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The threat of terror, which flares in Africa and Indonesia, has given the problem of failed states an unprecedented immediacy and importance. In the past, failure had a primarily humanitarian dimension, with fewer implications for peace and security. Now nation-states that fail, or may do so, pose dangers to themselves, to their neighbors, and to people around the globe: preventing their failure, and reviving those that do fail, has become a strategic as well as a moral imperative. State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror develops an innovative theory of state failure that classifies and categorizes states along a continuum from weak to failed to collapsed. By understanding the mechanisms and identifying the tell-tale indicators of state failure, it is possible to develop strategies to arrest the fatal slide from weakness to collapse. This state failure paradigm is illustrated through detailed case studies of states that have failed and collapsed (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Somalia), states that are dangerously weak (Colombia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan), and states that are weak but safe (Fiji, Haiti, Lebanon).
This book examines the origins and consequences of Burma's current policies from military, political, social, and economic perspectives. It analyzes the Asian decision to "constructively engage" Burma, especially in economic affairs, versus the position of the United States and many other Western countries to treat Burma as a pariah. Other chapters focus on the drug trade (Burma produces more than 60 percent of the world's heroin), the growing role of China as Burma's military and economic "big brother," political culture and democratic traditions, the unsustainable nature of current economic growth, shortfalls in education and health systems, and Burma's potential for foreign investment.
Although Canada is regarded as one of the least corrupt countries, this volume draws on wide ranging evidence and innovative research from scholars around the world to challenge this assumption. Corruption, defined as the "abuse of entrusted power for private gain," is often understood as being caused by internally motivated greed leading to prohibited acts in contravention of laws, rules and regulations. It can also be defined as "dishonest action that destroys people's trust." These traditional forms of corruption pose problems for Canada in a variety of policy domains, as well as "institutional corruption" evidenced by deception and financial inconsistency that undermine the effectiveness and transparency of policy objectives. This volume contains chapters that investigate various areas of corruption in Canada, ranging from corruption amongst the First Nations, to the armed forces, to the delivery of foreign assistance. It also offers suggestions to reduce future outbreaks of corruption. Each chapter provides detailed empirical analysis evidenced through real world examples that highlight key lessons amidst the numerous challenges posed by corruption. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.
Since the development of the modern state system in Europe four centuries ago, there have been ten general wars involving a majority of the major powers and a high level of casualties. Another major war is difficult to conceive of, since it would presumably be the last such conflict, and yet it is not an impossibility. In this volume a distinguished group of political scientists and historians examine the origins of major wars and discuss the problems in preventing a nuclear war.
What can be done to combat genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other crimes against humanity? Why aren't current measures more effective? Is there hope for the future? These and other pressing questions surrounding human security are addressed head-on in this provocative and all-too-timely book. Millions of people, particularly in Africa, face daily the prospect of death at the hands of state or state-linked forces. Although officially both the United Nations and the African Union have adopted "Responsibility to Protect" (R2P) principles, atrocities continue. The tenets of R2P, recently cited in a UN Outcomes Document, make it clear that states have a primary responsibility to protect their citizens from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. When states cannot --or will not --protect their citizens, however, the international community must step into the breach. Why have efforts to stop horrific state-sanctioned crimes seen only limited success, despite widespread support of R2P? As this enlightening volume explains and illustrates, converting a norm into effective preventive measures remains difficult. The contributors examine the legal framework to inhibit war crimes, use of the emerging R2P norm, the role of the International Criminal Court, and new technologically sophisticated methods to gather early warnings of likely atrocity outbreaks. Together they show how mass atrocities may be anticipated, how they may be prevented, and when necessary, how they may be prosecuted. Contributors include Claire Applegarth (Harvard Kennedy School), Andrew Block (Harvard Kennedy School), Frank Chalk (Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University), David M. Crane (Syracuse University College of Law), Richard J. Goldstone (Constitutional Court of South Africa; UN International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda), Don Hubert (University of Ottawa; Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect, City University of New York), Sarah Kreps (Cornell University), Dan Kuwali (Malawi Defence Force), Jennifer Leaning (Harvard Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights), Edward C. Luck (Columbia University; International Peace Institute), Sarah Sewall (Harvard Kennedy School)
Never before have world order and global security been threatened by so many destabilizing factors --from the collapse of macroeconomic stability to nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and tyranny. "Corruption, Global Security, and World Order" reveals corruption to be at the very center of these threats and proposes remedies such as positive leadership, enhanced transparency, tougher punishments, and enforceable sanctions. Although eliminating corruption is difficult, this book's careful prescriptions can reduce and contain threats to global security. Contributors: Matthew Bunn (Harvard University), Erica Chenoweth (Wesleyan University), Sarah Dix (Government of Papua New Guinea), Peter Eigen (Freie Universit?t, Berlin, and Africa Progress Panel), Kelly M. Greenhill (Tufts University), Charles Griffin (World Bank and Brookings), Ben W. Heineman Jr. (Harvard University), Nathaniel Heller (Global Integrity), Jomo Kwame Sundaram (United Nations), Lucy Koechlin (University of Basel, Switzerland), Johann Graf Lambsdorff (University of Passau, Germany, and Transparency International), Robert Legvold (Columbia University), Emmanuel Pok (National Research Institute, Papua New Guinea), Susan Rose-Ackerma n (Yale University), Magdalena Sep?lveda Carmona (United Nations), Daniel Jordan Smith (Brown University), Rotimi T. Suberu (Bennington College), Jessica C. Teets (Middlebury College), and Laura Underkuffler (Cornell University).
