This book focuses on how ‘cult rhetoric’ affects our perceptions of new religious movements (NRMs). Recent decades have seen radical changes, both in the study of religion and in religions themselves. International contributors show how the rise of Al Qaeda, Donald Trump’s presidency and organisations like QAnon, as well as developments in digital technology, have influenced the ways in which minority religions have progressed. They also discuss how secularisation theory and the questioning of the so-called World Religions Paradigm have greatly shaped academic treatment of the field – all while the media, the anticult movement and popular culture continue to shape public perceptions of NRMs, with rhetoric involving terms like ‘destructive cult’, ‘brainwashing’, and ‘victims’. This book examines how discussions on NRMs have developed over the past decades, deconstructing the language we use to describe these movements. It also explores specific case studies, notably the Chinese concept of xiejiao (‘evil cults’), La Luz del Mundo, QAnon, and video games as a medium of spiritual encounter.

Maintaining the practical and interactive focus of the series, this book features a collection of case studies of best practice from around the world, covering different situations, environments and course types. They include key areas such as skills, research, supervision and curriculum change and development, support services, implementing change, leadership, quality assurance and improvement and accreditation. The studies are presented in such a way as to encourage readers to engage in critical reflection. After each one, its author provides a thorough analysis of the case, teasing out key issues and providing links to research and experience in the area.

When The Vortex of Life was first published in 1993, Lawrence Edwards's pioneering work on bud shapes had already attracted the attention of many scientists around the world. In the book, Edwards gave a fuller account of his research, widening it to include the forms of plants, embryos and organs such as the heart. His work suggests that there are universal laws, not yet fully understood, which guide an organism's growth into predetermined patterns. His work has profound implications for those working in genetics and stem-cell research. Edwards died in 2004 at the age of 91 and Graham Calderwood has edited and revised this classic work.

What is the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on development? The answer is important for the lives of millions-if not billions-of workers, families, and communities in the developing world. The answer is crucial for policymakers in developing and developed countries, and in multilateral agencies. This important volume gathers together the cutting edge of new research on FDI and host country economic performance, and presents the most sophisticated critiques of current and past inquiries. The volume probes the limits of what can be determined from available evidence and from innovative investigative techniques. It presents new results, concludes with an analysis of the implications for contemporary policy debates, and proposed new avenues for future research.

When what was to become the Asian financial crisis of 1997 broke out in Thailand, few analysts predicted that this crisis would spread to South Korea. Korea, after all, had risen from poverty to become one of the "Asian miracle economies". However, the crisis did not spare Korea, and the Korean government was forced to negotiate a bailout from the International Monetary Fund in late 1997. In 1998, the Korean economy went into the deepest recession recorded in that country since the Korean War. Many of the underlying problems were homegrown. Huge amounts of debt had been amassed by Korea's large industrial conglomerates (the chaebol), and often the funds had been invested in undertakings that were not earning satisfactory rates of return. By the end of 1998, a number of smaller conglomerates had failed and one of the top five (Daewoo) was in serious trouble and eventually would fail. In this study, author Edward M. Graham examines how this situation arose, tracing its roots to the aggressive industrial policy begun by Korean strongman president Park Chung-hee during the late 1960s. Graham notes that a major failing of Korea during the "miracle-economy" years was that the financial sector in Korea remained underdeveloped and thus never was able to develop a counterweight to the economic and political power that, over time, the chaebol acquired. The crisis of 1997 can be seen as the culminating event of that asymmetry that was created by Korean industrial policy, i.e., very powerful industrial groups that operated without the countervailing power of financial institutions. Graham then looks at the efforts at reform since 1997, including reform of the financial sector and the chaebol themselves. He concludes that, while much progress has been made, the reform has been uneven and is far from complete.

There is growing consensus among international trade negotiators and policymakers that a prime area for future multilateral discussion is competition policy. Competition policy includes antitrust policy (including merger regulation and control) but is often extended to include international trade measures and other policies that affect the structure, conduct, and performance of individual industries. This study includes country studies of competition policy in Western Europe, North America, and the Far East (with a focus on Japan) in the light of increasingly globalized activities of business firms. Areas where there are major differences in philosophy, policy, or practice are identified, with emphasis on those differences that could lead to economic costs and international friction. Alternatives for eliminating these costs and frictions are discussed, including unilateral policy changes, bilateral or multilateral harmonization of policies, and creation of new international regimes to supplement or replace national or regional regimes.

There is inherent tension between the increasingly global focus of foreign investors and the continuing national focus of governments. Countries, particularly developing ones, compete to attract investment from global corporations, and they attach performance requirements to tilt the impact of those investments in their favor. This is because the host nations expect investment to raise growth levels, efficiency, and living standards. At the same time, the home countries of such corporations worry that their firms are not accorded fair and reciprocal treatment abroad. These issues have become a source of conflict among nations, one that could escalate considerably if an agreement is not soon reached. Graham's study analyzes the nature and depth of the international investment problem and its potential impact on the world economy and on economic relations among nations. He urges that current rules on foreign direct investment be enlarged and restructured via new international rules and institutional arrangements and offers two alternatives for doing so.

