tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-349221452024-03-21T17:09:45.275+00:00The Reflection CafeA PLATFORM FOR THOUGHT AND HUMANITY "In generosity and helping others, be like a river. In compassion and grace, be like the sun. In concealing other's faults, be like the night. In anger and fury, be like dead. In modesty and humility, be like the earth. In tolerance, be like the sea. Either appear as you are, or be as you appear" (Mevlana Rumi) "Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it" (Albert Einstein)
(Contact Address: reflectioncafe@gmail.com)Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.comBlogger474125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-2154131843813325552017-05-19T15:15:00.000+01:002017-05-20T13:17:56.130+01:00Normative Dimensions of the European Crisis<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">European Journal of Political Theory</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Special Issue: Normative Dimensions of the European Crisis</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">April 16, 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Miriam Ronzoni - University of Manchester</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Introduction: Normative Dimensions of the European Crisis</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The project of European integration is arguably currently facing its deepest crisis since its inception. In less than 10 years, what looked like a steady process of political enlargement, institutional consolidation, and economic convergence has come to a halt (or has even shown signs of backsliding). The project is now threatened in its very existence. This is true both for the Eurozone and for the European Union (EU) more generally.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The global financial crisis has exposed the vulnerability of the Eurozone governance structure to exogenous shocks, and highlighted the problem posed by deep economic discrepancies between member states. The crisis has brought into focus the profound and often adverse consequences that current forms of economic and financial integration have for the adequate functioning of both domestic and supranational institutions. Responding to these difficulties, some significant changes have been made to the Eurozone’s mechanisms – initially in the form of conditional lending to indebted Eurozone member states, and subsequently through the establishment of the European Stability Mechanism, the incorporation of evermore stringent rules regarding national debt levels and deficits, and the implementation of debt-brakes through the Fiscal Compact. The Eurozone, however, continues to struggle to find the right balance between further integration on the one hand and protection of the diversity of welfare state arrangements and democratic institutions of individual states on the other.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moreover, new institutions and practices (including, centrally, austerity programs) have been met with profound popular resistance especially in adversely affected countries. This has led to a grave legitimacy crises of Europe’s now fragile-seeming supranational institutions. Some scholars have suggested that this crisis calls for a further push towards supranational integration which, crucially, must replace austerity and debtor-punishment with genuinely democratic procedures and substantive economic solidarity in the form of an EU-wide redistributive mechanism (<a class="ref showRefEvent" data-reflink="_i3" data-rid="bibr1-1474885117704593" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593#" style="color: #006acc; text-decoration-line: none;">Habermas, 2015</a>: 550). Other theorists have argued, to the contrary, that the Euro-system in particular, and the EU’s pro-market economic governance more generally, have failed member states, and that we should therefore revert to a ‘Europe of States’ in order to safeguard (or indeed rescue) both national democracy and national welfare systems (<a class="ref showRefEvent" data-reflink="_i3" data-rid="bibr4-1474885117704593" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593#" style="color: #006acc; text-decoration-line: none;">Scharpf, 2015</a>: 394; <a class="ref showRefEvent" data-reflink="_i3" data-rid="bibr6-1474885117704593" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593#" style="color: #006acc; text-decoration-line: none;">Streeck, 2014</a>: 272). By and large, however, the Euro-crisis, its institutional responses so far, and the political contestation it has encountered have remained relatively under-theorised by political philosophers – especially when compared to the detailed recent treatments by economists (see e.g. <a class="ref showRefEvent" data-reflink="_i3" data-rid="bibr2-1474885117704593" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593#" style="color: #006acc; text-decoration-line: none;">Krugman, 2012</a>; <a class="ref showRefEvent" data-reflink="_i3" data-rid="bibr3-1474885117704593" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593#" style="color: #006acc; text-decoration-line: none;">Sandbu, 2015</a>; <a class="ref showRefEvent" data-reflink="_i3" data-rid="bibr5-1474885117704593" href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593#" style="color: #006acc; text-decoration-line: none;">Stiglitz, 2016</a>).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">To make matters worse, the whole EU, over and above the Eurozone, faces a deep legitimacy crisis. On the 23rd of June 2016, the United Kingdom voted in favour of leaving the EU. And as this special issue goes into print, Prime Minster Theresa May is pushing ahead to trigger Article 50 of the EU Treaty, formally giving notice that the UK will in fact exit the EU. Beyond its practical impact on the EU and the UK, ‘Brexit’ has great symbolic significance both in virtue of its modality (a popular referendum, thus symbolising the public rejection of what is largely perceived to be a technocratic, elitist, and undemocratic institution) and because the United Kingdom was <i>already</i> perceived as the EU member enjoying the highest level of autonomy within the Union. Brexit will be a first, and a first whose modalities and ripple-on effects are all but clear. Questioning EU memberships and the very existence of the EU has, moreover, ceased to be a taboo in many other countries, including several founding members like Italy, the Netherlands, and France. The role of policies of austerity, as well as the vitriolic popular debates that have split Europeans into ‘Northern-creditors’ and ‘Southern-debtors’, can hardly be overstated as we seek to understand this larger phenomenon of disaffection with European integration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The aim of this special issue is to offer a range of perspectives and normative assessments of these recent events and to initiate further research into the fundamental issues raised by recent developments in European economic and financial integration. Specifically, the different articles investigate whether – and if so how – the economic and financial calamities, and the ensuing political crisis, demand a fundamental reassessment of the degree to which supranational arrangements of the kind we find amongst EU(-rozone) member states are (i) compatible with the advancement of social justice and democratic legitimacy within states and (ii) can realistically be designed so as to guarantee free and fair interaction amongst self-determining political communities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Whilst building on the wealth of existing EU scholarship, the articles assembled here especially advance the existing debate along three dimensions:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First, they are all attentive to the quite profound changes that the Euro-crisis has brought to the project of European integration: Such changes have manifested themselves not merely in rapid institutional reforms in response to the crisis (e.g. massive extension of the mandate of the European Central Bank, highly intrusive prescriptions regarding the permissible level of debt and welfare provisions in Southern states, etc.), but also in dramatic shifts in public perception of the point and purpose of European institutions in more crisis-prone states.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Second, these articles seek to relate the existing normative EU literature both to wider theoretical discussions that have exercised political theorists in recent years (most notably to flourishing debates in international political theory and global justice) and to new conceptual tools that these discussions have made available (such as the practice-dependence approach as a method for assessing the normative performance of an institution; or the concept of demoi-cracy as an normative ideal for supranational institutions that is a genuine alternative to both intergovernmentalism and federalism).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Third, and related, they advance the existing debate by assessing the most pressing moral questions not merely in terms of the prevailing conceptual notions used in EU scholarship, many of which focus on questions of democratic procedure (viz. ‘democratic deficit’). Whilst questions of supranational democratic procedure must continue to play a prominent role in our normative assessment of European institutions, there is also room for assessing these institutions in light of other values, most obviously those bearing on political and distributive justice within and between states. These articles are therefore meant to update, advance, and enrich the existing political theory of European integration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Andrea Sangiovanni and Juri Viehoff address the second and especially the third dimension, by exploring the compatibility of specific policies with relevant ideals of social justice, distributive fairness, and solidarity at the European level. But along the way, they also put forward arguments that are relevant to the first dimension, providing reasons in favour or against institutional proposals currently under discussion. Sangiovanni discusses, and rejects, the permissibility of in-work benefits, the welfare reform which David Cameron negotiated with the EU in the Winter of 2015/2016 in the hope of convincing the United Kingdom to remain in the EU after all. To make his case, Sangiovanni surveys and applies recent philosophical theories of discrimination, and marshals his own account as a justice-based objection to illegitimate differentiations between EU workers. Viehoff defends the idea of a European social minimum (a largely unconditional welfare contribution paid to each EU-citizen) as the object of a possible consensus among different relevant normative perspectives – i.e. as something which European federalists and intergovernmentalists, internationalists, and cosmopolitans about justice could all agree to. Stressing the particular urgency of such a proposal in the face of monetary integration, his case relies at least in part on recent Eurozone developments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Inspired by recent applications of neo-republican thinking to questions beyond the state, Richard Bellamy takes by the horns fundamental questions about the EU’s institutional structure, asking in particular which model of sovereignty the EU should embody. The EU is often characterised as having challenged the sovereignty of the member states in ways that are both necessary and desirable. Bellamy disputes both these arguments, by defending state sovereignty as both functionally necessary and normatively desirable if citizens are to be able to reason publicly about issues of common concern, and to resolve their reasonable disagreements in a free and equal manner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally, Francis Cheneval, Kalypso Nicolaïdis, and Miriam Ronzoni discuss the merits of the recently developed idea of <i>demoi-cracy</i>, according to which the EU does and should constitute an alternative to both federalist and intergovernmental institutional model. Drawing on the value of non-domination between heavily interdependent democratic states, Ronzoni offers a sympathetic reading of the normative ideal of demoicracy, but then introduces the distinction between institutional and normative ideals to raise doubts about whether demoicracy can be a distinctive institutional third way. In the final contribution to this issue, Nicolaïdis and Cheneval seek to move the recent scholarship on demoicratic theory a step further by exploring what they refer to as the social construction of the demoicratic reality. In so doing, they propose a conceptual framework for understanding how popular sovereignty could possibly be exercised concurrently by several rather than just one <i>demos</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593">http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474885117704593</a></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-27180545755937827822017-05-19T11:24:00.000+01:002017-05-20T12:03:36.947+01:00The Future of Western Democracies<span style="color: #38761d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvaKLZUYYxqOdGPmaYYawgA" target="_blank">Institute of European Studies</a>, UC Berkeley</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><a href="https://www.boell.de/en/person/ralf-fucks" target="_blank">Ralf Fuecks</a>, </span><span style="background-color: white;">President, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>May 3, 2017</b></span></span><br />
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-90344755426871515082016-01-28T14:50:00.000+00:002016-01-28T15:00:37.022+00:00China Rewrites the Global Rules<div class="surlignable" style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite worries over the end of the Chinese economic miracle and harder times because of the aftershocks of the 2008 financial crisis, global rebalancing is happening — and quickly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>by Philip S Golub</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 1.6em;">The International Monetary Fund’s executive board announced on 30 November that the Chinese currency, the renminbi (RMB) or yuan, would soon be included in the basket of currencies that make up its Special Drawing Rights (SDR), beside the US dollar, the euro, the British pound and the yen.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The decision recognised the growing role of the Chinese currency in international trade settlements. Since the launch in 2009 of a pilot programme for cross-border RMB trade settlements in Asia, the share of Chinese trade settled in RMB has risen from 3.2% to 25%, and should, according to the <i>Financial Times,</i> soon reach 46% (<a class="spip_note" href="https://mondediplo.com/2016/02/08china#nb5-1" id="nh5-1" rel="footnote" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;" title="“The Future of the Renminbi” report, Financial Times, London, 30 November (...)">1</a>). Offshore centres clearing the currency have been set up in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, London and Frankfurt. The RMB is still far from world reserve status, requiring full convertibility and complete capital market liberalisation, which China is not ready for and carries significant risks. But the RMB’s rise is a “momentous event in [...] international finance”, according to a former IMF economist (<a class="spip_note" href="https://mondediplo.com/2016/02/08china#nb5-2" id="nh5-2" rel="footnote" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;" title="Eswar Prasad quoted by James Kynge in “Pivotal moment for the renminbi and (...)">2</a>) — the beginning of a slow shift towards a tripolar world monetary system no longer exclusively centred in the West.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">“Great powers have great currencies,” says Robert Mundell (<a class="spip_note" href="https://mondediplo.com/2016/02/08china#nb5-3" id="nh5-3" rel="footnote" style="color: #990000; text-decoration: none;" title="Robert Mundell quoted by Benjamin J Cohen in “Currency and State Power” in (...)">3</a>). Like the gradual rise of the dollar to reserve status in the early 20th century, the internationalisation of the RMB is part of the larger story of China’s re-emergence as a semi-autonomous core of the world economy, and as the primary driver of the movement of East-West and North-South rebalancing that is a key feature of current world politics. China’s share of world GDP, in purchasing power parity (PPP), has risen in 40 years from less than 2% to over 16%, ahead of the US. Though Chinese economic growth declined with the “great recession” after the 2008 crisis, average per capita GDP (PPP) is now expected to increase within a few years (from $9,800 to $16,000, against $250 in 1980). Longer-range projections, which showed a growth trajectory similar to Japan in the late 20th century, suggest that per capita GDP will reach current Japanese or European levels by the mid-21st century. China is gradually regaining a position in the world economy in keeping with its demographic weight.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">It has become the core of South-South trade and investment linkage, supplanted Japan and the US as the leading trade partner of nearly all East Asian countries, and become a crucial actor in South American, African and South Asian trade. China is now Brazil’s leading trade partner, ahead of the US. There are similar trends in Chile, Argentina and smaller South American economies. South Africa’s export share to China has risen from 1.8% in 1998 to over 12%, while imports have risen from 3% to 15%. Indian exports to China have risen from 2.9% to over 10%, and imports from 2% to 12%.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">This points to a re-patterning of the geography of world trade, and an East Asia-centric South-South trading system, with China at the core. Thanks to new regional and transcontinental linkages centred in East Asia, South-South trade (SST) has expanded more rapidly over 20 years than global trade. In 2013 SST was 25% of world trade, 21% of manufacturing exports, and 25% of exports of manufactures with medium and high technological intensity. Trade between developed countries fell from 46% to less than 30%. The result is a reduction of traditional single-market dependency in Latin American, sub-Saharan and Southeast Asian countries on Europe and the US. This has been accompanied, particularly in East Asia, by industrial upgrading: the “developing” world’s share of manufacturing value-added has risen from 8.8% to nearly 30%, and of merchandise trade from 25% to 47%.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">China’s re-emergence has begun to alter the vertical North-South relations of the age of western empire and industry. This generates new dependencies: when China sneezes, emerging country partners catch colds — as with the current downturns for exporters of primary goods because of China’s slowing growth. The impact of the global crisis on China evinces the need for a sustainable development strategy focused on domestic improvements rather than export growth. Even so, we are witnessing a structural change in the global economic and political hierarchy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Politics has lagged behind economics, but a gradual reordering of world politics is visible in the growing voice of the South in organisations and clubs (G20), its activism in world politics, and new international institution-building efforts bypassing traditional centres of authority. Frustrated by the slow pace of change, notably in the IMF and World Bank, China has been leading the effort of global South countries to create a new system to govern the world economy. In 2013 Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (the BRICS) set up the New Development Bank (NDB),headquartered in Shanghai, with a capital base (money paid in and pledged) of $100bn; this will combine investment and monetary functions, serving as a lending institution for infrastructure development projects as well as a reserve facility for balance of payments issues. In 2014 China founded the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which, like the NDB, has a $100bn capital base (the Japanese-led Asian Development Bank has $160bn, the World Bank $220bn).</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>Full-text available at:</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times new roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 25.6px;"><a href="https://mondediplo.com/2016/02/08china"><b>https://mondediplo.com/2016/02/08china</b></a></span></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-5141717576498351342015-10-21T19:02:00.000+01:002015-10-31T19:03:00.984+00:00The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Angus Deaton, Winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: left;" width="640"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In <i>The Great Escape</i>, Angus Deaton--one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty--tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts--including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions--that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">Demonstrating how changes in health and living standards have transformed our lives, <i>The Great Escape</i> is a powerful guide to addressing the well-being of all nations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><b>Angus Deaton</b>, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in economics, is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of Economics and International Affairs in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and the Economics Department at Princeton University. His many books include <i>The Analysis of Household Surveys</i> and <i>Economics and Consumer Behavior</i>. He is a past president of the American Economic Association.