Repressive regimes tyrannize their own citizens and threaten global stability and order. These repositories of evil systematically oppress their own people, deny human rights and civil liberties, severely truncate political freedom, and prevent meaningful individual economic opportunity. Worst of the Worst identifies and characterizes the world's most odious states and singles out which repressors are aggressive and, hence, can truly be called rogues. Previously, determinations have been based on inexact, impressionistic criteria. In this volume, Robert Rotberg and his colleagues define the actions that constitute repression and propose a method of measuring human rights violations. They offer an index of nation-state repressiveness, classifying "gross repressors," "high repressors," and "aggressive repressors" or "rogues" on a ten-point scale. Based on arms and drug trafficking, support of terror, possession of weapons of mass destruction, and crossborder attacks, this valuable diagnostic tool will guide the international community in crafting effective policies to deal with injustice in the developing world. The repressors and rogues profiled include Belarus, Burma, Equatorial Guinea, NorthKorea, Syria, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Zimbabwe. Worst of the Worst offers a transparent way to decide which repressive and rogue states are most deserving of strong policy attention. Explicitly measuring and labeling these highly repressive states is the first step toward improving the well-being of millions of the poorest and most abused peoples of the globe. Contributors include Margarita M. Balmaceda (Seton Hall University), Mary Caprioli (University of Minnesota Duluth), Priscilla A. Clapp (Safe Ports, LLC),Yi Feng (Claremont Graduate University), Gregory Gleason (University of New Mexico), John Heilbrunn (Colorado School of Mines), Clement M. Henry (University of Texas at Austin),David W. Lesch (Trinity University), Marcus Noland (Peterson Institute for International Economics and International Food Policy Research Institute), Martha Brill Olcott (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace), Saumik Paul (Claremont Graduate University), and Peter F. Trumbore (Oakland University).
"With so much attention paid to America's war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, the world has all but forgotten the spread of terrorism in other regions. From South Asia to South America, terrorist groups are on the rise. One of the most dangerous regions is the greater Horn of Africa along with Yemen, its volatile neighbor. This book offers authoritative insight into the struggle against terrorism in the Horn-what has been done and what work remains. Robert Rotberg and his colleagues analyze the situation in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The esteemed contributors are prominent scholars and practitioners, including several former U.S. ambassadors. Their contributions reveal how each country's government -with or without U.S. help-is (or is not) working to combat terrorism within its own borders and to prevent its spread. Rotberg provides an overview of the entire region, drawing lessons particularly for U.S. policy. Ba ttling Terror in the Horn of Africa is a handbook on what needs to be done at the tension-filled crossroads of Arabia and Africa. It is important reading for all those with an interest in African or Middle Eastern affairs or the need to learn more about international terrorism. Contributors include Robert D. Burrowes (University of Washington), Timothy Carney (former U.S. ambassador to Sudan), Johnnie Carson (former ambassador to Kenya), Dan Connell (Grassroots International), Kenneth J. Menkhaus (Davidson College), Robert I. Rotberg (Harvard University), and Lange Schemerhorn (former ambassador to Djibouti). "
The new South Africa, as well as the surrounding southern region, is finally free of apartheid and colonial rule. Civil wars have ended; democracy is everywhere. Economically, South Africa and the region are beginning to grow more rapidly than ever before. But serious impediments to sustainable growth and effective participatory government remain. President Nelson Mandela's African National Congress won a strong victory in South Africa's 1994 elections and has governed with skill and ambition ever since. Nevertheless, crime rates have soared, as have the number of illegal and conventional small arms, car hijackings, trade in drugs, illegal immigrants, and all manner of attacks on the political and social stability of the state. This book puts these serious societal problems in perspective and provides fresh answers and recommendations. The book includes chapters on crime rates and criminal syndicates, the proliferation of conventional arms, illegal populations movements, drug trafficking, the South African army, and a concluding chapter on African armies and regional peacekeeping. The contributors are Jacklyn Cock, University of the Witwatersrand; Robert Gelbard, Assistant Secretary of State for Drug Enforcement and Legal Affairs; Jeffrey Herbst, Princeton University; Mark Malan, Mark Shaw, and Hussein Solomon, Institute for Security Studies; Katherine Marshall, the World Bank; Steven Metz, U.S. Army War College; Greg Mills and Glenn Oosthuysen, South African Institute of International Affairs; C.J.D. Venter, South African Police Service; and Joan Wardrop, Curtin University, Australia. Copublished with the World Peace Foundation
