflict in the supporting districts and how competition among diverse elites in districts pursuing a new province precipitate conflict within the region. Based on extensive field research, the four case studies of districts with varying degrees of conflict reveal that the campaign for a new province proliferation increases the probability of conflict at the district level and conflict can escalate during the initiation of a new province stage. The author argues that more provinces may be necessary to ensure the fair distribution of wealth that would enable the whole population to enjoy a similar quality of life and that the Indonesian government needs to wisely and strategically uphold its unity if a federal arrangement is not an option. Offering a novel contribution to the study of the relationship between territorial change and conflict in Indonesia, this book will be of interest to academics studying Indonesian politics, Southeast Asian politics, as well as identity and ethnic politics.

This book is an accessible, comprehensive, and nuanced history of Pakistan. It reflects upon state and society in Pakistan and shows they have been shaped by historical forces and personae. Hoodbhoy expertly maps the journey of the region from many millennia ago to the circumstances and impulses that gave birth to the very first state in history founded upon religious identity. He documents colonial rule, the trauma of Partition, the nation's wars with India, the formation of Bangladesh, and the emergence of Baloch nationalism. The book also examines longstanding complex themes and issues - such as religious fundamentalism, identity formation, democracy, and military rule -as well as their impact on the future of the state of Pakistan. Drawing on a range of sources and written by one of the foremost intellectuals of the region, this book will be indispensable for scholars, researchers, students of history, politics and South Asian studies. It will be of great interest to the general reader interested in understanding Pakistan.

This book is a fierce argument against social and caste discrimination in India, especially untouchability and emphatic call for social justice. Written by a first-generation Kannada Dalit writer, the book provides an insider's view of caste discrimination as the author has lived through and experienced it. It traces the roots of present-day activism against caste discrimination, the influence of Ambedkar, the rise of Hindutva, and the role of Dalit literatures in shaping discourses around caste in India. An invigorating collection of essays and speeches by Mudnakudu Chinnaswamy, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of discrimination, literature, politics and political philosophy, exclusion studies, race, social justice, cultural studies, and South Asian studies.

This book highlights emerging trends and new themes in South Asian history. It covers issues broadly related to religion, materiality and nature from differing perspectives and methods to offer a kaleidoscopic view of Indian history until the late eighteenth century. The essays in the volume focus on understanding questions of premodern religion, material culture processes and their spatial and environmental contexts through a study of networks of commodities and cultural and religious landscapes. From the early history of coastal regions such as Gujarat and Bengal to material networks of political culture, from temples and their connection with maritime trade to the importance of landscape in influencing temple-building, from regions considered peripheral to mainstream historiography to the development of religious sects, this collection of articles maps the diverse networks and connections across regions and time. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, archaeology, museum and heritage studies, religion, especially Hinduism, Sufism and Buddhism, and South Asian studies.

Using the socio-political discourse of Kwame Nkrumah, a pioneering Pan-Africanist and Ghana's independence leader, Nartey investigates the notion of political myth-making in a context underexplored in the literature. He examines Nkrumah's construction of a myth described in the book as the Unite or Perish myth (i.e., the idea of a 'United States of Africa' being a prerequisite for the survival of Africa in the post-independence period), exploring the rhetorical resources he deployed, categorizing and analyzing key tropes and metaphors, and setting out the myth's basic components. This book focuses on three areas: an investigation of political myth-making as a social and discursive practice in order to identify particular semiotic practices and linguistic patterns deployed in the construction of mythic discourse; the unpacking of the discursive manifestation, representation, features, and functions of political mythic themes; and finally to propose and implement an integrated discourse analytical framework to account for the complexities of mythic discourse and political narratives in general. It analyzes how Nkrumah deployed his discourse to concurrently construct heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists, as part of an ideological mechanism aimed at galvanizing support for and instigating action on the part of the masses towards his lifelong African dream. Nartey's book steps out from the conventional domain of critical discourse studies to focus on myth as a form of populist performance. It will be of interest to postgraduate students and academics in (critical) discourse studies, rhetorical discourse analysis, African and Diaspora studies, and African history, as well as non-academics such as journalists, political commentators, and people who consider themselves to be Nkrumaists and Pan-Africanists.

