| Author | : Michael F. Palo |
| Publisher | : BRILL |
| Total Pages | : 598 |
| Release | : 2019-07-08 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 9004395857 |
In this book, Michael F. Palo explains how a historical and theoretical examination of Belgian neutrality, 1839-1940, can help readers understand the behaviour of small/weak democracies in the international system.
| Author | : Cameron Hazlehurst |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 597 |
| Release | : 2023-07-03 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0192887076 |
Jack Pease was at the heart of the British Liberal government from 1908 to 1915, holding the position of Chief Whip through two general elections, and a member of the Cabinet confronting domestic tumult, international tensions, and war. Pease was an unassuming participant in the deliberations of a unique gathering of political talent. His journals as President of the Board of Education from 1911 to the formation of the coalition ministry in 1915 are a closely observed, unvarnished record of what he saw and heard in Downing St and Westminster: constitutional and Home Rule crises, industrial conflict, electoral reform, women's suffrage controversies, struggles over budgets, naval estimates, and foreign policy. Despite his Quaker beliefs, Pease committed to supporting war against Germany, and his troubled conscience is laid bare in letters to his wife and friends. Replete with intimate portraits of his revered chief H. H. Asquith and the Prime Minister's social circle, the journals also provide evocative observations of the contest of ideas, arguments, and moods of prominent contemporaries, especially David Lloyd George as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Winston Churchill as Home Secretary then First Lord of the Admiralty, and Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War. Pease's candid accounts, augmented by the diaries and letters of others privy to Cabinet policy secrets and personal rivalries, reveal the stories not told in the Prime Minister's reports to the King. Together with the editors' biographical introduction, extensive explanatory commentaries, and bibliographical guidance, Pease's text provides a uniquely comprehensive understanding of Asquith's Liberal government in peace and war.
| Author | : Wim Klinkert |
| Publisher | : BRILL |
| Total Pages | : 370 |
| Release | : 2022-08-01 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 9004519246 |
In the interwar period potential future military conflict seemed particularly devastating for military and civilian society alike, thanks to developments in chemical, air and armoured warfare. This study analyses how a small state, the Netherlands, approached this conundrum and aimed to survive a future war.
| Author | : Guy Vanthemsche |
| Publisher | : Cambridge University Press |
| Total Pages | : 397 |
| Release | : 2023-03-31 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1009327267 |
The small and densely populated nation of Belgium has played an important role in the history of Europe and other continents, especially Africa. It was a pioneering force in industry, trade, and finance during the Middle Ages, through early modern times and into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It introduced innovative political regimes and played a leading role in the creative arts. Yet this rich past is not widely known. This introductory history offers an accessible and rigorous overview of this small but important West-European country, synthesizing Belgium's main economic, social, political, and cultural developments from pre-Roman times until today. Today, this nation-state, born in 1830, is well-known for the rivalries between its two main language communities, and as a result is often considered a fragile or even an artificial political construct. This systematic chronological analysis of both present-day Belgium and the polities that preceded it throws fresh light on this controversial issue and demonstrates Belgium's enduring importance and influence.
| Author | : Jon Pierre |
| Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
| Total Pages | : 737 |
| Release | : 2016 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 0199665672 |
The Handbook provides a broad introduction to Swedish politics, and how Sweden's political system and policies have evolved over the past few decades.
| Author | : Christine Agius |
| Publisher | : Manchester University Press |
| Total Pages | : 422 |
| Release | : 2013-07-19 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 1784990027 |
The end of the Cold War and the ‘War on Terror’ has signalled a shift in the security policies of all states. It has also led to the reconsideration of the policy of neutrality, and what being neutral means in the present age. This book examines the conceptualisation of neutrality from the Peloponnesian War to today, uncovering how neutrality has been a neglected and misunderstood subject in International Relations (IR) theory and politics. By rethinking neutrality through constructivism, this book argues that neutrality is intrinsically linked to identity. Using Sweden as a case study, it links identity, sovereignty, internationalism and solidarity to the debates about Swedish neutrality today and how neutrality has been central to Swedish identity and its worldview. It also examines the challenges to Swedish neutrality and neutrality broadly, in terms of European integration, globalisation, the decline of the state and sovereignty, and new threats to security, such as international terrorism, arguing that the norms and values of neutrality can be reworked to contribute to a more cosmopolitan international order.
| Author | : Jan-Werner Müller |
| Publisher | : Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Total Pages | : 129 |
| Release | : 2021-07-06 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 0374720711 |
A much-anticipated guide to saving democracy, from one of our most essential political thinkers. Everyone knows that democracy is in trouble, but do we know what democracy actually is? Jan-Werner Müller, author of the widely translated and acclaimed What Is Populism?, takes us back to basics in Democracy Rules. In this short, elegant volume, he explains how democracy is founded not just on liberty and equality, but also on uncertainty. The latter will sound unattractive at a time when the pandemic has created unbearable uncertainty for so many. But it is crucial for ensuring democracy’s dynamic and creative character, which remains one of its signal advantages over authoritarian alternatives that seek to render politics (and individual citizens) completely predictable. Müller shows that we need to re-invigorate the intermediary institutions that have been deemed essential for democracy’s success ever since the nineteenth century: political parties and free media. Contrary to conventional wisdom, these are not spent forces in a supposed age of post-party populist leadership and post-truth. Müller suggests concretely how democracy’s critical infrastructure of intermediary institutions could be renovated, re-empowering citizens while also preserving a place for professionals such as journalists and judges. These institutions are also indispensable for negotiating a democratic social contract that reverses the secession of plutocrats and the poorest from a common political world.
| Author | : Efraim Karsh |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 232 |
| Release | : 1988 |
| Genre | : Law |
| ISBN | : 0415611997 |
Originally published in 1988, this book examines the experiences of neutral states in Europe during the Second World War and in the postwar peiod. It examines both the practical and the theoretical considerations and the interface between the two, and discusses the implications of the experience of these countries for small states generally
| Author | : Nasir Ahmad Andisha |
| Publisher | : Routledge |
| Total Pages | : 93 |
| Release | : 2020-10-08 |
| Genre | : Political Science |
| ISBN | : 0429861443 |
This book offers a timely and concise academic and historical background to the concept and practice of neutrality, a relatively new phenomenon in foreign and security policy. It approaches two key questions: under what circumstances can permanent neutrality be applied, and what are the main ingredients of success and the causes of failure in applying permanent neutrality? By evaluating, comparing, and contrasting the two successful European case studies of Austria and Switzerland and the two challenging Asian case studies of Afghanistan and Laos, the author creates a new framework of analysis to explore the feasibility of reframing, adopting, and applying a policy of neutrality and jump start debates on the feasibility of the idea of “new neutrality”. He opens the debate by asking whether, as neutrality successfully functioned as a conflict resolution tool during the Cold War, a reframed and adopted version of neutrality could also serve the needs of the twenty-first-century world order. This is an insightful book for all scholars, students, and policymakers workingin international relations, security studies, the history of neutrality, and Afghanistan studies.