The world is awash with ethnic and religious conflict. Nearly 5 million people have lost their lives and more than 50 million have been displaced in the maelstrom of intergroup conflict since 1990. During that same period, there have been about 60 civil wars and war-like intrastate battles. While ethnic, religious, and cultural fratricide remain a constant global theme, there are regions where preventive diplomacy has avoided, limited, or restrained such hostilities. In some situations, early warning was timely, but no one listened. In others, early warning was converted into effective action. What lessons can be learned for the future of early warning, early action, and preventive diplomacy? This volume examines whether those lessons can be discerned, whether continuing hostilities around the globe can be held in check, and in particular whether nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can contribute to peace through preventive diplomacy. The contributors explore the role of NGOs in reducing ethnic and religious conflict and diminishing bloodshed and killings in troubled countries. Using case studies on Burundi, Guatemala, Macedonia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and the Sudan, they explore theory and practice, drawing out lessons for preventive diplomacy and early warning. The cases reveal that preventive diplomacy represents ambitious efforts on the part of both local and international NGOs. They also illustrate that early warning embraces a kaleidoscope of early, not-so-early, and belated signals. In Rwanda those signals were heeded too late; in Macedonia, and Burundi, early warning has been sufficient. The case studies represent a combination of failures and successes and of differentand significant lessons for enhancing the effectiveness of early warning, early action, and preventive diplomacy. In addition to Rotberg, the contributors are Melissa E. Crow, International Tribunal for Rwanda; Francis M. Deng, the Brookings Institution; Alison L. Des Forges, Africa Watch; Eran Fraenkel, Search for Common Ground, Macedonia; Darren Kew, Council on Foreign Relations; Tom Lent, Save the Children; Rachel M. McCleary, Georgetown University; Kalypso Nicolaidis, Harvard University; Clement Nwankwo, Constitutional Rights Project, Nigeria; Violeta Petroska Beska, University of Skopje, Macedonia; Richard A. Sollom, Tufts University; Neelan Tiruchelvam, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Sri Lanka. A Brookings Institution and World Peace Foundation copublication
This book is the newest and one of the very few existing examinations of the full nature of corruption throughout Central and South America. In detailed chapters written by experts with extensive in-country experience, it reveals the political and economic roots and consequences of corruption in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru. The editor's introduction and conclusion texts synthesize their work and provides an over-arching view of corrupt practices and anti-corruption initiatives throughout Latin America. Corruption in Latin America shows the extent to which corrupt practices engulf each of the countries discussed, the involvement of political and corporate entities in the pursuit of ill-gotten gains, and the drag on development caused by corruption in each political entity. The book will be of interest for social scientists, political actors and social activists involved in the fight against corruption in Latin America by providing in-depth analyses of the topic and discussing how best to pursue anti-corruption efforts through civil society actions, judicial endeavors, legal shifts, or elections.
Winning the anticorruption battle: a guide for citizens and politicians.The phenomenon of corruption has existed since antiquity; from ancient Mesopotamia to our modern-day high-level ethical morass, people have sought a leg up, a shortcut, or an end run to power and influence. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Robert Rotberg, a recognized authority on governance and international relations, offers a definitive guide to corruption and anticorruption, charting the evolution of corruption and offering recommendations on how to reduce its power and spread. The most important component of anticorruption efforts, he argues, is leadership that is committed to changing dominant political cultures. Rotberg explains that corruption is the conversion of a public good into personal gain--either by the exchange of cash for influence or by the granting of special favors even without explicit payments. He describes successful anticorruption efforts in countries ranging from Denmark and Sweden to Canada and Costa Rica, and discusses the roles of judicial systems, investigative journalism, multinational corporations, and technological advances. He shows how the United States has become more corrupt than before, and contrasts recent US and Canadian experiences. Without sufficient political will to eliminate corruption, it persists. Rotberg outlines thirteen practical steps for battling corruption, including removing holdover officials tainted by corruption and the public declaration of financial assets by elected officials and appointees.
