Reluctant Remilitarisation
While armed forces in several countries underwent deep transformations after the end of the Cold War, few, if any, experienced more radical changes than Germany, Italy and Japan. This book explores how these three countries have modified the posture and structure of their militaries over the past three decades. While each country has had to overcome a pacifist constitution, a widespread view - in both elite and public opinion - that war was a taboo and armed forces should be designed to defend and deter against large-scale threats, they have all become more active security providers over recent decades. Each country, however, has followed a distinct path. This book reconstructs these paths to show how a mixture of external and domestic factors affected the pace and the extent of transformations. The book also identifies critical junctures in such processes: any push to change - it argues - is mediated by the need to come to terms with the cumbersome weight of the past.
A Misfit In Moscow
British government pronouncements since Russia's 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine have been resolute yet self-congratulatory. The UK is leading the way among western allies in providing Ukraine with the support it needs. Putin's regime is globally isolated as never before. The Russian economy is crumbling under unprecedented sanctions. Let's stick with the plan. Our strategy is working! But is that really true? How engaged was the Conservative government in efforts to prevent conflict in Ukraine after tensions with Russia ramped up ten years ago? Have any of the seven Foreign Secretaries since 2014 altered Putin's calculus? Have western sanctions really worked? And does 'the best diplomatic service in the world' have the skills to understand and outsmart Russia? From seeing Putin in Northern Ireland in 2013, to living through the expulsion of British diplomats from Moscow in 2018, then authorising sanctions against Russia in 2022, Ian casts a sceptical eye over these questions. Ian Proud was a member of HM Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023. Ian organised the 2013 G8 Summit in Northern Ireland which marked Vladimir Putin's last visit to the UK. From July 2014 to February 2019 he was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow where he advised UK Ministers on sanctions against Russia. He was Chair of the Russia Crisis Committee, Director of the Diplomatic Academy for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He speaks Russian and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development.
Relevance of European Studies in Asia
This book provides perspectives on the relevance of European Studies as a disciplinary category for the Asian region. That being the primary focus, the book serves a larger purpose. First, it provides insights on European society, polity and economy (including European Integration) as they are accounted in European Studies. The epistemological character of the knowledge thus conveyed has larger credibility and reliability such that they can become policy inputs and imaginations for strengthening Asian-European relationship. This approach helps overcome the trap of subjectively motivated discourses on Europe which may fail potential collaborations between the regions. Second, the design and discursivity of European Studies will be an instruction to the Asian region on the constitutive potential of regional studies in society-building. Third, the book works towards building the idea of "Europe" in terms of international law, in the minds of Asian students, researchers and decision-makers. This is extremely relevant for the future relationship and cultural engagement between the two regions. The book is of interest to policymakers, academics, embassies, state-level government offices, researchers and students.
The French Intelligence
In yesteryears, my preceding and precursory work on intelligence analysis, operations and international cooperation received different pieces of information, cannonball and notices, which inculcated me to paint a different picture of security and law enforcement mechanisms in Europe. This book highlights different types of political and social transformations in the EU. No doubt, I received precarious threats in case of written letters and telephone calls, but I never relinquished my academic and intellectual struggle against the sarcastic forces. Over the past 20 years, EU intelligence infrastructures lived through numerous management crises and ordeals. France has entered a political, social and economic transformation phase. In France, the focus of Jihadist groups has been radicalization of the young generation since 2001, but it is unclear how many foreign fighters have ultimately claimed asylum in France, and under what objectives. Before the rise of ISIS, African and South Asian jihadist groups were operating in France to expand their terrorist networks. With the presence of Jihadist Groups and the ISIS members in France, the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out, the fact is, that the ISIS found these weapons in Iraq. Material of Dirty Bomb, biological and nuclear weapons material can be purchased from black market of India and Pakistan. There are possibilities that terrorists can acquire nuclear material or a complete warhead to use it against their targets. The risk of a complete nuclear device falling into the hands of terrorists will cause consternation in the EU. The abrupt outburst in towns and cities of France was a great lesson for all European states that managing a better law and order can be laborious without introducing security sector reforms. As we have seen in yesteryears, terrorist and extremist groups made access to nuclear sites and recruited a good number of European citizens in order to use them for jihad in Europe. From the Yellow Vest movement to the recent terrorism (riots) incidents, extremist forces had designed to take control of government installations, cities and towns in order to further strengthen their networks. In all these and other events, French intelligence exhibited its professional approach and proved that a strong and reformed secret agency can better manage national security crises.
Arab-Israel Normalisation of Ties
This book focuses on rapprochement and normalisation between Israel and some Arab countries within the context of global and regional geopolitics, bringing together broader perspectives on transformations resulting from this. The analysis is rooted in a historical and cultural construction of the region as an Islamic sphere viewing Israel as a perpetuation of the Western colonial project in the region. It analyses how this normalisation must not be treated as a novel phenomenon, but as a reconstruction of the past and continuity in tradition geared at regional stability, signifying a wider shift in the structure of the global international system. The first section addresses the international perspectives of the changing dynamics through the lens of US domestic politics, disengagement plans, China's increasing understanding of the geopolitics of the Abrahamic world. It equally pays enough attention to the attendant implications of this normalisation. The second section of the book explores the reflections of regional (state and non-state) actors, such as Turkey, Iran, Syria, Pakistan, and Hezbollah, and the catalysing effects of this normalisation within and beyond the region. The book is a rich resource for scholars of regional and international relations, in particular Middle East studies. It provides useful reading material for both undergraduate and graduate students of Political Science, think tanks, diplomats, and IR experts and policy analysts, who are desirous of having rich theoretical and empirical underpinnings of unfolding realities in the larger Middle East.
