The EU’s international environment is increasingly characterized by power politics, great-power rivalry, ideological contestation and war. This has challenged the liberal-internationalist identity that has been at the heart of the EU since its birth. This book examines how the EU has responded to these new realities. It analyses the introduction of a flurry of concepts including European sovereignty, strategic autonomy, civilization, responsibility and strategic compass, and asks whether t...

The Oxford Handbook on United Nations Peacekeeping Operations presents an innovative, authoritative, and accessible examination and critique of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Since the late 1940s, but particularly since the end of the cold war, peacekeeping has been a central part of the core activities of the United Nations and a major process in global security governance and the management of international relations in general. The volume will present a chronologic...

Humanitarian groups have failed, Fiona Terry believes, to face up to the core paradox of their activity: humanitarian action aims to alleviate suffering, but by inadvertently sustaining conflict it potentially prolongs suffering. In Condemned to Repeat?, Terry examines the side-effects of intervention by aid organizations and points out the need to acknowledge the political consequences of the choice to give aid. The author makes the controversial claim that aid agencies act as though the ...

American corporations have to beg for capital from the cash-rich Sovereign Wealth Funds in the Persian Gulf. By invading Iraq, President George W. Bush grossly undermined American credibility in the international arena and irrevocably weakened Washington's diplomatic clout.Together, these historic shifts have provided an opportunity for the world to move from the tutelage of the sole superpower, America, to a multi-polar global order, one where America's moral, economic, and milita...

One of the few up-to-date works on the whole of the arms trade, this book puts the global trade in weapons in the context of history and includes recent controversial deals, as well as case studies on Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Darfur. It exposes the cynicism, bribery, and insider deals that characterize the conventional trade and the hidden world of torture.Nicholas Gilby led the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in its efforts to expose the corruption at the heart ...

No small number of books laud and record the heroic actions of those at war. But the peacekeepers? Who tells their stories?At the beginning of the 1990s, the world exited the cold war and entered an era of great promise for peace and security. Guided by an invigorated United Nations, the international community set out to end conflicts that had flared into vicious civil wars and to unconditionally champion human rights and hold abusers responsible. The stage seemed set for greatness...

The Lord's Resistance Army is Africa's most persistent and notorious 'terrorist' group. Led by the mysterious Joseph Kony, it has committed a series of horrific human rights abuses, including massacres and mutilations. Since the mid 1980s, it has abducted tens of thousands of people, including large numbers of children forced to train as fighters. The IC in 2005 issued warrants for Kony and his top commanders, and the United States is backing a military campaign against the group. But the ...

When the Somali crisis broke out in the 1990s and the Somali central government collapsed, the United Nations made several attempts to mediate the conflicting parties. The crisis reached its highest climax, leading to the successful US-led Operation Restore Hope. Unfortunately, when the leadership of the operation was transferred to the United Nations, the UN-led intervention failed miserably leading to further unrest and destabilization. The Root Causes of the United Nations Failure in So...

Since the end of the Cold War, the assumption among most political theorists has been that as nations develop economically, they will also become more democratic—especially if a vibrant middle class takes root. This assumption underlies the expansion of the European Union and much of American foreign policy, bolstered by such examples as South Korea, the Philippines, Taiwan, and even to some extent Russia. Where democratization has failed or retreated, aberrant conditions take the blame:...

In the past two decades, states and multilateral organizations have devoted considerable resources toward efforts to stabilize peace and rebuild war-torn societies in places such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone. Despite these prodigious efforts, there has been relatively little consideration of the critical questions arising from the "end game" of state-building operations. In Exit Strategies and State Building, sixteen leading scholars and practitioners focus on relevant hi...

The nature of UN operational involvement in the practical management of conflict has evolved dramatically since the end of the Cold War. The post-Cold War liberation of the Security Council, the subsequent paralysis in its decision-making competence, and the apparent dilution of the concept of sovereignty as a prohibition on intervention have been principal factors in the evolving fortunes of UK peace-support operations.This evolving environment has had profound implications for th...

In the first edition (2010), Zhiqun Zhu examined the rationale and strategies of China’s new multi-directional diplomacy since the early 1990s and assessed its impact on international political economy as well as responses from the international community. This fully revised second edition is still based on extensive research addressing these and other important policy issues whilst incorporating the latest major Chinese diplomatic activities since the last edition was published. This book...