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What happens when an entire modern state's material culture becomes abruptly obsolete? How do ordinary people encounter what remains? In this ethnography, Jonathan Bach examines the afterlife of East Germany following the fall of the Berlin Wall, as things and places from that vanished socialist past continue to circulate and shape the politics of memory. What Remains traces the unsettling effects of these unmoored artifacts on the German present, arguing for a rethinking of the role of the everyday as a site of reckoning with difficult pasts. Bach juxtaposes four sites where the stakes of the everyday appear: products commodified as nostalgia, amateur museums dedicated to collecting everyda...
" In this first full-length U.S. study of German foreign policy since unification, Bach explores how different understandings of national identity influence and shape policy, in particular, the decision to send German troops to join the peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. Placing the German debates in social and historical context, he identifies major narratives within the German foreign policy community from which emerge divergent interpretations of national identity. Through a discursive analysis of parliamentary debates, Bach highlights how the emergence of a ""normal"" foreign policy is caught between competing understandings of the nation and the ambiguous role of the state, as both increas...
"Includes the rediscovered part four"--Cover.
This book examines US hegemony and international legitimacy in the post-Cold War era, focusing on its leadership in the two wars on Iraq. The preference for unilateral action in foreign policy under the Bush Administration, culminating in the use of force against Iraq in 2003, has unquestionably created a crisis in the legitimacy of US global leadership. Of central concern is the ability of the United States to act without regard for the values and interests of its allies or for international law on the use of force, raising the question: does international legitimacy truly matter in an international system dominated by a lone superpower? US Hegemony and International Legitimacy explores the...
What is the role of monumentality, verticality and centrality in the twenty-first century? Are palaces, skyscrapers and grand urban ensembles obsolete relics of twentieth-century modernity, inexorably giving way to a more humble and sustainable de-centred urban age? Or do the aesthetics and politics of pomp and grandiosity rather linger and even prosper in the cities of today and tomorrow?Re-Centring the City zooms in on these questions, taking as its point of departure the experience of Eurasian socialist cities, where twentieth-century high modernity arguably saw its most radical and furthest-reaching realisation. It frames the experience of global high modernity (and its unravelling) thro...
Taking an interdisciplinary approach, An Introduction to Global Studies presents readers with a solid introduction to the complex, interconnected forces and issues confronting today's globalized world. Introduces readers to major theories, key terms, concepts, and notable theorists Equips readers with the basic knowledge and conceptual tools necessary for thinking critically about the complex issues facing the global community Includes a variety of supplemental features to facilitate learning and enhance readers' understanding of the material
Designed as a textbook and interdisciplinary reference for the social sciences, this volume examines key issues in the current global security agenda and relationships between armed forces and society around the world. The book's concise chapters - on a broad range of themes related to national and international security, military sociology, and civil-military relations - were written by experts from 18 countries. This volume also has a groundbreaking section, which - using country studies and regional overviews - discusses civil-military relations in as well as the most salient theoretical and practical features of current means of democratic control of the armed forces in the early 21st century.
The Kaliningradskaya Oblast, Russia's Baltic enclave which soon will turn into an island amid the enlarged EU and NATO, constitutes a twofold challenge to European politics: Due to its economic, social, historical, geographical, strategic, and cultural peculiarities the detached region may become a source of instability. However, due to the same peculiarities the region also bears the potential to serve as a pilot-region for an EU-Russian partnership. To meet the latter perspective all actors concerned need to engage in a dialogue-based, coordinated, and problem-solving approach. This study provides recommendations to a wide range of actors on how to approach the Kaliningrad challenge in a proactive manner. It presents a policy paper drafted by a group of Kaliningrad experts from eight countries and is complemented by fourteen issue-oriented chapters which provide in-depth reasoning on the suggestions made by the group. Hanne-Margret Birckenbach is professor of political sciences at the University of Giessen, Germany. Christian Wellmann is deputy director of SHIP--The Schleswig-Holstein Institute for Peace Research, Germany.
"This volume developed out of two conferences: 'Shenzhen+China, Utopias+Dystopias', held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2011, and 'Learning from Shenzhen', held at the Shenzhen Land Use Resources and Planning Commission in 2011 as part of the Shenzhen Urbanism Biennale"--ECIP data.
Warfare Since the Second World War presents a wealth of analysis and data about one of the most pressing questions of our time: why does war continue to plague us fifty years after World War II? This book argues that the nature of war has shifted from inter-state conflicts toward internal conflicts, above all civil war. Low-intensity conflict helps explain the constant increase in wars over the last fifty years and makes it probable this trend will continue. Gantzel and Schwinghammer argue that modern warfare reflects a continuation of the nation-state-building process begun in nineteenth-century Europe.In their analysis, economic modernization and social integration destroy traditional rela...