This book was originally published in 1988. Although they pursue divergent lines of analysis, these essays by historians and art historians reveal their mutual appreciation of art as historic evidence shaped by imagination as well as tradition and purpose.
The essays in this 1985 volume direct attention to important questions on the relationship between food and history. Throughout human history, man has had to adapt and sustain himself by varying or expanding the basic kinds or forms of his nutritional staples, by migration, or by employing remarkable ingenuities to alter his environment. But we have as yet only a rudimentary understanding of nutrition and malnutrition in the past. The authors of these essays show how much of the past can be better understood if the distinctions which are obvious to clinicians and nutritionists are assimilated by historians. Likewise, this volume challenges assumptions about the mechanisms of population growth and decline, as well as theories of how populations react or adapt to constraints on their resources.
Accomplished political leaders have a clear strategy for turning political visions into reality. Through well-honed analytical, political, and emotional intelligence, leaders chart paths to promising futures that include economic growth, material prosperity, and human well-being. Alas, such leaders are rare in the developing world, where often institutions are weak and greed and corruption strong - and where responsible leadership therefore has the potential to effect the greatest change. In "Transformative Political Leadership", Robert I. Rotberg focuses on the role of leadership in politics and argues that accomplished leaders demonstrate a particular set of skills. Through illustrative case studies of leaders who have performed ably in the developing world - among them Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Seretse Khama in Botswana, Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore, and Kemal Ataturk in Turkey - Rotberg examines how these leaders transformed their respective countries. The importance of capable leadership is woefully understudied in political science, and this book will be an important tool in exploring how leaders lead and how nations and institutions are built.
This book is the newest and one of the very few existing examinations of the full nature of corruption throughout Central and South America. In detailed chapters written by experts with extensive in-country experience, it reveals the political and economic roots and consequences of corruption in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru. The editor's introduction and conclusion texts synthesize their work and provides an over-arching view of corrupt practices and anti-corruption initiatives throughout Latin America. Corruption in Latin America shows the extent to which corrupt practices engulf each of the countries discussed, the involvement of political and corporate entities in the pursuit of ill-gotten gains, and the drag on development caused by corruption in each political entity. The book will be of interest for social scientists, political actors and social activists involved in the fight against corruption in Latin America by providing in-depth analyses of the topic and discussing how best to pursue anti-corruption efforts through civil society actions, judicial endeavors, legal shifts, or elections.
With the publication of The Population History of England in 1981 it has become possible for the first time to trace in detail the demographic changes that occurred in a major European country throughout the early modern period and during the industrial revolution. It is therefore also now possible to test our understanding of the functioning of early modern economies in relation to their demographic patterns against the new empirical data. The discussion of this historical theme, first initiated by Malthus in the late eighteenth century, can now be taken a substantial step further. All of the essays published here take advantage of this new possibility, either by using the English data themselves, or by reflecting on the implications of a comparison between English patterns and those found elsewhere. The essays contribute not only to a richer understanding of the relationships in the past between population and economy, but also to a fuller appreciation of the circumstances that limited economic growth in pre-industrial economies and with the train of events that led to the escape from these constraints with the industrial revolution.
Overcoming the Oppressors traces southern Africa's long walk to freedom, the overturning of colonial rule in the northern territories, and the dissolution of backs-to-the-wall white settler suzerainty, first in what became Zimbabwe and then in South Africa. Chapters on the individual countries detail the stages along their sometimes complicated and tortuous struggle to attain the political New Zion. Rotberg explains how and why the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland failed, how and why apartheid eventually collapsed, and exactly how the various components of this heavily white conquered, and later white oppressed, domain transitioned via diverse fits and starts into today's assemblage of proud, politically charged, and still mostly fragmented nation-states. But what did the new republics make of their hard-won freedoms? Having liberated themselves successfully, several soon dismantled democratic safeguards, established effective single-party states, closed their economies, deprived citizens of human rights and civil liberties, and exchanged economic progress for varieties of central planning experiments and stunted forms of protected economic endeavors. Only Botswana, of the new entities, embraced full democracy and good governance. The others, even South Africa, at first tightly regimented their economies and attempted to severely limit the degrees of economic freedom and social progress that citizens could enjoy. Corruption prevailed everywhere except Botswana. Today, as the chapters on contemporary southern Africa reveal, most of the southern half of the African continent is returning, if sometimes struggling, to the patterns of probity and good governance that many countries abandoned in the decades after independence.
