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Library Bulletins

Recent Addition, August 2017

1. Refugees, regionalism and responsibility /by Mathew, Penelope. 2016
Abstract : The ongoing refugee and migrant crisis in Europe has accelerated the need to find answers for refugee movements. The book examines regional cooperation as a potential solution. Through a thorough assessment of past and present regional arrangements concerning refugees, this book considers whether regionalism has resulted in protection and durable solutions for both refugees and participating states. Penelope Mathew and Tristan Harley critically examine the merits of regional approaches to refugee protection through a detailed examination of five major regions of the world and five regional arrangements. As well as drawing attention to the strengths and weaknesses of regional arrangements on a practical level, this book explores the normative debates regarding refugee protection as a moral imperative, deliberating on why and how responsibility for refugee protection should be shared.
2. A revolution undone: egypt's road beyond revolt /by Hellyer, H. A. 2016
Abstract : Amid the turbulence of the 2011 Arab uprisings, the revolutionary uprising that played out in Cairo's Tahrir Square created high expectations before dashing the hopes of its participants. The upheaval led to a sequence of events in Egypt that scarcely anyone could have predicted, and precious few have understood: five years on, the status of Egypt's unfinished revolution remains shrouded in confusion. Power shifted hands rapidly, first from protesters to the army leadership, then to the politicians of the Muslim Brotherhood, and then back to the army. The politics of the street has given way to the politics of Islamist-military detentes and the undoing of the democratic experiment. Meanwhile, a burgeoning Islamist insurgency occupies the army in Sinai and compounds the nation's sense of uncertainty.
3. Iran: what everyone needs to know / by Axworthy, Michael. 2017
Abstract :Since the beginning of recorded history, Iran/Persia has been one of the most important world civilizations. Iran remains a distinct civilization today despite its status as a major Islamic state with broad regional influence and its deep integration into the global economy through its vast energy reserves. Yet the close attention paid to Iran in recent decades stems from the impact of the 1979 revolution, which unleashed ideological shock waves throughout the Middle East that reverberate to this day. Many observers look at Iran through the prism of the Islamic Republic's adversarial relationship with the US, Israel, and Sunni nations in its region, yet as Michael Axworthy shows in Iran: What Everyone Needs to Know, there is much more to contemporary Iran than its fraught and complicated foreign relations. He begins with a concise account of Iranian history from ancient times to the late twentieth century, following that with sharp summaries of the key events since the1979 revolution.
4. The Iraqi federation: origin, operation and significance / by Shakir, Farah. 2017
Abstract : The book explores why and how Iraq became a federal state, and analyses how the process of formation impacts on the operation of the Iraqi federal system. It argues that the different approaches taken by various federal theorists in the past, particularly William H. Riker’s bargain theory, are insufficient to explain the formation of the Iraqi federation completely. The process of the establishment of a federal Iraq must be understood in the context of its unique history and cultural specificity, as well as in the context of the other new federal models that have appeared since the end of the Cold War, including Belgium, the Russian Federation, Ethiopia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Nigeria.
5. Islam society and politics in central Asia / by   Jones, Pauline Ed. 2017
Abstract : This volume seeks to shed light on these crucial questions by bringing together an international group of scholars to offer a new perspective on Central Asian states and societies. The chapters provide analysis through four distinct categories: the everyday practice of Islam across local communities; state policies toward Islam, focusing on attempts to regulate public and private practice through cultural, legal, and political institutions and how these differ from Soviet policies; how religious actors influence communities in the practice of Islam, state policies towards the religion, and subsequent communal responses to state regulations; and how knowledge of and interaction with the larger Islamic world is shaping Central Asia's current Islamic revival and state responses.
6. Islam, Sufism and everyday politics of belonging in South Asia / by  Dandekar, Deepra Ed. 2016
Abstract : This book looks at the study of ideas, practices and institutions in South Asian Islam, commonly identified as ‘Sufism’, and how they relate to politics in South Asia. While the importance of Sufism for the lives of South Asian Muslims has been repeatedly asserted, the specific role played by Sufism in contestations over social and political belonging in South Asia has not yet been fully analysed. Looking at examples from five countries in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan), the book begins with a detailed introduction to political concerns over ‘belonging’ in relation to questions concerning Sufism and Islam in South Asia. This is followed with sections on Producing and Identifying Sufism; Everyday and Public Forms of Belonging; Sufi Belonging, Local and National; and Intellectual History and Narratives of Belonging.