The European Integration, Vol. 2
This two-volume textbook teaches about the uniqueness and the difficulty of the European unification project. It describes, as clearly as possible, what Robert Schuman declared in 1950, that "... Europe will not be made all at once...". Navigating the nexus of four academic fields - political science, institutional analysis, economics, and history - the book serves as a reference work for accurate, exhaustive, and well-researched information on the creation and functioning of the European Union. Volume 2 provides a comprehensive overview of the European Union's institutions and policies, such as agricultural and fisheries policies, economic and monetary policy, environmental policy, foreign affairs and defence policy, social policy, competition policy, regional policy, as well as immigration and asylum policy. Supported by numerous photographs, diagrams, maps, and sources, the book will serve as an essential textbook for undergraduate and graduate students studying the subject of European integration, as well as a useful resource for a broader audience interested in the European integration process.
The French Intelligence
In yesteryears, my preceding and precursory work on intelligence analysis, operations and international cooperation received different pieces of information, cannonball and notices, which inculcated me to paint a different picture of security and law enforcement mechanisms in Europe. This book highlights different types of political and social transformations in the EU. No doubt, I received precarious threats in case of written letters and telephone calls, but I never relinquished my academic and intellectual struggle against the sarcastic forces. Over the past 20 years, EU intelligence infrastructures lived through numerous management crises and ordeals. France has entered a political, social and economic transformation phase. In France, the focus of Jihadist groups has been radicalization of the young generation since 2001, but it is unclear how many foreign fighters have ultimately claimed asylum in France, and under what objectives. Before the rise of ISIS, African and South Asian jihadist groups were operating in France to expand their terrorist networks. With the presence of Jihadist Groups and the ISIS members in France, the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons cannot be ruled out, the fact is, that the ISIS found these weapons in Iraq. Material of Dirty Bomb, biological and nuclear weapons material can be purchased from black market of India and Pakistan. There are possibilities that terrorists can acquire nuclear material or a complete warhead to use it against their targets. The risk of a complete nuclear device falling into the hands of terrorists will cause consternation in the EU. The abrupt outburst in towns and cities of France was a great lesson for all European states that managing a better law and order can be laborious without introducing security sector reforms. As we have seen in yesteryears, terrorist and extremist groups made access to nuclear sites and recruited a good number of European citizens in order to use them for jihad in Europe. From the Yellow Vest movement to the recent terrorism (riots) incidents, extremist forces had designed to take control of government installations, cities and towns in order to further strengthen their networks. In all these and other events, French intelligence exhibited its professional approach and proved that a strong and reformed secret agency can better manage national security crises.
Territorial Politics in Catalonia and Scotland
Nations in flux explores the evolution of territorial politics in Catalonia and Scotland since 2010, offering an in-depth, comparative analysis of developments in both cases and drawing on interviews with political elites whilst providing a compelling snapshot of the growing relevance of nationalism in contemporary society and politics. Empirically, this book analyses the experiences and effects of referendums on independence, Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, and examines some of the most pressing tensions within the existing territorial models. It highlights the need for further reform in both cases and identifies necessary changes to ensure the institutionalisation of more accommodative territorial models and thus, the continuation of political partnership between Catalonia and Spain, and Scotland and the UK. Overall, the book raises important questions about the accommodation of diversity in plurinational states in the twenty-first century.
Colonial Legacies in Francophone African Literature
Colonial Legacies in Francophone African Literature: The School and the Invention of the Bourgeoisie by Mohamed Kamara examines the representation and lasting impact of the colonial school and bourgeoisie in Francophone sub-Saharan literature. Mohamed Kamara contends that the so-called indigenous colonial bourgeoisie was invented by the colonizer through the school to perpetuate the ideology of the colonizer, and he interrogates the policies and practices of the school and the ways they were informed by discourses of racial difference. While many works, like those authored by Gadjigo and Alessandri, have interrogated the impact of the colonial school on the African individual and society, they do not focus on the relationship between colonial education and the emergence of the African bourgeois and bourgeoise. Accordingly, this book analyzes the various literary strategies used in selected texts to paint a portrait of the school and the class it produced in view of showing the organic relationship between the two. This book adds a fresh perspective on the intimate connection between the school and social transformation in Francophone sub-Saharan Africa. Kamara suggests that the best solution for the continent resides in the continent's ability to take what is good in its precolonial past and combine it with what makes sense in today's reality.
The Case for an Israeli-Palestinian-Jordanian Confederation Why Now and How?
After 73 years of conflict, regardless of the many changes on the ground, the political wind that swept the region, and the intermittent violence between Israel and the Palestinians, the Palestinians will not give up on their aspiration for statehood. Ultimately a two-state solution remains the only viable option to end their conflict. The difference, however, between the framework for peace that had been discussed in the 1990s and 2000s when the focus was on establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza versus the present time is that many new, irreversible facts have been created: in particular the interspersing of the Israeli and Palestinian populations in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Israel proper; the status of Jerusalem, where both sides have a unique religious affinity; the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the majority of which will have to remain in place; the intertwined national security concerns of Israelis and Palestinians; and the Palestinian refugees, who need to be resettled and/or compensated. This unique book is in both English and Arabic for broader reach and understanding.
