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The World After the War: America Confronts the British Superpower, 1945–1957
by Derek LeebaertOne of the great myths of the twentieth century is that after the Second World War Britain simply relinquished its power and America quickly embraced its worldwide political and military commitments. Instead the two allies improvised an uneasy, shifting partnership for twelve long years while most of western Europe lay in turmoil and Russia grew more aggressive. But in 1957 Washington issued a &‘declaration of independence&’ from British authority. It was then that everything changed, and America assumed leadership of the new world order just taking shape. Derek Leebaert spins a riveting global narrative of Britain as the original superpower and shows why the Americans kept believing it to be indispensable. It&’s the story of secret ties, diplomatic quarrels and military interventions that casts political giants Churchill, Truman, Eisenhower and Johnson in a new light. In a volatile world of decolonisation, a uniting Europe and the Suez Crisis, shrewd men in London were leveraging the empire&’s long-established resources and influence to maintain their grip on power. The enduring notion of a special relationship, rising tensions with Russia and China, and the sources of much of the world&’s turmoil can&’t be understood without knowing what really occurred.
The World America Made: The Munk Debate On America Foreign Policy (Munk Debates)
by Robert KaganWhat would the world look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times best-selling author and one of the country's most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane. Although Kagan asserts that much of the current pessimism is misplaced, he warns that if America were indeed to commit "preemptive superpower suicide," the world would see the return of war among rising nations as they jostle for power; the retreat of democracy around the world as Vladimir Putin's Russia and authoritarian China acquire more clout; and the weakening of the global free-market economy, which the United States created and has supported for more than sixty years. We've seen this before--in the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I. Potent, incisive, and engaging, The World America Made is a reminder that the American world order is worth preserving, and America dare not decline.
The World As I See It
by Albert EinsteinTranslated by Alan Harris. This book is the authorized English translation of the volume 'Mein Weltbild' by Albert Einstein in which he talks about his views on politics, religion, morality, and the place of science in the modern world.
The World As It Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress
by Chris HedgesMany liberals are disappointed with Barack Obama. Some talk of "betrayal," while others are writing abject letters to the White House asking the president to come back to his "true self." Chris Hedges, however, is a progressive who doesn't feel betrayed. "Obama was and is a brand," he argues. "He is a product of the Chicago political machine. He has been skillfully packaged by the corporate state." In his newest book, Hedges argues that the conscious inertia of the left is destroying the progressive movement. Inaction and empty moral posturing leads not to change, but to an orgy of self-adulation and self-pity.Hedges argues that the gravest danger we face as a nation is not from the far right, although the right may well inherit power. Instead, the threat comes from a bankrupt liberal class that has lost the will to fight and the moral courage to stand up for what it espouses.
The World Bank Group's Response to the Global Economic Crisis
by The World BankThe World Bank Group has responded to the global economic crisis with a strong countercyclical expansion of financing. Its disbursements of $80 billion in the past two fiscal years were the largest among the Multilateral Development Banks. There was notable variation across the WBG, with vastly increased IBRD lending, moderately higher IDA financing, and overall responses from IFC and MIGA that were not counter-cyclical. The differences reflected the interplay of financial capacities, business models, and available instruments. While the level of financial flows is one aspect of crisis response, the crucial aspect is the results achieved with such financing and the related knowledge work of the WBG. The question going forward concerns the effectiveness and sustainability of the crisis response. Effective and efficient use of funds to sustain growth and ensure macroeconomic stability is more important than ever in view of emerging fiscal deficits and financial stress in client countries. It is vital that the WBG support help clients keep focused on structural reforms for inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth. The WBG needs mechanisms to ensure early warning and preparedness in the face of an increasingly uncertain global environment. Skills and institutional capabilities in key thematic areas, such as the financial sector, need to be maintained. Attention is also needed to ensure that knowledge activities are not crowded out in the face of tight budgets and resource demands resulting from increased lending.