7.  Island People: the Caribbean and the World / by Jelly- Schapiro, Joshua . 2016
Abstract : From the moment Columbus gazed out from the Santa María's deck in 1492 at what he mistook for an island off Asia, the Caribbean has been subjected to the misunderstandings and fantasies of outsiders. Running roughshod over the place, they have viewed these islands and their inhabitants as exotic allure to be consumed or conquered. The Caribbean stood at the center of the transatlantic slave trade for more than three hundred years, with societies shaped by mass migrations and forced labor.  But its people, scattered across a vast archipelago and separated by the languages of their colonizers, have nonetheless together helped make the modern world—its politics, religion, economics, music, and culture. Jelly-Schapiro gives a sweeping account of how these islands’ inhabitants have searched and fought for better lives. With wit and erudition, he chronicles this “place where globalization began,” and introduces us to its forty million people who continue to decisively shape our world.
8. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the politics of stalemate / by  Cordell, Karl. 2017
Abstract : The purpose of this volume is to elucidate both the nature of the conflict, but perhaps more importantly to make some tentative proposals with regard to how the conflict may eventually be peacefully concluded. The contributors offer their prognosis in light of the fact that both Israeli and Palestinian society is becoming increasingly polarised and prey to fanatics who argue that the conflict will and should be solved by the complete destruction of one side by the other. In short, this volume seeks to provide rational counter-arguments to fundamentalist bile that questions the fundamental humanity of the opposing side.
9. Japan-China relations in the modern era / Kokubun, Ryosei2017
Abstract : This volume provides a cogent analysis of the politics of the bilateral relationship in the modern era, explaining the past, present, and future of Japan–China relations during a time of massive political, social, and economic changes. Written by a team of internationally renowned Japanese scholars and based on sources not available in English, this book is essential reading for students and scholars of Japan–China relations, Japanese international relations, and the politics and international relations of East Asia
10. Jihad and Death: The Global Appeal of Islamic State / by Roy, Olivier. 2017
Abstract : Islamic State has replaced Al Qaeda as the great global threat of the twenty-first century, the bogeyman we have all come to fear. But Daesh started as a local movement, rooted in the resentment of the Sunni Arabs of Iraq and Syria. It is they who have lost most in the geo-strategic shift in the balance of power in the region over the last thirty years, as Iranian-backed Shias have mobilised politically and advanced on the social and economic fronts. How has Islamic State been able to muster support far beyond its initial constituency in the Arab world and to attract tens of thousands of foreign volunteers, including converts to Islam, and seemingly countless supporters online? In this compelling intervention into the debate about Islamic State's origins and future prospects, the renowned French sociologist of religion, Olivier Roy, argues that the group mobilised a highly sophisticated narrative, reviving the myth of the Caliphate and recasting it into a modern story of heroism, death and nihilism, using a very contemporary aesthetic of violence, well entrenched amid a youth culture that has turned global and violent.
11. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan: life and politics during the soviet era /by Dadabev, Timur Ed.  2017
Abstract : This volume offers perspectives from the general public in post-Soviet Central Asia and reconsiders the meaning and the legacy of Soviet administration in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.  This study emphasizes that the way in which people in Central Asia reconcile their Soviet past to a great extent refers to the three-fold process of recollecting their everyday experiences, reflecting on their past from the perspective of their post-Soviet present,  and re-imagining. These three elements influence memories and lead to selectivity in memory construction. This process also emphasizes the aspects of the Soviet era people choose to recall in positive and negative lights
12. The king never smiles: a biography of the Thailand's bhumibol adultadej /by Handlely, Paul M. 2017
Abstract : Thailand's Bhumibol Adulyadej, the only king ever born in the United States, came to the throne of his country in 1946 and at the time of his death, in October 2016, was the world's longest serving monarch. The King Never Smiles, the first independent biography of Thailand's monarch, tells the unexpected story of Bhumibol's life and sixty-year rule-how a Western-raised boy came to be seen by his people as a living Buddha, and how a king widely seen as beneficent and apolitical could in fact be so deeply political and autocratic. Paul Handley provides an extensively researched, factual account of the king's youth and personal development, ascent to the throne, skillful political maneuverings, and attempt to shape Thailand as a Buddhist kingdom. Handley takes full note of Bhumibol's achievements in art, in sports and jazz, and he credits the king's lifelong dedication to rural development and the livelihoods of his poorest subjects
13. The Kremlin strikes back: Russia and the west after Crimea's annexation /by  Rosrfielde, Steven. 2017
Abstract : America and Europe responded to Russia's annexation of Crimea on March 18, 2014 by discarding their policy of East-West partnership and reverting intermittently to a policy of cold war. The West believes that this on-again/off-again second Cold War will end with Russia's capitulation because it is not a sufficiently great power, while the Kremlin's view is just the opposite; Vladimir Putin believes that if Moscow has strategic patience, Russia can recover some of the geostrategic losses that it incurred when the Soviet Union collapsed. The Kremlin Strikes Back scrutinizes the economic prospects of both sides, including factors like military industrial prowess, warfighting capabilities, and national resolve, addressing particularly hot-button issues such as increasing military spending, decreasing domestic spending, and other policies. Stephen Rosefielde aims to objectively gauge future prospects and the wisdom of employing various strategies to address Russian developments.