Issues of Governance, Security, and Development in Contemporary Africa
Governance, security, and development are three critical components of a dialectical nexus that is both dominant and determinant for any objective and fruitful quest for the understanding of the trajectory of a country, a region or, in the case of Africa, a continent from a colonial past to a neocolonial and meta-colonial present, and toward a future of strategic optimal independence and self-reliance. That colonial past and the ensuing neocolonial and meta-colonial present have made these critical components and the dialectical nexus that they form particularly challenging for the African continent. For this reason, Issues of Governance, Security and Development in Contemporary Africa offers an in-depth, interdisciplinary analysis of the challenges that contemporary Africa faces within these critical areas, as well as the resources and prospects that the continent possesses and can leverage to overcome the said challenges. Using case studies involving a range of countries across the continent, Mohamed Saliou Camara, Alem Hailu, and Sabella O. Abidde argue that Africa needs to decolonize the terms of reference that guide its nation-building, statecraft, and national development agenda in ways that will facilitate the establishment of viable systems of governance and security, and the promotion of genuine development.
Norway’s EU Experience and Lessons for the UK
This book examines Norway's affiliation to the EU and systematically assesses the potential suitability of this arrangement for the UK as a viable EU affiliation post-Brexit.Framing the book within the framework of the broader European context, the authors ask how much autonomy and room to manoeuvre tightly integrated non-member states have under this arrangement. They present an in-depth assessment of Norway's close EU affiliation and provide insight into what this may reveal to us about the post-Brexit European political order. The book's analytical framework centred on autonomy under complex interdependence has relevance well beyond the confines of the Norway case. This includes the UK, not least since the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) leaves considerable uncertainty. It contains transitory elements; there will be implementation reviews, and there may be many more bilateral and multilateral agreements before the trade relationship is fully defined.This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European Union politics, Norwegian politics, British politics, European integration, and, more broadly, to European studies and international relations.
After Autonomy: A Post-Mortem for Hong Kong's First Handover, 1997-2019
This book offers a sharp, critical analysis of the rise and fall of the 2019 anti-extradition bill movement in Hong Kong, including prior events like Occupy Central and the Mongkok Fishball Revolution, as well as their aftermaths in light of the re-assertion of mainland sovereignty over the SAR. Reading the conflict against the grain of those who would romanticize it or simply condemn it in nationalistic fashion, Vukovich goes beyond mediatized discourse to disentangle its roots in the Basic Law system as well as in the colonial and insufficiently post-colonial contexts and dynamics of Hong Kong. He examines the question of localist identity and its discontents, the problems of nativism, violence, and liberalism, the impossibility of autonomy, and what forms a genuine de-colonization can and might yet take in the city. A concluding chapter examines Hong Kong's need for state capacity and proper, livelihood development, in the light of theOmicron wave of the Covid pandemic, as the SAR goes forward into a second handover era.
Air Power and the Strategic Balance
Over the past decade, Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean at large have become critically linked to the future of the Indo-Pacific. They have emerged as centres of global power play with increased strategic significance. The objective of this book is to analyse the rapidly changing dynamics in this vital region, with a particular focus on regional multilateral and minilateral set-ups, including QUAD (Quadrilateral Security Dialogue), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), AUKUS (Australia-UK-US), and others. Positioning India at the centre, this book examines the delicate strategic balance of power in the Indian Ocean region, especially looking at air power, capacity building, and air-sea battle operations. It seeks to understand how like-minded Indo-Pacific countries can work together to enhance collaboration in varied domains ranging from nuclear energy to air power and cyber security to economic and supply chain cooperation. Through such collaborations, India and its like-minded partners can work together to reduce the predominance of any single nation, and ensure that they can actively shape a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. In this sense, the legacy multilateral institutions and the new minilaterals emerging within and across the region are aimed at securing a peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific. The book comprehensively covers geostrategic issues in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, with focus on air power being the fulcrum of strategic balance in the region. With a cross-section of contributions from experienced and emerging scholars, this book is a must-read for practitioners and research analysts in the aforementioned domains.
Psychological Intergroup Interventions
This book introduces a comprehensive and integrative collection of psychological intergroup interventions. These evidence-based interventions are scientifically established and tested in several real-world contexts of intergroup animosities and tensions, from prejudice and inequality reduction to peace promotion. Intergroup hostility, violence, and discrimination have become more and more prevalent in recent decades. To address this challenge, recently, social scientists have shown an increasing shift from a descriptive to a more interventionist science, developing evidence-based interventions to improve intergroup relations. For the first time, this book includes research on intergroup interventions and their applications to the field, from a global collection of leading voices in the discipline. It also includes a conceptualization of intergroup interventions, a typology of different types of interventions, as well as a guideline for effective development of intergroup interventions. Each chapter focuses on one psychological intergroup intervention, further reviewing a sample of relevant platforms such as education, entertainment, and VR, upon which psychological intergroup interventions can be implemented. With each chapter featuring both intervention research and practical advice for practitioners, this is the ideal companion for researchers and professionals in social psychology, sociology, politics, peace studies and conflict resolution. It will also be of interest to practitioners looking for practical advice to create an impact in the real-world.
Unrealized Digital Democracy
Garrett Pierman argues that the Internet, as it is structured today, is inhospitable to democracy. What began as a government-funded defense project became, with the commercialization of the Internet in the early 1990s, a network that makes it simultaneously easier for falsehoods to spread and more difficult for people to lose touch with reality. Many millions of Internet users have not encountered the online world as many scholars had hoped, as a place for careful democratic deliberation. The Internet is now a platform in which their fears and anxieties are exploited by corporations that have carved up digital fiefdoms. In these digital fiefdoms, fake news and lies are shared and consumed at speeds that far exceed our ability to sort fact from fiction, leading to instances of political violence once people's lie-based fears overcome their better judgement. It should be of no surprise that the current Internet enables and encourages political violence: scared and overwhelmed users are the ideal denizens of digital fiefdoms.