The World Bank and Africa: The Construction of Governance States (Routledge Advances in International Political Economy #13)
by Graham HarrisonShortlisted for the Inaugural International Political Economy Group annual book prize, 2006. An incisive exploration of the interventions of the World Bank in severely indebted African states. Understanding sovereignty as a frontier rather than a boundary, this key study develops a vision of a powerful international organization reconciling a global political economy with its own designs and a specific set of challenges posed by the African region. This analysis details the nature of the World Bank intervention in the sovereign frontier, investigating institutional development, discursive intervention, and political stabilization. It tackles the methods by which the World Bank has led a project to re-shape certain African states according to a governance template, leading to the presentation of 'success stories' in a continent associated with reform failure.This conceptually innovative book details a political economy of the World Bank in Africa that is both globally contextualized and attentive to individual states. It is the only volume to look at the bank's relations with Africa and will interest all students and researchers of African politics and the World Bank.
The World Bank and Global Managerialism (Routledge Studies in International Business and the World Economy)
by Jonathan MurphyIn recent years, a great deal of scholarly and popular ink has been spilled on the subject of globalization. Relatively few scholars have addressed the political sociology of globalization, and specifically, the emergence of global class formations and a nascent global governance framework. This book is a contribution towards redressing this imbalance. The book traces the emergence of the World Bank as a key driver of globalization, and as a central source of an evolving form of elite-driven transnational governance which the author describes as ‘global managerialism’. The book argues that the Bank has expanded its sphere of activity far beyond provision of low-cost capital for development projects, and plays a central role in pursuing global economic and social policy homogenization. The World Bank and Global Managerialism features a new theoretical approach to globalization, developed through an analytical exposition of the key stages in the institution’s growth since its creation at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944. The author details the contemporary Bank’s central policy framework, which includes the intertwining of public and private initiatives and the extension of global governance into ever-wider policy and geographic spheres. He also argues that contemporary globalization marks the emergence of a transnational elite, straddling the corporate, government, and civil society sectors. The book provides two detailed case studies that demonstrate the practical analytical utility of the theory of global managerialism. The theoretical approach provides a robust but flexible framework for understanding contemporary global development. It is essential reading for courses in areas such as International Organizations, Global Political Economy, and Globalization and its Discontents, and is also relevant to students of development policy and international economic architecture, among others.
The World Bank and Governance: A Decade of Reform and Reaction (Routledge Studies in Globalisation)
by Christopher Wright Diane StoneThis timely book offers the first critical examination of World Bank policy reforms and initiatives during the past decade. The World Bank is viewed as one of the most powerful international organizations of our time. The authors critically analyze the influence of the institution’s policy and engagement during the past decade in a variety of issue areas, including human rights, domestic reform, and the environment. The World Bank and Governance delves into the bowels of the World Bank, exploring its organizational structure, professional culture and bureaucratic procedures, illustrating how these shape its engagement with an increasingly complex, diverse and challenging operational environment. The book includes chapters on two under-researched divisions of the World Bank: the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency. Several illuminating country studies are also included, analyzing the World Bank's activities in Argentina, Bolivia, Lebanon, Hungary and Vietnam. This volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of international relations, development, politics and economics.
The World Bank and HIV/AIDS: Setting a global agenda (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics)
by Sophie HarmanThe governance of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has come to represent a multi-faceted and complex operation in which the World Bank has set and sustained the global agenda for by the World Bank. The governance of HIV/ AIDS. Through economic incentive they have restructured the is a political foundations of countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the pursuit of change in state, project that seeks to embed liberal practice through individual, state, and societal community behaviour. At the heart of this practice is the drive to impose blueprint neoliberal market-based solutions on a personal-global issue. This book unravels how the Bank’s good governance agenda and commitment to participation, ownership and transparency manifests itself in practice, through the Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP), and crucially how it is pushing an agenda that sees a shift in both global health interventions and state configuration in sub-Saharan Africa. The book considers the mechanisms used by the Bank – and the problems therein – to engage the state, civil society and the individual in responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis, and how these mechanisms have been exported to other global projects such as the Global Fund and UNAIDS. Harman argues in conclusion that not only has the Bank set the global agenda for HIV/AIDS, but underpinning this is a wider commitment to liberal governance reform through neoliberal incentive. Making an important contribution to our understanding of global governance and international politics, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, international political economy, international relations, development studies and civil society.