14. Kurdish Hizbullah in Turkey: Islamism, violence and the state /by  Kurt, Mehmet. 2017
Abstract : This study analyses Kurdish Hizbullah as a social movement, investigating the biggest Kurdish Islamist group through ethnographic fieldwork. Kurt charts Hizbullah's development from its origins in violent militancy to its move towards a more civic' mode of engagement, an engagement which nonetheless provides a rationale for disenchanted young Islamists to engage in political violence. Kurt explores Hizbullah in Turkey's many paradoxes; its political rise and the apparent power of Islamism amongst Kurds, unusual in a region in which leftist Kurdish political movements dominate political discourse; its composition, which differs from the Shiite Hizbullah in Lebanon, and is populated by Sunnis and Shafii Kurds.
15. Lobbying and Foreign Interests in Chinese Politics / by weil , Stefanie.2017
Abstract : This book offers a series of original arguments on the relationships that Western interest groups have with the Chinese state. It details their lobbying strategies and the leverage it gives them in policy-making in China's political system. Analysis is provided in a comparative context. The author offers inside knowledge on Western business and analyses the nature of business-government relations on domestic Chinese innovation policies. Identifying and analysing the conceptual difference between Chinese and Western actors in their relationship to the state, this book demonstrates how China's existing mechanisms for monitoring activities of Chinese interest groups are ill-suited to exerting a similar degree of control over Western actors.
16. Making moderate Islam: Sufism, service, and the "ground zero mosque" controversy / by Corbett, Rosemary R. 2017
Abstract : Drawing on a decade of research into the community that proposed the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," this book refutes the idea that current demands for Muslim moderation have primarily arisen in response to the events of 9/11, or to the violence often depicted in the media as unique to Muslims. Instead, it looks at a century of pressures on religious minorities to conform to dominant American frameworks for race, gender, and political economy. These include the encouraging of community groups to provide social services to the dispossessed in compensation for the government's lack of welfare provisions in an aggressively capitalist environment. Calls for Muslim moderation in particular are also colored by racist and orientalist stereotypes about the inherent pacifism of Sufis with respect to other groups.
17. The making of a maritime power: China's challenges and policy responses /by Kong, Zhiguo. 2017
Abstract : This book is a valuable work of reference for the study of sea power, especially in China. It analyzes the challenges and problems facing China’s sea power and offers a complete set of solutions known as ‘sea exploitation.’ In this context, it discusses five aspects of China’s sea power: 1) It revises the notion of sea power and proposes a cost-benefit analysis framework for it. 2) By analyzing the increase in the benefits of China’s sea power, the rise in the nation’s ability-to-pay principle and the growth in the public expectation of China’s capability of providing global public goods, it points out that the rise of China’s sea power is an unavoidable trend. 3) It explores the challenges and problems facing China’s sea power, arguing that China is currently in a situation where it is daunted by large countries, troubled by small countries and its neighbors are expanding their armaments, which have combined to increase the cost of improving China’s sea power. 4) It summarizes features of China’s sea power and stresses that dilemmas of non-sovereign sea power expansion and sovereign sea power expansion, traumatic pressure and transcendental ideals, escalated conflict and peaceful appeal, etc. 5) It proposes that China should draw on the experience of the Western Han Dynasty of ancient China.
18. Maritime security in east and Southeast Asia: political challenges in Asian waters /by Tarling, Nicholas Ed. 2017
Abstract : This volume investigates the nature of threats facing, or perceived as facing, some of the key players involved in Asian maritime politics. The articles in this collection present case studies on Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Japan, China, and Southeast Asia as a whole and focus on domestic definitions of threats and conceptualisations of security. These studies map the differing understandings of danger in this region and explore how contending narratives of "threats" and "security" affect the national maritime security policy deliberations within the countries of this region. Those interested in maritime security and management in Asia will find this collection an invaluable addition to the literature on this topic.
19. The Master plan: ISIS Al-Qaeda, and the Jihadi Strategy for final victory /by  Fishman, Brian H. 2016
Abstract :An incisive narrative history of the Islamic State, from the 2005 master plan to reestablish the Caliphate to its quest for Final Victory in 2020 Given how quickly its operations have achieved global impact, it may seem that the Islamic State materialized suddenly. In fact, al-Qaeda's operations chief, Sayf al-Adl, devised a seven-stage plan for jihadis to conquer the world by 2020 that included reestablishing the Caliphate in Syria between 2013 and 2016. Despite a massive schism between the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, al-Adl's plan has proved remarkably prescient. In summer 2014, ISIS declared itself the Caliphate after capturing Mosul, Iraq-part of stage five in al-Adl's plan. Drawing on large troves of recently declassified documents captured from the Islamic State and its predecessors, counterterrorism expert Brian Fishman tells the story of this organization's complex and largely hidden past-and what the master plan suggests about its future.
