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Understanding Contemporary Security Challenges in Nigeria (Africa's Global Engagement: Perspectives from Emerging Countries)
by Ali Arazeem Abdullahi Usman A. Raheem Fatai A. Aremu Abayomi O. OlaseniThis book explores how the Nigerian state grapples with both internal and external forces that are fueling insecurity in the country. For more than a decade, Nigeria has been viciously attacked by different clusters of non-state armed actors, ranging from religious extremists, terrorists, kidnappers, herders, bandits, secessionists, and unknown gunmen. While insurgency-related deaths have dropped, the north-east remains the epicenter of insurgency and terrorism. This book unpacks the contemporary security challenges in Nigeria. Instead of a monolithic analysis of Boko-Haram, it discusses other armed groups, secessionist agitations, maritime security, the social context of insecurity, the nexus between the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and insecurity, the mental health outcomes of insecurity, substance abuse and security, as well as migration and national security. The book is a policy-driven research work that speaks directly to policymakers, students, and other important stakeholders in the security sector in Nigeria and beyond.
Understanding Contemporary Strategy
by Thomas M. Kane David J. LonsdaleThis textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to modern strategy, covering the context, theory, and practice of military strategy in all its different forms. Covering all the main issues in the field, the book explores the major themes through a combination of classical and modern strategic theory, history, and current practice. It is split into three main sections: The first provides the context for contemporary strategy and includes discussions of the human, technological, intelligence, ethical, and grand strategic dimensions. The second part explores the theory and practice of strategy in different geographical domains, including land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. The final part engages with three of the most challenging forms of strategy in the contemporary era: nuclear weapons, terrorism, and insurgency. This second edition brings the book up to date by including discussions of the rise and fall of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS); the emergence of robotics and artificial intelligence; major events in space and cyberspace; and the growing profile of nuclear weapons. Each chapter presents the reader with a succinct summary of the topic, provides a challenging analysis of current issues, and finishes with key points, questions for discussion, and further reading. This book will be essential reading for upper-level students of strategic studies, war studies, military history, and international security.
Understanding Counterinsurgency: Doctrine, operations, and challenges
by Thomas Rid Thomas KeaneyThis textbook offers an accessible introduction to counterinsurgency operations, a key aspect of modern warfare. Featuring essays by some of the world's leading experts on unconventional conflict, both scholars and practitioners, the book discusses how modern regular armed forces react, and should react, to irregular warfare. The volume is divided into three main sections: Doctrinal Origins: analysing the intellectual and historical roots of modern Western theory and practice Operational Aspects: examining the specific role of various military services in counterinsurgency, but also special forces, intelligence, and local security forces Challenges: looking at wider issues, such as governance, culture, ethics, civil-military cooperation, information operations, and time. Understanding Counterinsurgency is the first comprehensive textbook on counterinsurgency, and will be essential reading for all students of small wars, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, strategic studies and security studies, both in graduate and undergraduate courses as well as in professional military schools.
Understanding Crime: A Multidisciplinary Approach
by A. Javier Trevino Susan Guarino-GhezziExplores the interdisciplinary nature and potential of the field of criminology, covering the fields of sociology, economics, psychology, biology, philosophy and religious studies. The conclusion demonstrates various theoretical approaches for policy development and discusses opportunities for incorporating academic contributions into the political process.
Understanding Cultural Policy
by Carole RosensteinUnderstanding Cultural Policy provides a practical, comprehensive introduction to thinking about how and why governments intervene in the arts and culture. Cultural policy expert Carole Rosenstein examines the field through comparative, historical, and administrative lenses, while engaging directly with the issues and tensions that plague policy-makers across the world, including issues of censorship, culture-led development, cultural measurement, and globalization. Several of the textbook’s chapters end with a ‘policy lab’ designed to help students tie theory and concepts to real world, practical applications. This book will prove a new and valuable resource for all students of cultural policy, cultural administration, and arts management.