The World Bank and Social Transformation in International Politics: Liberalism, Governance and Sovereignty (Routledge Studies in Globalisation)
by David WilliamsIn the 1990s the World Bank changed its policy to take the position that the problems of poverty and governance are inextricably linked, and improving the governance of its borrower countries became increasingly accepted as a legitimate and important part of the World Bank’s development activities. This book examines why the World Bank came to see good governance as important and evaluate what the World Bank is doing to improve the governance of its borrower countries. David Williams examines changing World Bank policy since the late 1970s to show how a concern with good governance grew out of the problems the World Bank was experiencing with structural adjustment lending, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. The book provides an account of the early years of the World Bank and traces the increasing acceptance of the idea of good governance within the Bank through the 1990s, while systematically relating the policies of good governance to liberalism. The author provides a detailed case study of World Bank lending to Ghana to demonstrate what the attempt to improve ‘governance’ looks like in practice. Williams assesses whether the World Bank has been successful in its attempts to improve governance, and draws out some of the implications of the argument for how we should think about sovereignty, for how we should understand the connections between liberalism and international politics. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of international relations, politics, economics, development and African studies.
The World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment
by The World BankThe evaluation finds that the content of the World Bank's Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) is largely relevant for growth and poverty reduction in the sense that it maps well with the determinants of growth and poverty reduction identified in the economics literature. However, some CPIA criteria need to be revised (in particular trade and finance), and one needs to be added (assessment of disadvantaged socio-economic groups). Second, the evaluation finds that the CPIA ratings are in general reliable and correlate well with similar indicators. The World Bank's internal review process helps guard against potential biases in having Bank staff rate countries on which their work programs depend. The CPIA ratings are found to correlate better with similar indicators for middle income countries than for low income countries. This could be because there is more information available on middle income countries, which increases the likelihood of different institutions having similar assessments on them. This could also be because the CPIA rating exercise takes into account the stage of development, which is more pertinent for low income countries, and which also subject the ratings of those countries to more judgment in an exercise that is already centered on staff judgment.
The World Bank: From Reconstruction to Development to Equity (Global Institutions Ser.)
by Katherine MarshallThe World Bank is one of the most important and least understood major international institutions. This book provides a concise, accessible and comprehensive overview of the World Bank's history, development, structure, functionality and activities. These themes are illustrated with a wide variety of case studies drawn from the Bank's int
The World Community and the Arab Spring
by Cenap Çakmak Ali Onur ÖzçelikThis edited volume offers an understanding of how the international community, as a collection of significant actors including major states and intergovernmental institutions, has responded to the important political and social development of the Arab Spring. Contributors analyze the response by international organizations (UN, EU, NATO), big powers (US, Russia, China, UK), regional powers (Turkey, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia) and small powers (Kuwait, Qatar). The book thus makes a sound contribution to the existing literature on the Arab Spring in form of foreign policy analysis and provides an overview of the current shape and outlook of global politics.
The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism (Thought in the Act)
by Jonathan BellerIn The World Computer Jonathan Beller forcefully demonstrates that the history of commodification generates information itself. Out of the omnipresent calculus imposed by commodification, information emerges historically as a new money form. Investigating its subsequent financialization of daily life and colonization of semiotics, Beller situates the development of myriad systems for quantifying the value of people, objects, and affects as endemic to racial capitalism and computation. Built on oppression and genocide, capital and its technical result as computation manifest as racial formations, as do the machines and software of social mediation that feed racial capitalism and run on social difference. Algorithms, derived from for-profit management strategies, conscript all forms of expression—language, image, music, communication—into the calculus of capital such that even protest may turn a profit. Computational media function for the purpose of extraction rather than ameliorating global crises, and financialize every expressive act, converting each utterance into a wager. Repairing this ecology of exploitation, Beller contends, requires decolonizing information and money, and the scripting of futures wagered by the cultural legacies and claims of those in struggle.