U.S. Leadership in a World of Uncertainties
This book analyzes the transformations and consistencies of American leadership during the past few years and situates recent American foreign policy in a longer time frame, following the 2020 presidential election and after a full year of the Biden Administration. This longer and broader view by European and American academics and experts considers both shifting American policies, notably during Trump's presidency, and underlying trends that have often gone ignored compared to the more dramatic antics of the 45th president. It helps decode recent American policy and permits us to consider possible new directions and likely continuities under Democratic leadership.
Art, Power, and Politics
Stories matter. They help us digest information, make sense of our world, learn valuable lessons, understand ourselves, store information, find meaning, and remember. Our stories can define us, tell us who we are, and who we might yet become. Researchers tell us that stories are one of the most elemental ways we process information. We understand the world through stories. Stories are accessible to our brains; we can more easily process narratives. They make sense to us. This book takes political storytelling seriously. Research on the brain indicates that humans learn from and profit from narratives. They help us make sense of a complex world, teach us important lessons, socialize us into society, are agents of education, information, and entertainment. How best to receive and process new information? As stories are important to us, so too are political narrative as a key to our identities. So many of our political views and subsequent behavior have roots in the myths and stories of America. This book examines stories of our lives as presented in paintings, music, and films. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.
Australia's Pivot to India
A thoroughly absorbing, must-read examination of why Australia's relationship with India might hold the key to our future, by federal MP Andrew Charlton'A powerful declaration for the shared future between Australia and India'-Penny WongThe time has come for Australia and India to forge closer ties - and reap the benefits. But will Australia seize the opportunity? India is on the rise to become the next global superpower, with a population expected to be larger than the United States and China combined by 2050. For Australia, as the world grows more volatile, India has emerged as a new geopolitical partner offering hope for a more secure and balanced Indo-Pacific region. Australian cities are full of thriving 'Little Indias' created by a rapidly growing Indian diaspora estimated to become the largest migrant group in the nation in just over two decades. In Australia's Pivot to India, Andrew Charlton provides an authoritative analysis of Australia's relationship with India, explains why now is the time to seize the opportunity for collaboration and cooperation, and outlines a vision for the Australia-India partnership that will enhance Australia's security and prosperity in the twenty-first century. He argues that both Indians and Australians have an outdated view of each other, trapped in decades-old stereotypes and misunderstandings.Lively, thought-provoking and timely, Australia's Pivot to India is the go-to source for anyone interested in Australia-India relations, India's role in reshaping the global order and the impact this will have on Australia's future.
Over the Atlantic
The book is the result of a collective research work between the members of the team of the project "Over the Atlantic" (co-founded by the Erasmus + programme). A critical introduction presents the work, the content and the scope of the research, carried out with an interdisciplinary approach. This book consists of three main parts. The first discusses the institutionalization and normalization of paradiplomacy in some specific and well-documented case studies regarding the Latin America region. The second one refers to the relationship between paradiplomacy and cooperation in the context of international and regional relations. The third part analyses Cities and Parliaments as international diplomatic actors. The theme of Paradiplomacy, as a means of unofficial relationships that reacts differently to the pressure of the international system, and the role of the local authorities, despite its relevance and importance, is scarcely analysed by academia.
Decolonization of Kazakhstan
This book is devoted to the problem of the decolonization of Kazakhstan, which is considered in the framework of postcolonial studies. The author raises issues of identity, historical and socio-cultural heritage of nomads. In addition, the book examines and destroys colonial and Soviet myths and stereotypes concerning the history, lifestyle and traditions of the Kazakhs. Considering that imperial sentiments are increasing in Russia (as a former metropolis), the process of decolonization seems to be urgently necessary for Kazakhstan. And this process is beginning to develop actively. This fascinating polemic will interest historians, scholars trying to understand the former Soviet space, and scholars of Eurasia.
Security and Interorganizational Networks in Peace Operations
This book offers a comprehensive analysis of preconditions and processes of interorganizational cooperation among IGOs in peace operations and how these collaborative efforts account for the success and failure of such missions. The author bases its conclusion on insights from social network analysis and an in-depth review of three cases of inter-IGO collaboration in intrastate conflicts: Violence abatement in Ivory Coast, conflict containment in Bosnia and conflict settlement in Darfur. This project will be beneficial for both policy and scholarly communities. By studying the empirical record of cooperation in peace operations, this work sheds light on best practices and makes specific policy recommendations for IGOs engaged in peace missions.
Digital Development in East Africa
This book uses comparative case study methodology and extensive field work to examine and compare outcomes of four East African nations (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda) that implemented formal Information and Communications Technology policies in the 1990s. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book assesses the emergence of a new policy and technological arena from the turn of the millennium to the present. In addition to tracing the implementation and reception of these policies, Bowman considers to what extent the politics of infrastructure in four connected but distinct African nations have resulted in global participation and equitable distribution and access of infrastructure to all citizens, as well as the impact a recent history of war or peace have on the technological outcomes in these communities. The book provides us with invaluable new data on how policy and politics function in emerging democracies, and illuminates long-overlooked opportunities and conditions necessary for the distribution of new and potentially beneficial technologies in other developing countries.