This edited volume provides a comprehensive overview and discussion of the issues surrounding the Malaysian Indian community's educational development. Malaysian Indian citizens who make up seven per cent of the population have their own set of strengths and weaknesses, while facing deep-seated socio-economic challenges. Education is seen as an enabler which could significantly facilitate social and economic upward mobility, as shown in policies and practices implemented under the New Economic Policy, many of which have unfortunately bypassed the Indian Community. This book explores and assesses the various aspects of the education endeavour of Malaysian Indians, including primary, secondary, post-secondary and tertiary education. Related challenges include urban poverty, school dropouts, dysfunctional families and other socio-economic issues. It reconsiders educational equity policies and practices in place while proposing new initiatives which could support and chart a way forward for the development of Malaysian Indians. Importantly, the publication addresses the roles of the government, private sector and civil society to help elevate the educational achievements of the Indian Community. The book will appeal to students and academics in the faculties of social science and comparative education, development economics and sociology, with a focus on access and equity in education. Proposals for change would be of interest to policy-makers and managers of educational and non-governmental organisations in plural societies.

Mobile technology offers an innovative and cost-effective channel for delivering a range of financial services, including mobile payments. In some jurisdictions, mobile payments simply provide a convenient option for facilitating payment transactions. In other jurisdictions, mobile payments are viewed as potentially transformative because they present an opportunity to expand access to financial services. However, as with other innovations, mobile payments raise consumer protection concerns and require robust regulatory mechanisms to address such concerns. Against this backdrop, the book adopts a typology of consumer policy tools which can be used to address the identified consumer concerns. This typology guides the enquiry into the existing consumer protection frameworks applying to mobile payments in selected jurisdictions (Canada, Kenya, and the United Kingdom). The main objective of this endeavour is to identify best practices that national authorities seeking to leverage mobile payments and similar innovations can emulate. This book will be of interest to policymakers, regulators, industry stakeholders, students and scholars interested in the regulation of innovative financial services, particularly from a consumer protection perspective.

This book investigates how non-state actors have become key drivers of the diffusion of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Brazil. The UN ranks Brazil as the most biodiverse country in the world, but the country's environment has never been under greater threat, with the rise of multiple crises bringing mounting challenges to socioeconomic development and environmental protection. As state support has fallen away, non-state actors have actively engaged and eventually mobilized other social actors towards the promotion of the SDGs and the implementation of the UN agenda. This book asks why it is that non-state actors have dedicated so much time, effort and resources to promote a non-binding agenda that was ratified by and is mainly assigned to state actors. Looking at the roles of academia, civil society, and the private sector, the book explores the different ways in which these social actors make sense of and translate the 2030 Agenda into practice within their respective local contexts. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, this book sheds light on a series of challenges, opportunities and contradictions within the global agenda and its implementation. Assessing what the Brazil case can teach us about the diffusion of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs more broadly, this book will be of interest to academics in the field of Sustainable Development, Latin America Studies and Environmental Politics as well as sustainable development researchers and policy makers.

This book focuses on the extent to which Soviet scholars and cultural theoreticians were able to act autonomously during the Stalin era. The authors question how we should consider certain intellectual achievements which took place despite the pressure of Stalinism, and how best to recognise and describe such achievements. The chapters in this book offer suggestions for new interpretations on Soviet philosophy of science and humanities, linguistics, philosophy, musicology, literature and mathematics from the point of view of general cultural theory. In this way, they challenge the received image of the Stalin-era humanities which reduces them into mere propaganda. Intended for scholars of Russian and Soviet studies, this book will dispel many received views about the character of Stalinism and Soviet culture.

This yearbook focuses on law and its interdisciplinarity in India. It brings together scholars of law, economics, and policy to foster multidisciplinary thinking and analysis across subject areas. The contributors to this volume embody an interdisciplinary spirit through their academic experience and aim to bring to the fore unique suggestions for a better understanding of the law. The volume explores various key issues that are central to state policy demanded by a functioning democracy, in terms of democratic quality, aspirations and sustainability. It discusses global and social issues, such as foreign interference in domestic elections, feminism, and climate change and looks at other subjects such as economics, religion, history, literature from the perspective of law. A unique contribution to the study of law in India, this book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of law, jurisprudence, political science, economics, public policy, sociology, social anthropology, the Indian Constitution, and South Asia studies.