The World Corona Changed: US, China and Middle Powers in the New International Order (Innovations in International Affairs)
by Renato G. Flôres Jr.This concise book addresses the new geopolitical realm which will ensue from the coronavirus pandemic, exploring how the main international actors will position themselves in the post-Covid-19 realities. Contrary to some analysts, the author argues that, rather than an acceleration of existing or latent trends, the post-coronavirus world will present novel and otherwise unexpected features and challenges. Even the previously ongoing tension between the US and China will morph into an additionally complex and multidimensional puzzle, making it much more difficult to manage. In this book, the author provides a few basic tools for further analysis of the evolution of the new world situation, in an innovative way. Two main axes orient how analyses will be performed: the shape and evolution of the US–China relationship (and their interactions with other international actors), and the degree of co-operation — for example, on climate change and security arrangements — in the transformed world. The author suggests that the pandemic will be responsible for new emergences and fractures, and yet our ever more divided world will at the same time support unifying forces and links, highly dependent on technological developments being shared and/or protected. The primary objective of this book is to draw a broad picture which will serve as a frame of reference for analysing how the community of international actors will react to major challenges — be they expected or unanticipated — in the post-pandemic world. It will be of immense interest to analysts, academics, politicians and students of international relations, geopolitics, strategy, and world affairs.
The World Customs Organization: Past, Present and Future (Law for Professionals)
by Héctor Hugo Juárez AllendeThis book will take the reader through the past, the present, and into the future of the flagship institution of the international customs community: the World Customs Organization (WCO). The purpose is to present to the reader, in a comprehensive, orderly, and synthetic manner, the enormous contributions that this prestigious and recognized institution has been making to the secure growth of global international trade. In the development of the text, special consideration has been given to the relevant instruments in day-to-day customs work, which constitute the bases of the WCO (the Harmonized System Convention, the Revised Kyoto Convention, and the SAFE Framework of Standards, among many others), as well as those issues that are currently of specific interest to the global customs community (cross-border e-commerce, trade facilitation, and authorized economic operator, to mention but a few), trying to reconcile the various practical aspects of customs operations with their theoretical underpinnings. In the final part, the book turns to the future of customs, analyzing the most pressing challenges presented by technological advances, including the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and blockchain. In short, this book will be of great interest to all foreign trade operators, mainly to customs officials, customs brokers, carriers and international forwarding agents, managers of importing and exporting companies, as well as all those (professionals and students) who wish to deepen their knowledge of the exciting world of customs and international trade.
The World Disorder: US Hegemony, Proxy Wars, Terrorism and Humanitarian Catastrophes
by Luiz Alberto Moniz BandeiraThis book offers a historical analysis of the geopolitical and geoeconomic competition between the USA and Russia, which has recently heated up again due to the eastward expansion of NATO. The analysis departs from an exploration of the USA’s foreign policy and geopolitical ambitions by illustrating the influence of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex on the country’s political decision-making. The historical review covers a wide timespan, from the Second World War and the birth of NATO, to the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, to the rebellions that erupted in Eurasia, Northern Africa and the Middle East in the 2010’s, as well as the wars in the Ukraine and in Syria. By doing so, it reveals the influence of US neocons, the US intelligence services and the military complex on the Arab Spring, the Color Revolutions and the armed conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. Ultimately, the book depicts a new era of worldwide instability and disorder, dominated by violence and arbitrariness.
The World Economic Forum: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Global Governance (Global Institutions)
by Geoffrey Allen PigmanThis book explores the paradoxes and unique characteristics of the World Economic Forum, highlighting contemporary issues and debates on global governance, economic development and corporate social responsibility. The Forum is one of the most influential, but least understood, global institutions. Its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland and its regional summits held around the world attract a significant and powerful audience from the worlds of business, economics, politics and civil society. The participants, who include business and political leaders, representatives of international institutions and civil society organizations, academia and the media, meet to debate issues of global concern and to develop possible solutions. Forum members see the organization as an innovative venue bringing together different types of stakeholders to solve global problems. To its critics, however, the Forum’s public face conceals a private venue for making business deals. With clear and concise sections, including boxes containing key ideas and arguments, The World Economic Forum is a much needed introduction to an important and controversial organization and will be of considerable interest to students and practitioners of international business, international political economy, economics, development, international relations, and globalization.
The World Economy Since the Wars
by John Kenneth GalbraithThis far-reaching analysis by one of the world's leading contemporary economists traces the economic history of the century, from the theories of Marx and Engels to the Wall Street Crash, from Roosevelt's "New Deal" to the recent cycle of boom and bust, from the ideas of Keynes to the signing of the GATT agreement. In particular it shows how the world economy is taking shape today, with former communist countries adapting to Western policies, and with third-world countries isolated from the unity of the developed world and its market economy.
