This book provides over 260 entries on U.S. presidents, Latin American politicians, covert operations, policies, and major events since the early 1800s that define the contentious relations between the United States and the Latin American and Caribbean region.

From the Monroe Doctrine to NAFTA, the tone of U.S.-Latin America relations has been set by the United States, and largely to its benefit. Dent compiles more than 260 A-to-Z entries that detail the key people, events, treaties, wars, and concepts that have gone into the making of the often contentious relations between the United States and the Latin American and Caribbean region. Entries conclude with suggested readings and are thoroughly cross-referenced. A thematic index guides users to related entries, and an extensive bibliography includes a list of key works central to the study of U.S.-Latin American relations. There is also a separate list of relevant online resources. The entire work is also thoroughly indexed.

Useful for students and researchers of international politics within the Western hemisphere, Dent's historical dictionary covers items ranging from pro-slavery filibusterers adventuring in Central America, Dollar Diplomacy, Anti-Americanism, Banana Wars, the Reagan Doctrine, Sandinistas, friendly Dictators, Che Guevara, to the impact of the events of September 11, 2001 on Latin America, among many others.

From border crime in Mexico to Chavez's revolution in Venezuela, this volume presents up-to-the-minute coverage of the key conflicts, corruption, and revolutionary movements simmering or raging in every region of Latin America. In-depth, comprehensive chapters explore drug wars, immigration issues, terrorism, youth gangs, government corruption, controversy over oil, and political instability, including: The Zapatista Rebellion, the Darien Gap controversy, Evo Morales, Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and Tupac Amaru, the Falklands, and Guantanamo Bay. From border crime in Mexico to Chavez's revolution in Venezuela, this volume presents up-to-the-minute coverage of the key conflicts, corruption, and revolutionary movements simmering or raging in every region of Latin America. In-depth, comprehensive chapters explore drug wars, imigration issues, terrorism, youth gangs, government corruption, controversy over oil, and political instability. This is a must-have source for current coverage of trouble spots in Latin America, their origins, and subsequent development. Over 30 security-based hot spots are analyzed within these geographical regions. They vary in severity, background, and degree of threat to the United States, the nation itself, or its regional neighbors. Hot spots covered include: Zapatista Rebellion Darien Gap controversy Evo Morales Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) and Tupac Amaru Falklands Guantanamo Bay

"Soil as World Heritage" celebrates a half century of field experiments on the Balti Steppe, in Moldova - where Dokuchaev first described the Typical Chernozem in 1877, protected from the elements by a unique system of shelter belts designed by the great man, and now provisionally listed as the first World Heritage Site for soil. The book presents contributions to the 2012 international symposium attended by researchers, practitioners and policy makers from the European Commission and countries as diverse as Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA and, of course, Moldova itself.

The experimental data demonstrate the damage caused by human activity to the productivity and integrity of the black earth and, also, ways to restore its fertility. Results from even longer-established trials worldwide also demonstrate that agricultural practices are driving global warming, leaching of nutrients, pollution of water resources, diversion of rainfall away from replenishment of soil and groundwater to destructive runoff, and destroying soil organic matter and biodiversity. These are pressing issues for our generation and will press harder on future generations. Long-term field experiments, and the scientific skills and experience that they nurture, will be more and more valuable as a foundation and focus for interdisciplinary teams studying the effects of farming practices on the soil and soil life so as to devise a sustainable alternative.

Europe-wide and worldwide contributions also discuss economic incentives - carbon and green water credits - which themselves require robust supporting data, and legislative aspects of promoting more sustainable farming systems. The outcomes of the conference include recommendations for institutional support for sustainable farming and a draft of the law on land and soil management for the Parliament of Moldova."

Dokuchaev carried out most of his research in Ukraine. His student and friend, Volodymyr Vernadsky, went on to create trans-disciplinary environmental sciences and the concept of Earth as a living organism, famously taken up by James Lovelock. That spring of ideas still flows and the researches captured in this volume are relevant to present-day problems, and not only in Ukraine. Soils have always been under stress but, in the Anthropocene, mankind is in the driving seat. As a sequel to Soil Science Working for a Living: Applications of soil science to present-day problems, we consider issues of policy as well as soil genesis, attributes and functions in various environments, natural and man-made. We consider human impacts on the soil cover through its use and misuse, highlight methods of research and assessment of soil quality, and the threats of soil degradation. The distinguished contributors also describe and propose various options for evaluation and remediation of degraded soils, drawing on the latest methods of modelling and cartography as well as long-term field experiments and long experience. The book will be invaluable to researchers and practitioners in soil science including graduate and post-graduate education, academics and professionals.

Ideal for student research and debate, this is the first single-volume reference work to examine, country by country, the history of U.S. involvement in 24 Latin American and Caribbean nations. It will help students to understand and debate the role of the United States in Latin America since the Monroe Doctrine in 1823 and whether in the long run U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Latin American governments has been counterproductive. Each country and its relations with the United States is analyzed succinctly in an individual chapter. Dent, a noted expert on inter-American relations, organizes each chapter around major themes that illuminate both historical and contemporary issues, and shows how in recent years U.S. concerns have been transformed from issues of security and economic interests to drug trafficking, immigration, and trade pacts. Discussion of key events--wars, revolutions, and dictatorships--and lively accounts of the role of powerful individuals illustrate the causes and consequences of U.S. involvement. Each chapter features a timeline of events in the history of U.S. involvement in that country and a list of suggested readings on the country and its relationship with the United States. A glossary explains key terms used throughout the book. A number of comparative tables and charts put inter-American relations in perspective. A selection of editorial cartoons from the 1980's offer biting commentary on U.S. relations with its Latin American neighbors. Designed to meet the information needs of high school and college students and the general public, this reference work will guide the user to an understanding of the richness and complexity of the inter-Americanrelationship over the last two centuries and provide both historical perspective and timely analysis of current problems confronting the United States and its neighbors to the south.