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="reviews"></a><b>Reviews:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"If you want to learn about why human welfare overall has gone up so much over time, you should read <i>The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality</i>."<b>--Bill Gates</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"[O]ne of the most succinct guides to conditions in today's world. . . . The story Deaton tells--the most inspiring human story of all--should give all of us reason for optimism, so long as we are willing to listen to its moral."<b>--David Leonhardt, <i>New York Times Book Review</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"[A]n illuminating and inspiring history of how mankind's longevity and prosperity have soared to breathtaking heights in modern times. . . . [Deaton's] book gives a stirring overview of the economic progress and medical milestones that, starting with the Industrial Revolution and accelerating after World War II, have caused life expectancies to soar."<b>--Fred Andrews, <i>New York Times</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"[A]n engaging and sure-footed guide to the 'endless dance between progress and inequality . . .'"<b>--Martha C. Nussbaum, <i>New Republic</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"Is the world becoming a fairer as well as a richer place? Few economists are better equipped to answer this question than Angus Deaton of Princeton University, who has thought hard about measuring international well-being and is not afraid to roam through history. Refreshingly, Mr Deaton also reaches beyond a purely economic narrative to encompass often neglected dimensions of progress such as better health. . . . [T]he theme requires a big canvas and bold brushwork, and Mr Deaton capably offers both."<b>--<i>Economist</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">"[E]loquently written and deeply researched. . . . For those interested in world poverty, it is unquestionably the most important book on development assistance to appear in a long time."<b>--Kenneth Rogoff, <i>Project Syndicate</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="TOC"></a><b>Table of Contents:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;"><i>Preface</i> ix<br />Introduction: What This Book Is About 1<br />1 The Wellbeing of the World 23<br />PART I LIFE AND DEATH<br />2 From Prehistory to 1945 59<br />3 Escaping Death in the Tropics 101<br />4 Health in the Modern World 126<br />PART II MONEY<br />5 Material Wellbeing in the United States 167<br />6 Globalization and the Greatest Escape 218<br />PART III HELP<br />7 How to Help Those Left Behind 267<br />Postscript: What Comes Next? 325<br /><i>Notes</i> 331<br /><i>Index</i> 351</span><br />
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<a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10054.html"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: small;">http://press.princeton.edu/titles/10054.html</span></a><br />
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-75559029511498102442015-09-16T18:45:00.000+01:002015-10-31T18:46:42.051+00:00The European Crisis<div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Michael Walzer, Dissent Magazine</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">September 11, 2015</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The crisis in Europe today is felt most dramatically and most painfully by tens of thousands of refugees. They are indeed in critical need of help, and many of them will die if their needs are not recognized and met. But this is also a crisis for the people of Europe, for they are the ones, right now, who must recognize and meet those needs, and if they fail to do that, the idea of Europe will die. The dream of a new kind of commonwealth, a commonwealth of mutual responsibility and liberal values, will be over; we will wake up to a grim day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 1938, in an earlier European crisis, with refugees clamoring to enter France, Leon Blum, the leader of the Socialist Party and the prime minister of the short-lived Popular Front government of 1936, gave a speech whose key sentences are worth repeating today. This is what he said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Your house may already be full. That may be. But when they knock on your door, you will open it, and you will not ask them for their birth certificates or criminal records or vaccination certificates.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What a joy it would be to hear a Socialist leader in Europe today speak like that! François Hollande came close: “It is the duty of France, where the right to asylum is an integral part of its soul, its flesh. . . .” But he then announced that France would admit 24,000 refugees over the next two years—too few, given the numbers knocking on the door.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Blum in ’38 went on to say that the refugees would not necessarily stay in France. A more general solution to the crisis was required, as it is today, permitting the return of people to their homelands or their resettlement in different countries, which would share the burden of providing for them. But they needed a place, they need a place, right now: “How can you refuse them shelter for a night?” Blum asked. In Europe today, only the Germans and the Swedes have opted strongly against refusal; Italy and Greece are overwhelmed and eager to help the refugees on their way to other places. The EU as a whole is once again, as Europe was in the 1930s, a world of borders and refusals.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Faced with the desperate plight of the migrants, the countries of Europe (and other countries, too—I’ll come to them) face a clear choice: they can help stem the tide, by confronting the poverty, civil wars, and predatory governments that produce it, or they can take people in for the night and for many nights. I guess it isn’t actually a choice; some version of both is morally and politically necessary. Let me say something, very briefly, about each of them, starting with the second.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The immense task of providing shelter for a night has fallen on countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, where several million refugees are now housed or tented in camps with inadequate, most often radically inadequate, shelter, sanitation, and health services. Even for this, the costs are enormous, and richer countries, most of whom don’t want to see these people at their borders, have nonetheless failed to help them, or to help them enough, where they are. Men, women, and children are fleeing the camps, on a very dangerous journey to those European borders, which are mostly closed to legal crossings. Illegal crossings are now a big business, which, like other businesses in our neoliberal world, produce many casualties. Stories of injury and death at the hands of traffickers have become commonplace, and they move us, though not very much. But the people won’t stop coming, so the crossings must be made legal and help provided on a scale that matches the wealth of the providers. Your house may be full. It doesn’t matter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">European leaders, led by Germany’s Merkel, have talked about dividing the burden by assigning quotas to each member state of the EU: so many refugees for you, so many for you. The numbers discussed have been too small, but as of this writing, no assignments have been made or accepted. Iceland has done better.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And what about the United States, where Liberty lifts its torch to welcome the huddled masses? There isn’t much of a welcome these days. We have taken in very few of the refugees from Iraq, very few even of the people who cooperated with U.S. occupation and whose lives were therefore in danger, and even fewer from Syria.<a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/michael-walzer-european-refugee-crisis#ftn1" id="ftnref1" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: black; outline: none;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; outline: none; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">*</span></a> Our politicians are vying with each other in their enthusiasm for keeping out Mexicans, so why would they open the door to people from so far away? We should be assisting Europe or, better, embarrassing Europe, by taking in significant numbers of people—especially from parts of the world that we have helped to ruin. It should be easier for us, an immigrant society, than for the Europeans who persist in thinking of themselves, against a lot of evidence, as a land of anciently rooted and entirely homogeneous populations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In a recent <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none;">New York Times</em> op-ed, Ross Douthat counseled prudence: advocates of opening the door are “blind to the realities of culture, the challenges of assimilation, and the danger and inevitability of backlash.” He is right, of course, about the realities, the challenges, and the danger, but what follows from being right? In the 1840s, the United States took in tens of thousands of Irish Catholic peasants fleeing the potato famine—immigrants who, our nativists insisted, would never learn the virtues of democratic citizenship (only Protestants could do that). And, yes, we got the backlash of the Know-Nothing Party, which was briefly a majority party in parts of the northeast. But sometimes dangers have to be met, not avoided.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What about other countries, where the dangers might be less threatening than in Europe? India and China seem sufficiently crowded, but Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil, Argentina—surely these countries have room for some number of desperate people. The countries most responsible for the Syrian disaster—Iran, Russia, and Saudi Arabia—have taken in none at all of its victims; they should be welcoming Syrians by the thousands. Indeed, in all of these countries, and ours too, an influx of immigrants would, over time, strengthen the economy and enhance the culture. And, not to worry, if there is ever peace in their homelands, many of the refugees will go home.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is there any way of bringing peace to their homelands, or of reducing poverty, or of replacing predatory rulers? Besides taking people in, we have a responsibility to help them where they are. Not having helped them where they are, and sometimes having hurt them, Europeans and Americans, and others too, must take them in. But, still, it would be a good thing to change the conditions that drive so many into exile. People don’t leave their homes willingly; it takes a disaster to produce large numbers of refugees, looking for a better place or just a place to rest for a while. A serious, sustained policy of investment, substantially funded but carefully and locally focused, could begin to reduce poverty in, say, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. But politics is probably a more common cause of disasters than economics is, and wars, warlords, and tyrants require a more forceful intervention. We are rightly leery of anything like that. Overthrow a tyrant, like Qaddafi, say, and you get a chaos of thugs and zealots—and then thousands of people fleeing. What ought to be done?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have a utopian solution, which is also politically incorrect. There are countries in the world today that ought to be, for a time, not-independent and not-sovereign. What the world needs, and what the UN might provide if it were the organization it was meant to be: a new trusteeship system for countries that are temporarily unable to govern themselves. The old mandate system of the League of Nations was not a great success, but it did not produce, and perhaps it prevented, disasters like the ones we are helplessly watching today. For the last decade and a half, Kosovo has been a kind of NATO trust—again, not a glorious example, for refugees are still fleeing, but at least the killing has stopped. So perhaps it isn’t crazy to suggest that Libya and Syria ought to be UN trusteeships, with some coalition of countries, different in each case, taking responsibility for maintaining law and order and providing basic services to the population—under strict UN supervision. I hesitate to suggest the countries that might serve as trustees, since I wouldn’t want to vouch for any country’s trustworthiness. But great virtue isn’t necessary, only a readiness to stop the killing, get rid of the killers, and provide enough stability for the citizens of the war-ravaged countries to begin rebuilding. That has to be their work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Full-text available at:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 24px;"><a href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/michael-walzer-european-refugee-crisis">https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/michael-walzer-european-refugee-crisis</a></span></span></div>
Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-7954986499524757252015-08-17T09:25:00.000+01:002015-09-03T09:26:47.982+01:00Summer Readings<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/jul/09/our-universities-outrageous-reality/" target="_blank">Our Universities: The Outrageous Reality</a>, Andrew Delbanco</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://www.amacad.org/content/publications/publication.aspx?d=21781" target="_blank">Public Research Universities: Why They Matter</a>, AAAS</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/pope-and-planet/" target="_blank">The Pope and the Planet</a>, Bill McKibben</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/what-wrong-wests-economies/" target="_blank">What Is Wrong with the West’s Economies?</a>, Edmund S. Phelps</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/mystery-isis/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Mystery of ISIS, NYRB</span></a><br />
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<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/aug/13/china-superpower-mr-xi/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: inherit;">China: The Superpower of Mr. Xi, NYRB</span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/september-2015" target="_blank">Dual Enrollment: Is High School the Future of Higher Education?</a>, AHA Forum </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2007/what-does-it-mean-to-think-historically" target="_blank">What Does It Mean to Think Historically?,</a> Thomas Andrews and Flannery Burke</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2006/how-long-to-the-phd" target="_blank">How Long to the PhD?</a>, Robert B. Townsend</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/january-2005/how-do-we-learn-from-history" target="_blank">How Do We Learn from History?</a>, James J. Sheehan</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://newleftreview.org/II/94/marco-d-eramo-after-waterloo" target="_blank">After Waterloo</a>, Marco D`eramo</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/09/02/the-failure-of-the-eus-technocrats/" target="_blank">The Failure of the EU’s Technocrats</a>, AI</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://twq.elliott.gwu.edu/escaping-civil-war-trap-middle-east" target="_blank">Escaping the Civil War Trap in the Middle East</a>, K. M. Pollack and B. F. Walter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-3992357606837818202015-07-15T11:39:00.000+01:002015-09-01T11:39:55.359+01:00The Colors of Earth (XXXVI)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-62534849132565855932015-06-15T11:37:00.000+01:002015-09-01T11:38:06.756+01:00The Colors of Earth (XXXV)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-1170111050088286082015-05-22T14:30:00.000+01:002015-05-29T14:28:33.294+01:00On Happiness and Serenity<div align="justify">
<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/2499/3876/1600/237456/serenity.jpg"><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/2499/3876/320/412402/serenity.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></strong></span></a><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong><img alt="" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/2499/3876/320/24535/KarasuToksozB_1m.jpg" style="cursor: hand; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px;" /></strong></span><a href="http://www.aecom.yu.edu/home/psychiatry/tbkbiosketch.htm"><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>T. Byram Karasu</strong></span></a><span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: #993300;">, </span><span style="color: #990000;">M.D., is the Silverman Professor of Psychiatry and University Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and Psychiatrist-in-Chief of Montefiore Medical Center. He is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, including the seminal Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders and The Art of Serenity, a New York Times bestseller. He is editor in chief of the American Journal of Psychotherapy and a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Karasu is a scholar, renowned clinician, teacher, and lecturer, and the recipient of numerous awards. He lives in New York City and Connecticut.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: #663300;"><span style="color: #999999;">(Barnes & Noble.com)</span><strong> In an interview with his publisher, Dr. Karasu talks about his latest book, The Spirit of Happiness.</strong></span> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Why did you write The Spirit of Happiness?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">I have practiced psychiatry for the last thirty-five years. I have written many articles and books about psychological care and sought out factors that might help people to be happy. I've studied the works of many psychologists and philosophers, and I have read the popular books that explore sources of happiness and the meaning of life. They deliver advice on self-actualization, success at work, relationships, marriage, worldviews and philosophies of living. The proliferation of these "self-ultimacy" books validates my conviction that the answer to the human dilemma can't be found in the realm of the mind. The works of secular gurus demonstrate again and again that making the mind of man its own center generates only personal confusion, unhappiness, and communal disorders. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">In my book, The Art of Serenity, I identified six tenets of soulfulness and spirituality as the basic requirements for happiness: The Love of Others, The Love of Work, The Love of Belonging, Believing in the Sacred, Believing in Unity, and Believing in Transformation. I emphasized that a secular person may cultivate these extraordinary tenets but it will be difficult to maintain them without divine inspiration. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">This book begins where the Art of Serenity ended, with the belief in and the love of God. This book will guide you to the next and final step: To become godly. </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: trebuchet ms;">.</span><span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><br />To believe -- to have faith -- in God means trusting that there is a reason for the existence of everything in this world and beyond, and that there is meaning in its mystery. It means believing that there is a Holy Purpose. To be godly means to resonate with God's Holy Purpose, to bring all your personal and mundane purposes under its umbrella. If you not only have faith, but also become godly, you'll be a recipient of God's help, friendship and boundless generosity in every aspect of your life. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">In this book I use the Bible as the only source of reference. Throughout the centuries, men and wisdom have praised the Bible's guidance for truthful living; its cheerful urgings of love and compassion; its eternal lessons of serenity amidst the tribulations and adversities of the world; its tender teachings of the mysteries of life. As Heinrich Heine says in Ludwig Boerne (1840), "Great and wide as the world, rooted in the abysmal depths of creation and rising aloft into the blue mysteries of heaven...sunrise and sunset, promise and fulfillment, birth and death, the whole human drama, everything is in this book. It is the Book of Books, Biblia." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">I am not a man of the cloth, merely a student of the human dilemma. Any theologian who reads this book will easily see the hand of a layman at work and I hope will forgive any of my shortcomings. With that proviso, I will present how you can find God's Holy Purpose and become godly. I will describe what godliness means in all aspects of your life, ranging from your career to relationships with your spouse, children, friends, colleagues and even strangers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Only by being godly can you be strong and successful, find joy and happiness, and live an extraordinarily meaningful existence while leading an ordinary life. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>What is your definition of happiness?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Happiness is a state of serenity, an inner peacefulness that is the culmination of six factors which I describe in the book: 1) the love of others; 2) the love of work; 3) the love of belonging; 4) believing in the sacred; 5) believing in unity; 6) believing in transformation. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>How is happiness in adulthood different from the happiness commonly associated with the lost paradise of childhood?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The happiness that we associate with childhood is related to a sense of omnipotence, immortality, and an unbridled self-entitlement. It derives from an infantile return to blissful merger with mother, a regressive union without self-boundaries or responsibility. In adulthood, these same sentiments only bring unhappiness (frustration, fear, rejection). Instead, adults need to strive for reciprocity, compassion, realism and coming to terms with one's mortality. It is cultivation of others' gardens. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Your book revolves around the concepts and actions of soulfulness and spirituality. Could you explain what you mean by being a soulful and a spiritual person?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The soulful person is one who is patient, generous, forgives mistakes of others, accepts his loved ones as they are, who protects their privacy and solitude, values their interests, celebrates their peculiarities, and seeks no perfection in others. The soulful person is committed to this work energetically and enthusiastically. The ones who harness themselves to their work are like an "ox to a heavy cart;" they burn like a good bonfire, not like a "smoky fire." The soulful person goes down uncharted roads in order to grow full and strong. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The spiritual person "kneels at the feet of all creatures," values everything but holds them loosely. He seeks simplicity and the wisdom of ordinariness. The spiritual individual gratefully wants what he already has and smiles with a sacred optimism. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The spiritual person believes that we all share a common well, a divine womb. In a state of feeling oneness with the universe, he doesn't capture things but beholds the world as one might look at stars. His or her love is a love with no object. It is just love. By such love, passion is transformed to compassion, with joyful recognition that no seed ever sees its flower. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The spiritual person believes in continuity, that we are finite in our presently expressed form, eternal in all other potential forms, that humans, animals, and vegetation all are one product, that eternity is living everywhere and everything. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Why is self-love the first step toward true joy? What distinguishes this vital quality from self-serving narcissism?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Benign self-love is self-recognition and self-acceptance. Without that, one cannot love others. Loving others begins with the internalization of being loved. Self-serving narcissism is not self-love but self-doubt, if not self-hate. Such persons would go to any extent to be the center of attention at the expense of others, including drowning them in their own pathology. In contrast, self-love goes beyond the self; it is egoless. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>What are some of the key mistakes men and women make in their quest for a soulmate?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Some of the key mistakes incorporate the erroneous belief that the other person must compensate for one's own sense of failure or unhappiness, must somehow supply what is felt to be missing. Such mistakes manifest themselves as blaming each other, never apologizing, enmeshment with each other, not forgiving (and forgetting) discretions and mistakes, demanding that the other person be like himself (or herself) i.e., normal; not tolerating their peculiarities, never mind the celebrating their differences. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Given today's unstable economy and competitive pressures, work has become a source of anxiety for workers across the board. Is it possible to find real satisfaction in any job?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The absence of work generates depression, lowers one's self-esteem and weakens one's immunological system. Descarte's motto, "I think therefore I am," should be replaced with "I work therefore I am." Without work, a person not only may not be able to survive financially but is also psychologically bereft. Our work provides a framework for our usefulness. In that sense, cleaning streets or teaching students share the same commonality. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">On the other hand, there are people who have jobs but are unhappy in what they do or where they do it. It is true that some jobs are easier or better paying than others or better located. However, these factors do not determine one's happiness or unhappiness at work. Such people need to self-reflect, to tease out the unsatisfactory aspect of the job as they perceive it from their personal disposition for dissatisfaction. Some people who complain about their jobs tend to be simply less competent in their specific tasks (thus not rewarded or praised by their superiors) or/and less competent in interpersonal relationships (thus either rejected by their co-workers or frequently in conflict with them). Therefore, inevitably unhappy, they will have the same situation no matter what job they take. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Some other people expect their jobs to provide everything that is missing in their lives, including the meaning of life. They complain about the "meaninglessness" of their work. There is no meaningful or meaningless work; there is only work. The meaning is extracted from any type of work by making a full commitment to it. Meaningfulness is a by-product of one's engagement with one's work. The magical process of transmuting ordinary work into something of true merit requires love of one's work (even seemingly unlovable work) and putting one's signature on it with full energy and singular attention. Such people, whether a doorman or a CEO, have glitter in their eyes. This is the glitter of self-love and self-confidence because as Thomas Moore says, "the love that goes out into your work comes back as self-love." </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Why is a sense of belonging crucial to happiness? How can people who live in a guarded suburb or fragmented city far away from their families and close friends begin to create a sense of community?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">One can't be happy in isolation. We are social animals; we cannot survive alone. Without a bounded mooring, we are too anxious to be happy. The amorphous threat of the infinite from without and from within has a disorganizing effect on the mind. The basic structure of community imposed upon the individual (no matter how much we complain about it) provides the security of belonging. Cut flowers don't last long. Communion makes our sorrows bearable, offers the salvation of restraint and an alternate psychological home when needed. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">People in fragmented communities have to make even greater efforts to belong. The cohesiveness of their immediate family becomes even more important for their wellbeing. Through various media, they have to attempt to establish contact with their extended families, schools, social clubs, and/or religious affiliations. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>How can life's greatest challenges -- failure, illness, loss -- actually bring people closer to experiencing lasting, joyful serenity?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Failures are as ephemeral as successes. Both are simply blessed illusions. It is like falling down and getting up. It is still you. The failures validate not only one's limitations but also one's potentials. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Losses are partly self-losses. There is no comfort and consolation needed. The divine light is embedded in the darkest shadows that can transfigure that unbearable pain into quiet serenity. Each person who comes through this world is called upon at some time or other to bear some of the weight of the pain that befalls the world, says Gary Zukav. You must learn to hurt better and you must be worthy of your suffering. Illnesses are just extensions of one's health. Everyone gets sick sooner or later. It is the most beaten path. Illnesses are also sacred signals, telling us of our need for realignment and giving us the opportunity to reframe our lives. They may contain messages from the depths of one's psyche that one may be on the wrong track, in the wrong profession, in the wrong relations, in the wrong town, etc. The person must first shift the valence of his life from suffering to calling. One must also focus on not what is wrong with one's body, but on what is right; not with what is broken but with what is not, and remain in harmony with one's divine discontent. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>But what happens when one does not tolerate life's challenges well?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Those who do not adjust well to life's challenges excommunicate themselves. They would be alienated from their families, their colleagues at work and their friends. Their nostalgic preoccupations and chronic frustrations are depressive and contagious. Therefore, people tend to avoid them in self protection. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>What do you see as the toll of our national loathing of old age? What advice can you offer for aging gracefully, in body and in spirit?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Youth and beauty are definitely praiseworthy for their age-specific criteria. Old age gets loathed if viewed by the same criteria. The old people's self-loathing is partly responsible for this. We do not have a coherent philosophy of aging. Instead of a dignified melancholy of aging resonating with old age, we angrily fight it and slip into a kind of neurosis of aging. Acceptance of aging brings some ripe sadness and light anxiety, which could bring out the depth and flavor of one's character. Aging gives weight and density to one's personality. It distills the various lifelong experiences into a meaningful whole. It allows one's thoughts, beliefs and values to coalesce into a life philosophy. Now that is worthy of praise. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Why do nature and history matter to personal happiness?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Happiness cannot occur in isolation from one's fellow beings or from nature. The self is best experienced by being part of a greater universe, by blurring of boundaries between human, nonhuman, light and space. In a great chain of beings all is continuous and homogenous. We are happy if nature is happy because we are part of nature. The communion with nature is a sacred source of joyfulness. As to history, our state of mind is influenced by our personal as well as our archetypal past -- the collective unconscious, which is multigenerational and always preempts the personal one. Our collective past frames our individual present. Our myths are our mutual philosophy. Without them we are alone. History provides continuity with our past and the prospect of learning from it for the future. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>What words of wisdom can you share for coping with the ultimate fear – dying? How can the terminally ill and their loved ones still find happiness in life?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">The fear of dying is universal because of the uncertainty, pain and loss associated with it, as well as our not being able to comprehend the idea of "no longer being." This fear is intensified and becomes a dread when one's sense of self is too closely identified with external factors. That is, the less one knows oneself, the worse the fear. The process of dying must be lived. Commonly, not having lived preempts that experience of dying. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">It is difficult to find happiness at the time of one's own terminal illness or that of a loved one, if the person has not cultivated a philosophy of life and death earlier in his/her life. Such a philosophy can be highly personal or communal, i.e., religion. My personal philosophy is as follows: "eternity" -- permanency -- is the result of a combination of transitory factors; becoming "nothing" is the path to being everything; primordial dissolution is the ultimate serenity. Life is an eternal recycling. We are finite in our presently expressed forms but eternal in all potential forms. Meanwhile, I would suggest that you should not waste time by despairing in thinking of your end, just come to terms with it, and drink deep from the well now. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>In your book, you make a powerful case for the importance of religion. Why can't a person live a good and genuinely happy life without adhering to any church's doctrine?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">A person can live a good and genuinely happy life by being soulful and spiritual without adhering to any religious doctrine. Religions serve many purposes, including those of providing a congregation, identity, and a ready-made paradigm for living. They promise continuity with the past and the future, and eternal belonging. Religion is a communal matrix. It is very difficult to formulate an individual paradigm to meet all of one's needs. Some can make it and even flourish; most others need to be planted next to a stream of religion for survival. Even secular spirituality rests on the tenets of religion. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>Why do you believe that people all over the planet overwhelmingly and innately believe in God?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">When you look at the enormity of a starry night in which time and space seem interchangeable, or you think of the myriad of transmitters and hormones that control your body, you are awed and frightened. Then you wonder: does all this represent the visible programming of the universe by an invisible force? Jung says that we are wired for God, the programmer. It is an instinctual yearning. We need to relate our existence to a greater force, especially at times of the impending loss of a loved one or during severe illnesses. We believe, therefore we are. This innate belief in God infallibly ties all loose ends, frames our lives, gives aim to our existence, provides meaning for our God-like behavior -- caring, compassion, mercy, goodness, justice, etc. God is love, God is truth, God is humility, God is accountability. We want that. God is an ascetic surrender and sum of all virtues that we long to emulate. We want to receive the reward of having little to apologize for or to repent of at the end of our lives. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong>What would you most like readers to gain and put into daily practice from their encounter with The Spirit of Happiness?</strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">I would want them to make a quantum leap to reframe and enjoy their lives by being godly: learn the nature of real love and holy relationship; learn how to extract meaning from seemingly meaningless works; learn how to knit ourselves into a convivium (living together) with others and in nature; explore a reality other than that of our five senses; happily experience the God within, and tap the underground river of spirituality -- to be optimistic and serene. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Ultimately, I would want them not to be afraid of illnesses, despair, losses or death, to give an aim to their life (fortunes as well as misfortunes) and death. This is a wonderful world!<br />--------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><strong><span style="color: #663300;">In the winter of 2003, T. Byram Karasu, M.D., answered some of our questions"</span></strong> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><strong><span style="color: #993300;">What was the book that most influenced your life?</span></strong> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;">A biography of Albert Schweitzer. Here was a man, an accomplished musician, writer, and professor of theology and philosophy living in the comfortable civilized world of Strasbourg, who decides to become a physician. He leaves everything behind him and goes to Africa to help natives without any conventional gains associated with it. If anything there would be all sorts of losses: financial, health, and even danger to his life. For example, he was detained in an old French mental hospital as a prisoner of war during World War II. This was the first time I heard of someone intentionally serving others without any obvious benefit for himself. That totally confused me. I was only 11 years old and just learning the nature of reciprocity in human relationships. Schweitzer's behavior betrayed common sense. Some adults explained his behavior cynically: "He must have been running away from something!"; "He might have wanted to be famous!"; "He was having a sort of nervous breakdown!", etc. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="color: #006600;">Full-text of the interview available, click</span> </span><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1034846#interview"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms;">here</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: trebuchet ms;">.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #000099; font-family: trebuchet ms;"><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="color: #006600;"><strong>B. Karasu's Books:</strong></span></span></span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780876686911"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Psychotherapy for Depression</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 1990</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780765703255"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Wisdom in the Practice of Psychotherapy</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 1992</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9781568218212"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Deconstruction of Psychotherapy</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 1996</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9781568216898"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">The Psychotherapist's Interventions</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 1998</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780765703026"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">The Psychotherapist as Healer</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 2001</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780743228312"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">The Art of Serenity</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 2003</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780765703774"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">The Art of Marriage Maintenance</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 2005</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780743289030"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">The Spirit of Happiness</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 2006</span><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=9780742546899"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">Of God and Madness: A Historical Novel</span></a><span style="color: #990000; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 85%;">, 2006</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1034846#interview"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 78%;">http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writerdetails.asp?z=y&cid=1034846#interview</span></a></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-61891006213882265272015-04-15T13:54:00.000+01:002015-04-15T13:55:16.300+01:00The Colors of Earth (XXXIV)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-20104114924894130932015-02-16T10:24:00.000+00:002015-03-11T20:51:07.602+00:00'50 Ways to Live the Good Life'<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Tod7l_F7fnyOen8bGL6TK2mZuQ0GpJqsCP8RX2VGQsCGySjQ2qU5c8hoJLK36u9MGBDjQa1wPfbmjarKuRmTjrytW-qQ6E250Ebbz6Iq9rzWdjzwcUBOIPkJp6kesl9fmHCMJg/s1600-h/12034577.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2Tod7l_F7fnyOen8bGL6TK2mZuQ0GpJqsCP8RX2VGQsCGySjQ2qU5c8hoJLK36u9MGBDjQa1wPfbmjarKuRmTjrytW-qQ6E250Ebbz6Iq9rzWdjzwcUBOIPkJp6kesl9fmHCMJg/s400/12034577.jpg" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5270158776258120466" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 296px;" /></a><br />