Understanding Cultural Policy: Government and the Arts and Culture in the United States (Discovering the Creative Industries)
by Carole RosensteinThis textbook provides an introduction to cultural policy in the US, enabling both students and practitioners to understand how government impacts the arts and culture.Starting with an historical overview of why and how the US developed a national cultural policy, the book goes on to trace the contemporary system of national, state, and local arts and cultural agencies through which that policy is put into practice. Readers are provided both in-depth frameworks for conceptualizing how government regulation and provision shape the arts and culture and carefully illustrated examples of cultural policy in action. Covering critical issues in US cultural policy such as the Culture Wars, culture-led development and gentrification, and field-wide data and research capacities, the book builds a bridge between theory, practice, and politics in the arts and culture. This new edition includes enhanced visualizations and policy maps, expanded policy labs, and a new section on cultural policy during COVID-19.The result is a text that is essential reading for students and reflective practitioners of arts and cultural management and administration.
Understanding Cultural Taste
by David WrightUnderstanding Cultural Taste updates and critiques established theoretical and empirical accounts of cultural taste. It considers the roles of the cultural industries and cultural policies in shaping tastes and the significance of the technologies through which cultural goods are produced and circulated. Taking a historical and theoretical perspective which complicates an understanding of taste as a matter of personal preference or a crude weapon in social struggles, the book argues that taste remains a key concept for the sociology of culture, media and cultural studies, cultural policy studies and their applied sub-disciplines. Such disciplines have come to appreciate the relation between taste and individual or group identities but have been less attentive to other social and political dimensions of this important component of cultural life.
Understanding Cyber Warfare: Politics, Policy and Strategy
by Christopher Whyte Brian MazanecThis textbook offers an accessible introduction to the historical, technical, and strategic context of cyber conflict. The international relations, policy, doctrine, strategy, and operational issues associated with computer network attack, computer network exploitation, and computer network defense are collectively referred to as cyber warfare. This new textbook provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the technical, strategic, and policy issues associated with cyber conflict as well as an introduction to key state and non-state actors. Specifically, the book provides a comprehensive overview of these key issue areas: the historical emergence and evolution of cyber warfare, including the basic characteristics and methods of computer network attack, exploitation, and defense; a theoretical set of perspectives on conflict in the digital age from the point of view of international relations (IR) and the security studies field; the current national perspectives, policies, doctrines, and strategies relevant to cyber warfare; and an examination of key challenges in international law, norm development, and the potential impact of cyber warfare on future international conflicts. This book will be of much interest to students of cyber conflict and other forms of digital warfare, security studies, strategic studies, defense policy, and, most broadly, international relations.
Understanding Cyber-Warfare: Politics, Policy and Strategy
by Christopher Whyte Brian M. MazanecThis textbook offers an accessible introduction to the historical, technical, and strategic context of global cyber conflict. The second edition has been revised and updated throughout, with three new chapters. Cyber warfare involves issues of doctrine, strategy, policy, international relations (IR) and operational practice associated with computer network attack, computer network exploitation and computer network defense. However, it is conducted within complex sociopolitical settings alongside related forms of digital contestation. This book provides students with a comprehensive perspective on the technical, strategic and policy issues associated with cyber conflict, as well as an introduction to key state and non-state actors. Specifically, the book provides a comprehensive overview of several key issue areas: The historical context of the emergence and evolution of cyber warfare, including the basic characteristics and methods of computer network attack, exploitation and defense; An interdisciplinary set of theoretical perspectives on conflict in the digital age from the point of view of the fields of IR, security studies, psychology and science, technology and society (STS) studies; Current national perspectives, policies, doctrines and strategies relevant to cyber warfare; An examination of key challenges in international law, norm development and deterrence; and The role of emerging information technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing in shaping the dynamics of global cyber conflict. This textbook will be essential reading for students of cybersecurity/cyber conflict and information warfare, and highly recommended for students of intelligence studies, security and strategic studies, defense policy, and IR in general.