20. The Middle country: traverse of madhesh through war, colonization & aid dependent racist state /by  Sah, Ram Manohar. 2017
Abstract : The book is about the land which lies between Nepal Valley and India, which is neither India politically nor Nepal culturally and structurally. The birth place of Buddha, Janak and Sita that showed light to world, is struggling for peace and existence. The Middle country, translates to Madhyadesh in Sanskrit, is the genesis of the Madhesh. Book starts with an attempt to define the keyword "Madhesh" using difference sources; Buddhism Vinaya Pitaka, Alberuni, Hamilton and Brian Hodgson. Then, the book dive deep into the rich culture of plain, 1000 years of history, archeological heritages and local heroes. To set the book tone, author has collection of discrimination stories from different walks of life.
21. Mini-India: the politics of migration and subalternity in the Andaman Island /by  Zehmisch, Philipp. 2017
Abstract : This ethnographic study of the Andaman settler society analyses various shades of inequality that arise from migrant communities’ material and representational access to the state. The author employs the concept of subalternity to investigate political negotiations of island history, collective identity, ecological sustainability and resource access. Interpreting characteristic views, practices and voices of subaltern interlocutors, the author untangles their collective agency and consciousness in migration, settlement and place-making processes. Further, the book highlights particular subaltern strategies in order to achieve autonomy and peaceful cohabitation through movement, cultural and social appropriation and multi-layered methods of resistance.
22. The mongols & the Islamic world: From conquest to conversion /by  Jackson, Peter.  2017
Abstract : An epic historical consideration of the Mongol conquest of Western Asia and the spread of Islam during the years of non-Muslim rule The Mongol conquest of the Islamic world began in the early thirteenth century when Genghis Khan and his warriors overran Central Asia and devastated much of Iran. Distinguished historian Peter Jackson offers a fresh and fascinating consideration of the years of infidel Mongol rule in Western Asia, drawing from an impressive array of primary sources as well as modern studies to demonstrate how Islam not only survived the savagery of the conquest, but spread throughout the empire. This unmatched study goes beyond the well-documented Mongol campaigns of massacre and devastation to explore different aspects of an immense imperial event that encompassed what is now Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan, as well as Central Asia and parts of eastern Europe.
23. The month that changed the world: July 1914 and wwi /by  Martel, Gordon. 2017
Abstract : On 28 June 1914 the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in the Balkans. Five fateful weeks later the Great Powers of Europe were at war.
Much time and ink has been spent ever since trying to identify the 'guilty' person or state responsible, or alternatively attempting to explain the underlying forces that 'inevitably' led to war in 1914. Unsatisfied with these explanations, the author now goes back to the contemporary diplomatic, military, and political records to investigate the twists and turns of the crisis afresh, with the aim of establishing just how the catastrophe really unfurled. What emerges is the story of a terrible, unnecessary tragedy - one that can be understood only by retracing the steps taken by those who went down the road to war.
 
24. More on war / by Creveld, Martin Van.  2017
Abstract :'War is the most important thing in the world', writes Martin van Creveld, one of the world's best-known experts on military history and strategy. 
The survival of every country, government, and individual is ultimately dependent on war - or the ability to wage it in self-defence. That is why, though it may come but once in a hundred years, it must be prepared for every day. When it is too late-when the bodies lie stiff and people weep over them-those in charge have failed in their duty. 
Nevertheless, in spite of the centrality of war to human history and culture, there has for long been no modern attempt to provide a replacement for the classics on war and strategy, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, dating from the 5th or 6th century BC, and Carl von Clausewitz's On War, written in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars. 
25. Mr and Mrs Jinnah: the marriage that shook India / Reddy, Sheela. 2017
Abstract : Mohammad Ali Jinnah was forty years old, a successful barrister and a rising star in the nationalist movement when he fell in love with pretty, vivacious Ruttie Petit, the daughter of his good friend, the fabulously rich baronet, Sir Dinshaw Petit, a prominent Parsi mill owner. But Ruttie was just sixteen and her outraged father forbade the match. But when Ruttie turned eighteen, they married and Bombay society, its riches and sophistication not with standing, was scandalized. Everyone sided with the Petits and Ruttie and Jinnah were ostracized. It was an unlikely union that few thought would last. But Jinnah, in his undemonstrative, reserved way was unmistakably devoted to his beautiful, wayward child-bride—as proud of her fashionable dressing as he was of her intelligence, her wide reading and her fierce commitment to the nationalist struggle. Ruttie, on her part, worshipped him and could tease and cajole the famously unbending Jinnah, whom so many people found intimidating and distant. But as the tumultuous political events increasingly absorbed him, Ruttie felt isolated and alone, cut off from her family, friends and community. The unremitting effort of submitting her personality to Jinnah’s, his frequent coldness, his preoccupation with politics and the law, took its toll. Ruttie died at twenty-nine, leaving her daughter, Dina and her inconsolable husband, who never married again.