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<li class="publisher">Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers</li>
<li class="pubDate">Pub. Date: December 2006</li>
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">With her 25th book, lifestyle philosopher Alexandra Stoddard offers simple steps for taking charge of your life--your way. In brief essays filled with useful examples and optimism, she reveals 50 choices you can make to live joyfully in pursuit of what is true, good, and beautiful. Her essays help us trust ourselves ("Intuition is your guiding light"), stay steady in a storm ("Your choices count most in a crisis"), embrace the new ("Accept opportunity"), address unfinished business ("Have as few regrets as possible"), surround ourselves with delights ("Redefine what is beautiful"), and remember to have fun ("Cheap thrills are thrilling"). </span></div>
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As a pioneering writer and lecturer on personal happiness for the past twenty years, Alexandra has inspired millions to break the "rules" and pursue fulfillment. Now, as scientists have begun to discover the benefits of living a happy life, Alexandra provides practical ways to live happily every day. She puts us in charge of our choices, reminding us that we always have a choice about what we think, feel, and do. When we are true to ourselves, we can fly above stress and conflict, contented and confident that we are the right path.</div>
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Every choice you make is an opportunity to delight in life. <i>You Are Your Choices</i> offers insight and companionship each step of the way.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Deborah Bigelow - Library Journal</span></h3>
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Stoddard's (<i>Living a Beautiful Life</i>) guide, which invites readers to live a good, beautiful, and true life, fits right in with people's desire to live life differently in the new year. In 50 short essays, Stoddard incorporates the thoughts of great philosophers and leaders into commonsense ideas for daily application. She invites readers to embrace variety, e.g., by tasting a new flavor of ice cream or learning to identify constellations. Similarly, she encourages the celebration of simple rituals by using a special bar of soap or a beautiful towel for hand washing. Everyone will undoubtedly find something of value in this gem of a book for most public libraries.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 100%;">Biography</span></h3>
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Alexandra Stoddard is the author of more than twenty-five books and is a sought-after speaker on the art of living well. Through her lectures, articles, media appearances, and books such as <i>Choosing Happiness</i>, <i>Things I Want My Daughters to Know</i>, <i>You Are Your Choices</i>, and many more, she has inspired people around the world to pursue more fulfilling lives. She and her husband, Peter Megargee Brown, live in Stonington Village, Connecticut.</div>
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<span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">An Invitation 1</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Every Day, Commit Yourself to Experiencing the Good Life 4</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Be True to All Your Choices 9</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Be Responsible-Say No 12</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Stand On Your Own Two Feet 15</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Information Is Not Inspiration 19</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Take Satisfaction in Doing the Right Thing 22</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Go After What You Love 25</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Have Realistic Expectations 29</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Live from the Inside Out 33</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Celebrate Simple Ceremonies 36</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Reevaluate Your Priorities Regularly 43</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Have as Few Regrets as Possible 48</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Leave the Safe Harbor 52</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Who Knows, It Might Be Good 57</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Redefine What Is Beautiful 61</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">The Power of Flowers 67</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Share the Beauty 72</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Live with the Objects You Love 75</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Why Not Be Comfortable? 80</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Maintain Balance Through Your Choices 84</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Cultivate Good Energy 87</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Cheap Thrills Are Thrilling 91</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">You Own Your Self 95</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Stop Complaining 98</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Accept Responsibility 101</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Be Aware 104</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Your Choices Count Most in a Crisis 107</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Faster Isn't Better 109</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Reach Out-Literally 113</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Privacy Please 116</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">A Free Day for You 119</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Good Design Matters 122</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Enough Is Enough 125</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Give Yourself Time 130</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Get Going 134</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Embrace Variety 138</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Move On 143</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Walk Away 147</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">See the Big in the Little 150</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Surround Yourself with People You Trust 154</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Intuition Is Your Guiding Light 157</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Never Say Never 160</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Understand the Law of Cause and Effect 162</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Choose Love for Yourself and Others 165</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Do More Things That Make You Happy 168</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Trust Your Subjective Well-Being 171</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Avoid Perfection in Pursuit of Excellence 176</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Get Organized 181</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Why Not Now? 186</span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: #006600; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">Wise Choices, Yes, and Good Luck 190</span><span style="font-family: courier new; font-size: 100%;"><br /></span><span style="color: white; font-family: trebuchet ms; font-size: 100%;">.</span><br />
<span style="color: #993300; font-family: courier new; font-size: 85%;">Source: <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780060897833&">B</a><a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?ean=9780060897833&">arnes and Noble</a></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-17510483642363457212015-01-21T16:28:00.000+00:002015-01-22T17:09:40.322+00:00Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img alt="Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey" src="http://images3.ehaus2.co.uk/xmla/image-service.asp?k=9780230354272&dbm=macmillan&size=m&source=macmillan" height="320" width="204" /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white;">E.Fuat Keyman, Sabanc<span style="line-height: 20.2222232818604px;">ı University</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 20.2222232818604px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Şebnem Gümüşçü, Middlebury College </b></span></span><br />
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #999999; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Palgrave Macmillan, 2014</b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The recent history of Turkey is dominated by the country's transformation into a modern democracy. Over the past few years Turkey has been increasingly recognised as a nation of economic, political and cultural significance as well as being a vital political connection between Europe and the Middle East. In this compelling volume, Professor Keyman and Dr. Gumüsçu put democratisation in Turkey under the microscope with an especial focus on recent transformations under the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Accordingly, it explores to what extent Turkey's transformation under the AKP has led to democratic consolidation as well as asking if there is a disconnect between economic, cultural, and urban transformation, on the one hand, and democratic consolidation on the other? Furthermore, this book also takes the opportunity to explore several issues that have a direct effect on the consolidation of Turkish democracy such as globalization, foreign policy activism, the kurdish question, religious governance and civil society. By critically analyzing the dialectic between domestic transformations and global/regional dynamics, the book also discusses the ways in which Turkish transformation is affected by the Arab uprisings as well as how Turkey may inspire these countries.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Table of Contents</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;"><b><a href="http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9780230354272_sample.pdf" target="_blank">1. Introduction</a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">2. Turkey's Transformation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">3. Constructing Hegemony: the AKP Rule</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">4. AKP's Hegemony and Democratic Consolidation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">5. Turkey's Proactive Foreign Policy under the AKP</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">6. Turkish Foreign Policy in the aftermath of the Arab Uprisings</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">7. The AKP, Arab Uprisings and the Kurdish Question</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">8. Secularism, Democracy and Identity</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">9. Civil Society and Democratic Consolidation</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px; outline: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 21.6000003814697px;">10. Conclusion: Turkey at the Crossroads: Democratization through the Strong EU Anchor</span></span><br />
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<li style="list-style-type: none; margin-bottom: 1em;"><a href="http://www.palgrave.com/resources/sample-chapters/9780230354272_sample.pdf" style="color: #00768a; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank" title="Sample Chapter of Democracy, Identity and Foreign Policy in Turkey"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Sample Chapter (Introduction)</b></span></a></li>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.3999996185303px;"><a href="http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/democracy-identity-and-foreign-policy-in-turkey-e-fuat-keyman/?K=9780230354272">http://www.palgrave.com/page/detail/democracy-identity-and-foreign-policy-in-turkey-e-fuat-keyman/?K=9780230354272</a></span></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-47595605626287727432014-11-02T14:36:00.000+00:002014-11-02T14:36:15.417+00:00Shifting Sands: The United States in the Middle East<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEi7RLxed8jTrpr1mv4PHkujxUtdkNOJaPMtfsDUicxhGTQozJmQIDX131sx0oU2fAiPPWGacQ9IL_JoUQzXgSK1YPNLVCZUnq4V-Wijen1lhQ29Zzff9QrwwJUnnAcQuUHO8Mow4sMxeQqnDqeL_Se30YEDSKgSStBdJglljae1cteR5QX14hx6EA=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://cup.columbia.edu/app?fileid=9964&height=275&service=thumbnail&width=183" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Joel S. Migdal</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Columbia University Press 2014</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Joel S. Migdal revisits the approach U.S. officials have adopted toward the Middle East since World War II, which paid scant attention to tectonic shifts in the region. After the war, the United States did not restrict its strategic model to the Middle East. Beginning with Harry S. Truman, American presidents applied a uniform strategy rooted in the country’s Cold War experience in Europe to regions across the globe, designed to project America into nearly every corner of the world while limiting costs and overreach. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The approach was simple: find a local power that could play Great Britain’s role in Europe after the war, sharing the burden of exercising power, and establish a security alliance along the lines of NATO. Yet regional changes following the creation of Israel, the Free Officers Coup in Egypt, the rise of Arab nationalism from 1948 to 1952, and, later, the Iranian Revolution and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty in 1979 complicated this project. Migdal shows how insufficient attention to these key transformations led to a series of missteps and misconceptions in the twentieth century. With the Arab uprisings of 2009 through 2011 prompting another major shift, Migdal sees an opportunity for the United States to deploy a new, more workable strategy, and he concludes with a plan for gaining a stable foothold in the region.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Joel S. Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, and has been writing about the Middle East and state-society relations worldwide for more than forty years. Among his books are </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">The Palestinian People</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"> (with Baruch Kimmerling), </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Through the Lens of Israel</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">, </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">Strong Societies and Weak States</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">, and </span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">State-in-Society</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">.</span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16672-0/shifting-sands">http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-16672-0/shifting-sands</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: justify;">Edited by Marc Lynch</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; text-align: justify;">Columbia University Press 2014 </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Why did Tunisian protests following the self-immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi lead to a massive wave of uprisings across the entire Arab world? Who participated in those protests, and what did they hope to achieve? Why did some leaders fall in the face of popular mobilization while others found ways to survive? And what have been the lasting results of the contentious politics of 2011 and 2012? The Arab uprisings pose stark challenges to the political science of the Middle East, which for decades had focused upon the resilience of entrenched authoritarianism, the relative weakness of civil society, and what seemed to be the largely contained diffusion of new norms and ideas through new information technologies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In this volume, leading scholars in the field take a sharp look at the causes, dynamics, and effects of the Arab uprisings. Compiled by one of the foremost experts on Middle East politics and society, The Arab Uprisings Explained offers a fresh rethinking of established theories and presents a new framework through which scholars and general readers can better grasp the fast-developing events remaking the region. These essays not only advance the study of political science in the Middle East but also integrate the subject seamlessly into the wider political science literature. Deeply committed to the study of this region and working out the kinks of the discipline, the contributors to this volume help scholars and policymakers across the world approach this unprecedented historical period smartly and effectively.</span></div>
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<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15884-8/the-arab-uprisings-explained"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15884-8/the-arab-uprisings-explained</span></a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEgn8rb2d_XuIVMwpMhsspD9tTySxYEpj77hMDU6yq411kpPU5M1VhIOd-UjmcQTWODkfRRWb4nAaL0HTjODNHMWiL2idbvOcehfJd7HZA1WcWhQiU49yQyXEYU7BwSl9V7vde1zSOw=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="bookjacket" border="0" src="http://press.princeton.edu/images/j9810.gif" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Princeton University Press, 2012</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Winner of the 2013 Silver Medal in Self-Help, Independent Publisher Book Awards</span></b></div>
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<a class="san" href="http://www.audible.com/pd/ref=sr_1_1?asin=B0096TP6F0&qid=1352925456&sr=1-1" style="color: black; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Also available as an audiobook</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a class="san" href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9810.html#reviews" style="color: black; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none;">Reviews</a> | <a class="san" href="http://press.princeton.edu/TOCs/c9810.html" style="color: black; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none;">Table of Contents</a></span></div>
