Nuclear Terrorism
For nearly eight decades, the world has been navigating the dangers of the nuclear age. Despite Cold War tensions and the rise of global terrorism, nuclear weapons have not been used in conflict since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. Efforts such as strategic deterrence, arms control and non-proliferation agreements, and the U.S.-led global counterterrorism have helped to keep nuclear incidents at bay. However, the nation's success to date in countering nuclear terrorism does not come with a guarantee, success often carries the risk that other challenges will siphon away attention and resources and can lead to the perception that the threat no longer exists. This report found that U.S. efforts to counter nuclear or radiological terrorism are not keeping pace with the evolving threat landscape. The U.S. government should maintain a strategic focus and effort on combatting terrorism across the national security community in coordination with international partners, State, Local, Tribal and Territorial authorities, the National Laboratories, universities and colleges, and civil society. Developing and sustaining adequate nuclear incident response and recovery capabilities at the local and state levels will likely require significant new investments in resources and empowerment of local response from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Health.
Rethinking Religion and Radicalization
With contributions from a range of regions and disciplines, this open access volume offers theoretically compelling and empirically rich new insights on the relationship between religion and violent extremism. The role of religion and religiosity in processes of radicalisation to violence has been at the forefront of debates around terrorism and extremism for decades. The events of 9/11 gave new impetus to these debates, cementing assumptions about the role of Islam as the key driver for religiously inspired violent radicalisation, and defining the way in which radicalisation to violence is understood. The years since 9/11 have seen a striking diversification in the terrorist and violent extremist landscape, yet the treatment of how religious beliefs, concepts and histories are entangled with established and emergent violent ideologies and social movements has changed far less. By looking beyond Islamist-inspired or attributed terrorism, this volume explores how violent extremists instrumentalise religion and religiosity in unexpected ways, from Orthodox Christianity and Hindutva to 'conspirituality', far-right extremism, and single-issue social movements. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com
China's High-Tech Repression Against Uyghurs: Novel Theoretical Insights
This book explores the socio-spatial impacts of China's high-tech repression against Uyghurs both within and beyond its borders. The study is built on surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions with the members of Uyghur diaspora in T羹rkiye. Findings indicate that high-tech repression minimizes the social life in East Turkestan. This type of governance aims to achieve a complete erasure of privacy and individual agency by strategically leveraging technology. While Uyghurs who escaped to T羹rkiye appear to gain relative freedom, our findings indicate that with China's transnational repression mostly applied through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), they live in a social space which functions as a quasi-spatial extension of East Turkestan.
Gathering Electronic Waste in Tanzania
Using Tanzania as a case study, this book traces the lifecycle of electronic goods beyond their discard in the Global South to provide a deeper understanding of the informal sector's vital role in rethinking global discard circulations, labour, value, and toxicity.
Before Before
Sierra Leone is often sensationalized as a place of extreme violence and suffering--of blood diamonds, child soldiers, war amputations, and Ebola and now the highly addictive drug Kush. Before Before captures daily life in a different country, one Betsy Small first encountered as a Peace Corps worker between 1984-1987, and then rediscovered when she returned decades later with her daughter. Living in Tokpombu, a remote community of forty rice-farming families, the author faced struggles that changed her forever and witnessed the growing tensions in this rainforest village--between the young and old, between the traditions of oral history and honoring the ancestors valued by the elders and the siren call of the illicit diamond mines faced by the youth. Before Before offers a rare portrait of everyday people, with particular focus on the lives of women and girls, before the brutal war of 1991 tore the country apart. Through Small's account of immersion in another world as she witnessed injustice and was welcomed as a friend, readers are invited to explore the shared ground of our humanity.
Financing of Sustainable Development Goals (Sdgs)
The economic and social impact of Covid-19 pandemic both on developing and developed countries has been significant. In addition to the impact of the pandemic, the current Ukraine war has also led to severe supply chain disruptions leading to a sharp increase in food and commodity prices globally. Due to a combination of external shocks and the impact of the pandemic, global economic growth slowed down and is projected to continue to decline. The above factors have led to a sharp increase in government expenditure constraining both developed and developing countries' fiscal capacity. This has further implications for the achievement of SDGs, especially for low-income countries. The challenge for developing countries in the current scenario is to mobilize adequate resources both from domestic and international sources, not just for the achievement of SDGs as such, but also to sustain the livelihoods, health, and welfare of people. This book aims to examine some of these issues in the context of developing countries.