26. Myanmar's mountain and maritime borderscapes: local practices boundary-making and figured worlds /by Oh, Su-Ann Ed. 2016
Abstract : This edited volume adds to the literature on Myanmar and its borders by drawing attention to the significance of geography, history, politics and society in the construction of the border regions and the country. First, it alerts us to the fact that the border regions are situated in the mountainous and maritime domains of the country, highlighting the commonalities that arise from shared geography. Second, the book foregrounds socio-spatio practices - economic, intimate, spiritual, virtual - of border and boundary-making in their local context. This demonstrates how state-defined notions of territory, borders and identity are enacted or challenged. Third, despite sharing common features, Myanmar's borderscapes also possess unique configurations of ethnic, political and economic attributes, producing social formations and figured worlds that are more cohesive or militant in some border areas than in others.
27. Nanoweapons: a growing threat to humanity /by  Monte, Louis A. Del.  2017
Abstract : Nanoweapons just might render humanity extinct in the near future-a notion that is frightening and shocking but potentially true. The author describes the most deadly generation of military weapons the world has ever encountered. With dimensions one-thousandth the diameter of a single strand of human hair, this technology threatens to eradicate humanity as it incites world governments to compete in the deadliest arms race ever. In his insightful and prescient account of this risky and radical technology, Del Monte predicts that nanoweapons will dominate the battlefield of the future and will help determine the superpowers of the twenty-first century.
28. A nation without borders: the united states and its world in an age of civil wars, 1830-1910 /by Hahn, Steven.  2016
Abstract :In this ambitious story of American imperial conquest and capitalist development, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Steven Hahn takes on the conventional histories of the nineteenth century and offers a perspective that promises to be as enduring as it is controversial. It begins and ends in Mexico and, throughout, is internationalist in orientation. It challenges the political narrative of “sectionalism,” emphasizing the national footing of slavery and the struggle between the northeast and Mississippi Valley for continental supremacy. It places the Civil War in the context of many domestic rebellions against state authority, including those of Native Americans. It fully incorporates the trans-Mississippi west, suggesting the importance of the Pacific to the imperial vision of political leaders and of the west as a proving ground for later imperial projects overseas. It reconfigures the history of capitalism, insisting on the centrality of state formation and slave emancipation to its consolidation. And it identifies a sweeping era of “reconstructions” in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that simultaneously laid the foundations for corporate liberalism and social democracy. 
29. National security intelligence / by Johnson , Loch K. 2017
Abstract : National security intelligence is a vast, complex, and important topic, made doubly hard for citizens to understand because of the thick veils of secrecy that surround it. In the second edition of his definitive introduction to the field, leading intelligence expert Loch K. Johnson guides readers skilfully through this shadowy side of government. Drawing on over forty years of experience studying intelligence agencies and their activities, he explains the three primary missions of intelligence: information collection and analysis, counterintelligence, and covert action, before moving on to explore the wider dilemmas posed by the existence of secret government organizations in open, democratic societies.
30. Nationalism in Asia: a history since 1945 / Kingston, Jeff. 2017
Abstract : Using a comparative, interdisciplinary approach, Nationalism in Asia analyzes currents of nationalism in five contemporary Asian societies: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. Explores the ways in which nationalism is expressed, embraced, challenged, and resisted in contemporary China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea using a comparative, interdisciplinary approach; Provides an important trans–national and trans–regional analysis by looking at five countries  that span Northeast, Southeast, and South Asia; Features comparative analysis of identity politics, democracy, economic policy, nation branding, sports, shared trauma, memory and culture wars, territorial disputes, national security and minorities.
31. The New Koreans: the story of a nation /by  Breen, Michael. 2017
Abstract : Just a few decades ago, the South Koreans were an impoverished, agricultural people. In one generation they moved from the fields to Silicon Valley. They accomplished this through three totally unexpected miracles: economic development, democratization, and the arrival of their culture to global attention. Who are the Koreans? What are they like? The New Koreans examines how they have been perceived by outsiders, the features that color their “national character,” and how their emergence from backwardness, poverty, and brutality happened. It also looks at why they remain unhappy―with the lowest birth rates and highest suicide rates in the developed world. In The New Koreans, Michael Breen provides compelling insight into the history and character of this fascinating nation of South Korea, and casts an eye to future developments, as well as across the DMZ into North Korea.