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<a class="san" href="http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9810.pdf" style="color: black; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Introduction[PDF] <img align="bottom" alt="pdf-icon" border="0" src="http://press.princeton.edu/images/images/pdf.jpg" width="15" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i> presents practical, lively, and inspiring ways for you to become more successful through better thinking. The idea is simple: You can learn how to think far better by adopting specific strategies. Brilliant people aren't a special breed--they just use their minds differently. By using the straightforward and thought-provoking techniques in <i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i>, you will regularly find imaginative solutions to difficult challenges, and you will discover new ways of looking at your world and yourself--revealing previously hidden opportunities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The book offers real-life stories, explicit action items, and concrete methods that allow you to attain a deeper understanding of any issue, exploit the power of failure as a step toward success, develop a habit of creating probing questions, see the world of ideas as an ever-flowing stream of thought, and embrace the uplifting reality that we are all capable of change. No matter who you are, the practical mind-sets introduced in the book will empower you to realize any goal in a more creative, intelligent, and effective manner. Filled with engaging examples that unlock truths about thinking in every walk of life, <i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i> is written for all who want to reach their fullest potential--including students, parents, teachers, businesspeople, professionals, athletes, artists, leaders, and lifelong learners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Whenever you are stuck, need a new idea, or want to learn and grow, <i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i> will inspire and guide you on your way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">To share thinking stories, go to: http://5elementsofthinking.wordpress.com</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Edward B. Burger</b> is the president of Southwestern University, and an educational and business consultant. Formerly he was a professor at Williams College and a vice provost at Baylor University. He has authored or coauthored more than sixty-five articles, books, and video series; delivered over five hundred addresses and workshops throughout the world; and made more than fifty radio and television appearances. His teaching and scholarly writing have earned him many national honors and the largest teaching award given in the English-speaking world. <b>Michael Starbird</b> is University Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Austin and an educational and business consultant. His numerous books, lectures, workshops, and video courses have reached large national audiences of students, teachers, businesspeople, and lifelong learners. His success at teaching people to think has been recognized by more than fifteen awards, including the highest national teaching award in his field as well as statewide and university-wide honors selected from all disciplines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"What do earth, fire, air, and water have to do with effective thinking? Everything, according to mathematics professors Edward B. Burger and Michael Starbird. In <i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i>, the authors draw on these metaphor-laden elements from the natural world to demonstrate how to ask better questions, take calculated risks, learn from mistakes, and, ultimately, transform ourselves into more engaged and thoughtful citizens of the world. . . . <i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i> is a useful guide for anyone interested in tackling difficult subject matter, particularly in the classroom. The book also could serve as a solid supplementary text in courses on critical thinking."--<b>Jennifer Moore, <i>ForeWord Reviews</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"If you remember being told by your teachers to think harder and having no idea how, <i>The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking</i> should help. . . . This is a snappy, illuminating read that should appeal to anyone who has ever dreamed of being a genius and is willing to strive, step by step, to become one."--<b>David Wilson, <i>South China Morning Post</i></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Thinking is good, enthuses this book by two distinguished teachers of mathematics. You might think you're being creative or having intuitions or conducting a romance or whatever, but it's all thinking, right? And you can learn to think better! So you can, and the advice herein, which includes many practical tenets of 'critical thinking', will surely be useful to many a schoolchild or business leader."--<b>Steven Poole, <i>Guardian</i> (U.K.)</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><a href="http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9810.html" target="_blank">http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9810.html </a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/09/08/interview-john-esposito/?utm_content=buffer4d818&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 23.7999992370605px; text-align: center;">Al McKay, </span>E-IR Website</a></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>September 8, 2014</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: 700;">John L. Esposito</span> is University Professor, Professor of Religion & International Affairs and of Islamic Studies, and Founding Director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Previously, he was Loyola Professor of Middle East Studies, at College of the Holy Cross.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Past President of the <a class="ext-link" href="https://www.aarweb.org/" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">American Academy of Religion</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Middle East Studies Association of North America</a>, and the <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.acsis.us/" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies</a>, Esposito has served as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, European and Asian governments, corporations, universities, and the media worldwide. He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders and the <a class="ext-link" href="http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awareness_network/index_en.htm" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">E. C. European Network of Experts on De-Radicalisation</a> and an ambassador for the <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.unaoc.org/" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">UN Alliance of Civilization</a>.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>His more than 45 books include <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745332536" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Future of Islam</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://global.oup.com/academic/product/what-everyone-needs-to-know-about-islam-9780199794133?cc=gb&lang=en&" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam</a>,<a class="ext-link" href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199753642.do" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Islamophobia and the Challenge of Pluralism in the 21<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> Century</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.gallup.com/press/104209/who-speaks-islam-what-billion-muslims-really-think.aspx" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think </a>(with Dalia Mogahed), <a class="ext-link" href="http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/med/summary/v014/14.2el-khawas.html" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam</a>, Islam and Democracy(with J. Voll), <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Islamic-Threat-Reality-Edition/dp/0195130766" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?</a>, and<a class="ext-link" href="https://www.rienner.com/title/Political_Islam_Revolution_Radicalism_or_Reform" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title=""> Islam and Politics, Political Islam: Radicalism, Revolution or Reform?</a>. He is Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Islamic Studies Online and Series Editor of the Oxford Library of Islamic Studies, and is Editor-in-Chief of <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/Public/book_oemiw.html" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-encyclopedia-of-the-modern-islamic-world-9780195148039?cc=gb&lang=en&" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/book/islam-9780195107999/islam-9780195107999-miscMatter-6" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Oxford History of Islam</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195301748.do" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, </a><a class="ext-link" href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780195301748.do" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">The Islamic World: Past and Present</a>, and <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/Public/Home.html?url=%2Fapp%3Fservice%3Dexternalpagemethod%26method%3Dview%26page%3DHome&failReason=Error+reason%3A+err_userpass_none%2Berr_ip_badcred%2Berr_athens_none%2Berr_shib_none%2Berr_referrer_none%2Berr_libcard_none" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Oxford Islamic Studies Online</a>. His writings have been translated into more than 35 languages.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In this interview, Professor Esposito discusses his career, the current state of IR scholarship on Islam, the rise of ISIS, and Islamophobia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">How has the way you understand the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have often marvelled that “an Italian-American kid from Brooklyn,” the first generation to graduate from high school and then college, raised and formed in an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic culture with minimal exposure to other religions and cultures, with the Capuchin Franciscans, training to be a priest, from the age of 14 until I left the monastery at 24 years of age, could become an academic, let alone have the life and experiences that I have had in my more than 40 year encounter with Islam and Muslims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I received an MA in Theology from St. John’s University and taught at Rosemont College. It was here that I would suddenly find myself as a young theologian in a world that was torn by the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, and Vatican II reforms in Catholicism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 1955, Will Herberg’s captured the landscape of America in <em>Protestant, Catholic, and Jew</em>. But, by 1965, theologians were talking about the impact of secularization on religion and theology: Harvard’s Harvey Cox in<em>Religion In the Secular City</em> and “God is dead” theology. By the early 1970s, Harvey Cox authored <em>Turning East</em>, the response to the influx of Hindu gurus, Zen and Sufi masters, and immigrants from the East.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An unexpected and major turning point in my life occurred at Temple University, where I went to major in Catholicism studied for my PhD in the late 1960s, and finished in 1974. In contrast to other institutions, all grad students in the Department of Religion, regardless of their major, were required to major in one world religion and minor in two others. I took a required one-year introductory course in world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese and Japanese religions, and Islam) with Bernard Philips, a charismatic teacher and the founder of the department, and never looked back, caught up in a new world of Hinduism and Zen Buddhism courses, intending to major in Hinduism. To my astonishment, Philips pressed me to take a course in Islam. Having acquired faculty in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese religions, Temple was now developing its Islamic studies component. I knew little about Islam and my images were from movies like <em>The Exodus</em> (1960) and its biased view of Arabs, and <em>Lawrence of Arabia</em>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I had now made the astonishing discovery that there was another global Abrahamic faith, the second largest religion in the world. The children of Abraham included not only Jews and Christians, but also Muslims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like all great teachers, Ismail al-Faruqi combined scholarship with an energy and passion for his subject that was contagious. At Temple, I learned Islam from both texts and context, from books, and from Muslim professors and grad students who came from Nigeria and Egypt, Pakistan and Malaysia. This unique feature of the program provided immediate insight not only into the unity but also the diversity of Islam from North Africa to Southeast Asia. I learned not only from texts, but also from the perspectives of believers, seeing Islam as a living/lived faith. Much to my surprise and to the surprise of others, I changed plans and majored in Islam while minoring in Hinduism and Buddhism. The reaction of colleagues – theologians, family, and friends were quick to ask: “Why study Islam? You’ll never get a job.” And they were correct.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Religion, and particularly Islam, has enjoyed considerable attention from International Relations (IR) scholars since 9/11. Prior to this, however, both Islam and religion in general were generally under-explored intellectual terrains in IR scholarship. Do you think IR scholars are better placed to understand the role of religion in international politics now than they were before the 9/11 attacks?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In contrast to today, until only a few decades ago in the US and Europe, Islam and Muslim were invisible on our cognitive and demographic maps. Knowledge and coverage of Islam and Muslims were negligible in media, schools, and universities, the training for the military and Foreign Service Officers. Islamic studies was primarily focused on the past, emphasizing the study of texts and history, not the role of religion in modern politics and society. This trend was reinforced in the social sciences, informed by the reigning belief in modernization and development theory, which conflated development and modernization with the westernization and secularization of societies. Religion was a legacy from the past, irrelevant or an obstacle to modernization and the building of modern nation states. Some wrote of the passing of traditional societies and that Muslims would have to choose between Mecca or mechanization. Most professional associations – the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), American Historical Association, American Political Science Association, International Studies Association, even American Academy of Religion (AAR) – had little to no coverage of Islam and religion in the public square. Scholars of Islam were few and far between. In fact, Temple University was the first university, at least that I know of, to introduce the study of World Religions and Islam in 1968 and offer a degree in a Religion Department. Until that time, scholars of Islam were trained in departments of Arabic language and literature or history. Religion Departments were, in fact, predominantly staffed with experts on Christian scripture and theology with minimal or no coverage of Judaism. When, in the 1970s, departments began to respond and broaden their offerings, most introduced World Religions courses and emphasized an expertise in Hinduism and Buddhism, not Islam. The Iranian revolution would dramatically prove a “game changer.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1978-79 transformed many lives, not only those in Iran and other parts of the Muslim world, but also US/European-Iran relations. Given Iran’s strategic location and the Shah’s long relationship with the US and threat to American national interests (the oil fields and our oil-producing allies in the Middle East) and the hostage-taking of American diplomats in our embassy, Iran’s Revolution and fears of an “Islamic fundamentalist threat” made careers. Reporters like Ted Koppel and <em>Nightline</em>, with its subtitle “America held hostage,” other journalists, and especially specialists in Middle East and Islamic studies, were catapulted out of the ivory tower and onto the lecture, consulting, and television circuits. For some scholars, if the 1970s were quiet private years, the 1980s and 90s were high-profile and fast-paced public years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Political and demographic change during the 1980s and 1990s moved interest in Islam and Muslim politics from the periphery to centre stage. For those of us in the field, the famine became a feast: book contracts, speaking engagements all over the world, consulting jobs, and media appearances. A decade later, Saddam Hussein’s invasion and occupation of Iraq, and followed by Osama Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and especially 9/11 and subsequent attacks from London and Madrid to Bali, precipitated a “global war on terrorism” whose impact reinforced fears of a clash of civilizations, changed the dynamics of global politics, and resulted in a quantum increase in government agencies and terrorism experts and in security, Middle East, and Islamic studies, as well as the exponential growth of Islamophobia.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The horrific attacks by Al Qaeda on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, with subsequent terrorist attacks in London, Madrid, Bali, and elsewhere, and the rhetoric which called for a militant Jihad against the West, became the lens through which media and many in our societies came to view not only terrorist organizations, but also, for many, global Islam and Muslims. Fear of the religion of Islam and mainstream Muslims, not just fear and zero tolerance for Muslim extremists and terrorism, affected foreign and domestic policy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">International Relations (IR) was especially challenged by 9/11 and its aftermath. As I noted previously, the social sciences have ignored or dismissed the relevance and role in a modern nation state in which religion was, at best, a private matter antithetical to modern secular democracy and the public square. How was one to explain the resurgence of religion in politics and society, not only in Islam, but also in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism? How, in particular for those who saw modern education as producing a more secular-minded citizenry, was one to explain the role and involvement of modern educated leaders and followers (physicians, lawyers, engineers, journalists, and scientists who constituted an alternative elite to secular elites) as well as the less educated. The Social Science Research Council and others have attempted to address (to understand, analyze, and teach) these and other issues regarding the relationship of secularism and religion in modern states and societies, as well as form a committee to work on the development of curricula. When I first went to Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service (SFS), one of the oldest and leading schools of international affairs, to direct the newly created Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (CMCU), I was not only a professor of Islamic studies, but also the first professor of religion and international affairs, and there was no emphasis on politics and culture. Now, Culture and Politics (CULP) is a very popular major in SFS. There was only one (non-tenured) person in the entire university teaching Islam in the Theology Department. Now there are scholars of Islam (religion, politics, and society) in Theology, CMCU, and the Department of Arabic, renamed the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, as well as others. Today, in any good university or college, one expects to find faculty and courses in Islamic studies, not only in the humanities, but also in the social sciences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ISIS is currently dominating international news headlines through its activity in Iraq and Syria, and there has been much discussion about effective ways to stop this militant Islamist group. What do you feel would be an effective response to ISIS?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As so often in the past (the Iranian Revolution, the rise and early successes of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Al Qaeda’s spread internationally, etc.), the rapid expansion of ISIS (or IS) in (and then out of) Syria and into Iraq stunned the international community and is currently dominating international news headlines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Containing and ultimately defeating ISIS will require both short- and long-term response. ISIS expansion has been made possible by political conditions in Syria and Iraq, ethic-religious/sectarian divisions, and violence and terror in the region, and the failures of the US and international community.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Like Al-Qaeda and other militants, ISIS offers a militant, warped, and distorted Salafi ideology/religious rationale or rationalization to justify, recruit, legitimate, and motivate many of its fighters. Much of what they do violates Islamic law: its unabashed acts of terrorism, slaughter of civilians, savage use of beheadings, and killing of innocent Muslims, Yazidis, and Christians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">While religion/Islam, a particularly harsh and distorted version, does play a role to legitimate, recruit, and motivate, studies of most jihadist and movements, like ISIS, show that the primary drivers are to be found elsewhere. As in the recent past, so too today, this has remained true for Europeans and Americans who have joined ISIS.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Studies by the EC’s <a class="ext-link" href="http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/crisis-and-terrorism/radicalisation/index_en.htm" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">European Network of Experts on Violent Radicalization</a> (of which I was a member) on radicalization in Europe, as well as those by terrorism experts like Marc Sageman and Robert Pape on global terrorism and suicide bombing, have found that, in most cases, religion is not the primary source of most extremist behaviour. Drivers of radicalization include moral outrage, disaffection, the search for a new identity, and for a sense of meaning, purpose, and belonging. For many, it is the experience or perception of living in a ‘hostile’ society, disenfranchisement, anti-imperialism, social injustice, and emancipation from occupation or corrupt authoritarian rulers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the end of the day, the peoples of the region (Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, and Gulf states) will have to deal with their problems. However, a substantial international commitment and involvement by the US, in consort with its European and Middle East allies (especially Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and the UAE), is also needed. Support for Syria’s weak and fractured moderate opposition, and for the new Iraqi president in strengthening Iraq’s military and security forces, and, in some cases, carefully targeted military operations and aid, are important considerations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But, in the long run, if we wish to break the cycle of global terrorism and its movements that have existed in recent decades, as Graham Fuller notes in “<a class="ext-link" href="http://grahamefuller.com/avenging-james-foley/" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Avenging James Foley</a>“, the conditions and basic and enduring grievances in Muslim countries that jihadist terrorist movements have exploited in recent decades must also be addressed: “foreign boots on the ground, dictators supported by the US out of convenience, a failure to end a half century of Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, the treatment of Palestinians as a paradigm for treatment of other Muslims, the US employment of the region as an eternal cockpit for proxy wars—all of this is still ongoing.