After standing up for a stranger in an online game the other players killed him for it… over and over again. They killed him two-hundred-and-thirteen times, as a joke. Edward might have been able to live with that, but everything in him changes when one of his bullies tricks the police into putting a gun to his head. Broken and no longer able to cope Edward creates, and then becomes, Absolute Iniquity; committing acts of revenge online and in the real world. As the lines blur between reali...

Most recent works about the efforts of local communities caught up in a civil war have focused on their efforts to remain places of security and safety from the violence that surrounds them—neutral peace communities or zones. This book, in contrast, focuses on local peace communities facing new challenges and opportunities once a peace agreement has been signed at the national level, such as those in South Africa, the Philippines, Burundi, East Timor, Sierra Leone, and the present peace pr...

It is conventional wisdom among scholars, policymakers, and other observers that crises are one of the primary drivers of European integration. However, while many crises have indeed spurred deeper integration, there is also no shortage of crises that failed to produce meaningful deepening, or even led to disintegration. The literature on European integration has to date failed to develop a theory to identify ex ante which crises are most likely to produce integrating reform. Crises an...

As an aspiring or seasoned writer, do you feel like you aren't making headway, stumbling on what to write next, or wondering if you're even on the right path? Are you unable to find the motivation to charge up your computer and put your fingers on the keyboard after that last rejection?Between the pages of What I Wish I'd Known: For Writers, 100 highly accomplished authors share their time, energy, and knowledge to pay it forward and inspire other writers, experienced or a...

This volume searches for pragmatic answers to the problems that continue to beset peacebuilding efforts at all levels of society, with a singular focus on the role of legitimacy.Many peacebuilding efforts are hampered by their inability to gain the support of those they are trying to help at the local level, or those at regional, national or international levels; whose support is necessary either for success at the local level or to translate local successes to wider arenas. There ...

This edited volume examines Basic Human Needs theory and interactive problem solving, looking at recent developments in thinking about both and how these might affect peacebuilding in contemporary conflicts of the twenty-first century.The era in the immediate aftermath of World War II was, paradoxically, a time of great optimism in parts of academia. There was, especially in the United States and much of Europe, a widespread belief in the social sciences that systematic scholarly a...

The 2007–9 financial crisis threatened economic disaster on a scale not seen since the Great Depression, but rapid state action prevented the widely feared devastation. The German response was considerably more generous to banks than the American or British bailouts. Drawing on interviews and primary sources in government, private firms, and media, Mitchell explains how the structure of national financial systems and interbank relationships produced extensive private rescues and pressure o...

Climate variability has major impacts in many parts of the world, including Australia. Developments in understanding of the El Niño - Southern Oscillation Phenomenon have introduced some skill in seasonal to inter-annual climate forecasting. Can this skill be harnessed to advantage? Or do we just continue to observe these impacts? How does a decision-maker managing an agricultural or natural ecosystem modify decisions in response to a skillful, but imprecise, seasonal climate forecast? Usi...

This first-of-a-kind collection brings together in one volume the strongest available evidence of successful transfer effects from unofficial third-party work to official peacemaking. Using comparative case analysis from several real-world interventions, Paving the Way offers insights into the conditions and qualities of successful programs of interactive conflict resolution from experts in the field. Editor Ronald J. Fisher has assembled a collection of seminal case studies that ...

The Beat Generation questioned mid-twentieth century America and sought the margins of society. This book analyzes the literature and lifestyles of the Beat authors Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg in regard to Victor Turner’s anthropological studies. The Beats separated from society by willingly entering the rites of passage. Liminal symbolism is apparent in their literature such as in movement, time, space, pilgrimages, and monstrosities. In their liminal stage, the...

Onward to Dragon Eyre.Blackrose, mightiest of dragons, has returned to her world, and found it torn apart by civil war and a brutal occupation. For two decades, the elite Banner armies of Implacatus have struggled to subdue the homeland of the dragons – a world of island chains set amid a sparkling ocean, where the navy battle pirates for control of the lawless seas.As Blackrose and Maddie’s return heralds the beginning of a new uprising, the dragon queen m...

The Reign of Terror begins...Rescued from a desert wasteland where he had been stranded for four thousand years, the Tenth Ascendant sits upon the throne of the City - his powers subduing the immortal gods and demigods who once ruled.Across the Straits in Jezra, Emily, Van and Kelsey Holdfast rally the last forces of resistance to the Ascendant's rule. At stake is the future, not only of the City of the Aurelians, but of the tyrant gods of Implacatus.