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"Few African countries have attracted the international attention that Ghana has. In the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the then-colonial Gold Coast emerged as a key political and intellectual hub for British West Africa. Half a century later, when Ghana became the first sub-Saharan state to emerge from European colonial rule, it became a key site for a burgeoning transnational African anticolonial politics that drew activists, freedom fighters, and intellectuals from around the world. As the twentieth century came to a close, Ghana became an international symbol of the putative successes of post-Cold-War African liberalization and democratization projects. Given these many fascinating developments, it is easy to forget that fundamental concepts such as "the Gold Coast," "Ghana," and "Ghanaian" have never been set in stone and themselves bear exploring. Here Jeffrey Ahlman offers an original and accessible explanation of how these ever-changing concepts interact with those broader developments. On the one hand, he narrates a rich political history stretching from the beginnings of the very idea of the "Gold Coast" to the country's 1994 democratization, which paved the way for the Fourth Republic. At the same time, he offers a rich social history that examines the sometimes overlapping, sometimes divergent nature of what it means to be Ghanaian through discussions of marriage, ethnicity, and migration; of cocoa as a cultural system; of the multiple meanings of chieftaincy; and of other contemporary markers of identity. Throughout it all, Ahlman distills decades of work by other scholars while also drawing on a wide array of archival, oral, journalistic, and governmental sources in order to provide his own fresh insights. For its clear, comprehensive coverage not only of Ghanaian history, but also of the major debates shaping nineteenth- and twentieth-century African politics and society more broadly, Ghana: A Political and Social History is a must-read for students and scholars of African Studies"--

"Oceans Rise Empires Fall: Why Geopolitics Hastens Climate Change discusses how geopolitics affects climate change by highlighting its catastrophic effects. Even though states would prefer to reduce emissions in the abstract, they would always prioritize access to carbon-based fuels necessary for generating economic growth to compete with rival states. Thus, geopolitical competition ramps the difficulty of implementing effective climate change policies. Oceans Rise Empires Fall discusses how the Ukraine and Russia conflict exposed priorities such as territorial control and fossil fuel acquisition over a zero-carbon future. It explains that competitive territorial, resource, and technological dramas obscured the deterioration of the planet's life support systems"--

"This is a book about doing good qualitative research in the social sciences. In weaving together contributions by over forty experts, it presents a comprehensive approach to qualitative research by providing practical advice on carrying out a qualitative research project from start (i.e., finding the research question) to finish (i.e., finding a publishing venue). The chapters are short, accessibly written, and simultaneously engage with theoretical considerations and best practices. As such, each presents comprehensive and implementable information about qualitative methods based on first-person accounts of experiences in the research process. The chapters also include advice about the expected and unexpected challenges associated with doing qualitative work. The central goal of the text is to make qualitative research more "knowable" and accessible for any person-consumer, producer, researcher, reviewer, teacher, and student alike"--

This fully updated book offers the first systematic analysis of Putin's three wars, placing the Second Chechen War, the war with Georgia of 2008, and the war with Ukraine in their broader historical context. Drawing on extensive original Russian sources, Marcel H. Van Herpen analyzes in detail how Putin's wars were prepared and conducted, and why they led to allegations of war crimes and genocide. He shows how the conflicts functioned to consolidate and legitimate Putin's regime and explores how they were connected to a fourth, hidden, "internal war" waged by the Kremlin against the opposition. The author convincingly argues that the Kremlin - relying on the secret services, the Orthodox Church, the Kremlin youth "Nashi," and the rehabilitated Cossacks - is preparing for an imperial revival, most recently in the form of a "Eurasian Union." An essential book for understanding the dynamics of Putin's regime, this study digs deep into the Kremlin's secret long-term strategies. Readable and clearly argued, it makes a compelling case that Putin's regime emulates an established Russian paradigm in which empire building and despotic rule are mutually reinforcing. As the first comprehensive exploration of the historical antecedents and political continuity of the Kremlin's contemporary policies, Van Herpen's work will make a valuable contribution to the literature on post-Soviet Russia, and his arguments will stimulate a fascinating and vigorous debate.

"The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 dawned what Francis Fukuyama called "The End of History." Three decades later, Jim Sciutto said on CNN's air as the Ukraine war began, that we are living in a "1939 moment." History never ended-it barely paused-and the global order as we have known it is now gone. Great powers are reinvigorated and determined to assert dominance on the world stage. And as it escalates, this new order will affect everyone across the globe. Peace has been shattered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but in reality, this affects every corner of our world-from Helsinki to Beijing, from Australia to the North Pole. This is a battle with many fronts: on the Arctic floor, in the oceans and across the skies, and in cyberspace. Sciutto argues that we are witnessing the return of great power conflict, "a definitive break between the post-Cold War era and an entirely new and uncertain one." The world order that marked the last thirty years is shifting, and Sciutto details the realities of this new post-post-Cold War era, the increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese governments, and the flashpoint of a new, global nuclear arms race. With savvy, thorough reporting, he follows-up his 2019 bestseller, The Shadow War: Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America, which focused on the covert tactics of a hidden conflict. The Return of Great Powers is an analysis of a historic and visible shift in real time. And it poses a question: that as we consider uncertain outcomes, we ask whether the West and Russia and China can prevent a new World War"--