This book provides an international perspective on rural planning, focused on developing countries. It examines conventional development planning and innovative local planning approaches, drawing together lessons from recent experience of rural planning and land use. The authors examine past and current practice and ways that land use planning and management of natural resources can underpin sustainable local livelihoods. They draw on case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America to present findings relevant throughout the developing world.

Soil as World Heritage celebrates a half century of field experiments on the Balti Steppe, in Moldova - where Dokuchaev first described the Typical Chernozem in 1877, protected from the elements by a unique system of shelter belts designed by the great man, and now provisionally listed as the first World Heritage Site for soil. The book presents contributions to the 2012 international symposium attended by researchers, practitioners and policy makers from the European Commission and countries as diverse as Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy , the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, USA and, of course, Moldova itself. The experimental data demonstrate the damage caused by human activity to the productivity and integrity of the black earth and, also, ways to restore its fertility. Results from even longer-established trials worldwide also demonstrate that agricultural practices are driving global warming, leaching of nutrients, pollution of water resources, diversion of rainfall away from replenishment of soil and groundwater to destructive runoff, and destroying soil organic matter and biodiversity. These are pressing issues for our generation and will press harder on future generations. Long-term field experiments, and the scientific skills and experience that they nurture, will be more and more valuable as a foundation and focus for interdisciplinary teams studying the effects of farming practices on the soil and soil life so as to devise a sustainable alternative. Europe-wide and worldwide contributions also discuss economic incentives - carbon and green water credits - which themselves require robust supporting data, and legislative aspects of promoting more sustainable farming systems. The outcomes of the conference include recommendations for institutional support for sustainable farming and a draft of the law on land and soil management for the Parliament of Moldova.

The food system is our last coal-fired power station, our last diesel engine. This book is a trans-disciplinary approach to what needs to be done to make our food system sustainable and to regenerate soil and water resources, habitat, economy and society. The book brings back classical principles of agronomy and integrates economic, agro-ecological and social perspectives, drawing on a wealth of expertise on the political economy of the food system, Conservation Agriculture, and long-term field experiments. Regenerative agriculture builds on known knowns - like crop rotation, water and nutrient requirements, soil and water conservation, farm-gate prices, international trade and supply chains. It grapples with known unknowns - like weed, pest and disease control without agrochemicals, cover crops for profit as well as protection, mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, resilience and tipping points in ecosystems, farming systems and societies, and how we can pay for imperative changes. Lastly, it acknowledges unknown unknowns - the things we are oblivious to but which we really must know - like how to liberate the ghettos of the mind inhabited by farmers, agronomists, politicians and societies.

Dokuchaev carried out most of his research in Ukraine. His student and friend, Volodymyr Vernadsky, went on to create trans-disciplinary environmental sciences and the concept of Earth as a living organism, famously taken up by James Lovelock. That spring of ideas still flows and the researches captured in this volume are relevant to present-day problems, and not only in Ukraine. Soils have always been under stress but, in the Anthropocene, mankind is in the driving seat. As a sequel to Soil Science Working for a Living: Applications of soil science to present-day problems, we consider issues of policy as well as soil genesis, attributes and functions in various environments, natural and man-made. We consider human impacts on the soil cover through its use and misuse, highlight methods of research and assessment of soil quality, and the threats of soil degradation. The distinguished contributors also describe and propose various options for evaluation and remediation of degraded soils, drawing on the latest methods of modelling and cartography as well as long-term field experiments and long experience. The book will be invaluable to researchers and practitioners in soil science including graduate and post-graduate education, academics and professionals.

This report examines the scientific basis for the use of remotely sensed data, particularly Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), primarily for the assessment of land degradation at different scales and for a range of applications, including resilience of agro-ecosystems. Evidence is drawn from a wide range of investigations, primarily from the scientific peer-reviewed literature but also non-journal sources. The literature review has been corroborated by interviews with leading specialists in the field. The report reviews the use of NDVI for a range of themes related to land degradation, including land cover change, drought monitoring and early warning systems, desertification processes, greening trends, soil erosion and salinization, vegetation burning and recovery after fire, biodiversity loss, and soil carbon. This SpringerBrief also discusses the limits of the use of NDVI for land degradation assessment and potential for future directions of use. A substantial body of peer-reviewed research lends unequivocal support for the use of coarse-resolution time series of NDVI data for studying vegetation dynamics at global, continental and sub-continental levels. There is compelling evidence that these data are highly correlated with biophysically meaningful vegetation characteristics such as photosynthetic capacity and primary production that are closely related to land degradation and to agroecosystem resilience.

1950s British comedy set in a boys' school facing closure. Cardew the Cad (Cardew Robinson) is a wealthy mature student who has yet to graduate. With the school in trouble, Cardew finds himself facing bribery at the hands of scheming headmaster Dr. Septimus Jankers (Fred Emney) and his accomplice, Harry the Scar (Freddie Mills).