Available open access digitally under CC-BY-NC-ND licence.Comparative practices are integral to global security politics. The balance of power politics, status competitions and global security governance would not be possible without them. Yet, they are rarely treated as the main object of study.Exploring the varied uses of comparisons, this book addresses three key questions:• How is comparative knowledge produced?• How does it become politically relevant?

This text takes issue with arguments that security studies is a discipline of limited use in making sense of the post-Cold War world. It argues that many of the most interesting theoretical issues in international relations can most usefully be studied through a prism labelled "security studies". The book combines chapters which provide a variety of critical perspectives on the discipline and address a diverse range of theoretical concerns, with chapters that examine such substantive issue...

Armed groups operating beyond the state have become the most important actors in most contemporary wars and violent conflicts, from Iraq and Afghanistan to Colombia and Somalia. They come in a dizzying array of forms: some informally linked to the state and state power, others in opposition to the state; some pursuing classic political goals, others primarily predatory and large-scale criminal enterprises. All groups, however, challenge the state’s Weberian monopoly of the legitimate use o...

Governments around the world face ongoing pressures from citizens to provide more and better services, and to do this while restraining taxation levels. This provides the context for government efforts to ensure their policies and programs are as effective, and as efficient, as possible. An emphasis on government performance has led a number of governments to create formal systems for monitoring and evaluating their performance--on a regular, planned, and systematic basis--with the objecti...

The subject of international security is never out of the headlines. The subjects of war and peace, military strategy, the proliferation of nuclear weapons and revisionist states remain central to the discussion, but burgeoning concerns such as climate change, migration, poverty, health, and international terrorism have complicated the field. So what really matters? The traditional prioritization of state security or the security needs of individuals, humanity, and the biosphere? And where...

After more than a decade of development investments in monitoring and evaluation few countries are able to regularly report on how effective their policies and programs are in achieving the results they desire. It is not through lack of good M&E design, nor political mandates to support the effort, but from a lack of sustained management and delivery of effective M&E programs within established organizations. Building Sustainable Monitoring and Evaluation Systems will help improve the capacit...

International Security is a cutting-edge analysis of the key security challenges and developments in the post-Cold War world. Drawing on a wide range of contemporary examples, from the Iraq war to the rise of China, it is an essential guide for students and policy makers seeking to understand the theoretical and empirical debates over the fast-changing nature of international security today.The book is organized into four main parts. Part 1 provides an analytical framework...

Strategic Public Relations Management features an applied approach to evidence-based, strategic public relations management. It emphasizes understanding audiences through research and demonstrates success through quantitative evaluation methods. The volume presents a scientific approach that helps future and current practitioners understand and communicate the value of public relations to others, using performance metrics to demonstrate return on investment.New to the third edition...

The war in Afghanistan has been a major policy commitment and central undertaking of the Canadian state since 2001: Canada has been a leading force in the war, and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on aid and reconstruction. After a decade of conflict, however, there is considerable debate about the efficacy of the mission, as well as calls to reassess Canada’s role in the conflict. An authoritative and strongly analytical work, Empire’s Ally provides a much-needed critica...

An effective state is essential to achieving socio-economic and sustainable development. With the advent of globalization, there are growing pressures on governments and organizations around the world to be more responsive to the demands of internal and external stakeholders for good governance, accountability and transparency, greater development effectiveness, and delivery of tangible results. Governments, parliaments, citizens, the private sector, NGOs, civil society, international organiz...

Where are the women? In traditional historical and scholarly accounts of the making and fighting of wars, women are often nowhere to be seen. With few exceptions, war stories are told as if men were the only ones who plan, fight, are injured by, and negotiate ends to wars. As the pages of this book tell, though, those accounts are far from complete. Women can be found at every turn in the (gendered) phenomena of war. Women have participated in the making, fighting, and concluding of wars t...

Asia is experiencing major changes in its security relations. This book brings together respected experts to assess both the theoretical and empirical dimensions of the Asian security debate. Building on the latest research on Asia's regional security politics, it focuses on the 'regional-global nexus' as a way to understand the dynamics of Asian security politics and its intersection with global security. Contributors to the volume offer diverse but complementary perspectives on which iss...