China's Assertive Posturing in the Indo-Pacific & Prospects for Indo-ASEAN Collaboration
The Undulating Capacity of the State
This Element weaves together literatures on autochthony and belonging and on African urbanism to shed new light on the ability of the African state to undertake development interventions in some of the most important urban centers on the continent. It explains variations in levels of trust in the African state that shape neighborhoods' responses to states' development interventions. Focusing on the Senegalese state's construction of the VDN 2 highway on the outskirts of the capital, Dakar, the author argues that in major African cities with colonial origins, whether neighborhoods project themselves as 'autochthonous' or 'migrant' communities shapes general attitudes toward the state and influences the capacity of the state to carry out development interventions in these areas. In these cities, states are more likely to successfully intervene in neighborhoods dominated by 'new' migrants to the city than in those neighborhoods that portray themselves as 'autochthones' of these cities.
Kwame Nkrumah's Quest for Restoration
Examining Kwame Nkrumah's time in exile, Tunde Adeleke challenges existing and popular understandings of Nkrumah's ideas and struggles. In Kwame Nkrumah's Quest for Restoration: Nkrumaism and Pan-Africanism in Exile Tunde Adeleke examines Kwame Nkrumah's life and the six years he spent in exile in Conakry, Guinea, exploring the extraordinary efforts and resources he invested on attempts to return and regain political power. Adeleke contends that Nkrumah's overthrow and exile compelled him to reimagine, revise, and fundamentally alter the essence of Pan-Africanism. This book shows how Nkurmah spearheaded the Pan-Africanist movement for greater continental unification, deviating from some of the essential values and principles of Pan-Africanism. His time in exile exposed a personality in sharp contrast to the consummate Pan-Africanist memorialized in Black Nationalist discourses. Through textual analysis of Nkrumah's letters and political writings, Adeleke argues that Nkrumah's fundamental change and redirection on Pan-Africanism not only shaped the movement's new purpose but also impacted Ghana.
Speaking of Trust
This open access book examines the often overlooked entanglements and affinities between emerging models of formal and informal finance and welfare with longer-running religious structures and concerns. Since independence in 1963, Kenya has seen the steady growth of mutual aid arrangements; a practice which creatively combines market logic with redistributive politics and older forms of reciprocity and solidarity. As a means to providing welfare and pursuing joint economic activity, mutual aid has flourished - despite the failures of neoliberal statecraft, and deepening asymmetries of power and wealth between and within different ethnic groups - and has been largely built up using a language of religious faith. Observing that many aspects of Christian and indigenous religious life play an integral part in shaping how Kenyans save, lend, distribute, fundraise, and entrust money and value in collective arrangements, Speaking of Trust illuminates and analyses the complex and innovative ways in which Kenyans are reimagining and renegotiating the terms of interdependence across social divides. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.
Mediating Gender in African Social Media
Through African case studies, this book explores how gender and sexuality are articulated on social media. While the representation of gender in mainstream media has been studied for many decades, this book fills a gap by focusing on social media platforms like Facebook, X, Instagram, and Tik Tok, and examining representation, commodification, and sexuality on these platforms. The contributors hold a mirror to society and reflect on the issues in our current world of empowerment, where sexuality and gender preferences are respected, and sexual rights are protected by constitutions in progressive democracies. Through their research, Shepherd Mpofu, Kealeboga Aiseng, and the contributors strive to alter the male gaze, commercial benefits of commodification, and African culture as benefited and influenced by patriarchal societies.
