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This book examines an interesting and relatively understudied area of the evolution of the international rule of law and the role of professional ethics. The rule of law has been gradually developed and promoted at the national level over centuries, however at the international level it has only recently received (more in rhetoric than in implementation) support from a macro perspective - developments of international rules and institutions, and from a micro perspective - ethical codes, independence and un-bias of professionals, working in international organizations and tribunals. The book offers analysis and recommends policies to strengthen the rule of law at international level to meet a major global governance demand in ensuring equity, justice, stability and consistency in international affairs.
This book seeks to refine our understanding of transitional justice and peacebuilding, and long-term security and reintegration challenges after violent conflicts. As recent events following political change during the so-called 'Arab Spring' demonstrate, demands for accountability often follow or attend conflict and political transition. While traditionally much literature and many practitioners highlighted tensions between peacebuilding and justice, recent research and practice demonstrates a turn away from the supposed 'peace vs justice' dilemma. This volume examines the complex relationship between peacebuilding and transitional justice through the lenses of the increased emphasis on vic...
As counter-profileration is expected to become the central element in the new national security policy of the US, such actions will constitute a central element of every major international conflict in the first decades of the 21st century. One of the most important geostrategic phenomena of the past decade has been the extraordinary diffusion of war-making capabilities from the developed North to the developing South. In the eyes of some proliferant states, possessing nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) weapons would not only add to their regional stature, but would also offer an asymmetrical counter to the West’s massive superiority in conventional forces. In the Eastern Mediterranean...
This edited volume examines the impact of globalisation on the economies, security policies and military-industrial complexes of the Asia-Pacific region. The work is structured into three main parts. The first explores globalization and its general effects on the policy-making of the nation-state; the second section looks at how globalisation affects a country's threat perception and defence posture within the specific context of the Asia-Pacific region; while the third explores how it impacts on a state's allocation of resources to defence, and how economic globalization affects the defence industry, with specific reference to the procurement policies and practices of different states across the Asia-Pacific.
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...
This edited volume provides an overview on US involvement in Iraq from the 1958 Iraqi coup to the present-day, offering a deeper context to the current conflict. Using a range of innovative methods to interrogate US foreign policy, ideology and culture, the book provides a broad set of reflections on past, present and future implications of US-Iraqi relations, and especially the strategic implications for US policy-making. In doing so, it examines several key aspects of relationship such as: the 1958 Iraqi Revolution; the impact of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War; the impact of the Nixon Doctrine on the regional balance of power; US attempts at rapprochement during the 1980s; the 1990-91 Gulf War; and, finally, sanctions and inspections. Analysis of the contemporary Iraq crisis sets US plans against the ‘reality’ they faced in the country, and explores both attempts to bring security to Iraq, and the implications of failure.
Combining a sophisticated theoretical analysis with detailed empirical case-studies, this book provides an original view of the challenges and threats to a stable peace order in Europe. The end of Cold War bipolarity has transformed Europe. Using structural realist theory, Adrian Hyde-Price analyzes the new security agenda confronting Europe in the twenty-first century. Europe, he argues, is not ‘primed for peace’ as mainstream thinking suggests, rather, it faces new security threats and the challenge of multipolarity. This critical and original volume looks at European security after the Iraq War, the failure of the EU constitution and the change of government in Germany. Reflecting on the inherently competitive and tragic nature of international politics, it concludes that realism provides the only firm foundations for an ethical foreign and security policy. European Security in the Twenty-First Century will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, European politics and security studies.
This book attempts to conceptualise EU action in the field of regional security. Drawing on constructivist theory, the framework of the book focuses on the meeting - or 'interface' - of actors, a situation reflecting the mutual construction of self, other and situation. The analytical framework applied here to European security politics is potentially open-ended as the theoretical logic that informs the framework is general and abstract in character, and not limited to state actors in an international setting. The empirical aim of this book is to further our understanding of the EU as a security actor in a regional perspective. The book thus links International Relations scholarship with tha...
This book examines the justifications for, and practice of, war by the US since 1990, and examines four case studies: the Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq. The author undertakes an examination of presidential speeches and public documents from this period to determine the focal points on which the respective presidents based their rhetoric for war. The work then examines the practice of war in the light of these justifications to determine whether changes in justifications correlate with changes in practice. In particular, the justificatory discourse finds four key themes that emerge in the presidential discourses, which are tracked across the case studies and point to the fundamental ...
This book seeks to demonstrate how rules not only guide a variety of practices within international politics but also contribute to the chaos and tension on the part of agents in light of the structures they sustain. Four central themes- practice, legitimacy, regulation, and responsibility- reflect different dimensions of a rule governed political order. The volume does not provide a single new set of rules for governing an increasingly chaotic international system. Instead, it provides reflections upon the way in which rules can and cannot deal with practices of violence. While many assume that "obeying the rules" will bring more peaceful outcomes, the chapters in this volume demonstrate that this may occur in some cases, but more often than not the very nature of a rule governed order will create tensions and stresses that require a constant attention to underlying political dynamics. This wide-ranging volume will be of great interest to students of International Law, International Security and IR theory.