32. The New Turkey and its discontents /by Waldman, Simon A. 2016
Abstract : The Turkey of today little resembles that of recent decades. Its economy has expanded hugely, new political elites have emerged, and the once powerful Kemalist military is no longer a potent and dominant political player. Meanwhile, new prosperity has had many unexpected social and political repercussions, pre-eminent among which is the advent of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which first came to power in 2002 by downplaying its Islamist leanings and marketing itself as a center-right party. After several terms in office, and amid unprecedented popularity, the conduct of the AKP and its leading cadres has faced growing criticism. Turkey has yet to solve its Kurdish question, and its foreign policy is increasingly under threat as it balances relations with Iran, Israel, Iraq and Russia, to name only a few of its more demanding interlocutors.
33. North Korea's hidden revolution: how the information underground is transforming a closed society /by  Baek, Jieun.  2016
Abstract : The story of North Korea's information underground and how it inspires people to seek better lives beyond their country's borders One of the least understood countries in the world, North Korea has long been known for its repressive regime. Yet it is far from being an impenetrable black box. Media flows covertly into the country, and fault lines are appearing in the government's sealed informational borders. Drawing on deeply personal interviews with North Korean defectors from all walks of life, ranging from propaganda artists to diplomats, Jieun Baek tells the story of North Korea's information underground-the network of citizens who take extraordinary risks by circulating illicit content such as foreign films, television shows, soap operas, books, and encyclopedias.
34. Northeast India: a place of relations /by Saikia, Yasmion Ed. 2017
Abstract : Northeast India: A Place of Relations focuses on encounters and experiences between people and cultures, the human and the non-human world, allowing for building of new relationships of friendship and amity in the region. The twelve essays in this volume explore the possibility of a new search enabling a “discovery” of the lived and the loved world of Northeast India from within. The volume employs a variety of perspectives and methodological approaches – literary, historical, anthropological, interpretative politics and an analytical study of contemporary issues, engaging the people, cultures and histories in the Northeast with a new outlook. In the study, the region emerges as a place of new happenings in which there is the possibility of continuous expansion of the horizon of history and issues of current relevance facilitating new voices and narratives that circulate and create bonding in the borderland of South, East and Southeast Asia.
35. Not just an accountant: the diary of the nation's conscience keeper / by Rai, Vinod. 2014
Abstract : Not just an accountant is an incisive, no-holds-barred account of India’s eleventh comptroller and auditor general and a symbol of the anti-corruption movement, Vinod Rai. Through a narrative, rich in anecdote and inside information, Rai sheds light on the major scams that shook the country. Among the case studies-chosen for the diversity of failures they highlight are - the procedural irregularities in the issuance of licenses for second generation spectrum allotment, the last minute quick-fixes in the conduct of the XIX commonwealth games, the loss of national resources while allocating coal blocks, the flouting of systems and the clear display of crony capitalism in the exploration of hydrocarbon and the tragic tale of civil aviation in India.
36. Nuclear multilateralism and Iran: inside EU negotiations /by  Cornberg, Tarja. 2017
Abstract : Drawing on the author’s personal experience, this book presents an insider’s chronology and policy analysis of the EU’s role in the nuclear negotiations with Iran. The European Union strives to be a global player, a “soft power” leader that can influence international politics and state behavior. Yet critics argue that the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) remains largely ineffective and incoherent. The EU’s early and continuous involvement in the effort to dissuade Iran from developing nuclear weapons can be viewed as a test case for the EU as a global actor. As Chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Iran, Tarja Cronberg had a ringside seat in the negotiations to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
37. Nuclear weapons and coercive diplomacy / by  Sechser, Todd S. and Matthew Fuhrmann. 2017
Abstract : Are nuclear weapons useful for coercive diplomacy? Since 1945, most strategic thinking about nuclear weapons has focused on deterrence - using nuclear threats to prevent attacks against the nation's territory and interests. But an often overlooked question is whether nuclear threats can also coerce adversaries to relinquish possessions or change their behavior. Can nuclear weapons be used to blackmail other countries? The prevailing wisdom is that nuclear weapons are useful for coercion, but this book shows that this view is badly misguided. Nuclear weapons are useful mainly for deterrence and self-defense, not for coercion. The authors evaluate the role of nuclear weapons in several foreign policy contexts and present a trove of new quantitative and historical evidence that nuclear weapons do not help countries achieve better results in coercive diplomacy. The evidence is clear: the benefits of possessing nuclear weapons are almost exclusively defensive, not offensive.