Identity Formation within Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Drawing from institutional research, this book advocates for the ongoing importance of HBCUs and shows how their curriculum, programming, and self-understanding all point to education as a strategy for enhancing the whole person.Over the years, historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played a significant role in the formation of Black identity in a society that struggles to appreciate difference. Bringing the vitality of these institutions to a larger public, high profile donors and advocates have served to safeguard the ongoing necessity of what HBCUs represent. Drawing on scholars from various disciplinary backgrounds, Anthony B. Pinn and the contributors explore the intersections of race and higher education through the lens of self-awareness and community awareness. The chapters tackle areas such as how HBCUs have handled focusing on (or not focusing on) Black history and Black cultural production in their courses, identity formation of international students at HBCUs, HBCUs contribution to identity formation in a global context-promoting Pan-Africanism, and how HBCUs promote healthy identity formation for Black students. Through institutional research, this book provides a uniquely layered and historical sensitive discussion of how HBCUs developed and their relationship to issues of Blackness and personhood.
Putin's Strategic Culture, Climate Crisis, and Power Transition
Rethinking Climate Change, Security and Politics
The book provides a critical analysis of the nexus between climate change, security and politics, especially in relation to the role and impact of societal agencies such as states, corporations, military, financial institutions and community organizations in framing and responding to climate change using various forms of social, economic or political leverage. Climate change is a major existential security threat to the planet and humanity, yet there is continuing debate as to how it should be approached.
The Obliteration Doctrine
The Obliteration Doctrine tackles the deadliest canon of 21st century warfare. It addresses the abject devastation that this military doctrine has wrought, how it was done and those responsible. It puts the Genocide Convention's failure to punish and prevent this crime under close scrutiny. The Obliteration Doctrine combines lethal forms of warfare--scorched-earth military tactics, collective punishment and civilian victimization--with indiscriminate area bombing and counterinsurgency operations. What's new about this form of warfare is the chilling mix of artificial intelligence and genocidal atrocities in violation of international law, the very foundations of international society and all human life. This book shows how the doctrine's implementation in Gaza was facilitated by the United States, with Germany, the UK, Italy and Canada as strategic partners. While Israel pulled the trigger in Gaza, the weaponry and financial and diplomatic support came from the US-led West. Hence their complicity in the fatal carnage. The rise of this deadly doctrine has been enabled by the West's long opposition to genocide prevention, which Raphael Lemkin's quest for effective legislation failed to overcome. Fearful of its vulnerability, the West succeeded in excluding and diluting core parts of the Genocide Convention addressing colonial atrocities, cultural genocide, political killings, and ethnic cleansing. Enforcement was repressed throughout the Cold War, and the few tribunals afterward soon proved inadequate. The West undermined genocide prevention by shunning preparatory attacks, early warnings and incitement prosecution. Ex post facto justice records but doesn't preempt genocides. Stunningly, the Obliteration Doctrine was largely perfected institutionally by Israel two decades before October 7, 2023, yet the international community failed to prevent its further implementation, which its proponents openly pledged to deploy in the "next war." That said, a broad variety of legal efforts have been launched against Israel and its complicit Western allies in international and domestic courts by many activists and countries increasingly in and by the Global South. The erasure of Gaza reflects the tragic inability of the Genocide Convention to prevent the genocides it was created to identify, preempt and punish. The Obliteration Doctrine has set a horrendous precedent, providing a template for new and far worse "final solutions" to be unleashed on entire nations
The State and Development in South Africa
This book interrogates the nexus between the state and development in post-apartheid South Africa. Highlighting current problems, and suggesting ways of consolidating state capabilities, improving public institutions and enhancing governance and development outcomes, the book will interest policymakers, practitioners, and researchers alike.
The Co-evolution of Technology and Warfare
This book explores the relationship between technology and warfare, by examining how recent technological advancements have revolutionized the conduct of war.The work analyses contemporary conflicts, including the Syrian civil war, the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, and the ongoing war in Ukraine, but also by exploring future war scenarios and assessing the military capabilities of major powers. In doing so, the book highlights the dynamic and evolving nature of modern warfare. It goes beyond a simple examination of technological advancements, addressing the complexities of modern warfare, scrutinizing the strategies employed by states to adopt and develop military technologies, while emphasizing the importance of technology in shaping military planning, training, research, and innovation. The book provides a collection of timely contributions by leading scholars and practitioners in the military and security field. Furthermore, the contributors identify potential challenges and risks associated with the widespread adoption of technologies in warfare and propose recommendations for policymakers to address issues that relate to military planning and training, research and development, and resilience building.This book will be of much interest to students of security studies, technology studies, defence studies and International Relations.
