The Pivotal States

The Pivotal States
Author: Robert Chase
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 472
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780393046755

The foreign policy framework proposed here assumes that of the world's 140 developing states, there is a group of pivotal states whose futures are poised at critical turning points, and whose fates will strongly affect regional and even global security. These nine states - Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, Algeria, and Mexico - are the ones upon which the United States should focus its scarce foreign policy resources. Events of the past year in Indonesia, India, and Pakistan have already affirmed the wisdom of this policy. In a series of cogent, original case studies, area experts explore the pivotal states strategy for each of the nine states.

The Bosniaks

The Bosniaks
Author: Jasmin Mujanovic
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2024-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0197783376

For the first time in nearly two centuries, one ethnic group now constitutes an absolute majority of Bosnia and Herzegovina's population: the Bosniaks. It is an unlikely development given that, scarcely thirty years ago, they were targeted for extermination and expulsion by Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic. Even as the Bosniak community fought to survive these atrocities, it simultaneously came under attack from militants led by Croatian president Franjo Tu?man, who attempted to partition Bosnia and Herzegovina between Zagreb and Belgrade. Improbably, the Bosniaks and the Bosnian state survived these campaigns. But the country's fractious sectarian post-war order has produced the world's most convoluted constitutional regime, always teetering on the brink of collapse. Jasmin Mujanovic illuminates the sources of contemporary Bosniak political identity, tracing the evolution of a religious community into a secular nation, and shedding light on the future of a nation at a crossroads. He explores the idea of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a 'national homeland', considers how narratives of genocide influence self-identity, and probes how demographic changes are putting pressure on the country's political framework. The fate of Bosnia and Herzegovina's peace and democracy rests on the Bosniaks' shoulders--and with it, the stability of all Southeastern Europe.

Strategic Monitor 2015: The return of ghosts hoped past?

Strategic Monitor 2015: The return of ghosts hoped past?
Author: Tim Sweijs
Publisher: The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2015-06-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9492102250

The Return of Ghosts Hoped Past? Global Trends in Conflict and Cooperation, is HCSS’ most recent contribution to the Strategic Monitor and examines the longer-term security impact of these reappearing ghosts. Are the horrific events that dominated news agendas in 2014 - such as the downing of MH-17 and violent acts of IS - isolated incidents or part of a more structural trend? Did the ‘ghosts of the past’ ever really go away? In the report, HCSS addresses recent events and trends in light of overarching patterns of conflict.

The wheel of fortune

The wheel of fortune
Author: Stephan de Spiegeleire
Publisher: The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2016-06-24
Genre:
ISBN: 9492102366

National security starts with strategic anticipation: what are the risks for the Dutch national security? How can the Netherlands prepare for this, and what choices and investments are needed in order to do so?

The Role, Position and Agency of Cusp States in International Relations

The Role, Position and Agency of Cusp States in International Relations
Author: Marc Herzog
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2014-06-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1317666550

This work seeks to develop a new concept with which to analyse the actions and activities of states that tend to be relatively ignored by the discipline of International Relations (IR). As a discipline, IR has a tendency to lean towards the analytically safe. Given the current and recent dynamism of the international system that is both surprising and undesirable. Arranged around the concept of the idea of the Cusp State (and cuspness more generally), the book consists of empirical analysis of eight different countries Brazil, Iran, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Taiwan, Turkey and Ukraine, defined as ‘states that lie uneasily on the political and/or normative edge of what is widely believed to be an established region’. By focusing on the importance of comparing groups of states, like states with high degrees of ‘cuspness’, this book argues that it is possible to categorise the world in a fresher and more original way, and one which covers more of the globe than either a systemic or regionalist approach would do. This work will be of great interest to students and scholars of Geopolitics, International Security and Regionalism.

India’s Energy Diplomacy in Eurasia

India’s Energy Diplomacy in Eurasia
Author: Aslam Khan
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2023-12-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9819982812

This book provides an accurate evaluation of re-integration of Eurasia in the context of India’s energy security and diplomacy which requires a normative shift as in the current Eurasian geopolitical and geo-economic matrix, the growing role of transit countries and their proximity with the Energy Complex Zone negates the fact that great powers or strong states control the Eurasian Heartland. Authors believe that wrecking this norm is fundamental here to deconstruct the undercurrents of energy geopolitics prevailing in Eurasia over the emerging phenomenon, as it discourages the re-integration of the Eurasian region. It explores how the geopolitical struggle between major powers for energy resources has been engendering mutual interdependencies between energy producers and transit countries. It makes an attempt to provide a transcontinental study of Eurasian energy and connectivity as a thrust area for the present work positioning Eurasia in Indian foreign policy, determining the contours of energy diplomacy in connection with the Eurasian energy policy. It defines Eurasia broadly as the region that encompasses Central Asia and the Caucasus including Russia and transit countries. It addresses the geopolitical and geo-economic aspects of Eurasian re-integration in the context of India’s energy security. The objective of this book is to combine theoretical, contemporary, and policy-oriented issues that deserve scholarly attention and would both complement and supplement the academic contributions.

Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication

Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication
Author: Endong, Floribert Patrick C.
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 469
Release: 2019-12-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1522598235

The human condition has continued to improve phenomenally in today’s world with the development of technology and medicine. This includes developing countries in areas such as Africa, Asia, and South America. Despite the emergence of economy, education, and infrastructure in these regions, media outlets continue to forego their advancements in favor of the negativities that plague these states such as poverty, hunger, and corruption. There is a need to research international media portrayals of the less developed world to ascertain the myth that these areas are still struggling. Deconstructing Images of the Global South Through Media Representations and Communication provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of how global media analyzes developing countries. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as cultural affirmation, online platforms, and audience perception, this book is ideally designed for communications specialists, journalists, broadcasters, newscasters, conflict photographers, media practitioners, policymakers, international relation experts, column writers/editors, students, politicians, government officials, researchers, and academicians seeking current research on the world’s perception of developing countries through media coverage.

Comparative Grand Strategy

Comparative Grand Strategy
Author: Thierry Balzacq
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2019-05-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0192577549

This book develops a new approach in explaining how a nation's Grand Strategy is constituted, how to assess its merits, and how grand strategies may be comparatively evaluated within a broader framework. The volume responds to three key problems common to both academia and policymaking. First, the literature on the concept of grand strategy generally focuses on the United States, offering no framework for comparative analysis. Indeed, many proponents of US grand strategy suggest that the concept can only be applied, at most, to a very few great powers such as China and Russia. Second, characteristically it remains prescriptive rather than explanatory, ignoring the central conundrum of why differing countries respond in contrasting ways to similar pressures. Third, it often understates the significance of domestic politics and policymaking in the formulation of grand strategies - emphasizing mainly systemic pressures. This book addresses these problems. It seeks to analyze and explain grand strategies through the intersection of domestic and international politics in ten countries grouped distinctively as great powers (The G5), regional powers (Brazil and India) and pivotal powers hostile to each other who are able to destabilize the global system (Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia). The book thus employs a comparative framework that describes and explains why and how domestic actors and mechanisms, coupled with external pressures, create specific national strategies. Overall, the book aims to fashion a valid, cross-contextual framework for an emerging research program on grand strategic analysis.