Geopolitik

A revealing insight into how fascist youth movements have transformed Russian society and politics for the worse.

How a war in Ukraine precipitated an international economic conflict affecting us all.

In China's Civilian Army, long-time China reporter Peter Martin combines a fast-paced history of the Chinese Communist Party's diplomatic corps with a deeply researched and revealing account of how China engages the world today through its diplomatic "civilian army." Drawing from over 100 memoirs by Chinese diplomats as well as years of interviews, he provides a rich portrait of how they operate-and how they are viewed by their counterparts in other nations. As China flexes its muscles across the globe, understanding the methods and motivations of Chinese diplomats will become essential for governments, business leaders, and scholars everywhere.

This comprehensive regional geography text, for geography or Latin American studies courses, helps students understand the region through the twin themes of the environment and development. Jokisch engages in current debates and issues, while covering the physical geography, history, and distinct sub-regions within the thematic framework.

Cuba, Africa, and Apartheid's End: Africa's Children Return! examines the historic dimensions of the Cuban Revolution's solidarity with Africa through the lens of Cuba's role in the battle of Cuito Cuanavale and the southern African national liberation and anti-colonial struggle more broadly.

Paid work is absolutely central to the culture and politics of capitalist societies, yet today's work-centred world is becoming increasingly hostile to the human need for autonomy, spontaneity and community. The grim reality of a society in which some are overworked, whilst others are condemned to intermittent work and unemployment, is progressively more difficult to tolerate.In this thought-provoking book, David Frayne questions the central place of work in mainstream political visions of the future, laying bare the ways in which economic demands colonise our lives and priorities. Drawing on his original research into the lives of people who are actively resisting nine-to-five employment, Frayne asks what motivates these people to disconnect from work, whether or not their resistance is futile, and whether they might have the capacity to inspire an alternative form of development, based on a reduction and social redistribution of work.A crucial dissection of the work-centred nature of modern society and emerging resistance to it, The Refusal of Work is a bold call for a more humane and sustainable vision of social progress.

Southeast Asia is rapidly becoming a competitive space for geopolitical rivalries. The growth in China-U.S. strategic competition is creating deep anxiety among Southeast Asia leaders, China's rising power is felt across every corner of Southeast Asia, and many leaders are worried about the long-term implications of rising Chinese influence in the region. The United States' increasingly assertive approach towards China is welcomed by some governments, but the growth in tensions is creating deep anxiety about a possible new Cold War. How can the region prevent a repeat of the divisions and bitter rivalries of the previous Cold War?This book argues that Southeast Asia is emerging as an open, autonomous region, where small and middle powers can maintain their sovereignty and shape the regional order. Despite new superpower pressures, the region is moving towards a multi-polar order, with greater agency for Southeast Asian countries. The key to Southeast Asia's future may be other external powers - particularly Japan, Australia, India, and Europe - who can provide ASEAN governments with more diverse partnerships, enabling them to avoid the bipolar blocs of superpower rivalries. The book argues that external partners are helping to shape the geopolitical order by supporting ASEAN leadership and diluting the influence of great powers. Southeast Asian countries also have remarkable capacity to manage asymmetrical relations and balance external powers. The book describes the region's history of managing great power relations, drawing on historical and contemporary cases. By examining the dynamics between Southeast Asia and external powers, the book predicts that the region's future will look entirely different from its Cold War past.

How did Africans win their freedom in southern Africa? And what did they do with their freedom in the several decades since each southern African country became free? Overcoming the Oppressors discusses Black oppression succeeding white oppression, indicates why and how corruption prevails in the region, and explains why Botswana is exceptional in being non-corrupt and well-governed. The present problems of each country are analyzed and we learn what their leaders are doing to uplift their peoples.

In The End of Ambition, Steven A. Cook charts the course of the United States' encounter with the Middle East from the mid-twentieth century through the present day. Looking back, Cook makes a bold claim: the US was--despite setbacks and moral costs--successful. That record of achievement began to unravel in the early 1990s when policymakers embarked upon a set of overly ambitious policies to remake the Middle East. Cook highlights that calls to withdraw from the region are rash given the important interests the US maintains in the region. Yet, he also underscores how those interests are changing and explores alternatives to America's current approach to the Middle East against the backdrop of political uncertainty in the United States and a changing global order.

"L'ennemi à Washington est plus à craindre que l'ennemi à Moscou." C'est un sentiment que j'ai exprimé maintes et maintes fois. Le communisme n'a pas détruit la protection tarifaire érigée par le président George Washington. Le communisme n'a pas forcé les États-Unis à adopter l'impôt progressif sur le revenu. Le communisme n'a pas créé le Conseil de la Réserve fédérale. Le communisme n'a pas entraîné les États-Unis dans la Première et la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Le communisme n'a pas imposé les Nations unies à l'Amérique. Le communisme n'a pas retiré le canal de Panama au peuple américain. Le communisme n'a pas créé le plan de génocide de masse du rapport Global 2000. C'est le SOCIALISME qui a apporté ces maux sur les États-Unis !Le communisme n'a pas donné au monde le SIDA ! Le communisme n'a pas donné à l'Amérique des niveaux de chômage désastreux. Le communisme n'a pas lancé des attaques incessantes contre la Constitution des États-Unis.Le communisme n'a pas forcé l'Amérique à adopter "l'aide étrangère", cette maudite taxe sur le peuple américain qui est une servitude involontaire.Le communisme n'a pas imposé la fin des prières à l'école. Le communisme n'a pas promu le mensonge de la "séparation de l'église et de l'état".Le communisme n'a pas donné à l'Amérique une Cour suprême remplie de juges liés et déterminés à saper la Constitution des États-Unis. Le communisme n'a pas envoyé nos soldats se battre dans une guerre illégale dans le Golfe pour protéger les intérêts de la couronne britannique.Pourtant, pendant toutes ces années, alors que notre attention était concentrée sur les méfaits du communisme à Moscou, les socialistes à Washington étaient occupés à voler l'Amérique ! Seul La dictature de l'Ordre Mondial socialiste explique comment cela a été, et est, accompli.