First published in 1984, The Mediterranean Region considers the broad economic and political problems facing the region from a variety of perspectives. The book features the work of international experts on the Mediterranean region. It discusses the changing legal environment and covers the Law of the Sea as applied to the Mediterranean, and the position of the Arab countries in the region. Chapters are also devoted to exploring the different policies of Russia, the United States, and Europe, towards the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean Region is a detailed contribution to research and understanding of the area.

This book examines various gender-based power politics in the Indian society. It studies gender intersectionality and feminism as a socio-political philosophy by understanding how power structures deeply rooted in and are supported by our patriarchal societies. A comprehensive and interdisciplinary study on women's issues in India, the volume, - Adopts an intersectional feminist lens to critically analyse identity formation, gender socialization, gender stereotyping and discrimination; - Discusses various interdisciplinary perspectives of feminism, including liberal and post-modern feminism, eco-feminism, and Dalit feminism. - Examines the concept and origin of patriarchy, alongside theories on masculinity while focusing heterogeneous male members and the hegemonic masculinity; - Investigates issues related to violence against gender and adequate implementation of law and rehabilitation policies in India; - Sheds light on women's labor and participation in the organized, service and unorganized sectors of work within India. This book will be of interest and use to students, teachers, scholars of women's and gender studies, intersectional feminism, sexuality studies, identity politics, political sociology at both undergraduate and post graduate levels.

Building on the author's 2012 book, Lee Kuan Yew's Strategic Thought, this new book presents a comprehensive overview of Lee Kuan Yew's strategic thought over the course of his entire life. It charts the development of Singapore over the last seven decades, showing how Lee Kuan Yew steered Singapore to prosperity and success through changing times and how he had an enormous impact on the development of Singapore and of Southeast Asia more generally. It analyses the factors underlying Lee Kuan Yew's thinking, discusses his own writings and speeches, and shows how his thinking on foreign policy, security and international relations evolved. It also appraises writing about Lee Kuan Yew and the memorialisation of him, assessing how views of his legacy have changed and continue to change.

Small-scale agricultural producers in the peripheral world are often condescendingly assumed to be a single social class ('the peasantry') to be pitted against the state or corporation. This book challenges this rather idealistic view by demonstrating that under current capitalist social relations (competition, efficiency and productivity, and profit maximisation), these agricultural producers have been differentiated into different agrarian classes by exploitation. By comparing two different contexts of local agrarian change in Indonesia-rice cultivation in Java and oil palm in Sumatra-this book exposes the different class locations of the agrarian classes among petty agricultural producers and the class relations between them. These are often inextricably linked to gender, clanship and generational issues. The power of class dynamics crucially shapes how agricultural production in both rice and oil palm is organised. The share received by different agrarian classes from the production site then prominently shapes the different nature of class reproduction for each agrarian class. This analysis demonstrates that the different agrarian classes possess different capacities and responses in their relation to the state or corporations. Any real emancipation attempt in the Indonesian countryside (and beyond) must start from a proper understanding of these class dynamics. This book marks a significant contribution to the literature on agrarian change, the political economy of development, rural development and Marxist political economy.

This book examines the diffusion of digitalization and industry 4.0 technologies in Malaysia by focusing on the ecosystem critical for its expansion. The chapters examine the digital proliferation in major sectors of agriculture, manufacturing, e-commerce and services, as well as the intermediary organizations essential for the orderly performance of socioeconomic agents. The book incisively reviews policy instruments critical for the effective and orderly development of the embedding organizations, and the regulatory framework needed to quicken the appropriation of socioeconomic synergies from digitalization and industry 4.0 technologies. It highlights the importance of collaboration between government, academic and industry partners, as well as makes key recommendations on how to encourage adoption of IR4.0 technologies in the short- and long-term. This book bridges the concepts and applications of digitalization and industry 4.0 and will be a must-read for policy makers seeking to quicken the adoption of its technologies.