Locally Based Civil Conflict Transformation Between Partnership and Power Imbalance
This book examines the processes and dynamics of cooperation between different actors in civil peace service projects in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The joint handling of conflicts and peacebuilding challenges by local and international actors has a long tradition in German peace work and is becoming increasingly important in a globalized world. Therefore, the book explores the question, relevant for both academia and peace practitioners, to what extent an equal partnership can exist in the context of civil conflict transformation. By focusing on the opportunities and challenges of cooperation, the work succeeds in focusing on everyday activities, analyzing the actual processes and frictions of peace work, and making a valuable contribution to critical peace research and the discussion of hybridity and friction.
Is China a Menacing Empire?
China's economic impact on the world, through trade, investment and infrastructure projects, is huge and growing rapidly. This has received criticism from officials and politicians in various countries including the US, who accused China of neo-colonialism, setting debt traps in other countries and corruption in overseas Chinese deals. This book examines how justified such accusations are and seeks to comment on them in an objective manner. This book also explores the tensions between China and the US.
Zambia’s Youths and the 2021 General Election
This book examines democracy in Zambia, provides a detailed discussion of Zambia's 2021 election, and shows how Zambia's youth voters became crucial during the election. Emmanuel Matambo highlights the importance of social media, music, and youth protests and activism leading up to the election and ending the Patriotic Front's decade in power.
Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics
Reviews the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe since the Middle Ages, noting how changing technology and economic patterns have transformed the global significance of those passage ways, especially since the end of the Cold War.
Indigenous African Communication and Media Systems in a Digitized Age
This book offers a comprehensive scholarly analysis of the digital adaptation of Indigenous African communication methods, challenging conventional narratives of media development through real life case studies to highlight the resilience and relevance of African cultural expressions in an increasingly interconnected world.
The Future of Geography
From the New York Times bestselling author of Prisoners of Geography and leading geopolitics expert comes an "insightful, hopeful, and endlessly fascinating" (Daily Express) book on today's space race--including the increasingly tense power struggle between the US, China, and Russia and what it means for all of us here on Earth. Spy satellites orbiting the moon. Space metals worth more than most countries' GDP. People on Mars within the next ten years. This isn't science fiction--it's reality. Humans are venturing up and out, and we're taking our competitive spirit with us. Soon, what happens in space will shape human history as much the mountains, rivers, and seas have impacted civilizations around the world. It's no coincidence that Russia, China, and the USA are leading the way. The next fifty years will change the face of global politics and the world order as we know it. In this must-read work, bestselling author Tim Marshall navigates the new astropolitical reality to show how we got here and where we're heading. Extensively researched, "thought-provoking" (Popular Science), and drawing on the latest information from intelligence, government, and civilian institutions, this book provides a detailed, clear account of the new space race, the power rivalries, and how technology, economics, and war have a ripple effect on everyone across the globe. Written with all the insight and wit that have made Marshall one of the world's most popular and trusted writer on geopolitics, The Future of Geography is an essential read about global power, politics, and the future of humanity.
The Folly of Realism
A bestselling national security expert delivers a chilling analysis of how Western indecision and apathy made possible the return of brutal Russian expansionism - with catastrophic consequences. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six US presidential administrations of both parties pursued policies for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia that emboldened Russia, playing into its imperialist, centuries-long mythos of regional hegemony. The result: military aggression and full-scale invasion. It was all too foreseeable. In The Folly of Realism, leading national security expert and bestselling author Alexander Vindman argues that America's mistakes in Eastern Europe result from policymakers' fixation on immediate, short-term problem-solving and misplaced hopes and fears. He proposes a new long-term, values-based approach that insists on the fundamentals of liberal democracy and a rules-based world order. Enlivened by firsthand accounts and behind-the-scenes interviews with leading Washington and international policymakers and culminating in the shocking brutality of Putin's invasions of Ukraine, the book exposes the follies of western foreign policymaking, sources of the dangerous return of Russian imperialism, and proscribes how it can be contained.
Latin American Geographies
The book is unique in providing an introduction to Latin American geography that showcases the ideas of some of the region's leading geographical thinkers. Aimed at undergraduate students, chapters will also be of relevance to advanced researchers looking for introductions to specific areas.
Eurasian Maritime Geopolitics
Reviews the strategic geography of the sea lanes from Northeast Asia through the Indian Ocean to Europe since the Middle Ages, noting how changing technology and economic patterns have transformed the global significance of those passage ways, especially since the end of the Cold War.