Understanding Deradicalization: Methods, Tools and Programs for Countering Violent Extremism (Contemporary Terrorism Studies)
by Daniel KoehlerThis book provides a comprehensive guide to the different aspects of deradicalization theories, programs and methods. It analyzes the practical and theoretical aspects of deradicalization programs and the methods being employed to bring extremists and terrorist back to a non-violent life. The book includes in-depth case studies on programs and former extremists, including interviews with former German neo-Nazis and families of Jihadists who have received deradicalization counselling. Using a coherent theory of radicalization and deradicalization, it integrates existing programs into a typology and methodology regarding the effects and concepts behind deradicalization. In addition, a current state of the art assessment of deradicalization programs around the world provides a collection of programs and landscapes worldwide. It thereby functions as a unique guide for practitioners and policymakers in need of evaluation or construction of such programs, as well as a resource pool for academics interested in research about deradicalization programs and processes. The major aim of this book is to consolidate the existing scholarship on deradicalization and to move the field forward by proposing a coherent theory of deradicalization, including ways to measure effectiveness, standard methods and procedures, different actors of such programs and cooperation on national and international level. In essence, this work enables the reader to identify how, when and why deradicalization programs work, how they can be built and structured, and to identify their limitations. This book will be of interest to students of radicalisation, counter-terrorism, radical Islam, criminology, security studies and IR.
Understanding Development
by Swapnendu Banerjee Vivekananda Mukherjee Sushil Kumar HaldarThis book addresses topical development issues in India, ranging from land acquisition, poverty alleviation programs, labor market issues, the public-private partnership (PPP) model and fiscal federalism. It offers an Indian perspective on the dynamics of economic development and the impact the country's legal and public policies have on it. Economic development is a dynamic concept - old problems are solved, while at the same time new issues come to the fore. The emergence of these issues is unique to the development experience of an economy. The book includes sixteen recent contributions and is divided into four sections: law and contract; trade and foreign aid; issues in public economics; and the social sector and poverty alleviation. The chapters reflect on a number of development issues which were of concern for India in the recent past and will be important in her future development initiatives such as land acquisition, agricultural productivity, employment, protection of intellectual property rights, corruption, public-private partnership, regional development, poverty alleviations programs like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and the training of self-help group members, health and education of women, to name a few. The book is a valuable reference resource for policy practitioners and researchers working on the economics of development with special focus on developing economies.
Understanding Disability and Everyday Hate (Palgrave Hate Studies)
by Leah BurchThis book examines disability hate crime. It focusses on key questions concerning the ways in which hate is understood and experienced within the context of the everyday, in addition to the unique ways that hate can hurt and be resisted. It introduces readers to questions surrounding the conceptual framework of hate and policy context in England and Wales, and extends these discussions to center upon the experiences of disabled people. It presents a conceptual reconsideration of hate crime that connects hate, disability and everyday lives and spaces using an affective (embodied and emotional) understanding of these experiences. Drawing on empirical data, this framework helps to attend to the diverse ways that disabled people negotiate, respond to, and resist hate within the context of their everyday lives. The book argues that the affective capacity of disabled people can be enhanced through their reflections upon hateful experiences and general experiences of navigating a disabling social world. By working with the concept of ‘affective possibility’, this book offers a more affirmative approach to harnessing the everyday forms of resistance already present within disabled people’s lives. It speaks to academics, students, and practitioners interested in disability, affect studies, hate crime studies, sociology, and criminology.
Understanding Domestic Violence as a Gender-based Human Rights Violation: National and International contexts (Routledge Studies in Human Rights)
by Jurgita BukauskaiteExamining the prevalent issue of domestic violence, this book breaks down the reasons behind the ineffectiveness of existing human rights instruments and the gaps in current legal systems failing those in need. Through a variety of key case studies, it reveals significant gaps in the legal conceptualisation of domestic violence between human rights standards on the one hand and the national legal systems examined—those of Ireland and Lithuania—on the other. The book reveals that, contrary to gender-based universal human rights approaches and despite recent legislative reforms, the legal concept of domestic violence is gender-blind. It fails to capture gender-based empirical realities on the ground, rendering national legal systems devoid of an empirically informed theoretical basis for addressing the problem. Despite the differences in the contextual backgrounds of the two case study countries, the legislation on domestic violence is underpinned by patriarchal beliefs in both. This book employs a gender-based examination of the issue that will be of key interest to scholars, legal practitioners, civil society actors, and students of feminist legal theory, gender equality, gender in international law, gender and human rights and conceptual democracy.
