Peace Settlements and Political Transformation in Divided Societies examines what happened to Northern Ireland and South Africa after their miraculous political settlements in the 1990s, in which comparison between the two cases played a small but significant role. The author extends the story by exploring the connections between these two deeply divided societies during the consolidation of their settlements. He shows the ways in which their paths have subsequently diverged in both reality and perception. At the outset of the transformation of the two polities, the similarities between the two cases tended to be overstated. In this context, the book explains how the South African case came to be misidentified as an example of consociationalism, and the influence that this has continued to exert on comparative studies of power-sharing. In the process, other aspects of South Africa's political transformation, including respect for the constitution and the rule of law, have been overlooked and underappreciated. In the case of Northern Ireland, a missing element in the treatment of its settlement as a model for other deeply divided societies has been the role that external mediation played in the creation and survival of its institutions. Northern Ireland's dependence on favourable external circumstances explains in large part why the Good Friday Agreement is now facing a threat to its survival. By contrast, South Africa's political institutions seem relatively secure, despite the vast scale of the country's socio-economic problems. This book will be of interest to students, researchers and scholars of conflict resolution and peace processes, comparative politics, ethnic politics and democratisation, as well as those involved in the governance of deeply divided societies.

The signing of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 appeared to open up a new phase in the history of Northern Ireland and indeed world politics generally. Hailed from the outset as a model that would inspire peace processes in other countries, it sought through careful negotiation and delicate compromise to bring to a conclusion a conflict that had cost over 3600 lives, damaged Britain's international position and at times come very close to undermining relations between the UK and Ireland. While the peace has held it is obvious that serious divisions continue to make a final settlement of the Northern Irish question very difficult. This comprehensive and original study is the first to explain in detail how the Good Friday Agreement ran into trouble, why we are still some way from a final settlement, but why a return to war is most unlikely - even in an age where global terror now threatens world order more seriously than at any time in the past. This new edition of an established, authoritative text will be essential reading for students, researchers and academics of Irish politics, conflict and peace studies, and international relations. -- .

This book aims to teach the core concepts that make Self-driving vehicles (SDVs) possible. It is aimed at people who want to get their teeth into self-driving vehicle technology, by providing genuine technical insights where other books just skim the surface. The book tackles everything from sensors and perception to functional safety and cybersecurity. It also passes on some practical know-how and discusses concrete SDV applications, along with a discussion of where this technology is heading. It will serve as a good starting point for software developers or professional engineers who are eager to pursue a career in this exciting field and want to learn more about the basics of SDV algorithms. Likewise, academic researchers, technology enthusiasts, and journalists will also find the book useful. Key Features: Offers a comprehensive technological walk-through of what really matters in SDV development: from hardware, software, to functional safety and cybersecurity Written by an active practitioner with extensive experience in series development and research in the fields of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving Covers theoretical fundamentals of state-of-the-art SLAM, multi-sensor data fusion, and other SDV algorithms. Includes practical information and hands-on material with Robot Operating System (ROS) and Open Source Car Control (OSCC). Provides an overview of the strategies, trends, and applications which companies are pursuing in this field at present as well as other technical insights from the industry.

This book aims to teach the core concepts that make Self-driving vehicles (SDVs) possible. It is aimed at people who want to get their teeth into self-driving vehicle technology, by providing genuine technical insights where other books just skim the surface. The book tackles everything from sensors and perception to functional safety and cybersecurity. It also passes on some practical know-how and discusses concrete SDV applications, along with a discussion of where this technology is heading. It will serve as a good starting point for software developers or professional engineers who are eager to pursue a career in this exciting field and want to learn more about the basics of SDV algorithms. Likewise, academic researchers, technology enthusiasts, and journalists will also find the book useful. Key Features: Offers a comprehensive technological walk-through of what really matters in SDV development: from hardware, software, to functional safety and cybersecurity Written by an active practitioner with extensive experience in series development and research in the fields of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Autonomous Driving Covers theoretical fundamentals of state-of-the-art SLAM, multi-sensor data fusion, and other SDV algorithms. Includes practical information and hands-on material with Robot Operating System (ROS) and Open Source Car Control (OSCC). Provides an overview of the strategies, trends, and applications which companies are pursuing in this field at present as well as other technical insights from the industry.

Are police forces agents of the state or of society? How do different police forces maintain order? How does the nature of a country's political system affect the state's reaction to disorder? This study identifies trends in public-order policing across a broad sample of seven countries: Britain, Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic, the United States of America, Israel, South Africa and China. It explains why the handling of disorder has become a controversial and topical issue in different parts of the world. Each chapter provides a range of data on the size, make-up and cost of the police and follows a common format in analysing the place of the police at the junction of state-society relations.

The book analyses the study of the growing field of ethnicity and politics from a number of different angles. These include the nature of the subject itself, different theoretical approaches, ways of addressing political issues the relationship gives rise to, the impact of major global challenges and a survey of output in the field. Comprehensive text book makes great course reading. Questions of identity, particularly ethnicity, play an increasingly important role in people's lives. They are also of growing significance in both domestic and international politics. The increased attention to these issues has been matched by the mushrooming of scholarship in the field of ethnicity and politics. The chapters in this survey of recent analytical developments examine the contribution that this literature has made within the broad area of comparative politics within the discipline of political science. They are written by experts active in the international network of scholars that has been devoted to the study of this subject. The question of what we mean when we use ethnic terminology is rigorously interrogated. And the major theoretical approaches to the study of ethnicity and politics are critically examined. Ways of addressing ethnic diversity are debated under the wide headings of accommodation and integration. The issue of ethnicity in world politics is considered through an analysis of how watersheds of the last 25 years, including the end of the Cold War, 9/11 and the global economic downturn have impacted on the study of the subject. Also analysed is the output of publications in scholarly journals that has addressed this subject area. From the Contents: Ethnicity - What are we talking about? (Jean Touron) Ethnic and national mobilization (Eric Kaufmann/Daniele Conversi) The Politics of accomodation and integration in democratic States (Brendan O'Leary/John McGarry) Global Watersheds and the Study of ethno-politics (Adrian Guelke) Who is doing what, where and how in the study of ethnicity and politics (Britt Cartrite/Dan Miodownik)

A valuable study of the nature and development of terrorism in all its forms in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Powerfully argued and thought-provoking, Terrorism and Global Disorder examines whether the world changed as a result of the events of 11 September 2001. It argues that the significance of 9/11 has been overstated and that terrorism with a global reach is best seen as a consequence of other, more fundamental changes. The author contends that the development and global outreach of terrorism stem from the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the superpower hegemony, aided by the spread of international technology and communications. He also examines the consequences of the political exploitation of terrorism and underlines the dangers created by the politicization of counter-terrorism for partisan purposes. Above all, this stimulating book attempts to place terrorism - now a word full of nuance and meaning and denoting a phenomenon which occupies so much government time and money - within the context of history and current affairs. It is an important contribution to the ongoing debate about the causes and nature of terrorism.

Providing a much-needed antidote to recent revisionist attempts to 'rehabilitate' apartheid, this major new text by a leading authority offers a considered and substantive reassessment of the nature, endurance and significance of apartheid in South Africa as well as the reasons for its dramatic collapse. Paying particular attention to the international dimension as well as the domestic, the author assesses the impact of anti-apartheid protest, of changing attitudes of Western governments to the apartheid regime and the evolution of South African government policies to the outside world.