Geopolitics and Culture
Inspired by geopolitics and culture, this volume studies the link between geopolitical narratives, global and regional hierarchies, and popular cultural production in the Eastern European context.
The Right to Rule
In The Right to Rule, Hugh De Santis argues that while American exceptionalism has underpinned the nation's foreign policy since its inception, it has become an anachronism. In the emerging multipolar world order, America will be one of several powers that determine the structure and rules of international politics, rather than the sole arbiter.
Ballots and Brawls
The first book on the volatile election of 1867 in newly founded Canada. In September 1867, months after the formation of the Dominion of Canada, voters went to the polls for the inaugural election that would affirm that the new government was answerable to the people. No one could have foreseen the outcome, let alone the chaos that led up to the event. In Ballots and Brawls, the first book dedicated solely to the 1867 election, Patrice Dutil offers readers a region-by-region look at the summer of that year, concluding with a close examination of the election results. Citizens battled over issues of economic progress, taxation, and defense, while fights at the local level pitted English against French, Protestants against Catholics, and regionalists against nationalists. Dutil's account captures the drama and outright violence at the polls and provides an engrossing introduction to the shared ideals, disparate interests, and big personalities involved. Drawing together archival research, newspaper accounts, and a thorough review of the results at the polls, Dutil delivers an engaging and detailed look at the election that started the country.
Turkey-Russia Relations in the Twenty-First Century
This book provides a comprehensive examination of Turkey-Russia Relations in the twenty-first century. It analyzes the complex interactions between Turkey and Russia within the wider regional and global dynamics.
In the Long Run
Democracy is future-oriented and self-correcting: today's problems can be solved, we are told, in tomorrow's elections. But the biggest issues facing the modern world - from climate collapse and pandemics to recession and world war - each apparently bring us to the edge of the irreversible. What happens to democracy when the future seems no longer open? In this eye-opening history of ideas, Jonathan White investigates how politics has long been directed by shifting visions of the future, from the birth of ideologies in the nineteenth century to Cold War secrecy and the excesses of the neoliberal age. As an inescapable sense of disaster defines our politics, White argues that a political commitment to the long-term may be the best way to safeguard democracy. Wide in scope and sharply observed, In the Long Run is a history of the future that urges us to make tomorrow new again.
Qatar’s Foreign Policy
This study offers an analysis of Qatar's foreign policy since its independence from Britain in 1971. Locked between two vying powers, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and lacking the traditional elements of influence in the regional and international state system such as land, human capital, and advanced industry, Qatar nevertheless wields a disproportionately large amount of regional influence with an assertive foreign policy approach. Here, Marwan Kabalan highlights the strategies pursued by the ruling Qatari elite, especially during the last two decades, and delves into the methods Qatar has used to deal with the structural challenges to its foreign policy. These strategies include financially leveraging its access to crucial resources, such as natural gas, and its manipulation of existing regional frictions. The book also addresses Qatar's soft power influence - positioning itself as an alternative cultural and intellectual hub in the Arab world, enabling it to take a leading role, particularly as a mediator, in the region. By highlighting Qatar's foreign policy strategies and outcomes, Kabalan illustrates how the Qatari case challenges key assumptions of international relations theory which assumes that wealthy small powers tend to pursue passive foreign policies, and that structural forces minimize the role of ruling elites in foreign policymaking.
Votes at 16
Votes at 16 weaves together arguments and evidence to present a compelling case in favour of lowering the voting age in Britain to 16. By setting out the key reasons why the voting age should be reduced for all elections, this book powerfully refutes the arguments advanced by opponents of reform to the electoral franchise. Situating votes at 16 in its historical context in Britain, it offers an overview of voting age reform over time and examines the rise of this issue over the last 20 years. It analyses evidence on the introduction of votes at 16 in six countries and argues that this demonstrates 16- and 17-year-olds possess the knowledge and skills to vote. The book also sets out how citizenship education can be enhanced to support the introduction of votes at 16.
Hand of the Prince
This book is dedicated to how diplomacy makes, develops, and trades in knowledge. It proposes an approach to examine how diplomatic knowledge production describes what diplomats see, how these descriptions develop, and whether they were convincing to one's own policymakers or even those of other actors. These descriptions are vital: actors can be inserted into global categories Communism or Terrorism that beget significant security, relational and policy consequences. Diplomacy and policy constitute the world we inhabit based on what policymakers made of descriptions, assessments, and analysis. Such is the power of knowing who we and the others are.