Rendezvous with Rebels
Rajeev Bhattacharyya walked nearly 800 kilometres, over some of the most hostile terrain and through no man's land. His journey, which took three months and twenty days to complete, is unprecedented in Indian journalism. He visited the rebel bases in Eastern Nagaland, which covers a part of Myanmar's Sagaing Division, stayed in the ULFA camp and interviewed its chief of staff Paresh Baruah, as also chairman of the NSCN (Khaplang), S.S. Khaplang himself. He interacted with rebels from banned outfits like the NDFB, UPPK, PLA and other groups - for many of them, this was their first conversation with an Indian journalist. Bhattacharyya is one of very few journalists in the world to have made this journey, and among the fewer still to have had such intimate access.Rendezvous with Rebels is the story of that journey. It is as much a travel memoir as it is a hard-hitting political account of the fissures that mark the conflicts in India's Northeast and Myanmar's Sagaing Division. Bhattacharyya analyses the historical and current role of ULFA, NSCN and other rebel forces, and sizes up the current situation in Eastern Nagaland vis-a-vis the changes taking place in Myanmar specifically, and the subcontinent generally. It is, ultimately, an up-close examination of a very thorny conflict.
Kargil
In February 1999, Pakistani Army personnel, disguised as jihadi militants, infiltrated into mountainous Kargil and occupied key vantage points. Their intrusion triggered a limited war between the world's newest nuclear states. It was a bitter battle, and one that threw up important lessons for India's defence preparedness, as also its responses to conflicts such as this. This incisive book by General V.P. Malik, former Chief of the Army Staff, analyses the reasoning behind the Pakistani Army's moves and tactics and reviews crucial issues such as the extent of intelligence and surveillance failure on the Indian side and the measures necessary to redress these failings. Away from questions of strategy and tactics, however, Kargil is also a reminder of the unalloyed heroism that was on display during those grim weeks, heroism that become a benchmark for valour.
India's Military Conflicts and Diplomacy
India's armed forces have maintained national security and territorial integrity better than those of most other developing, democratic nations. The credit for these successes, however, goes less to its defence management apparatus and more to those responsible for operational planning and execution. Many a time, India has failed to convert hard-won operational achievements into long-term strategic successes. Why does that happen? In this path-breaking book, V.P. Malik looks back on his career and presents some recent examples of India's military conflicts. Among these are accounts of Operation Pawan, in which an Indian peacekeeping force was sent to Sri Lanka in 1987 with tragic results, and Operation Cactus in the Maldives, a quick commando action where India's armed forces foiled an attempted coup d'etat in less than twenty-four hours. Alongside are examples of India's military diplomacy in a range of circumstances. With a new Preface to the paperback edtion, this book will fascinate anyone who has a stake in India's national security.
Attendant Lords
Bairam Khan and his son, Abdur Rahim Khan-i-Khanan were soldiers, poets and courtiers whose lives reflected the turbulent times they lived in. In telling their stories, Attendant Lords spans the reigns of four emperors -- Babur, Humayun, Akbar and Jahangir -- and covers over a hundred years of Mughal history, a time when these two noblemen were at the very heart of the court's labyrinthine politics. After Humayun's untimely death, Bairam Khan was regent to the young Emperor Akbar for four critical years. Abdur Rahim became one of the most important generals of the Mughal Empire, but he is best remembered for his literary prowess, most particularly for his famous 'dohas'. This unusual dual biography traces the lives of these two noblemen against the backdrop of the courtly intrigues, brutal power struggles and the grand literary endeavours of the Mughal court. And it looks at their afterlives -- how politics and the Hindi-Urdu debate reincarnated them as national heroes; how both men came to be seen as standing at the confluence of Hinduism and Islam; and how history, religion and literature combine in the broader context of nationalism and nation building.