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You’ve been extensively involved in the promotion of strong ties between Muslims and Christians. At present, how do you assess the global relationship between Muslims and Christians, and what more can be done to improve relations?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The global relationship between Muslims and Christians in the Arab and broader Muslim world has both prospered and deteriorated. Great advances have been made not only in Muslim-Christian relations, but also in interfaith or multi-faith relations that include all major faiths. Major Muslim-Christian initiatives have occurred between the Vatican as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in many countries at the national and local levels. The project and document “A Common Word between US and You” saw some 300 Muslim religious leaders reach out to the leaders of the Catholic, Anglican/Episcopal, and Protestant churches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sadly, at the same time, the rise of ultra-conservative, fundamentalist Christian and Muslim tendencies have reinforced a religious exclusivist worldview that is inimical to our increasingly multi-ethnic and multi-religious societies. We see it domestically with anti-Muslim tirades by Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Rod Parley, and Franklin Graham, and Islamophobia in America and Europe. Internationally significant anti-religious conflicts between Muslims and Christians: clashes have occurred from Nigeria and Egypt to Pakistan and the Philippines.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Statements that denounce violence and terrorism, and encourage mutual understanding and respect, are important, but they require implementation. Senior religious leaders have to be put into operation in training programs in churches and madrasas for the next generation of priests, ministers, and imams; so too, more outreach programs for high school teachers, and more courses and programs in universities and colleges are important, as well as faith-based summer youth projects. Political leaders and the media have an important role to play. They cannot pander to the hardline religious right bias and bigotry for votes, and media has to balance its at times obsessive coverage of extremism with more coverage of the mainstream majority, their lives and beliefs. Failure to do so reinforces the dangers of anti-Muslim attitudes and behaviour.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2012, you produced a book with Nathan Lean titled <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.plutobooks.com/display.asp?K=9780745332536" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title=""><em>The Islamophobia Industry</em></a>, which explored the rise of fear and hatred of Muslims sweeping through the United States and Europe. How wide a problem do you feel Islamophobia is, and do you see it as a phenomenon not simply confined to the far right?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Islamophobia has been a social cancer metastasizing in America and Europe since the 1990s. Islamophobia is prejudice or hostility towards Muslims on the basis of their religious or ethnic identity. Criticism of Islamic theology and culture is not intrinsically Islamophobic, just as criticism of the tenets or cultures of other world religions does not necessarily indicate a prejudicial position towards those who subscribe to them. Islamophobia refers to bias and discrimination that often lead to discrimination and hate speech, ascribing collective blame on the majority of mainstream Muslims for the actions of Muslim extremists and terrorists, violence, hate crimes, or denial of civil liberties.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In contrast to the UK, where the term Islamophobia was coined in the 1990s (and now is used in Europe), no term existed, or was used, in the US until fallout from the construction of Park 51 (the so-called mosque at Ground Zero), the Islamic center in downtown Manhattan. <em>Time</em> magazine was the first major publication to do a cover story that asked “<a class="ext-link" href="http://content.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,20100830,00.html" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Is America Islamophobic?</a>” Unlike anti-Semitism, racism, and homophobia, Islamophobia is still deemed culturally acceptable. It has yet to reach the threshold of being – at least publicly (broadcast, political establishment, etc.) – taboo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Politicians, media commentators, hardline Christian Zionist preachers, and Islamophobic polemicists and websites – a dominant internet presence – have been enablers in its significant presence in popular culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Examples of the impact of Islamophobia in the US can be seen not only in incidents of hate speech and hate crimes, but also in the rhetoric and discourse in the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, as well as the 2010 and 2012 congressional elections, and in the Park 51 protests and their aftermath.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2008, when Barack Obama visited Dearborn, some of his staff prevented his being photographed with young women wearing hijab, and many opponents labelled him a Muslim to discredit his candidacy. During the 2012 presidential election contest, every Republican candidate, either at that debate or in the two years before, had engaged in Islam and Muslim exceptionalism, questioning the loyalty of American Muslims, whether a Muslim could serve in the cabinet and under what conditions, the need to ban shariah law, etc.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">You can see the impact during his presidency. President Obama has never visited a US mosque or sought a photo op at one. No Muslim has been appointed to a senior ambassadorship, and the number of visible senior members of the administration is negligible. Anti-Islam and anti-Muslim rhetoric became a topic in political contests in the 2010 congressional elections.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The building of an Islamic center in Manhattan near Ground Zero sparked a national debate and protest demonstrations. While there were diverse critics and reasons for opposition, prominent anti-Muslim activists played a major role in spearheading opposition, charging, among other things, that the Islamic center was a mosque that would be a monument to terrorism. Activists like Robert Spencer and Pam Gellar – who run websites including <a class="ext-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Freedom_Defense_Initiative" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Freedom Defense Initiative</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Islamization_of_America" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Stop Islamization of America </a>(SIOA) (which the Southern Poverty Law Center listed as an <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/hate-map#s=NY" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">anti-Muslim hate group</a> in 2010), and Jihad Watch – mobilized media, particularly social media, and public demonstrations. They coined terms like the “Mosque at Ground Zero” and “Mega Mosque at Ground Zero.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the aftermath of Park 51, a wave of anti-mosque activities swept from New York to California. This was also accompanied by some 29 states that have sought to pass anti-shariah laws to prevent its implementation, when in fact it’s impossible to do so under our Constitution.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Mainstream media, driven by the bottom line and market share, is captured by the media mantra “If it bleeds, it leads.” The effect of this approach can be seen in a Media Tenor report “A New Era of Arab Western Relations,” which reviewed 975,000 news stories in US and European media outlets, and reported astonishing imbalance.</span></div>
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<li style="list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: square; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2001, 2% of all news stories in Western media presented images of Muslim militants, while just over 0.1% presented stories portraying ordinary Muslims.</span></li>
<li style="list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: square; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jump to ten years later. In 2011, militant images went from 2% in 2001, to 25% in 2011. Yet, coverage of ordinary Muslims remained the same as 2001, at 0.1%.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Equally troubling and dangerous is the emergence of a cottage industry that has been meticulously cultivated by anti-Muslim polemicists and their resourceful funders, who master the domain of the internet with dozens of highly visible blogs and websites supported by hundreds of user blogs to which they link.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/report/2011/08/26/10165/fear-inc/" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">2011 study</a> by the Center for American Progress found that, according to collected IRS tax returns, during a ten-year period, $42.6 million flowed from seven major foundations to these Islamophobic authors and websites.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The 2013 CAIR report “<a class="ext-link" href="http://www.cair.com/islamophobia/legislating-fear-2013-report.html" rel="external" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Legislating Fear: Islamophobia and its Impact in the United States</a>,” also with information taken from IRS returns, showed that, between 2008 and 2011, $119,662,000 dollars total revenue were given to US-based Islamophobia networks.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">A lot of literature has been produced on Islam since 9/11. Yet, arguably, there are a lot of what could be described as misleading and agenda-driven texts out there. For people, particularly students, wanting to learn more about Islam, how should they distinguish between honest and dishonest writers?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In contrast to forty years ago, Iran’s Islamic Revolution, and especially 9/11, led to an explosion in publications in Islamic and Middle East studies and in major reference works. At the same time, the internet has become an access point for vast information and disinformation. Given the diversity of materials and diverse intellectual and political orientations – for example, from Tea Party and neocon to liberal or progressive – all tend to describe as misleading and agenda-driven texts out there. Just as years ago one could find PhDs or experts from the best universities supporting the tobacco industry, and scholars from similar universities giving a totally different assessment, so too today, in areas of global politics and religion we find a similar situation. Therefore, it is important to know publishers and authors of information: what is their orientation, track record, etc. This is made easier with the use of Google!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the reasons Oxford University Press launched an ambitious series of reference works that now cover most areas from culture and politics to science, gender, and the arts, was to meet the need for providing the best scholarship available. Similarly, with regard to the internet, Oxford Islamic Studies Online offers internet access to major texts (primary and secondary sources, biographies, etc.).</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many of E-International Relations’ readers are students. What key advice would you give those wanting to focus their research on the Islamic world?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The most important lesson I have learned from all of my years as an academic and as a student of Islam and Muslim societies is the most obvious and yet elusive. If you want to know what people believe, if you want to grasp the reality of everyday life, you have to combine, to use the current academic jargon, “text and context.” Understanding the faith and lives of others requires knowledge of religion, history, politics, and culture. You need knowledge of sacred sources, as well as what people <em>actually</em> believe and do!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Appreciation of the essentials of a religion cannot exclude awareness of the diversity of its forms and expressions. However important the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament, understanding Judaism and Christianity also requires that you observe what Jews and Christians believe and practice in specific historical, cultural, and social contexts. Judaism is Torah and Talmud. Judaism in Ethiopia, Israel, and New York may have an underlying similarity, but in fact its cultural expressions differ enormously. Similarly, beyond their shared identification with Jesus Christ, Western Christians and their Eastern counterparts (Coptic, Melkite, Orthodox, Presbyterian, and Anglican) have rich theologies and practices that are conditioned by their unique historical and cultural experiences. Although many tend to see Islam and Muslims too often through images drawn from Saudi Arabia or Iran, Muslim practice (dress, the roles of women and society, song and dance) varies widely from Africa and Asia to America and Europe.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This outlook has informed my work throughout the past 40 years. While I write about Islam (and other religions), the shared beliefs and practices of Islam, as well as its differing sects and schools of thought, I have always been drawn to seeing how the faith of Muslims plays out on the ground, in specific Muslim societies. At the same time, I have been acutely aware of the need to distinguish between the faith of the many and the twisted interpretations and actions of the few, the mainstream majority and a militant, extremist minority.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 23.7999992370605px;"><a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/09/08/interview-john-esposito/?utm_content=buffer4d818&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">http://www.e-ir.info/2014/09/08/interview-john-esposito</a></span></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-56720689553167544352014-08-11T21:36:00.000+01:002014-08-11T21:38:26.764+01:00International Orders in the Early Modern World<div class="productimg" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; background-color: #f3f3f3; border: 0px; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.549999237060547px; margin: 0px 1em 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 150px;">
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">International Orders in the Early Modern World</span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Before the Rise of the West</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Edited by <strong style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/search/author/shogo_suzuki/" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; text-decoration: none; transition: width 0.5s;" title="search for all books by Shogo Suzuki">Shogo Suzuki</a></strong>, <strong style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/search/author/yongjin_zhang/" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; text-decoration: none; transition: width 0.5s;" title="search for all books by Yongjin Zhang">Yongjin Zhang</a></strong>, <strong style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/search/author/joel_quirk/" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; text-decoration: none; transition: width 0.5s;" title="search for all books by Joel Quirk">Joel Quirk</a></strong></span></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Routledge – 2014 – 20 pages</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Series:</strong> <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/series/NEWIR/" style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; padding: 1px; position: relative; text-decoration: none; transition: width 0.5s;" title="View all books in 'New International Relations'">New International Relations</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This book examines the historical interactions of the West and non-Western world, and investigates whether or not the exclusive adoption of Western-oriented ‘international norms’ is the prerequisite for the construction of international order.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This book sets out to challenge the Eurocentric foundations of modern International Relations scholarship by examining international relations in the early modern era, when European primacy had yet to develop in many parts of the globe. Through a series of regional case studies on East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and Russia written by leading specialists of their field, this book explores patterns of cross-cultural exchange and civilizational encounters, placing particular emphasis upon historical contexts. The chapters of this book document and analyse a series of regional international orders that were primarily defined by local interests, agendas and institutions, with European interlopers often playing a secondary role. These perspectives emphasize the central role of non-European agency in shaping global history, and stand in stark contrast to conventional narratives revolving around the ‘Rise of the West’, which tend to be based upon a stylized contrast between a dynamic ‘West’ and a passive and static ‘East’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Focusing on a crucial period of global history that has been neglected in the field of International Relations, <i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">International Orders in the Early Modern World </i>will be interest to students and scholars of international relations, international relations theory, international history, early modern history and sociology.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">REVIEWS</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"An outstanding volume of non-Eurocentric historical-sociological essays that advances an extremely powerful critique of the English School’s commitment to what I call the ‘Eurocentric big bang theory of world politics’ – that the big bang of modernity exploded autonomously within Europe and that thereafter European ‘civilization’ expanded outwards in a non-problematic way to remake the world in its own image – by deploying the antidote of bringing Eastern agency back into the story of the long-term development of world politics."</span> - John M. Hobson, Professor of Politics and International Relations, University of Sheffield, UK.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">"Perhaps ‘1648 and all that’ fundamentally distorts our understanding of the history of international relations. By rediscovering early modern and non-western international orders, this expert team sets out a challenge to IR scholarship. It is especially welcome and important in making sense of the profound changes currently underway."</span> - <em style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Ian Clark, E. H. Carr Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">"Maps centered on the South Pole are amusing, but international relations books centered on the non-Western world are essential. From its origins, international relations theory has been a Western enterprise with other parts of the world largely ignored or analyzed through parochial and often inappropriate conceptions. Suzuki, Zhang, Quirk and their collaborators turn the tables and offer perspectives on Europe from </span><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">East Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and generally</span><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> at a time when European interlopers were unable to impose their preferences on these cultures. They effectively demonstrate the importance of non-Western cultures and their ideas in shaping global history."</span> - <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Richard Ned Lebow, Professor of International Political Theory, King's College London, UK</em></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">CONTENTS</span></b></div>