Throughout the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union strategized to prop up friendly dictatorships abroad. Today, it is commonly assumed that the two superpowers' military aid enabled the survival of allied autocrats, from Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek to Ethiopia's Mengistu Haile Mariam. In Up in Arms, political scientist Adam E. Casey rebuts the received wisdom: Cold War-era aid to autocracies often backfired. Casey draws on extensive original data to show that, despite billions poured into friendly regimes, US-backed dictators lasted no longer in power than those without outside help. In fact, American aid regularly destabilized autocratic regimes. The United States encouraged the establishment of strong, independent armies like its own, which then often incubated coups. By contrast, Soviet aid incentivized the subordination of the army to the ruling regime, neutralizing the threat of military takeover. Ultimately, Casey concludes, it is subservient militaries-not outside aid-that help autocrats maintain power. In an era of renewed great power competition, Up in Arms offers invaluable insights into the unforeseen consequences of overseas meddling, revealing how military aid can help pull down dictators as often as it props them up.

"Explores the role of democracy in NATO expansion decisions throughout the organizations history and looking forward into the future"--

This book addresses head-on a core current critique of how the Sino-American relationship was managed across eight administrations. The essence of this critique is that naïve U.S. elites confused their hopes for democracy and a globally responsible China with the actual prospects for those desirable ends, and, in the process, unwisely traded away American interests, competitive position, and national security. In short, the U.S. bolstered the principal strategic threat that it now faces. This book is a fact-based challenge to that simplistic narrative. Today, developments in the U.S.-China relationship are converging in a fashion that is setting off fire alarm bells. At this moment, in 2023, the underbrush is plentiful, the winds unfavorable, and the atmosphere parched. The fire hazard between America and China is increasing unlike anything we have seen in a half century. This volume describes our current condition and explains the last half-century that has brought us to this perilous day. The defining and unique characteristic of Living U.S.-China Relations is that it tells the story of U.S.-China ties as the relationship between two societies, not just two states, and it does so through the author's lived experience over nearly sixty years.

In 2015 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada published a detailed report on the violent history of the residential school system in Canada and recommended 94 Calls to Action (CtA) to help the Canadian government and society to redress this historical system of violence and confront their own settler colonial history. However, despite these CtAs and Prime Minister Trudeau's commitment, only a fraction has been implemented seven years later. The author explores in a critical discourse analysis the political debate surrounding the slow implementation, revealing constructive and destructive factors influencing progress. The report concludes with an imperative for key political actors to accelerate implementation, considering the urgency for Indigenous communities facing discrimination and systemic issues.

"This book applies a systematic framework to explain the course, aftermath, and long-term lessons of the of the US intervention in Iraq. The work follows the rise and fall of violence and progress in building a new Iraq state across the 2003-2023 period. There are four sections. The first outlines an approach able to breakdown the basic components of complex, violent, internal conflicts. The second applies that framework to the period of US military occupation and presence, 2003-2011. The third examines the period after US withdrawal specifying the legacy of US military intervention, addressing the rapid takeover and slow defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq, and explaining the continued power of militias and the persistence of a weak Iraqi state. The fourth section concludes with general lessons gleaned from the Iraq experience, a consideration of political and cultural forces constraining US policymakers from learning those lessons, and informed speculation on the nature of future American military interventions"--

"No empire or a regional power has helped mold the socio-political and religious landscape of a country as the Ottoman Empire and its heir (the Republic of Turkey) have helped shape modern Lebanon. Although the history of Lebanon and Turkish foreign policy have been the focus of a number of studies, no contemporary study has examined Lebanon-Turkish relations back to Ottoman rule of Lebanon. As such, our understanding of this historic and contemporaneous relationship is deficient. This text sets out to fill this gap, examining patterns and shifts in Lebanon-Turkey relations within the context of regional and international politics from Ottoman rule to Turkey's AKP-led governments. This comprehensive account of Lebanon-Turkey relations, grounded in layers of cultural, political, demographic, economic, and sectarian complexities and changes across centuries, analyzes the developments and dynamics that have helped shape modern Lebanon and its confessional system and politics. It underscores the misconceptions and lessons learned from this long-term relationship, locating Lebanon-Turkish relations along a historical continuum"--

The Cold War Past and Present (1987) analyses the generally antagonistic postwar relations between the Soviet Union and the West, particularly America. Following the uneasy wartime alliance, Russia's tightening grip on Eastern Europe and the Berlin Blockade ushered in the first of the several 'cold wars'.

"The Coloniality of the Secular explores how decolonial theory can open ways to theorize religion in the Americas. An Yountae maps how revolutionary non-Western thought is shot through with religious ideas, as exemplified by key decolonial figures including Edouard Glissant, Frantz Fanon, and Gloria Anzaldua. By revisiting the corpus of decolonial literature with an eye towards religion, Yountae reveals how decoloniality reconstitutes the sacred as part of its vision of liberation. This incisive reading of decoloniality elucidates how revolutionary thinkers' refusal of colonial religions opens up the possibility for the remaking of religion itself. Across the book's five chapters, Yountae explores decoloniality's conception of the sacred in relationship to revolutionary violence, gender, creolization, and racial phenomenology. By expanding our understanding of decoloniality's investments in the spirit, An Yountae shows how decoloniality provides a radically different epistemology and horizon for the future"--