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In late 2015, against a background of growing populist opposition to international trade agreements, the European Commission announced its willingness to negotiate a comprehensive bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan. While this should be relatively straightforward, this book warns that it is unlikely to be so. The major stumbling block is not Chinese opposition, as is so often assumed, or populist resistance but a lack of sufficient political will on both sides. This stems from a mutual lack of awareness which in turn is due to the relative stagnation of bilateral trade. A successful outcome would therefore act as a catalyst in developing relations further. The author examines the principal obstacles to reaching an agreement and the ways of overcoming them. The book should be of interest to policy makers, negotiators and advisors involved in the forthcoming negotiations but also to anyone with an interest in the EU's relations with Taiwan.

In late 2015, against a background of growing populist opposition to international trade agreements, the European Commission announced its willingness to negotiate a comprehensive bilateral investment agreement with Taiwan. While this should be relatively straightforward, this book warns that it is unlikely to be so. The major stumbling block is not Chinese opposition, as is so often assumed, or populist resistance but a lack of sufficient political will on both sides.

The appearance of the culture hero is an important moment in the development of a distinctively human society following on from the initial stages of creation. These heroes are best known for introducing culture to humanity; they are "the source of uniquely human institutions." The hero wrests key elements of human life, such as fire, from the world's creative powers, and in so doing ensures that such things become accessible to ordinary people, thus setting the stage for the emergence of human civilisation. The heroes themselves are not human, but rather part of an intermediate generation linking the spiritual powers that formed the universe and human beings. These heroes are often depicted as demi-gods, being part human and part god. While they assist humanity by providing the building blocks of culture, they are themselves not confined by cultural norms or the boundaries of time and space. Some culture heroes reveal a particularly mischievous aspect to their behaviour: they become the trickster, the hero's alter ego. The trickster plays a more subversive role of clown or buffoon, a restless being who typically indulges in lots of eating and sex; the antithesis of the hero. Such hero-tricksters have the power to transform themselves into various shapes, often appearing as animals.

In Ecology ofFear, Mike Davis contends that Los Angeles is exceptional in the number of major natural and social disasters it experiences, and that both types of tragedy are intensified through similar types of human (in)action. The former argument largely fails because Davis does not control for the enormous size of LA. Nor does he compare the results of these disasters to other dangers threatening residents. He thus makes pointless an assessment of the overall importance of these avoidable tragedies. Unfortunately, his gloomy tone has led many critics to dismiss him as paranoid and to miss the importance of the latter argument. Here, Davis relates three historical accounts where social and political factors are at least as important as the truly natural in determining the understanding and attempted management of "natural disaster." The unsupported argument that LA is exceptional and the narrative power of the case studies, combined with the rest of the nation's latent contempt for LA, may leave readers fantasizing about the ruin of the City of Angels when, in fact, they ought to be bringing this insightful analysis to bear on their own disaster policy questions.