'It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller - this one does.' - Azeem Azhar, Founder, Exponential View'Vital to understanding how [TikTok] works and the impact it's having.' - Damian Collins MP, former chairman of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee'TikTok Boom is a must-read for students, scholars, and policymakers.' - David Craig, Clinical Professor, USC AnnenbergIn just a few years, TikTok has stormed ahead of its rivals to become the world's biggest app. Where did it come from and how did it overtake its rivals?Journalist Chris Stokel-Walker delves deep into the origins of China's viral video app. He yields new insights into its culture, addictive algorithm, and influencer ecosystem. And he reveals the influence its owners at its parent company ByteDance in Beijing are having on hundreds of millions worldwide through the policing of little-known content guidelines, including those on physical appearances.TikTok is the emerging battleground for a geopolitical tussle between East and West for control of social media. It has already been banned in India and a ban in the USA has been suggested by Republican politicians.TikTok Boom is a rollercoaster business story bristling with ambition and drama.Find out where TikTok came from, where it's going what it can do for you. Reviews'A careful, detailed teardown of the people, culture and technology behind the world's most dynamic social network. It is rare for a business analysis to read like a thriller - this one does.' - Azeem Azhar, Founder, Exponential View'It's clear that Stokel-Walker's strength is that he's not just TikTok-literate, he's TikTok-fluent. He knows the product, the people, and the entire ecosystem inside and out, and it is this familiarity that makes his telling so compelling because he knows how to make you feel like you, too, are an insider in this strange new world.' - Rui Ma, founder, Tech Buzz China 'Blending journalistic narrative with state-of-the-art academic research, no other author comes close to weaving this epic tale of the rise of China's first global platform threatening Silicon's Valley hegemony while operating as inflection point around the rise of one globe two Internet systems. This is a must-read for students, scholars, and policymakers.' - David Craig, Clinical Professor, USC AnnenbergStartAndy Warhol's idea that anyone can be famous for 15 minutes has never looked shakier. In the programme for an exhibition in Stockholm in 1968, the American pop art pioneer wrote: 'In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.' What struck many at the time as an outlandish prediction is in danger of being undercut by reality in the third decade of the 21st Century. On TikTok, anyone with a mobile phone can become known to hundreds of millions of people for a matter of seconds and then slip back into anonymity. True, a run of successful self-shot videos can propel an individual from an everyday life into that of a multi-millionaire. Unlike in Warhol's age, however, the metamorphosis from ordinariness to fame occurs not through the multiple media channels of Andy Warhol's age, but through a single, super-fast, ever-mutating social media app. Which is ultimately owned in China and ruled over by an inscrutable algorithm.Buy the book to carry on reading

The South Caucasus is the key strategic region between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea and the regional powers of Iran, Turkey and Russia and is the land bridge between Asia and Europe with vital hydrocarbon routes to international markets. This volume examines the resulting geopolitical positioning of Georgia, a pivotal state and lynchpin of the region, illustrating how and why Georgia's foreign policy is 'multi-vectored', facing potential challenges from Russia, int ernal and external nationalisms, the possible break-up of the European project and EU support and uncertainty over the US commitment to the traditional liberal international order.

Charles Maier offers a new narrative of the long twentieth century, focused on institutions that shaped politics and societies: project-states, driven by democratic or authoritarian ideologies; capital; and advocates of apolitical values, such as health, human rights, and international law. In this we discern the unfolding of our own troubled time.

This is the first book to examine the full arc of American isolationism, from the founding era through the Trump presidency. Charles Kupchan tells the fascinating story of why isolationism dominated US statecraft for so long, uncovers isolationism's enduring connection to American exceptionalism, and explains why an aversion to foreign entanglement is making a comeback. This fresh account of American history sheds revealing light on not only the nation's past, butalso where US grand strategy is headed and how the nation can find the middle ground between isolationism and strategic overreach.

In Hydrocarbon Citizens, Nimah Mazaheri tells the story of how the discovery of oil dramatically transformed politics and society in the Middle East. Including historical evidence and public opinion surveys, Mazaheri offers a nuanced description of how ordinary people in the region think about their government and evaluate national politics. He concludes that people in oil-rich countries adopt attitudes, beliefs, and values that are very different from those among citizens in oil-poor countries. Mazaheri provides a new way of thinking about current politics in the Middle East and explains why some of the region's long-lasting autocracies have been successful in resisting the rise of democracy.

In Beyond the Wire, the authors argue that the US has entered into a "Domain of Competitive Consent" where the longevity of overseas deployments relies upon the buy-in from host-state populations and what other major powers offer in security guarantees. Drawing from three years of surveys and interviews across fourteen countries, they demonstrate that a key component of building support for the US mission is the service members themselves as they interact with local community members. They also highlight both the positive contact and economic benefits that flow from military deployments and the negative interactions like crime and anti-base protests.