At the Heart of Conflict
A compelling collection of 20 first-person accounts revealing the challenges and solutions of peacebuilders working in conflict zones worldwide.With the increasing number of destructive wars and deadly international conflicts, peacebuilding and peacekeeping have become global priorities. This book helps us understand the challenges for those involved in conflict resolution across a range of organizations and professions.At the Heart of Conflict: Talking Resolution offers 20 first-person accounts of the differing approaches taken in international conflicts and peace processes as well as the solutions found by those in jobs on the ground.This book is an essential read for those studying conflict resolution, international relations, or working in the field, looking to know more about the lived experiences of UN officials, translators, ambassadors, NGOs and military personnel.
Social Psychology of Leadership and Crowds
This timely volume brings together research on leadership and social movements, exploring the psychological and social processes at the intersection of crowd psychology and leadership studies.Featuring perspectives from around the globe, the book examines collective action, social movements and change, identity construction, repression and power. It includes case studies of leadership and crowd behaviour from various countries, including political rallies in Turkey, the Capitol Assault in the US, aboriginal movements in Australia, identity construction of Tibetans in exile, resistance in Iran, community leadership in Ghana and riots in Greece. Chapters examine the mutual influence between leaders and crowds in the pursuit of social change or stability. The book takes a unique angle to dissect how leadership-followership dynamics evolve during pivotal crowd events and social movements worldwide.The book is a novel exploration that illustrates how leaders shape the course of history and how crowds, in turn, redefine the landscape of power. It will be highly relevant for academics and students in the fields of social and political psychology, as well as political science, sociology and communication studies. The book will also be of interest to policymakers and activists, and anyone interested in understanding the interplay between leadership and crowds.
Commoning Labour and Democracy at Work
This book investigates the return of workers' self-management in recent decades as responses to recurring neoliberal crises. In particular, the book homes in on worker-recuperated enterprises (WREs), a promising form of workers' self-organization whereby workers restart troubled, bankrupt, or shuttered companies as cooperatives or other forms of democratic workplace.The book argues that WREs are prefigurative of new forms of work based on equality and sustainability. Framed by the concepts of autogesti籀n, the labour commons, and prefigurative ethico-political practices, the book argues that WREs contribute to the construction of more directly democratic community economies. Drawing on a range of contemporary case studies from numerous countries in the Global South and North, as well as new theories of workers' self-management, the book contributes a critical development, political economic, and class-struggle Marxist perspective to the re-emergent labour question within anti-systemic social movements, while theorizing the transformative nature of WREs for workers, work organizations, and communities.Bringing a class-analysis back into current discourses and debates concerning democracy at work and alternatives to global capital, this book will be of interest to researchers across the fields of development studies, labour studies, political economy, sociology of development, sociology of work, and political science.
Combatant Experiences in Multi-Ethnic Extremist Groups
This book uses Boko Haram as a case study to delve into the operations of extremist groups in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on the unique cultural contexts in which they function.The book explores how such groups navigate ethnically diverse environments and manage to forge a sense of collective homogeneity, even in the face of internal diversity. Drawing from first-hand interviews with ex-fighters and a thorough examination of the group's operational dynamics--including recruitment, indoctrination, combat leadership, and unit behaviour--the book identifies moments when, despite Boko Haram's aim to transcend ethnic boundaries, ethnicity nonetheless becomes a defining factor within specific combatant units. It develops a theoretical framework to explain these instances, building on and extending existing socialization theories to understand when and why socialization processes fail, ultimately causing ethnicity to resurface within these units. By exploring how tribal and ethnic considerations influence the group's functioning, this book provides a more nuanced understanding of contemporary insurgent groups and the social forces that shape them.This book will be of much interest to students of political violence, African politics and security studies.