Alva Myrdal: A Pioneer in Nuclear Disarmament
This book is about the importance of nuclear disarmament and the work pursued by Alva Myrdal, a pioneering social activist, diplomat, cabinet minister, and disarmament negotiator. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 together with Alfonso Garc穩a Robles "for their work for disarmament and nuclear and weapon-free zones". Prominent academics, politicians and practitioners have contributed reflections on Myrdal's achievements and their impact on the world today. Furthermore, a sample of Myrdal's own writings on nuclear disarmament are included, as well as significant speeches and a bibliography of her publications on nuclear matters. Alva Myrdal was born in Uppsala, Sweden, in 1902, graduated from college in Stockholm in 1924, and continued higher education at Uppsala University in the 1930s. She was a prolific author and reformer, specializing in social affairs, women's roles and nuclear disarmament. She was Sweden's Ambassador to India in the 1950s, for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1960s and 1970s, and a member of the Cabinet 1967-1973. Her most well-known works are "The Game of Disarmament" (1976), "Nation and Family" (1941), and "Women's Two Roles" (1956, with Viola Klein). Her book "The Game of Disarmament" (1976) is a key work in disarmament. The Alva Myrdal Centre for Nuclear Disarmament was set up at Uppsala University in 2021 to contribute new ideas and concrete measures towards the elimination of nuclear weapons. Both editors are associated with the Centre, Professor Peter Wallensteen as a member of the board and leader of one of its working groups, and Dr. Armend Bekaj as a researcher. - This book is relevant for students of international relations and policy-makers on issues of peace and conflict. - It provides background documentation on the difficulties in achieving disarmament. - It illustrates the significant role women can play to infuse new ideas into a men's world. - It displays the importance of persistence, rationality, ingenuity and knowledge in furthering nuclear disarmament. - It shows that Alva Myrdal's efforts can be an inspiration for new generations.
Analysis of the Development of Beijing (2020)
This book provides an overview of the rapid development Beijing has seen in a wide range of areas in 2019, both within itself and as an integral part of a larger region, as China's economic development continues to improve in overall quality and regional coordination. A review of China's regional economic development in 2019-2020 is followed by 11 chapters that cover Beijing's achievements and challenges in economic development, public services, social governance, building a national cultural center, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regional development coordination, creative city construction and nighttime economic development. This book is a valuable reference for anyone trying to gain a better understanding of the what, how, and why with regard to one of the world's fastest growing mega-cities.
The Arms of the Future
From sensor-fuzed munitions and autonomous weapons, to ground moving target indication radar, laser vibrometers and artificial intelligence, the weapons of warfare are undergoing a rapid transformation, with modern technologies reshaping how armies intend to fight in the twenty-first century. The Arms of the Future analyses how the emergence of novel weapons systems is shaping the risks and opportunities on the battlefield. Drawing on extensive practical observation and experimentation, the book unpacks the operational challenges new weapons pose on the battlefield and how armies might be structured to overcome them. At a time when defence spending across NATO is on the rise, and conflict with Russia raises new questions of what it means to fight a truly 'modern' war, Watling examines not just the arms to be employed but how they can be fielded and wielded to survive and prevail in future wars.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has yet to be directly analysed as a military security complex with significant political influence. This book explores Iran's IRGC and Qods Force, focussing on its development following the Iranian Revolution, and how they have skilfully transformed Iran's defense doctrine to fight a hybrid war that challenges the US and the West.Chapters detail the birth of the IRGC, its political development and influence within Iran, its relationship to militias and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, and involvement in Yemen and Iraq. Keshavarz brings first-hand knowledge of what government institutions are looking for with respect to the IRGC, outlining Iran's hybrid war capabilities that the US and West often misunderstand or miss altogether, in order to provide a foreign policy analysis that identifies the challenges of Iran's irregular capabilities and what measures are needed to combat it.
How People Respond to Violence
This book explores the powerful role of ordinary people's agency in times of violent conflict. Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a Critical Discourse Analysis, the author draws out the motivations, drivers and strategies at individual and community levels. With a focus on people's own voices, this research highlights rich findings showing a wide range of experiences and actions that people engaged in during the violent conflict, and dimensions that are often missed in dominant explanations of violent conflict. Therefore, while looking at peace and conflict from an everyday perspective, the question of power and the meaning of peace knowledge become central. This monograph addresses the power of people's agency not only in shaping the politics and dynamics of violence, but also in redefining what 'peace' and 'change' ought to look like. Essential reading for researchers and students of Peace and Conflict Studies, and also International Relations, Security Studies, Resistance Studies, Anthropology, Politics, International Development.
China’s Footprint in East Africa
Based on an extensive literature review, in-depth interviews, fieldwork, and anecdotal evidence, this text examines China's engagement with East Africa (notably Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda) and considers these relationships through the lens of history, diplomacy, education, trade, media, cultural exchanges, and infrastructure. It probes the sentiments of pessimism, optimism, and pragmatism to explore perceptions about China in East Africa Africa. China's ancient connection to the East African coast, as well as other incidents of contact in the past, are analyzed from the viewpoint of the deployment of Chinese soft power capital in current times.The book notably examines the significant role China is playing in the construction of new infrastructure and housing throughout East Africa and addresses China's involvement in the natural resources sector and the political debate surrounding the construction of gas and oil pipelines, itsinvestment in the tourism sector, in the news media and information and communication technology sectors as well as in educational and cultural programs.