Understanding Dropouts: Statistics, Strategies, and High-Stakes Testing
by Committee on Educational Excellence Testing EquityA report on Statistics, Strategies, and High-Stakes Testing
Understanding E-Government in Europe: Issues and Challenges
by Paul G. Nixon Vassiliki N. Koutrakou Rajash RawalThis volume critically explores the contentions in the emerging debate surrounding new media technologies and the extent to which they are challenging traditional political and government models. Examining a range of citizen/government interactions which together form e-government in different contexts, this book assesses the potential of new media technologies to facilitate new institutional patterns for governance and participation, as experienced primarily, but not only, across Europe. Analysing a range of challenges spanning from those of a technological and conceptual nature to those of a more political and legal nature, the authors scrutinise the central policies at governmental and organisational levels and consider the following questions: Is society driving or responding to e-government and is it ready to cope with it? What implications does e-government have for the power/democracy relationship? Is the technology right for e-government? What is needed to ensure government services are delivered optimally? How is e-government perceived and is it trusted? How are the sensitive issues of identity, privacy and social inclusion dealt with? How are management and safety dealt with when one considers issues such as activism, cyberterrorism, biometrics, and new implications for international relations? This comprehensive text will be of interest to students and scholars of public policy, politics, media and communication studies, sociology, law and European studies. It will also offer insights of relevance to practitioners and policy-makers in regional, national, and transnational governance, reform and innovation.
Understanding EU Decision-Making
by Edward BestThis book presents in a concise and accessible way why the EU institutional system exists in its present form, how the EU fits into the world as a system of governance, and who is involved in EU policy processes. It outlines the historical context which has shaped the EU system, gives a summary of the system's basic principles and structures, and describes its actors, procedures and instruments. The main theme is to show that EU decision-making is not just a matter of action at some higher and separate level, of 'them and us', but rather that it involves different forms of cooperation between European, national and regional authorities, as well as interaction between public and private actors. Numerous short case studies illustrate how people's day-to-day activities are affected by EU decisions, and how individuals' concerns are represented in the decision-making process. The book provides insights and examples which will be very helpful for all students of European integration. It will also be a valuable resource for European citizens wishing to understand the basic realities and rationales, as well as some of the dilemmas, behind EU policy-making.
Understanding EU-NATO Cooperation: How Member-States Matter (Routledge Studies in European Security and Strategy)
by Nele Marianne Ewers-PetersThis book examines the development of cooperation between the EU and NATO, two key non-state actors in the European security architecture. The work examines the relationship between the EU and NATO by focusing on the perspective of member states. Highlighting the relevance of member states’ role in shaping EU-NATO relations, it conceptualises interorganisational cooperation and develops a typology of member states based on four types: advocates, blockers, balancers and neutrals. To apply this typology and analyse member states’ specific roles, the analysis considers their foreign and security policy orientations, bilateral relationships with other member states, and contributions to both military operations, and division of labour between the two organisations. The book also examines states’ use of political strategies -- such as forum-shopping, hostage-taking and brokering -- that influence the design, evolution and practicalities of cooperation between the EU and NATO. This book will be of much interest to students of European Security and Defence Policy, international organisations, and security studies in general.
Understanding Early Years Policy
by Peter Baldock Damien Fitzgerald Janet KayFully updated to include all the latest developments in early years policy such as the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), this book explores how policy is made, implemented, analysed and developed over time. There is a complete overview of early years policy, and an evaluation of its ongoing impact on practice. Case studies, points for reflection and activities encourage discussion and critical thinking. <P><P> This Third Edition has been significantly updated to include:<P> - a new chapter on international early years policy<P> - discussion of the impact of the recession and the Coalition Government's policies<P> - material on how ordinary practitioners can influence policy<P> - a revised timeline of early years legislation.<P> This text is an essential read for early years students at all levels, and early years practitioners.<P> Peter Baldock worked extensively in Early Years education and was chair of the executive committees of two children's chartities based in Sheffield.<P> Damien Fitzgerald and Janet Kay are both Principal Lecturers in Childhood Studies at Sheffield Hallam University.
Understanding Early Years Policy
by Damien Fitzgerald Janet KayNow in its fourth edition, this bestselling textbook continues to provide fully updated coverage of all the latest developments in early years policy such as the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), SEND Code of Practice 0-25 years and the Children and Families Act 2014. Exploring how policy is made, implemented, analysed and developed over time this book presents a complete overview of early years policy and an evaluation of its ongoing impact on practice. This Fourth Edition has been significantly updated to include: Full coverage of the 2010-2015 UK Coalition Government. A comprehensive timeline of Early Years policy Guidance on how to research policy for yourself More international case studies, now including the US and Scandinavia. New material on how to manage policy changes as a practitioner An expandedfocus of the devolved countries within the UK This text is an essential read for early years students at all levels, and early years practitioners.