38. The open door era: united states foreign policy in the twentieth century / by Cullinane, Michael Patrick.  2017
Abstract : In 1899, U.S. Secretary of State John Hay wrote six world powers calling for an Open Door in China that would guarantee equal trading opportunities, curtail colonial annexation, and prevent conflict in the Far East. Within a year, the region had succumbed to renewed colonisation and war, but despite the apparent failure of Hay's diplomacy, the ideal of the Open Door emerged as the central component of U.S. foreign policy in the twentieth century. Just as visions of Manifest Destiny'shaped continental expansion in the nineteenth century, Woodrow Wilson used the Open Door to make the case for a world safe for democracy, Franklin Roosevelt developed it to inspire the fight against totalitarianism and imperialism, and Cold War containment policy envisioned international communism as the latest threat to a global system built upon peace, openness, and exchange. In a concise yet wide-ranging examination of its origins and development, readers will discover how the idea of the Open Door came to define the American Century.
39. Pakistan's democratic transition: change and persistence / by Ahmad, Ishtiaqand Rafiq Adnan. 2017
Abstract : Politics in Pakistan has traditionally been understood in the context of civil-military relationship. In May 2013, for the first time in history, Pakistan saw an elected government complete a full term in office and transfer power through the ballot box to another civilian government. In view of such an important development, this book offers critical perspectives on Pakistan’s current democratic transition and its implications for national politics, security and foreign policy. It critically analyses the emerging political trends in the country, including their underlying sources, attributes, constraints, and prospects of sustainability. Drawing on history, diverse theoretical perspectives, and empirical evidence, it explains the dynamics of the democratic process, contested borders and spaces, and regionalism. Contributions are from 13 prominent scholars in the field, who provide a wide-ranging analysis of Pakistan’s contemporary national and regional challenges, as well as the opportunities they entail for its viability as a democratic state.
40. Perilous interventions: the security council and the politics of chaos / by Puri, Hardeep Singh.  2016
Abstract :It was an exclusive lunch at a high-end Manhattan restaurant on 7 March 2011. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his entire A-team were present. It soon became clear that the main item on the menu was Libya, where it was alleged that the forces of Muammar Gaddafi were rapidly advancing on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi to crush all opposition. Over an $80-per-head lunch, a small group of the world’s most important diplomats from countries represented on the Security Council discussed the possibility of the use of force, ostensibly to protect civilians, but in reality to effect regime change. As things turned out, the Council’s authorization came only ten days later and all hell broke loose.  Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s envoy to the UN at the time, reveals the Council’s whimsical decision making and the ill-thought-out itch to intervene on the part of some of its permanent members. In contrast, on Syria—which too was unravelling at the same time—the Libyan experience and differences within the Council led to a complete policy paralysis. The result, made worse by the earlier intervention in Iraq, has been the creation of the ISIS and the biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War. 
41. Policy-making in a transformative state: the case of qatar /by  Tok, M. Evren. 2016
Abstract : This book explores, in a series of detailed case studies, how public policy is actually made in Qatar. While Qatar is a Gulf monarchy, its governance is complex. Other analysts have tried to come to grips with this complexity using qualified descriptions of the system such as 'late rentier,' 'pluralized autocracy,' 'tribal democracy,' or 'soft authoritarian.' The authors of the volume use the lens of a transformative state. Qatar is deliberately engaged in a rapid process of radical economic and societal transformation. That process has its contradictions and tensions, particularly with regards to achieving a balance between Islam, social traditions, and modernity.  This book explores how it also has a specific policy dynamic of generating ideas and institutions, developing policy and program designs, implementation and coordination.
42. The Politics of weapons inspections: assessing WMD monitoring verification regimes /by Busch, Nathan E. 2017
Abstract : The Politics of Weapons Inspections examines the successes, failures, and lessons that can be learned from WMD monitoring and verification regimes in order to help determine how best to maintain and strengthen these regimes in the future. In addition to examining these regimes' technological, political, and legal contexts, Nathan E. Busch and Joseph F. Pilat reevaluate the track record of monitoring and verification in the historical cases of South Africa, Libya, and Iraq; assess the prospects of using these mechanisms in verifying arms control and disarmament; and apply the lessons learned from these cases to contemporary controversies over suspected or confirmed programs in North Korea, Iran, and Syria. Finally, they provide a forward-looking set of policy recommendations for the future.
43. The post-liberal imagination: political scenes from the American cultural landscape / by Baum, Bruce. 2016
Abstract : In The Post-Liberal Imagination , Bruce Baum approaches American liberalism 'in a critical spirit' by examining the relationship between popular culture and politics. The book analyzes movies, television, and popular music to rethink the liberal views of democracy, equality, racism, dissent, and animal rights in the Bush-Obama era.