Financialization and Local Statecraft
The UK government reduced expenditure and introduced local financial self-sufficiency in pursuing austerity after the 2008 crash, forcing local governments in England to find savings and new income sources to close funding gaps. As new financial strategies and practices were devised, 'councillors at the casino' were characterized as taking risks with local taxpayers' money and jeopardizing local public service provision. Looking beyond the high-profile cases in an internationally resonant local public sector reform laboratory, Financialization and Local Statecraft examines the wider landscape across local government in England since 2010, which comprises a local tier of over 300 governments managing 瞿100bn of revenue expenditure, employing almost 1.5 million people, and providing services to over 56 million people across the country. Andy Pike draws on a new local statecraft theory to explain how local statecrafters act in realms including financial strategies and risks, external advice, borrowing and debt management, and in and out-of-area activities. The framework reveals and accounts for their vanguard, intermediate, and long tail approaches with differing engagements with financialization. While limited within the overall landscape, such relations and UK government policy are rewiring and rescaling local statecraft and relocating risks and uncertainties onto local government and the wider local state. UK government policy and the extension and intensification of financialization expose the local state's financial sustainability and resilience in the longer term. They raise fundamental questions about what local government is for and how it should be funded. The erosion of local accountability of local statecraft in financialization risks creating a de-politicized and post-democratic local governance.
Malawi’s Transition from One-Party Autocracy to Enfeebled Democracy
"Denis Venter's book, Malawi's Transition from One-Party Autocracy to Enfeebled Democracy, takes us through six decades of Malawi's politics, the changes and the confronting challenges His sense of humour and his command over the subject make the reading insightful and enjoyable. The book is a must-read for all academics and practitioners. I can't wait to hold this book in my hands."Dr Nandini Patel, Professor emeritus, Catholic University of MalawiDr. Denis Venter obtained an MA in Political Science from the University of Pretoria and a DLitt et Phil degree in the same discipline from the University of South Africa (Unisa). Between 1978 and 1999 he held various positions at the Africa Institute of South Africa in Pretoria, ending his tenure as Executive Director. In 2010-11 he was the Nelson Mandela Chair Professor in the Centre for African Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Dr. Venter was the founder and first President (1991-95) of the African Studies Association of South Africa (ASASA), and for a decade (1995-2005) served as Vice-Chairman of the International African Institute (IAI) based in London. He holds research fellowships in Politics at the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. Since 1999 he has been running a political and economic risk analysis unit, Africa Consultancy & Research.
Political Expressionism
Political Expressionism: Roots of Social Movements in Iran, the Middle East, and the World describes how politics is much more abstract now and similar to how expressionism affected the art world. This work applies a theoretical and historical overview to examine changes in how social movements operate over the last century with a comparative overview of events in Iran, the Middle East and the world. Increased usage of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on Traditional Communication Methods (TCMs) forever altered the dynamics of contention. This books' motivating questions are: What is the modern dream for social change? "What is the future of Social Movements in Iran, the Middle East and the World? ", "What are the roles of Social Movements as a tool which can help create frameworks for democracy?" and "How did Internet Communications Technologies (ICTs) impact the conceptualization of space in states and societies?" Social movements analyzed in this work include, 18 Tir (the Iran Students protest of July 1999), the Green Movement of Iran (2009-2010), the economic uprings and the Women, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran of 2022, the Arab Spring (2010-2012), Taksim Square (Gezi Park) Movement in Turkey (2013), and the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong that started in 2014. This book aims to bridge knowledge gaps between the theory and practice of social movements for academics and human rights activists alike.
Kerala
'There is no alternative (TINA)' has been the slogan of the neoliberals ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The counter-slogan has been, 'Another world is possible'. Here is the story of the ongoing struggles to build 'another world' in Kerala, India. The neoliberal imperative is to 'maximize growth at any cost'. Kerala has embarked upon an alternative - to optimize growth within redistribution, environmental sustainability, gender and social justice, and concerns of progressive culture. Confronting the challenges of globalization, and within the ever-tightening restrictions imposed by the Union government, Kerala has pursued alternative policies of protecting the public sector, health, and education with highly positive outcomes. These outcomes, in turn, have strengthened the social security and care systems and drastically reduced hunger and poverty. Democratic decentralization has provided the framework for implementing such a program with the participation of the people. This book, written in an accessible, non-technical, and jargon-free style by an outstanding academic with decades of experience as an administrator and policy maker, shows us how another world is in fact possible.
Memories and Representations of Terror
This book explores how memories and representations shape our understanding of historical events, particularly the ways in which societies create narratives about genocide and its aftermath, using Argentina's last military dictatorship (1976-1983) and its contested legacy as a case study.
Who's Afraid of the Welfare State Now?
This book primarily explores the welfare-policy responses to the Great Recession, reform trajectories that swept across Europe over the last decade, with a final chapter that focuses on Covid-19 welfare management. The 2008 crash marked a critical stress test for European welfare states with dramatic repercussions, including a massive surge in unemployment, a widening in wage and income disparities, and rising poverty. Hikes in fiscal deficits and public debt, required to pre-empt an economic meltdown, forced policymakers to make painful cuts in welfare services to shore up public finances, thereby jeopardizing welfare support for vulnerable groups. The overall scope of welfare-policy responses is heterogeneous, disparate, and uneven. In some cases, the response to the Great Recession was accompanied by deep social conflicts, while in others unpopular crisis-management measures received broad consent from opposition parties, trade unions, and employer organizations. Alongside serious retrenchments, there have been assertive attempts to rebuild social programmes and institutions, to accommodate policy repertoires-not merely domestically but also at the EU level-to the new realities of the knowledge economy and an ageing society. Overall, the long 2010s showed that the future of work and welfare is in our hands: it is perfectly possible to shape this future in such a way as to provide inclusive social security, achieve high employment, advance and maintain human capabilities across the life-course, and fight poverty and inequality.
