Hong Kong in the World provides innovative insight into the role of Hong Kong — as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China since 1997 — in the global context. This book looks into the institutional settings of Hong Kong in exercising its external relations policies, and specific bilateral relations with different political entities.Written as an introductory text, it is specially designed for undergraduate students interested in Chinese foreign policy, Hong Kong's...

SARS from East to West is the production of international collaboration investigating the first major pandemic in the new millennium, SARS. As the only major outbreak of a deadly infectious disease in modern times, the SARS case is an excellent example of an emerging contagious disease in an interdependent and interconnected world and provided the bases for how subsequent pandemics, like the bird flu and swine flu, are viewed and managed.Eva-Karin Olsson and Lan Xue bring together ...

Since the Chinese were officially plugged into the virtual community in 1994, the usage of the internet in the country has developed at an incredible rate. By the end of 2008, there were approximately 298 million netizens in China, a number which surpasses that of the U.S. and ranks China the highest user in the world. The rapid development of the online Chinese community has not only boosted the information flow among citizens across the territory, but has also created a new form of socia...

Since the end of the Cold War, the new Chinese leadership generation has had to promulgate new guiding principles for handling global diplomacy which acknowledges China's new position. Given the dramatic changes in the international system and its domestic economic success for the growing "China's rise" idea on the global stage, China in the 21st century faces a mixture of old and new challenges, including terrorism, hegemonism, and authoritarianism. While Deng Xiaooping combined Taoism, a...

Wrestling with Difficult Stakeholders offers practical, validated techniques that all employees, from recent graduates to experienced managers, can apply to their interactions with a range of difficult people in their businesses and lives. The ability to deal with difficult stakeholders is essential when interacting with others in the workplace. It’s important to identify the reasons why we find them difficult and explore our response to them. In this interactive handbook, you will learn p...

How can we be resilient and flexible when facing difficult challenges and adversity in our work, and in our life? How can we develop our resilience and mental toughness to perform under stress and pressure? Wrestling with Resilience is a handbook that answers these questions.Written by psychologist Christopher Shen and Associate Professor Simon Moss, Wrestling with Resilience is a straightforward, accessible handbook for developing resilience and mental toughness. In it, Christopher and Si...

Once a sleeping giant China today is the world's fastest growing economy--the leading manufacturer of cell phones laptop computers and digital cameras--a dramatic turn-around that alarms many Westerners. But in China: The Fragile Superpower Susan L. Shirk opens up the black box of Chinese politics and finds that the real danger lies elsewhere--not in China's astonishing growth but in the deep insecurity of its leaders. China's leaders face a troubling paradox: the more developed and prospe...

Renowned for his coverage of China's elite politics and leadership transitions, veteran Sinologist Willy Lam has produced the first book-length study in English of the rise of Xi Jinping--General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since November 2012. With rare insight, Lam describes Xi's personal history and his fascination with quasi-Maoist values, the factional politics through which he ascended, the configuration of power of the Fifth-Generation leadership, and the country'...

China’s inexorable rise as a major world power is one of the defining features of the contemporary political landscape. But should we heed the warnings of a so-called ‘China threat?’ Is China set to become the next superpower? Or will its ambitions be tempered by economic and political realities both at home and abroad?In this insightful and balanced analysis, noted China expert Stuart Harris explores China’s present foreign policy and its motivations, focusing in particular on the...

While most of Europe decided to unite in the 20th and 21st century, a country in the Balkans split into seven independent states. The efforts of these states to join the European Union and the reconciliation initiatives between the countries are detailed in this research paper. Despite the efforts of the countries of the region and of the EU, a lot of work is needed before these countries will become sufficiently mature in political, economic and societal sense to become members of the Eur...

In the 1990s China embarked on a series of political reforms intended to increase, however modestly, political participation to reduce the abuse of power by local officials. Although there was initial progress, these reforms have largely stalled and, in many cases, gone backward. If there were sufficient incentives to inaugurate reform, why wasn't there enough momentum to continue and deepen them? This book approaches this question by looking at a number of promising reforms, understanding...

Contemporary Myanmar faces a number of political challenges, and it is unclear how other nations should act in relation to the country. Prioritizing the opinions of local citizens and reading them against the latest scholarship on this issue, Ian Holliday affirms the importance of foreign interests in Myanmar's democratic awakening, yet only through committed, grassroots strategies of engagement encompassing foreign states, international aid agencies, and global corporations.Hollid...