Understanding Early Years Policy
by Damien Fitzgerald Janet KayPreviously known as Baldock: Understanding Early Years Policy is in its Fourth Edition. This best-selling textbook continues to provide fully updated coverage of all the latest developments in early years policy such as the revised Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), SEND Code of Practice 0-25 years and the Children and Families Act 2014. Exploring how policy is made, implemented, analysed and developed over time this book presents a complete overview of early years policy and an evaluation of its ongoing impact on practice. This Fourth Edition has been significantly updated to include: Full coverage of the 2010-2015 UK Coalition Government. A comprehensive timeline of Early Years policy Guidance on how to research policy for yourself More international case studies, now including the US and Scandinavia. New material on how to manage policy changes as a practitioner An expandedfocus of the devolved countries within the UK This text is an essential read for early years students at all levels, and early years practitioners.
Understanding East Asia's Economic "Miracles" (Key Issues in Asian Studies)
by Zhiqun ZhuRevised and Expanded Second Edition. Concise yet comprehensive, Zhiqun Zhu’s book is the perfect introduction to the political economy of East Asia for undergraduate and advanced high school classes. Zhu’s analysis of the economic ‘miracles’ of Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan takes into account both domestic factors and the international environment, and is sensitive to the similarities as well as differences between the developmental experiences of these nations. Zhu raises important related issues such as the connections between economic development and democratization, the relative economic contributions of the state and the market, and the portability of the East Asian developmental model. East Asia’s diverse but dynamic experience is valuable precisely because it demonstrates that developing nations need not follow a single approach to prosperity. An excellent book to assign for courses on Asia.
Understanding Economic Growth
by Jati SenguptaModern economies have undergone a dramatic change. There has been a shift from large scale material manufacturing to the design and application of new technology with R&D and human capital. The new information age has introduced significant productivity gains through increasing returns and learning by doing, which has challenged the traditional growth models based on competitive market structures. Institutions outside the traditional markets and the genetic principle of survival of the fittest have dominated the current theory of industry growth. This book coordinates and integrates the two strands of economic growth and development: the endogenous theory of growth and the extra-market models of evolutionary economics dominated by innovation efficiency. It presents this new paradigm in terms of both theory and historical experiences. The book addresses the role of innovations and human capital, the impact of information technology, the role of institutions as mechanisms of evolutionary economies and the experiences of Asian growth miracles, and will be of interest to readers in economics and political science concerned with economic growth and development.
Understanding Economic Transitions: Plan and Market Under the New Globalization
by Berhanu AbegazUnderstanding Economic Transitions explains the genesis, operation, and transformation of the centrally-planned socialist economy, which figured prominently in the lives of billions of people in twentieth-century Europe and Asia. Just as importantly, the centrally-planned socialist economy’s demise coincided with the shift from nonindustrial to industrial economy (and de-industrialization in some cases) and the onset of ICT-driven globalization. Using theory, empirics, and selected country case studies, this book teases out the enduring lessons from the myriad and fraught pathways of transition from socialism to capitalism. Understanding Economic Transitions provides a self-contained, comprehensive, and authoritative treatment of modern economic systems. This textbook has four features of particular use to students: (i) Using the prism of comparative institutionalism, it melds theory and evidence to revisit the varieties of planned and market-driven systems today; (ii) It takes economic planning seriously in theory and practice (central, cooperative, or indicative) as the most prominent marker of the ever-changing boundaries between state and market; (iii) It focuses on the dynamics of systemic transition in formerly socialist countries by contextualizing them in terms of the whence (central planning), the how (modalities of transition), and the whither (illiberal or liberal capitalism) of politico-economic transformation; and (iv) It examines the profound impact on these structural processes of the post-1990 phase of economic globalization. With its clear, comprehensive content and useful pedagogical features, this textbook will prepare students to understand how economies transition and why.
Understanding Economics
by Harlan M. SmithThis accessible workbook has been developed to provide readers with a solid grounding in economic principles. It offers a critical examination of 40 economic theorems and concepts - such as wealth distribution, supply and demand and finance - and the contexts in which they should be understood.