After Hedging
The strategic rivalry between the United States and China has heightened since COVID-19. Secondary states face increasing difficulties maintaining a 'hedging' strategy between the United States and China. This Element introduces a preference-for-change model to explain the policy variations of states during the order transition. It suggests that policymakers will perceive a potential change in the international order through a cost-benefit prism. The interplays between the perceived costs and the perception of benefits from the order transition will shape states' policy choices among four strategic options: (1) hedging to bet on uncertainties; (2) bandwagoning with rising powers to support changes; (3) balancing against rising powers to resist changes; and (4) buck-passing to ignore changes. Four case studies (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand) are conducted to explore the policy choices of regional powers during the international order transition. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Who's Afraid of the Welfare State Now?
This book primarily explores the welfare-policy responses to the Great Recession, reform trajectories that swept across Europe over the last decade, with a final chapter that focuses on Covid-19 welfare management. The 2008 crash marked a critical stress test for European welfare states with dramatic repercussions, including a massive surge in unemployment, a widening in wage and income disparities, and rising poverty. Hikes in fiscal deficits and public debt, required to pre-empt an economic meltdown, forced policymakers to make painful cuts in welfare services to shore up public finances, thereby jeopardizing welfare support for vulnerable groups. The overall scope of welfare-policy responses is heterogeneous, disparate, and uneven. In some cases, the response to the Great Recession was accompanied by deep social conflicts, while in others unpopular crisis-management measures received broad consent from opposition parties, trade unions, and employer organizations. Alongside serious retrenchments, there have been assertive attempts to rebuild social programmes and institutions, to accommodate policy repertoires-not merely domestically but also at the EU level-to the new realities of the knowledge economy and an ageing society. Overall, the long 2010s showed that the future of work and welfare is in our hands: it is perfectly possible to shape this future in such a way as to provide inclusive social security, achieve high employment, advance and maintain human capabilities across the life-course, and fight poverty and inequality.
When Peacekeeping Missions Collide
The contemporary world is beset with a wide variety of conflicts, all of which have features without historical precedent. While most accounts of peacekeeping focus on attempts to limit violent conflict, this traditional view hardly captures the variety of challenges that today's peacekeepers face. Peacekeepers are now thrust into the unconventional roles of monitoring elections, facilitating transitions to the rule of law, distributing humanitarian aid, and resolving conflicts in civil societies that are undergoing transformation. This is the context for understanding the activities of modern-day peacekeepers. In When Peacekeeping Missions Collide, Paul F. Diehl, Daniel Druckman, and Grace B. Mueller provide an original and comprehensive assessment on how different peacekeeping missions intersect with one another in contemporary conflicts. They begin by documenting the patterns of peacekeeping missions in 70 UN operations, noting the dramatic increase in number and diversity of operations since the end of the Cold War as well as the shift to conflicts with a substantial internal conflict component. They then turn to the overarching question of the book: how do individual peacekeeping missions impact the outcomes of other missions within the same operations? To answer this, the authors have developed a novel dataset of UN peace operations from 1946-2016 to assess mission compatibility. Moreover, the authors utilize five detailed case studies of UN peacekeeping operations featuring mission interdependence and then measure the results against their theoretical expectations. Ultimately, the model they have developed for analyzing the effectiveness of the far more complex peace operations of today--relative to the simpler operations of the past--is essential reading for scholars of peacekeeping and conflict management.
After Hedging
The strategic rivalry between the United States and China has heightened since COVID-19. Secondary states face increasing difficulties maintaining a 'hedging' strategy between the United States and China. This Element introduces a preference-for-change model to explain the policy variations of states during the order transition. It suggests that policymakers will perceive a potential change in the international order through a cost-benefit prism. The interplays between the perceived costs and the perception of benefits from the order transition will shape states' policy choices among four strategic options: (1) hedging to bet on uncertainties; (2) bandwagoning with rising powers to support changes; (3) balancing against rising powers to resist changes; and (4) buck-passing to ignore changes. Four case studies (Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand) are conducted to explore the policy choices of regional powers during the international order transition. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
Integrating Community Engagement in Public Affairs Education
This book presents a coherent argument for higher education institutions to not only encourage students to engage in their communities, but to develop themselves as community engaged institutions. It is grounded in a case-based design, offering concrete examples of teaching and learning strategies that promote public value.
Fragile Rise
Germany's rise to power before World War I from a Chinese persective, and the geopolitical lessons for today. A series of solemn anniversary events have marked the centenary of World War I. Could history repeat itself in today's geopolitics? Now, as then, a land power with a growing economy and a maritime power with global commitments are the two leading states in the international system. Most ominously, the outbreak of war in 1914 is a stark reminder that nations cannot rely on economic interdependence and ongoing diplomacy to keep the peace. In Fragile Rise, Xu Qiyu offers a Chinese perspective on the course of German grand strategy in the decades before World War I. Xu shows how Germany's diplomatic blunders turned its growing power into a liability instead of an asset. Bismarck's successors provoked tension and conflict with the other European great powers. Germany's attempts to build a powerful navy alienated Britain. Fearing an assertive Germany, France and Russia formed an alliance, leaving the declining Austro-Hungarian Empire as Germany's only major ally. Xu's account demonstrates that better strategy and statesmanship could have made a difference--for Germany and Europe. His analysis offers important lessons for the leaders of China and other countries. Fragile Rise reminds us that the emergence of a new great power creates risks that can be managed only by adroit diplomats, including the leaders of the emerging power. In the twenty-first century, another great war may not be inevitable. Heeding the lessons of Fragile Rise could make it even less likely.
The 1922 Committee
The 1922 Committee is seen as the kingmaker in Conservative politics. This book provides a comprehensive account of its history, structure and influence.