Introduction to Political Psychology
This fifth edition of Introduction to Political Psychology explores the many psychological patterns that influence individual political behavior. The authors introduce readers to a broad range of theories, concepts, and case studies of political activity, arguing that individuals are driven or motivated to act in accordance with personality characteristics, values, beliefs, and attachments to groups. The book explains many aspects of political behavior--whether seemingly pathological actions or normal decision-making practices, which sometimes work optimally, and sometimes fail.Thoroughly updated throughout, the book examines patterns of political behavior in areas including leadership, group behavior, voting, race, nationalism, terrorism, and war. This edition features: Detailed coverage of political polarisation, and the psychology behind it Up-to-date topics and case studies focused on the 2024 US election, the war in Ukraine, and the Israel-Palestine conflict, as well as social movements such as climate change activism, Black Lives Matter, and #MeToo A robust suite of timesaving instructor resources Accessibly written and comprehensive in scope, it is an essential companion for all graduate and upper-level undergraduate students of psychology, political science, and political psychology. It will also be of interest to those in the policy-making community, especially those looking to learn more about the extent to which perceptions, personality, and group dynamics affect the policy-making arena.
French in Multilingual Anglophone Africa
Examining the impact of French language in Nigeria, this book discusses the prospects of French language use for development as well as its connection to literature and translation. Despite its ambiguous and indistinct official status in the country, French remains the preferred foreign language in Nigeria and academia. Michael Akinpelu and Tunde Ajiboye's, French in Multilingual Anglophone Africa: Language, Literature, and Translation in Nigeria discusses how the French language is not only taught as a foreign language in Nigerian higher education, but is also an important linguistic code for literary creation, translation, and interpretation, blending local and international francophone cultures. Part I explores issues related to bilingualism, language resource management, and comparison between French and local languages. Part II considers the French language's exploitation in relation to translation and interpretation with particular interests in cultural challenges. Part III provides historical context tracing the evolution of literary engagement of Nigerian writers' contact with French and evolving perspectives on the language in Nigerian literature from the 1930s to present day. Using case studies, classroom fieldwork, and policy analyses, this book shows how French in multilingual Africa is not just a mode of communication, but a powerful instrument of socio-economic integration and mobility in a globalized world.
Humor as Social Critique
This interdisciplinary collection by Jennalee Donian and Andrea Hurst brings together insights from various humanities disciplines to examine humor's role in navigating complex political, cultural, and personal landscapes. Humor as Social Critique: Widening the African Perspective explores how humor functions as a powerful tool for social critique in the African context. Part I delves into humor's relationship with political critique, analyzing how comedians, writers, and artists use humor to resist oppressive power structures and foster dialogue. Part II examines humor's potential for socio-cultural critique, exploring how it reflects and shapes cultural norms, identities, and power dynamics. Part III investigates the role of humor in self-critique, highlighting its therapeutic potential and ability to promote humility and self-awareness. By centering African perspectives while engaging with global voices, Humor as Social Critique challenges the notion that humor is a uniquely localized phenomenon. Instead, it celebrates humor's ability to transcend geographical and cultural boundaries, enriching the tapestry of human experience. This book offers valuable insights for scholars and readers interested in the intersections of humor, culture, and social justice.
Why Fascism Is on the Rise in France
Why Le Pen and the far-right are conquering France--and how Macron has paved the way Reactionary and racist ideologues are increasingly present in the French media. Violent fascist groups are gaining ground and confidence on streets across the county. How did this happen? Why Fascism Is on the Rise in France explains the stunning electoral victories of Marine Le Pen and her far right National Rally party and convincingly argues that Emmanuel Macron's rule has paved the way for the ascendance of fascism in France. Ugo Palheta shows that the fascist threat is rooted in a triple radicalization--neoliberal, authoritarian, and racist--of the French ruling class.