As border barriers have declined, private barriers to competition have grown more significant. More and more international trade disputes involve private business practices that allegedly block the market access of rival firms. Such disputes include high profile conflicts between Japan and the United States over semiconductors, auto parts, and photographic film, between the European Union and the United States over aerospace and defense mergers, and between Asian nations and others over access to telecommunications networks. More such disputes are inevitable, especially in sectors that have been traditionally state-controlled but that are now subject to privatization. The regulation of private business practices that restrict competition is called competition (or antitrust) policy. In this book, the authors survey national competition policies and the issues they raise for international trade and investment. The book includes detailed recommendations for international agreement on minimum standards in those competition-policy measures that affect the ability of foreign firms to contest markets. These standards could be negotiated and implemented bilaterally, regionally, and globally at the World Trade Organization. At the international level, governments might agree on certain initial steps to accomplish greater contestability: "national treatment" for foreign-controlled firms, abolition of most international cartels (including those that are now sanctioned), and establishment of mandatory consultation procedures when one government believes that private business practices in another nation foreclose exports or direct investment. There should also be premerger notification requirements for transborder or other mergers having cross-border effects. Further steps might be implemented at a future time.

Antiglobalist forces have been gaining ever greater momentum in recent years in their efforts to reverse what they view as the negative effects of an integrating global economy, with the 1999 WTO meeting in Seattle serving as an example. Their influence was felt earlier when efforts to create a Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) ended in failure in 1998 after France left the bargaining table at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, effectively killing the initiative.

In this study, through an evaluation of the MAI itself and the issues raised by its opponents, Edward M. Graham takes a fresh look at the growing backlash against globalization. He first explores whether the MAI negotiations failed due to political maneuvering by antiglobalist nongovernmental organizations (supported by US organized labor) or because of irreconcilable differences among the negotiating parties over the substance of the issue of foreign direct investment. He then objectively and thoroughly assesses antiglobalist assertions that the activities of multinational firms have had negative effects on workers both in the home (investor) and host (recipient) nations, with a special focus on developing nations. An important finding is that multinational firms tend to pay workers in developing nations wages that are significantly above generally prevailing wages. Graham then examines the issue of globalized economic activity and the environment, finding that economic growth in developing nations can lead to increased environmental stress but also that foreign direct investment can lead to reductions in this stress. On the issue of globalization and the environment, he finds that the worryof many environmentalists of a "race to the bottom" is not borne out by the evidence.

The final chapters assess whether or not a negotiation to create a comprehensive agreement on investment should be included in a multilateral negotiating round at the World Trade Organization in the near future. The interests of developing nations in this agenda are given special attention. Graham indicates that, while many developing nations would accept such rules, it might nonetheless be premature to press for a comprehensive agreement at this time. Rather, a limited investment agenda might be both more feasible and more productive.

The share of the US economy controlled by foreign firms has tripled since the mid-1970s. The authors find that foreign firms appear to invest in the United States mainly to exploit their individual advantages in management and technology - the same reasons why American firms invest abroad - rather than because the United States is now running large deficits and has become a large debtor nation. Foreign-owned firms do not pay lower wages or shift good jobs and research and development away from the United States. Foreign-owned firms and especially Japanese firms do, however, have a marked tendency to import more of their production inputs. The authors warn that the President's new legislative authority to screen FDI on national security grounds could easily be abused, but endorse using this authority to ensure access to critical technologies or production processes including a requirement on some foreign firms to invest in the United States. They propose new international rules to minimize governmental interference and harmonize policies toward multinational firms.

Americans have long been ambivalent toward foreign direct investment in the United States. Foreign multinational corporations may be a source of capital, technology, and jobs. But what are the implications for US workers, firms, communities, and consumers as the United States remains the most popular destination for foreign multinational investment? Theodore H. Moran and Lindsay Oldenski find that foreign multinational firms that invest in the United States are, alongside US-headquartered American multinationals, the most productive and highest-paying segment of the US economy. These firms conduct more research and development, provide more value added to US domestic inputs, and export more goods and services than other firms in the US economy. The superior technology and management techniques they employ spill over horizontally and vertically to improve the performance of local firms and workers. As the United States wants not only to expand employment but also create well-paying jobs that reverse the falling earnings that many US workers and middle class families have suffered in recent decades, it is more important than ever to enhance the United States as a destination for multinational investors.

Does foreign ownership of American businesses pose a threat to the United States (like the abortive attempt by CNOOC, a Chinese company, to purchase Unocal during the summer of 2005)? This important new book examines foreign direct investment (FDI) in the United States, the national security concerns associated with this investment, and treatment of these concerns under US policy. It asks whether the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) process can be improved and answers in the affirmative. The book starts by looking at the review process for foreign takeovers of US firms (including a historical review), looks at the economic and political impact on the United States of foreign direct investment, takes a detailed look at issues relating to FDI posed by the rise of China as an economic and geopolitical power and finally suggests some changes to the Exon-Florio process.