Grey Zone Warfare
Grey Zone War has become the preferred choice of countries to secure their national interests due to low cost, deniability, and difficulty in attribution. The idea of the book was given out by the Director General USI, Maj Gen BK Sharma, AVSM, SM** (Retired), since it was felt that there was a felt need for a comprehensive and a well-researched book on this subject from an Indian perspective. The book has attempted to demystify the grey zone warfare and thereafter highlight the grey threats that India is facing especially from its archrivals China and Pakistan. At the same time, it has also examined countries indulging in grey zone activities such as US, Russia, and Israel to draw out lessons in formulating a way ahead for India. The author strongly advocates adopting a "whole of nation approach" to manage grey wars. He also highlights the need to integrate the agencies involved in dealing with grey threats under a single agency by creating an exclusive department to focus and manage the grey zone. However, he also, cautions that while dealing with grey threats care should be taken not to compromise with the stated stand of India's foreign policy and the principles of rules-based world order, a difficult ask in conduct of grey wars. Finally, the author admits that the recommendations are by no means exhaustive. They are open to further discussion and scrutiny. The book will be extremely useful to the security fraternity in getting an unbiased perspective on grey zone warfare.
The Future of China's Development and Globalization
This is an open access book.As the world continues to recover from the fear and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new set of challenges like increased geopolitical tensions and climate change have become increasingly prominent. This open access book, which contains the views of ambassadors to Beijing on topics ranging from bilateral relations to potential cooperation, global development and even more of the most immediate issues, aims to help readers make sense of our changing world and China's role in it. Building on the success of our previous volume China and the World in a Changing Context: Perspectives from Ambassadors to China, the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) has invited 27 ambassadors to examine China's role in this context of constant flux, focusing specifically on China's perspective, including its trade and investment ties with other countries, as well as its role in multilateral regional relations and global governance. These diplomatic envoys from countries around the world serve as pivotal contact points between nations across a wide range of fields, from economics and culture to health and the environment. Their perspectives, representing both developing and industrialized countries, are both invaluable and illuminating--not only in conveying the views and experiences of their own country, but also for their insights into global affairs and China's development. It is our hope that the views expressed in this volume will inspire even more discussion on the next best step to take in finding solutions to the problems we face, and in particular how China can use its own experience and wisdom to better contribute and engage with the world in finding solutions together. This book provides a wealth of perspective and insight that we hope will benefit not only academics and policy makers, but also the private sector and individuals.
The Future of China's Development and Globalization
This is an open access book.As the world continues to recover from the fear and uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic, a new set of challenges like increased geopolitical tensions and climate change have become increasingly prominent. This open access book, which contains the views of ambassadors to Beijing on topics ranging from bilateral relations to potential cooperation, global development and even more of the most immediate issues, aims to help readers make sense of our changing world and China's role in it. Building on the success of our previous volume China and the World in a Changing Context: Perspectives from Ambassadors to China, the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) has invited 27 ambassadors to examine China's role in this context of constant flux, focusing specifically on China's perspective, including its trade and investment ties with other countries, as well as its role in multilateral regional relations and global governance. These diplomatic envoys from countries around the world serve as pivotal contact points between nations across a wide range of fields, from economics and culture to health and the environment. Their perspectives, representing both developing and industrialized countries, are both invaluable and illuminating--not only in conveying the views and experiences of their own country, but also for their insights into global affairs and China's development. It is our hope that the views expressed in this volume will inspire even more discussion on the next best step to take in finding solutions to the problems we face, and in particular how China can use its own experience and wisdom to better contribute and engage with the world in finding solutions together. This book provides a wealth of perspective and insight that we hope will benefit not only academics and policy makers, but also the private sector and individuals.
The World Powers and Iran
This book reveals the reasons for and ways in which the Islamic Republic of Iran challenged the world powers, through the pursuit of material and ideational goals, to advance a strong nuclear program in the past decade. The book explores Iran's interactions with the United States of America, the Russian Federation, the People's Republic of China, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Republic of India, in the period before (2011-2012), during (2013-2016) and after (2017-2021) the finalization of the nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. Iran's narratives and actions to build middle power status are examined at length against the backdrop of its attempts to reshape global politics, the Middle East region, and the future of the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
The Political Economy of Geoeconomics: Europe in a Changing World
This book brings together researchers from different analytical perspectives for the study of contemporary geoeconomics to create a broader and more useful catalogue of conceptual tools, empirical entry points, and case studies around the subject. The distinctive contribution this book offers is its firm rooting in International Political Economy and the hitherto under-researched geoeconomics dynamics of Europe. Many existing accounts of geoeconomics have been developed in International Relations and often reproduce some of the state-centric and static assumptions of the discipline. Recent scholarship furthermore tends to focus on the US-China rivalry, thus discounting the role of other global powers in shaping geoeconomics. As a first collective contribution to the topic in the field of International Political Economy, the book stands to become a major reference point in the field for the coming years. Interest in geoeconomics as well as in related concepts like weaponized interdependence or emerging new rivalries has been on the rise in recent years and will be one of the key research areas in the coming decade of transition and change in Europe and beyond. Chapters 1, 2 and 7 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Global Trade and Trade Governance During De-Globalization
This book takes a fresh and much needed perspective on the challenges of trade policy and explores possible futures for trade policy development. By taking the perspective of business studies, the book does not only focus on the economic, policy, or legislative perspectives, but views trade policy as a part of international business environment. The purpose of this book is to bring forward discussions on trade policy development and future development needs and offers a comprehensive read for international business researchers, practitioners and policymakers regarding the interconnections of trade policy and international business.