Resisting Erasure
Why does the West unwaveringly back Israel? This anti-imperialist critique from authors who are centrally involved in Palestine solidarity work offers a clear answer. This essential read provides clarity on the intertwined relationships of global capitalism, energy politics, and racial oppression, and challenges readers to rethink their understanding of Palestine. Dismantling the simplistic narratives that dominate mainstream discourse, the authors provide a material analysis of Israel's violence, its support from international states, and the various political responses of the Palestinian liberation movement. Historical and regional dynamics of Western imperialism, capitalist accumulation, and racialization form the core of their argument. This book offers a thorough critique of the forces that sustain the Israeli settler-colonial project and the unwavering support it receives from Western powers.
Silencing the Guns, Volume 2
This book, part of a two-volume set, explores a wide range of critical topics related to 'Silencing the Guns' (STG) agenda in Africa. Key themes include: From Conception to Practice: Examining the Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of 'Silencing the Guns'; Seven Years On: Can Africa Achieve the Silencing the Guns Agenda?; Hindsight, Insight, and Foresight: Three Perspectives on Assessing Progress in Silencing the Guns in Africa; Private Military Companies and Their Role in Silencing the Guns; Oil Governance and Its Impact on the African Union's Silencing the Guns Agenda; Extremism and Transnational Terrorist Organizations in the Context of Silencing the Guns; The 'New Scramble for Africa' and Its Implications for the Silencing the Guns Initiative on Africa's Peace and Security, Climate Governance and the Silencing the Guns Agenda in Africa. This comprehensive exploration provides a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted challenges and opportunities for peace and security in Africa, examining the intersection of armed conflict, mass atrocities, small and light weapons proliferation, and conflict prevention. This book appeals broadly to academia and to fields such as peace and conflict studies, international relations, international law, and African studies.
Breakneck
For close to a decade, technology analyst Dan Wang--"a gifted observer of contemporary China" (Ross Douthat)--has been living through the country's astonishing, messy progress. China's towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout the society. This reality--political repression and astonishing growth--is not a paradox, but rather a feature of China's engineering mindset.In Breakneck, Wang blends political, economic, and philosophical analysis with reportage to reveal a provocative new framework for understanding China--one that helps us see America more clearly, too. While China is an engineering state, relentlessly pursuing megaprojects, the United States has stalled. America has transformed into a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything, good and badBlending razor-sharp analysis with immersive storytelling, Wang offers a gripping portrait of a nation in flux. Breakneck traverses metropolises like Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen, where the engineering state has created not only dazzling infrastructure but also a sense of optimism. The book also exposes the downsides of social engineering, including the surveillance of ethnic minorities, political suppression, and the traumas of the one-child policy and zero-Covid.In an era of animosity and mistrust, Wang unmasks the shocking similarities between the United States and China. Breakneck reveals how each country points toward a better path for the other: Chinese citizens would be better off if their government could learn to value individual liberties, while Americans would be better off if their government could learn to embrace engineering--and to produce better outcomes for the many, not just the few.
Imperial Sexisn
Communities across the world engage in gender practices that are seen by many as in conflict with women's rights, such as Muslim women's face veils and polygyny. But in Imperial Sexism, Denise M. Walsh argues that culture and women's rights are not inherently at odds. The root problem is imperial sexism: the legacy of colonial-era racism and sexism and their compounding harms. Through a cross-regional comparative analysis of three dissimilar policy debates in three very different democracies--the 2014 French "burka ban" adjudicated at the European Court of Human Rights, the 1998 legalization of polygyny in post-apartheid South Africa, and the 1985 reform of the "marrying out" rule for Indigenous women in Canada--Walsh confirms that a clash between culture and women's rights is always avoidable, examines why the presumption of a clash endures, and highlights the damage this presumption causes. She centers the voices of women who experience imperial sexism, many of whom resist the notion of a clash and instead harmonize cultural, religious, and women's rights by focusing on their plural identities and lived experiences. By contrast, when politicians and conservative group leaders insist upon a clash, they rely on imperial myths, binaries, and tropes, and a misuse of history. Ultimately, by amplifying the arguments of women most affected by controversial gender practices, Imperial Sexism develops a framework to promote justice, reject colonial prejudice, and strengthen the indivisibility of human rights and democratic inclusiveness.