For as long as there has been war, there have been those who have opposed such bloodshed. Here Robert Rotberg details the flowering of the great American peace movement in the late nineteenth century and the remarkable life of its foremost proponent, Edwin Ginn. Born into poverty, Ginn rose to become one of the wealthiest men of his day. While in his mid-fifties, after his second marriage to a much younger woman, he began to direct his time and money to various social causes, primarily the nascent American peace movement. This is the story of Ginn's personal attempt to change world attitudes regarding the dangers of arming for war by appealing to logic, reason, and common sense. In conjunction with the World Peace Foundation, which he founded in 1910, Ginn's vigorous peace campaigning and organizational activities shed substantial light on important foreign and domestic issues in the decades leading up to the First World War. Featuring a colorful cast of characters, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, and David Starr Jordan, the first president of Stanford University, A Leadership for Peace explores fundamental questions of war and peace that are still relevant today.
Since 1990, more than 10 million people have been killed in the civil wars of failed states, and hundreds of millions more have been deprived of fundamental rights. The threat of terrorism has only heightened the problem posed by failed states. "When States Fail" is the first book to examine how and why states decay and what, if anything, can be done to prevent them from collapsing. It defines and categorizes strong, weak, failing, and collapsed nation-states according to political, social, and economic criteria. And it offers a comprehensive recipe for their reconstruction. The book comprises fourteen essays by leading scholars and practitioners who help structure this disparate field of research, provide useful empirical descriptions, and offer policy recommendations. Robert Rotberg's substantial opening chapter sets out a theory and taxonomy of state failure. It is followed by two sets of chapters, the first on the nature and correlates of failure, the second on methods of preventing state failure and reconstructing those states that do fail. Economic jump-starting, legal refurbishing, elections, the demobilizing of ex-combatants, and civil society are among the many topics discussed. All of the essays are previously unpublished. In addition to Rotberg, the contributors include David Carment, Christopher Clapham, Nat J. Colletta, Jeffrey Herbst, Nelson Kasfir, Michael T. Klare, Markus Kostner, Terrence Lyons, Jens Meierhenrich, Daniel N. Posner, Susan Rose-Ackerman, Donald R. Snodgrass, Nicolas van de Walle, Jennifer A. Widner, and Ingo Wiederhofer.
In this volume a diverse group of leading historians analyzes the future needs of their craft and suggests the many ways in which scholars of the near future will interpret the events of earlier years. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
In this volume a diverse group of leading historians analyzes the future needs of their craft and suggests the many ways in which scholars of the near future will interpret the events of earlier years. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
The truth commission is an increasingly common fixture of newly democratic states with repressive or strife-ridden pasts. From South Africa to Haiti, truth commissions are at work with varying degrees of support and success. To many, they are the best--or only--way to achieve a full accounting of crimes committed against fellow citizens and to prevent future conflict. Others question whether a restorative justice that sets the guilty free, that cleanses society by words alone, can deter future abuses and allow victims and their families to heal. Here, leading philosophers, lawyers, social scientists, and activists representing several perspectives look at the process of truth commissioning in general and in post-apartheid South Africa. They ask whether the truth commission, as a method of seeking justice after conflict, is fair, moral, and effective in bringing about reconciliation. The authors weigh the virtues and failings of truth commissions, especially the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in their attempt to provide restorative rather than retributive justice. They examine, among other issues, the use of reparations as social policy and the granting of amnesty in exchange for testimony. Most of the contributors praise South Africa's decision to trade due process for the kinds of truth that permit closure. But they are skeptical that such revelations produce reconciliation, particularly in societies that remain divided after a compromise peace with no single victor, as in El Salvador. Ultimately, though, they find the truth commission to be a worthy if imperfect instrument for societies seeking to say "never again" with confidence. At a time when truth commissions have been proposed for Bosnia, Kosovo, Cyprus, East Timor, Cambodia, Nigeria, Palestine, and elsewhere, the authors' conclusion that restorative justice provides positive gains could not be more important. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Amy Gutmann, Rajeev Bhargava, Elizabeth Kiss, David A. Crocker, Andre du Toit, Alex Boraine, Dumisa Ntsebeza, Lisa Kois, Ronald C. Slye, Kent Greenawalt, Sanford Levinson, Martha Minow, Charles S. Maier, Charles Villa-Vicencio, and Wilhelm Verwoerd." |
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