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Handbook of War Studies III is a follow-up to Handbook of War Studies I (1993) and II (2000). This new volume collects original work from leading international relations scholars on domestic strife, ethnic conflict, genocide, and other timely topics. Special attention is given to civil war, which has become one of the dominant forms---if not the dominant form---of conflict in the world today. Contributors: Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, New York University, and Hoover Institution, Stanford University Nils Petter Gleditsch, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO), and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim Håvard Hegre, University of Oslo, and International Pe...
Mass communications and advances in communications technology pose fundamental challenges to the traditional conduct of diplomacy by reducing hierarchy, promoting transparency, crowding out secrecy, mobilizing global social movements, and increasing the importance of public diplomacy in international relations. But the primary source of change, the force that acts as a common denominator and accelerates other changes, is communications and information technology (CIT). Where nations were once connected through foreign ministries and traders, they are now linked to millions of individuals by fibre optics, satellite, wireless, and cable in a complex network without central control. These trend...
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union were only two of the many events that profoundly altered the international political system in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In a world no longer dominated by Cold War tensions, nation states have had to rethink their international roles and focus on economic rather than military concerns. This book examines how two middle powers, Australia and Canada, are grappling with the difficult process of relocating themselves in the rapidly changing international economy. The authors argue that the concept of middle power has continuing relevance in contemporary international relations theory, and they present a number of case studies to illustrate the changing nature of middle power behaviour.
The growing urgency, complexity and "wickedness" of sustainability problems—from climate change and biodiversity loss to ecosystem degradation and persistent poverty and inequality—present fundamental challenges to scientific knowledge production and its use. While there is little doubt that science has a crucial role to play in our ability to pursue sustainability goals, critical questions remain as to how to most effectively organize research and connect it to actions that advance social and natural wellbeing. Drawing on interviews with leading sustainability scientists, this book examines how researchers in the emerging, interdisciplinary field of sustainability science are attempting...
Burgerman (Latin American studies, Columbia U.) shows how human rights activism is increasingly changing state policy, especially in the case of 1980s El Salvador and Guatemala. The logic of national sovereignty no longer protects a nation abusing public freedoms because activists have linked human rights abuses with destabilization of international peace and security. The UN is now freer to step into conflicts, even scoring some successes in such nations as Namibia, Cambodia, and Haiti. When national attention focused on Bosnia and East Timor, UN intervention looked like common sense, rather than revolutionary as it had in El Salvador, or politically risky as in Cambodia. While intervention is not always feasible or apropos, Burgerman provides circumstances when the international community has and should enforce human rights. c. Book News Inc.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia has developed a powerful business community and a potent network of transnational organized groups. Russian Business Power explores the powerful impact these new actors are having on the evolution of the Russian state and its foreign behaviour. Unlike other books, which focus either on Russia's foreign and security policy, or on the evolution of Russian business, legal and illegal, within the context of Russia's domestic transition, this book considers how far Russia's foreign and security policy is shaped by business. It considers a wide range of issues, including energy, the arms trade, international drug flows, and human trafficking, and examines the impact of Russian business in Russia's dealings with Western and Eastern Europe, the Caspian, the Caucasus and the Far East.
This is a compendium of case studies that seek to describe the best uses of military power, particularly airpower, in response to genocide. The writers examine recent instances of genocide in Somalia, Rwanda, and Côte d¿Ivoire to draw out useful generalizations concerning the nature of genocide, international reactions to genocide, and effective responses to genocide and the possibility of genocide.
The academic study of Canada has traditionally been the realm of Canadian scholars. For this reason it is easy for outsiders to view Canada as a semi-Nordic continental utopia existing peacefully under a benign government that seeks only peace and harmony in the world. The reality is a more complicated story. That is the strength of this outstanding new book written by two young Polish scholars specializing in Canadian affairs. They have put together an impressively researched monograph that combines a detailed analysis outlining a rather basic premise: The world has changed dramatically since 1989 - and Canada has changed with it. In this well argued narrative they argue that in recent year...
In this volume security specialists, peace researchers, environmental scholars, demographers as well as climate, desertification, water, food and urbanisation specialists from the Middle East and North Africa, Europe and North America review security and conflict prevention in the Mediterranean. They also analyse NATO’s Mediterranean security dialogue and offer conceptualisations on security and perceptions of security challenges as seen in North and South. The latter half of the book analyses environmental security and conflicts in the Mediterranean and environmental consequences of World War II, the Gulf War, the Balkan wars and the Middle East conflict. It also examines factors of global environmental change: population growth, climate change, desertification, water scarcity, food and urbanisation issues as well as natural disasters. Furthermore, it draws conceptual conclusions for a fourth phase of research on human and environmental security and peace as well as policy conclusions for cooperation and partnership in the Mediterranean in the 21st century.
Sophie Meunier explores how the the pooling of trade policy-making and external representation by national member states to the supranational level affects the bargaining power of the EU in international commercial negotiations and, consequently, the shape of international political economy.