44. Power sharing in a divided nation: mediated communalism and new politics in six decades of Malaysia's elections /by  Saravanamuttu, Johan. 2016
Abstract : This book argues that Malaysia's electoral politics have historically been premised on a hybridized model of communalism and consociationalism. Beyond this it posits a newer idea of power sharing based on the dynamic and transformative practice of mediated communalism through six decades (1952-2016) of electoral politics. The strategy of mediating communalism is critically explored throughout the book, serving to test its saliency as a distinct approach to power sharing in a social formation which is ethnically, religiously and regionally divided, yet has remained remarkably and tenuously integrated throughout Malaysia's electoral history. The book delves into this question by narrating and theorizing the complexity of communal politics leading to the emergence of new politics which have attempted to put Malaysia on the track of further democratization. It is further implied that new politics has to work in tandem with mediated communalism to transcend the most deleterious effects of an ethnically divided society.
45. Power struggles in the middle east: the Islamist politics of hizbullah and the muslim brotherhood /by  Dingel, Eva. 2017
Abstract : Who are the Muslim Brotherhood and Hizbullah? What do the two movements - one Sunni and one Shi'a - have in common? Despite being classified by a number of countries as 'terrorist' organisations, both are in fact serious political players in the states in which they operate - Egypt and Lebanon. Both have, at various points, advocated pan-Islamism: the unity of Muslims under an Islamic state or caliphate, but, rather than considering them as extremist religious movements, the author studies them as players within the political process. She considers why, at certain points, they have chosen to play by the conventional political rules, while during other periods, they have applied different, more extreme, methods of political protest.
46. The precarious diasporas of Sikh and ahmadiyya generations: violence, memory, and agency / by  Nijhawan, Michael. 2016
Abstract : This book examines the long-term effects of violence on the everyday cultural and religious practices of a younger generation of Ahmadis and Sikhs in Frankfurt, Germany and Toronto, Canada. Comparative in scope and the first to discuss contemporary articulations of Sikh and Ahmadiyya identities within a single frame of reference, the book assembles a significant range of empirical data gathered over ten years of ethnographic fieldwork. In its focus on precarious sites of identity formation, the volume engages with cutting-edge theories in the fields of critical diaspora studies, migration and refugee studies, religion, secularism, and politics. It presents a novel approach to the reading of Ahmadi and Sikh subjectivities in the current climate of anti-immigrant movements and suspicion against religious others. Michael Nijhawan also offers new insights into what animates emerging movements of the youth and their attempts to reclaim forms of the spiritual and political. 
47. Privacy, data protection and cybersecurity in Europe / by Schunemann, Wolf J. Ed. 2017
Abstract : This book offers a comparative perspective on data protection and cybersecurity in Europe. In light of the digital revolution and the implementation of social media applications and big data innovations, it analyzes threat perceptions regarding privacy and cyber security, and examines socio-political differences in the fundamental conceptions and narratives of privacy, and in data protection regimes, across various European countries. The first part of the book raises fundamental legal and ethical questions concerning data protection; the second analyses discourses on cybersecurity and data protection in various European countries; and the third part discusses EU regulations and norms intended to create harmonized data protection regimes.
48. Qatar: rise to power and influence /by  Fromherz, Allen J. 2017
Abstract : Qatar plays a crucial part in the Middle East today. With the second greatest natural gas resources in the region, Qatar's economic clout is considerable. At the same time the Qatar story is replete with paradoxes: the state hosts the Al-Jazeera media network, an influential expression of Arab nationalism and anti-Americanism, while also hosting the principal US naval base in the region. Its leaders, like Saudi Arabia's, adhere to the Wahhabi form of Sunni Islam, yet Qatar eyes its Saudi neighbours with suspicion. It is a fervent champion of the Palestinian cause, yet welcomes the Israeli Foreign Minister to present the Jewish state's case in its capital, Doha.
49. Reconciliation and social healing in Afghanistan: a transrational and elicitive analysis towards transformation /by  Najibullah, Heela. 2017
Abstract : Heela Najibullah analyzes the Afghan reconciliation processes through the lenses of transrational peace philosophy and Elicitive Conflict Transformation. The research highlights two Afghan governments reconciliation processes in 1986 and 2010 and underlines the political events that shaped the 1986 National Reconciliation Policy, drawing lessons for future processes. The author points out the historical and geopolitical patterns indicating regional and global stakeholders involvement in Afghan politics. Social healing through a middle-out approach is the missing and yet crucial component to achieve sustainable reconciliation in Afghanistan.
50. Reforming civil-military relations in new democracies: democratic control and military effectiveness in comparative perspectives /by  Croissant, Aurel Ed. 2017
Abstract : This book addresses the challenge of reforming defense and military policy-making in newly democratized nations. By tracing the development of civil-military relations in various new democracies from a comparative perspective, it links two bodies of scholarship that thus far have remained largely separate:  the study of emerging (or failed) civilian control over armed forces on the one hand; and work on the roots and causes of military effectiveness to guarantee the protection and security of citizens on the other. The empirical and theoretical findings presented here will appeal to scholars of civil-military relations, democratization and security issues, as well as to defense policy-makers.
 
 
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