Erased
How a field built on the intellectual labor and expertise of women erased them The academic field of international relations presents its own history as largely a project of elite white men. And yet women played a prominent role in the creation of this new cross-disciplinary field. In Erased, Patricia Owens shows that, since its beginnings in the early twentieth century, international relations relied on the intellectual labour of women and their expertise on such subjects as empire and colonial administration, anticolonial organising, non-Western powers, and international organisations. Indeed, women were among the leading international thinkers of the era, shaping the development of the field as scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals--and as heterosexual spouses and intimate same-sex partners. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, and weaving together personal, institutional, and intellectual narratives, Owens documents key moments and locations in the effort to forge international relations as a separate academic discipline in Britain. She finds that women's ideas and influence were first marginalised and later devalued, ignored, and erased. Examining the roles played by some of the most important women thinkers in the field, including Margery Perham, Merze Tate, Eileen Power, Margaret Cleeve, Coral Bell, and Susan Strange, Owens traces the intellectual and institutional legacies of misogyny and racism. She argues that the creation of international relations was a highly gendered and racialised project that failed to understand plurality on a worldwide scale. Acknowledging this intellectual failure, and recovering the history of women in the field, points to possible sources for its renewal.
From Confucius to Xi Jinping
This book analyzes Chinese politics, particularly the rule of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders from Mao Zedong to Xi Jinping, through an examination of the country's political ideology.
Sparks
Using history to challenge Communist Party rule. Sparks: China's Underground Historians and their Battle for the Future describes how some of China's best-known writers, filmmakers, and artists have overcome crackdowns and censorship to forge a nationwide movement that challenges the Communist Party on its most hallowed ground: its control of history. The past is a battleground in many countries, but in China it is crucial to political power. In traditional China, dynasties rewrote history to justify their rule by proving that their predecessors were unworthy of holding power. Marxism gave this a modern gloss, describing history as an unstoppable force heading toward Communism's triumph. The Chinese Communist Party builds on these ideas to whitewash its misdeeds and glorify its rule. Indeed, one of Xi Jinping's signature policies is the control of history, which he equates with the party's survival. But in recent years, a network of independent writers, artists, and filmmakers have begun challenging this state-led disremembering. Using digital technologies to bypass China's legendary surveillance state, their samizdat journals, guerilla media posts, and underground films document a regular pattern of disasters: from famines and purges of years past to ethnic clashes and virus outbreaks of the present--powerful and inspiring accounts that have underpinned recent protests in China against Xi Jinping's strongman rule. Based on years of first-hand research in Xi Jinping's China, Sparks challenges stereotypes of a China where the state has quashed all free thought, revealing instead a country engaged in one of humanity's great struggles of memory against forgetting--a battle that will shape the China that emerges in the mid-21st century.
Chinese Encounters with America
Chinese Encounters with America tells the stories of twelve women and men whose American experiences transformed their lives and influenced China's trajectory, with a particular focus on the period after Beijing and Washington established full diplomatic relations in 1979. Each chapter recounts how these Chinese citizens interpreted America and adapted their understanding to bolster China's quest for modernization. Their professions range from diplomacy, business, and science to sports, education, and the arts, but their distinctive stories are united by shared questions: Why did they go the United States, and why did they return to China? What difference did their encounters with America make in their lives and careers? What do their experiences tell us about the complexities of Sino-American interactions? At a time when US-China relations are contentious, this book challenges the idea that American and Chinese interests and values are incompatible. It shows that personal encounters have been instrumental in finding common ground, even when there are differences and disagreements. Through vivid and engaging profiles, Chinese Encounters with America offers a fresh, nuanced understanding of the world's most pivotal relationship.
Votes at 16
Votes at 16 weaves together arguments and evidence to present a compelling case in favour of lowering the voting age in Britain to 16. By setting out the key reasons why the voting age should be reduced for all elections, this book powerfully refutes the arguments advanced by opponents of reform to the electoral franchise. Situating votes at 16 in its historical context in Britain, it offers an overview of voting age reform over time and examines the rise of this issue over the last 20 years. It analyses evidence on the introduction of votes at 16 in six countries and argues that this demonstrates 16- and 17-year-olds possess the knowledge and skills to vote. The book also sets out how citizenship education can be enhanced to support the introduction of votes at 16.