The World Economy: A Global Analysis (Routledge Studies In The Modern World Economy Ser. #63)
by Horst SiebertAs globalization continues apace, lines of communications are shortening and the boundaries between nations are becoming increasingly blurred. A global perspective is adopted on an increasing range of issues and this is particularly true of economics - no single nation can truly exist in isolation. The second edition of Horst Siebert's The World Economy treats the world as a single entity, considering issues of a global economy, rather than approaching international economics from the viewpoint of any one country. The key issues that have a affected the world trade system since the turn of the millennium are very much to the fore.
The World Economy: Global Trade Policy 2009 (World Economy Special Issues Ser. #13)
by David GreenawayThis is the sixteenth volume in an annual series in which leading economists provide a concise and accessible evaluation of major developments in trade and trade policy. Examines key issues pertinent to the multinational trading system, as well as regional trade arrangements and policy developments at the national level Provides up-to-date assessments of the World Trade Organization's current Trade Policy Reviews Analyses trade policy in areas such as Turkey and includes a symposium on China and Africa Contributors also investigate the growth of agricultural protection in Europe in the 19th and 20th Centuries. A vital resource for researchers, analysts and policy-advisors interested in trade policy and other open economy issues
The World Economy: Global Trade Policy 2011 (World Economy Special Issues #13)
by David GreenawayThis is the eighteenth volume in an annual series in which leading economists provide a concise and accessible evaluation of major developments in trade and trade policy. Examines key issues pertinent to the multinational trading system, as well as regional trade arrangements and policy developments at the national level The 2011 issue analyses global trade policy in areas such as Malaysia, West Africa and China Includes a review of antidumping, safeguards and countervailing duties from 1990–2009 Includes chapters exploring WTO issues, and a special section on agricultural trading issues Provides up-to-date assessments of the World Trade Organization's current Trade Policy Reviews A vital resource for researchers, analysts and policy-advisors interested in trade policy and other open economy issues
The World Gas Trade: A Resource For The Future
by Melvin A ConantThe proximity of vast reserves of natural gas to the great energy-consuming markets of the world, the relative environmental harmlessness of gas, and its competitive price make the use of gas increasingly attractive to an energy-hungry world. Within the next two decades we will see the use of gas and gas-related technologies expand in industrialized nations as well as among developing countries. An international group of authorities on the political economy of natural gas analyzes the key factors influencing present gas supplies and uses and looks to the future, when new logistic systems and technological advances will affect both producers and consumers. The basic political, economic, and security considerations of energy will undergo a concomitant change in response to the increased availability and affordability of gas. In most markets, government monopolies direct the gas trade; in North America there will be a renewed role for private enterprise. Japan may also find its position greatly altered; although there are at present no pipeline connections to suppliers, and Japan is currently dependent on far-away sources of liquified natural gas, the contributors predict that future gas links to East Asia are highly likely. The World Gas Trade explores the growing gas trade, anticipating that within the next several decades the foundation will have been laid for gas-fueled economies to displace oil-based economies in the world system.
The World Gone Mad: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Circumstances)
by Rae SimonsTerrorism has become one of the most pressing concerns of our day. For over a century, some radical groups have used terrorist attacks to draw attention to their causes, using violence to get their voices heard. Although the purpose of these groups is to grab the attention of a government and force it to consider their demands for change, the people caught in the middle of a terrorist attack usually know or care little about the political reasons behind the violence.
The World Health Organization (Global Institutions)
by Kelley LeeThe World Health Organization (WHO), as the United Nations specialized agency for health, has been at the centre of international health cooperation for over sixty years. With origins dating from the nineteenth century, WHO’s mandate is the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health. The huge challenge of fulfilling this objective has not only required high-level technical skills, but has led the organization to engage with a broad range of political and economic interests. WHO has enjoyed many high-profile successes such as the global eradication of smallpox and SARS, and ongoing campaigns against polio and other diseases. On other issues, such as essential drugs, tobacco control and diet and nutrition, efforts to tackle the broader determinants of health has brought the organization into contact with issues such as globalization, poverty, social justice and human rights. Kelley Lee analyzes the WHO’s role in international cooperation, examining its changing structures, key programmes and individuals. Of particular focus are the challenges WHO has faced in recent years given the emergence of other global health initiatives and how WHO has sought to remain effective as the "world’s health conscience" within an increasingly complex global context.