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<em style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-style: normal;">Introduction </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Shogo Suzuki, Yongjin Zhang and Joel Quirk </i><span style="font-style: normal;">1. Europeans and the Steppe: Russian lands under the Mongol Rule </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Iver B. Neumann </i><span style="font-style: normal;">2. Europe, Islam and </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Pax Ottomana</i><span style="font-style: normal;">, 1453-1774 </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Ayla Göl </i><span style="font-style: normal;">3. Curious and Exotic Encounters: Europeans as Supplicants in the Chinese Imperium, 1513-1793 </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Yongjin Zhang </i><span style="font-style: normal;">4. Europe at the Periphery of the Japanese World Order </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Shogo Suzuki </i><span style="font-style: normal;">5. A Corrupt International Society: How Britain Was Duped into its First Indian Conquest </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Darshan Vigneswaran </i><span style="font-style: normal;">6. International Relations in the Americas during the Long Eighteenth Century, 1663-1820 </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Charles Jones </i><span style="font-style: normal;">7. Europeans, Africans and the Atlantic World, c1450-1850 </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Joel Quirk and David Richardson </i><span style="font-style: normal;">Conclusion: Eurocentrism, World History, Meta-narratives and the meeting of international societies </span><i style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Richard Little</i></span></em></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">AUTHORS</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Shogo Suzuki</strong> is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics at University of Manchester, UK.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><strong style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Yongjin Zhang is </strong>Professor of International Politics at Bristol University, UK.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b style="-webkit-transition: width 0.5s; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: width 0.5s; vertical-align: baseline;">Joel Quirk</b> is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.25269889831543px;"><a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415626286/"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415626286/</span></a></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-71594849821261751022014-07-07T12:35:00.000+01:002014-07-19T12:39:37.197+01:00For a Post-Sociological Analysis of Political Life<span class="author" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; display: block; padding-bottom: 20px; text-align: justify;"><em><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Alain Touraine, EHESS Paris, June 2014</span></em></span><span class="author" style="background-color: white; display: block; padding-bottom: 20px; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #494949; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><a href="http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022422">http://www.resetdoc.org/story/00000022422</a></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1. We usually call historical rather than modern societies whose systems of social organization are mainly defined by the resources they use and by their social institutions, which shape these resources in line with key cultural orientations which are first of all social representations and modes of construction of human creation and freedom. Our societies are defined not only by their activities but, even more deeply, by their creations and value-oriented interpretations of their productions, included their own limits. These interpretations are both economically and organizationally situated and universalistic in their meaning: they are cultural constructions of human creativity and of its limits, in materially defined social situations. In the western world - and in other societies – we usually define material situation and the cultural pattern in which we have lived during the two past centuries as the industrial society, in which human creativity and freedom are represented by their capacity to increase the productivity of economic activities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="color: black;">2. </span><span style="color: black;">These cultural constructions almost always have an evolutionary dimension. They are first of all theories both of Modernity (singular) and of processes of modernizations (plural).</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many cultural historians have accepted the idea of secularization, because universalistic, defined as the progressive elimination, in these cultural constructions, of all kinds of non-human, sacred principles of creation and creativity (but most of them criticize the general tendency of power-holders to impose on the people they dominate the idea that their own power is sacred). Other interprets of modernity and modernizations defend an opposite view, as I do myself. Instead of announcing and supporting the triumph of utilitarian rationalist and of functionally defined social norms, they describe the progressive interiorization, which is the humanization, of the representation of creativity. Among them it is common to call humanism the substitution of “human rights” or analogous notions for all “sacred” principles, from God to common good, Republican institutions Progress. These moral – or rather ethical – views of human creativity and freedom are opposed both to individualism and to all forms of social integration. To put it in different words, they reject all kinds of reciprocity or complementarity between social systems and individual or collective actors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3. Over the XXth century our type of historical society has experienced two major transformations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">a/ The first one is that our capacity of self-transformation which was to a large extent limited to the awareness that industrial production had extended to all sectors of activity. Not only to information and communication, which have been identified by prominent sociologists, like Manuel Castells, with “post-industrial society”, but to all kinds of productions and consumptions and, in particular, to human opinions, representations and other attitudes. One of the most important consequences of this “production” of social behavior is the decline – not necessarily negative – of the traditional idea of a representative democracy which supposed that collective choices correspond to “objective” interests.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">b/ The second one is quite different but has even more visible historical consequences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The destruction of the western hegemony over the whole world – which was associated with a painful and often bloody liberation of dependent social categories in western countries has opened the way to the take-over of the universalistic components of the Enlightenment by leaders of all kinds of revolutionary - class, national or religious – movements, who have imposed their authoritarian or totalitarian power on the populations they had freed from the western and capitalist domination, creating new dictatorships over populations which are defined by identities and no longer by internal social relations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">c/ We are now in an extreme situation: the universalistic principles of the Enlightenment appear to be destroyed – more or less completely – in most parts of the world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the so-called first world a new kind of finance capitalism which has no economic function-investment or credit – is so global that no political institution can control it. In the second world Leninist regimes impose the absolute power of a communist party which is identified with an authoritarian state. In what we used to call the third world military dictatorships and sometimes religious political leaders impose an anti-democratic regime or try to do so.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The victory of all these non-democratic forces is not complete and even less stable. But there is a deep rupture between the advances of democracy and human rights in countries which refer themselves to universalistic values and the majority of the world population, which is governed by economic or political forces, which do not refer themselves to these values.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Modernity and traditions or identities can be equally destroyed by the absolute power of authoritarian and anti-democratic leaders of modernization processes from which the reference to a universalistic definition of modernity is increasingly eliminated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4. There is no reason to think that sociology can go on with its previous concepts in spite of the fact we no longer live in societies which build a social image of themselves, which speak of themselves with social categories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is a fact, it seems to many observers, that what we call social problems, social conflicts, and even social movements are more and more difficult to analyze with social categories and more precisely with socio-economic categories. In industrialized countries unions are much weaker than a generation and political parties are no longer representative of social classes and of labor conflicts and during the last 5 years Western Europe was socially relatively quiet (compared with the’ 30 s).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In more radical terms, concepts like society, social system, integration and control appear to have lost most of their analytical usefulness. Sociological analysis appears to be an empty territory, surrounded by at least two very busy fields of study:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On one side cultural studies, and multiculturalist theories, to explain or to solve even social problems which are formulated by the actors themselves in cultural terms, especially in non-western countries, while in western countries problems and actors are more often defined in psychological terms.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the other side it appears that a large part of what was we used to consider as sociological theory is now presented and analyzed in political terms. The analysis of social systems is transformed into an analysis of processes of change, which gives a central importance to a concept of justice which eliminates the substantive background of the traditional concept of common good or general interest. This evolution seems to correspond to the rapid wearing out of social democratic policies, especially since the victory of British New Labour and Schroder’s reforms in Germany. No social scientist has won a wider influence than J.Rawls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Especially in European countries, but in the US as well, we feel the absence of basic political debates provided that socialist parties no longer propose the socialization of capital and that capitalist countries devote a large part of their resources to basic services, education, health, pensions and family allowances, which are controlled and financed by the state. We live in a world without conviction, to use M.Weber’s word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5. In our situation, which is defined by the generalized process of market economy and by the predominant role of power – holders which eliminate or control social and political movements, that I have mentioned at the beginning of this short paper, is it possible to discover new conflicts and new narratives which play the same central role that class struggle did in industrial society or the conflict between monarchy and republican state in societies dominated by political categories? What seems clear is that central problems and actors can no longer be defined in social terms. Actors tend to be defined by a cultural identity, while social situations are mainly defined as political and economic processes of social change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But why should we not accept this absence of correspondence between systems and actors as the new central conflict in our post-social collective life?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In front of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes and of world-wide networks of speculation or of communication, we know, by our own historical experience, that it is not enough to assert and defend specific rights, political, social or cultural. The only force which is strong enough to win over uncontrolled political domination is the democratic spirit itself, if we define it by the subordination of all powers, rules and even laws, to universal human rights. This idea, which seemed so weak and often so corrupt in a recent past, is the only one which can prevail over absolute power, because it is defined in universalistic terms. Social and political movements leave the way to ethical protest which fights against scandals, violence and destructive power. These new ethical and democratic movements and these convictions are deeply different from revolutionary actions, which aim first of all at seizing state power by a violent action. Many dramatic experiences have made clear to us that revolution and democracy are contradictory processes of social change. At least if we define democracy not by its institutions but by the priority of universal human rights over all social and political rules.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In every major conflict today the defense of basic human rights is directly involved; interests are not strong enough to win battles against Big Brother. And expressions like the “masses” or the “people” are part of the vocabulary of the power-holders, not of democratic actors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Democracy is based on the subordination of all rules and even laws to the universal rights of all human beings to consider their own freedom and creativity as paramount values. Democracy is a voluntary activity. Acts of resistance or dissidence against authoritarism regimes are considered as symbolically important because they manifest and strengthen the democratic spirit. To put it in slightly different terms, democracy is the substitution of universal human rights for all “sacred” ideas, forces or sovereignties, including popular.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">“ The active defense of universalistic values is basically the same everywhere; but it takes different forms and uses different processes to adapt itself to different historical and cultural heritages, to different processes of modernization. Britain, France, Germany, The United States have followed very different processes of modernization and have created different kinds of social movements and of political action. This elementary observation gives us the only acceptable meaning of tolerance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We must tolerate the differences among patterns of modernization and different democratic experiences.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But we must be radically intolerant of non-democratic regimes and policies and recognize, that in all political regimes, even in the democratic ones, non-democratic practices and even anti-democratic laws survive and even grow. Reforms are permanently necessary”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The general approach I have just introduced can be defined by its opposition to two others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The first one is influential mostly in post-colonial or dependent countries : it considers as the central world-wide conflict the opposition between global capitalism and identities; natural religious or linguistic. Such an interpretation leaves us as a unique choice the preference given to an economic or to a political and cultural absolute undemocratic power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The second one redefines democracy by its capacity to incorporate basic conflicts into integrative tolerant and flexible political countries. It corresponds to the middle of the round parties or governments which are gaining ground in most European States, where both extreme nationalist right wing and revolutionary leftist parties are losing ground. But could very well increase their influence on a continent where xenophobia is the most powerful stream of opinion, especially in Northern countries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The approach I have submitted to your attention has the advantage to be the only one which is formulated in general terms but the disadvantage not to correspond in most countries to organized political forces and, even less, to programs of government and ideologies. If I selected it, it is above all because I consider as the core of the democratic spirit the reference to universalist human rights and to rational thinking in agreement with the basic texts in which they were first formulated in particular in England, Holland, United States, France and in the former Spanish colonies from the 17th to the beginnings of the 19th and later for the United Nation and by modern scientists and logicians.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The weaknesses of the governments and societies which adopted these democratic states are not a strong enough argument against their central theoretical importance.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Let’s define them with more conviction than ever. </span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-75337716356062717852014-06-16T13:37:00.000+01:002014-06-17T13:44:19.940+01:00International Relations since 1945<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRRJewl6LAaN4nHfUYMCDFKaxupFT3mzfJ31z7MsXJf3sTl1cMP" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRRJewl6LAaN4nHfUYMCDFKaxupFT3mzfJ31z7MsXJf3sTl1cMP" width="214" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">John Kent</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.7; outline: none; text-decoration: none;"><i><a class="ext-link" href="http://www.uk.sagepub.com/books/Book240993" rel="external" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.7; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="East, West, North, South">East, West, North, South: International Relations since 1945 (7th edition)</a> </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.7;"><span style="line-height: 1.7;">By: Geir Lundestad </span><span style="line-height: 1.7;">London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2014</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The latest edition of this work has added more material, albeit primarily of a factually descriptive nature, to cover events after 1986, which was when the first edition concluded. Some alterations have also been made to the sections and the order in which they appear, although much of the overall structure is unchanged. The demand for new editions of the book bears witness to the continuing strength of Cold War orthodoxy about US policy, often dressed up as post-revisionism or linked to Soviet and Eastern bloc archives. The book has, however, always contained flashes of useful and interesting interpretations, which brighten up the more traditional and sometimes highly dubious assumptions that still dominate this latest edition.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Thus ,while some of the initial concepts and coverage have clear and valid attractions, by linking a number of global regions and phenomena, which are not always tackled in a work of this kind, reservations remain. There is a significant concentration on East-West relations in the period up to the early 1960s (118 pages out of the first 236 for under twenty years), as compared to the same amount for the period covering the next fifty years. Despite the justifiable merits of parts of the earlier editions on arms and US relations with Western Europe after the 1950s, there is a strong sense of regret that the ‘new’ of this edition does not apply to a wider range of issues and interpretations, which challenge some conventional interpretations. Unfortunately the post-revisionist Cold War focus, initially on Europe, still creates the feel that the geographic extensions involved in decolonisation, and issues of non-European and non-North American importance never assume an equal role in the analysis. This is despite the addition of a largely new chapter on the Rise of East Asia (Chap. 11), extending the earlier, now somewhat questionable interpretation of the Cold War beginning in Europe and becoming global.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some of the strengths and weaknesses from the earlier editions are extended and developed into the period from 1986-2013. The use of online resources, especially the World Development Report, is particularly important and provides a different tool for general assessments of economic and social developments. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute is used in a similar way for a valuable history of the arms race. The end of the Cold War receives a separate added chapter, although Gorbachev’s unilateral concessions on arms are included in the extended arms race chapter. The reluctance to distinguish between the separate, if connected, hot war and Cold War requirements was a feature of the first edition and remains so. One result is that the myth that NATO was formed because of the immediate Soviet military threat, as opposed to the ideological threat inherent in the influence of Soviet communism, is also maintained. Interestingly the Lisbon force goals of 1952 are still portrayed as embodying the reality of defending Western Europe with conventional forces. Actually the ninety-two divisions deemed necessary would, if they were raised, also have involved the destruction of any prospect of a stable peacetime economy. The British military were keen to produce the ‘I told you so’ card after Lisbon since, for the first three years after the shift in US global strategy (and indeed before), they had been telling the Americans that Europe could not be defended with conventional forces. And the ‘stop lines’ had only ever been devised for political reasons, not the military need to defend Western Europe. There is also no overall attempt to examine the ways in which military strategy was connected to, or disconnected from, foreign policy; nor to define propaganda, covert operations, or psychological warfare as important components of the early Cold War. Furthermore, in this edition, there is no sign of any influence from newer historians on both sides of the Atlantic, who have been writing with a focus on the US and without the language skills to access the new sources being revealed behind the former Iron Curtain (for example: Kenneth Osgood, Scott Lucas, Greg Mitrovich, Jonathan Haslam; and on the topic of decolonisation: Steve Ashton, Sarah Stockwell, Larry Butler, Ronald Hyam, Tony Stockwell).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The sense of a small amount of new wine in old bottles is reinforced by the short bibliographies, now included at the end of each chapter rather than in bibliographical sections at the end of the book. A large amount of recommended material is between thirty and forty years old, and outweighs some of the more recent works, which are all the more neglected if they undermine the already received and widely accepted wisdom. In the decolonisation section this is particularly noticeable, with six books noted from the 1960s and 1970s, four from the 1980s, and only four more from the 1990s onwards. Nothing is produced in the recommended reading on the French Empire by French historians, or on the Portuguese Empire arising from the growing interest of Portuguese historians. Nor is the multi-volumed forty-book series of the <em>British Documents of the End of Empire Project</em>, with their hundreds of page introductions mentioned, despite having begun twenty-five years ago. Neither here, nor in the literature related to the chapter on the global Cold War conflict, does the Non-Aligned World of the 1960s significantly feature. The important book, authored by the less well known Robert Rakove (2013), on Kennedy’s and Johnson’s different policies towards the non-aligned world, and which would have added significance for a work with a title of <em>East, West, North, South</em>, is also not mentioned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The chapter on the economic relations between North and South has been extended both through chronological coverage and by transferring the theories of development and underdevelopment into the new chapter on economic relations between North and South (Chap. 13). As with revisionism, orthodoxy, and post-revisionism, there is a similar general interpretative framework provided through which economic development is discussed. In the case of Chapters 13 and 14, liberalism and structuralism provide the core framework of analysis, although the weaknesses of structuralism, as evidenced by events in the 1990s, are more noticeable than the problems of liberalism and the Washington Consensus, as laid bare by the 2007-08 crisis of deregulated financial capitalism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There is an additional, more interesting, and completely new chapter on Globalisation and Fragmentation (Chap. 15), even if the questions arising from it are less troublesome for the liberal democratic capitalist order than those raised by the recent financial crisis, or Thomas Piketty’s (2014) analysis of capitalism and the data he uses to show when and how, in the last three centurie,s greater inequalities of wealth have been created or reduced. This is achieved by examining data from the 18<span style="font-size: 11px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span> century onwards from the US, France, Great Britain, Japan, Canada, Spain, Argentina, Switzerland, India, Portugal, and China, showing wealth levels generated by earned income (wages salaries and wage related income) and that from capital (rents, dividends, capital gains, profits, and royalties). Thus, the economic reasons why historical periods produced or reduced greater inequality between states and individuals can be economically tested for the first time (if not perfectly) without any focus on theoretical modelling on Marxist or neo-liberal lines. Hence, some of the current theoretical assumptions can be fundamentally challenged empirically and some of their ideological fallacies exposed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The conclusion of this new edition is also an interesting updated section looking to the future through patterns of broad developments and some intriguing possibilities, such as the impact of the checks on US global dominance by numerous regional powers. In a sense, once the orthodox post-revisionism has been superseded, this is a book characterised by possibilities, which epitomise both its strengths and its weaknesses. In what is essentially a demanding task, inevitably open to particular criticisms, the broad patterns of change during this period have been clearly identified, but once they are related to more specific events in reality, while there are many questions and possibilities identified and noted here, they are not always fully resolved. Interesting patterns in the book tend to run into the sands of the myriad alternative possibilities that are thrown up when they confront the uniqueness of particular events. These patterns include the growing links between the US and Western Europe in the immediate years after World War II, which have been confounded by the specific circumstances required to defend Western Europe; the general changes brought about in the Middle East by the Arab Spring, which have produced different outcomes in different countries as ‘local circumstances and US policies varied considerably from country to country’ (p.134). There is thus a sense of regret that more has not been done by the author to try and tie the broader patterns of these periods of history more firmly and critically to their historical specificities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">References</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rakove, R.B. (2013), <em>Kennedy, Johnson and the Non-Aligned World.</em> Cambridge,<em> </em>Cambridge University Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Pikkety, T. (2014), <em>Capital in the twenty first century</em>. USA, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR (<a href="http://www.e-ir.info/author/john-kent/" rel="author" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by John Kent">JOHN KENT</a>):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">John Kent</span> has taught at the Universities of Aberdeen and Strathclyde and, for the last 27 years, at the London School of Economics. He has been an editor in the major research project undertaken by the British Documents on the End of Empire Project, in which he was responsible for the three-part set of volumes on Egypt and the Defence of the Middle East. He has written research monographs on British Imperial Strategy and the Origins of the Cold War, and on British, American, French, and Belgian policy to West Africa and the Congo from 1939-64. He is also the co-author, with John Young, of <em><a href="http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199693061.do" style="outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="International Relations since 1945">International Relations since 1945: A Global History</a></em> (Oxford University Press, 2013).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 22.100000381469727px;"><a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/06/11/review-east-west-north-south-international-relations-since-1945/">http://www.e-ir.info/2014/06/11/review-east-west-north-south-international-relations-since-1945/</a></span></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-87386057523784458402014-05-09T14:10:00.000+01:002014-05-10T14:14:09.564+01:00Interview with IR Scholar Nicholas Onuf<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/05/09/interview-nicholas-onuf/?utm_content=bufferd5405&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">E-IR Website</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://www.e-ir.info/2014/05/09/interview-nicholas-onuf/?utm_content=bufferd5405&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer" target="_blank">May 9, 2014</a></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #0a0a0a; line-height: 23.799999237060547px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The interview was conducted by Rachel Denison. She is Deputy Features Editor at E-IR, and has a Masters degree in International Relations from the University of Sussex.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Nicholas Greenwood Onuf is renowned as one of the founders of constructivism in International Relations. He is also known for his important contributions to International Legal Theory, International History, and Social Theory. Onuf’s most famous work is arguably <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.psypress.com/books/details/9780415630399/" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">World of Our Making: Rules and Rule in Social Theory and International Relations</a> (published in 1989), which should be on every IR student’s must-read list. His recent publications include <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nations-Markets-War-History-American/dp/0813925029" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Nations, Markets, and War: Modern History and the American Civil War</a> (2006, co-authored with his brother Peter Onuf) and <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.psypress.com/books/details/9780415775908/" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">International Legal Theory: Essays and Engagements, 1966-2006</a> (2008). Onuf is currently Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Florida International University and is on the editorial boards of <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.isanet.org/Publications/IPS.aspx" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">International Political Sociology</a>, <a class="ext-link" href="http://cac.sagepub.com/" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Cooperation and Conflict</a>, and <a class="ext-link" href="http://contextointernacional.iri.puc-rio.br/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?tpl=home" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Contexto Internacional</a>. Professor Onuf received his PhD in International Studies at John Hopkins University, and has also taught at Georgetown University, American University, Princeton, Columbia, University of Southern California, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, and Kyung Hee University in Korea.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>In this interview, Professor Onuf discusses the professionalization of scholarship in IR and the effects this has had on the field in the US and globally; the influence that constructivism and World of Our Making has had on social theory; the transformations he has noticed in International Law Theory; and his top ten tips for flourishing in academia.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in contemporary IR?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am not sure I see any exciting debates at this moment. I am not even sure we ever had a debate in the usual sense of the term. There have been moments better characterized as a parting of the ways. I like to think I participated in one in the late 1980s. Since then, well, these ‘ways’ have grown further and further apart. If such partings are generational (as I think they are), then we should now be seeing another such moment. If we do not (and I do not), then it is because IR has lost all coherence as a field—there is nothing left to render apart. Not that this distresses me. At the last parting, I suggested that we should think of international relations as a species of social relations and abandon IR theory for social theory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What are the most important/interesting areas of IR Theory that are underdeveloped or understudied at the moment? Where is there most need and scope for new thinking?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I just intimated, I do not believe IR theory can be made interesting. The question is, what area in social theory, broadly conceived, could help us—everyone interested in what we still call international relations—do our thing. Inasmuch as we in IR have rummaged around in social theory pretty superficially (and I count myself here), there is no area that could not be put to better use. That said, I am myself most interested in cognitive, evolutionary, and moral psychology these days. Mostly because I like to read around, and this stuff keeps me thinking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">How has the way you understand the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking</span>?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I take this question—the way I <em>understand</em> the world—to concern the philosophical assumptions informing my scholarship. For the first 15 or 20 years of my scholarly career, I was a philosophical ignoramus. Still am, of course, though I can say that I have plunged into several philosophical seas and not drowned. I started off as an unthinking, and therefore utterly conventional, philosophical realist. Doubts came with exposure to postmodern and radical feminist theorizing, and theorists, in the early 1980s. Reading Wittgenstein pushed me into the linguistic turn and Oxford-style ordinary language philosophy helped me rethink the links between speech, rules, and rule, and thus the premises of much of social theory. I do not recall when I first dug into Kant’s First Critique, but I have never recovered from the experience—I still think of myself as a thoroughgoing philosophical idealist, not at all discomforted by the material <em>appearance</em> of the world. Around 1990, I took the better part of a sabbatical leave to read Aristotle from front to back, with cascading effects on my scholarship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Having taught and spoken on IR theory all around the world, how would you say IR is studied and understood as a discipline in the US versus the UK/Europe, or indeed in South America or Asia?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I resist calling IR a discipline for reasons that should be obvious from my reply to the first two questions. Educated as I was in the US, I have always thought of it as a field of study in the discipline of political science, and I always took seriously the presumption that it was a field sufficiently at odds with the rest of political science to warrant excursions into other disciplines. In my case, this was history from the beginning (later reinforced by working with a brilliant historian who happens to be my brother). I also worked extensively in international law, but this was complicated by the vocational thrust of legal education in the US. Yet another complication is the vocational orientation of the so-called professional schools of international affairs, in which I taught for many years. Here again, disciplined scholarship and, especially, theory take a back seat to practical training and ‘real-world experience.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, I think it is an open question as to whether IR is understood as a discipline in the rest of the world. There are, of course, the trappings of a discipline now almost everywhere: journals and professional associations specifically devoted to IR, not to mention clannish behavior. The big difference between the US and elsewhere is the lack of separate IR departments in the US and their proliferation in many other countries. This is a large result of the globalization of IR, while political science has always been and will always be country-specific for obvious reasons.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So let me shift the terms of discussion here just a little bit. What I saw happening in the US over the last five decades is the professionalization of scholarship (and more generally the professionalization of the professions). This was the deep issue in the so-called second debate: disciplined, highly trained US scholars, committed to rigorous positivist science, lording over English gentleman-scholars as dabblers. As a wealthy country, the US could afford the big science model of the scholarly profession, and reaps significant rewards in doing so—all this contributed to the imposition of set standards for scholarly performance, the normalization of scholarly practices, and the hegemonial presumption that everyone else in the world should and eventually would do things our way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It is no surprise that some scholars in the US resented this development and there is less discipline than demanded, but professionalization won out domestically and has made great inroads in the rest of the world (just consider the <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.rae.ac.uk/" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">RAE</a> process in the UK and the English School today). Combined with so many other facets of US hegemony, the globalization/professionalization of IR in accordance with the big science model has also been a source of resistance, which I see (and sympathize with) whenever I am abroad. I also see a significant improvement in standards for scholarship. Even if higher standards are a consequence of US hegemonial discipline, as I think they are, they are nevertheless to be welcomed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What did you feel was missing from IR theory, with Realism and Liberalism as the main schools of thought, that you felt a new school of thought—Constructivism—was needed? What blanks do you feel it fills in in our understanding of International Relations?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the time I wrote <em>World of Our Making</em>, most of us in the US took realism to be the field’s frame of reference—indeed the umbrella theory that gave IR its coherence. Liberalism was on the outs, along with international law and institutions; realism had combined with a commitment to positivist science in deciding what counted as a contribution to knowledge. I did not feel a new approach was needed or, for that matter, that liberalism needed to be resuscitated. There are no ‘blanks’—the very term implies a philosophical/social theoretic stance contrary to the one that I have already sketched.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As I said in response to question 3, I had come increasingly to feel that a bottom-up revolution was needed. I also thought that a background in international legal theory gave me (and my friend <a class="ext-link" href="https://ires.ceu.hu/profiles/visiting-faculty/friedrich_kratochwil" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Fritz Kratochwil</a>) something distinctive and important to contribute to the cause. Constructivism’s subsequent erection as IR’s third pillar—in the US, no less—signaled the end of the uprising, the banishment of post-positivist, feminist, and critical renegades, and the normalization of IR as social science. As I suggested in my response to the last question, normalization and professionalization are hegemonial practices fueling the US <em>vs.</em> rest of the world dynamic. The question takes for granted that constructivism has been normalized. To the extent this is so, it is less by discipline than exclusion. That I, as a would-be revolutionary, should be among those who are effectively excluded is no great surprise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">What implications do you think that your book </span><span style="font-weight: 700;"><em>World of Our Making </em></span><span style="font-weight: 700;">has had on the study of IR?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em>World of Our Making</em> gives IR scholars an opportunity (incentive, excuse) to look beyond the world of states and their relations and ask how it, or any ‘world,’ has come to be what it is as a social arrangement, how people engage in world-making and to what effect, and how these two processes are, as we say perhaps too glibly, co-constitutive. The book also gives scholars good reasons to consider speaking as doing, rules as indispensable to social life, and rule, not anarchy, as the abiding condition of world politics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I would say that constructivism thus conceived asks too much in a world where scholars have become ever more specialized in their interests and procedures. For that reason, it gets honorable mention when it gets any acknowledgment at all. Various people have gone ahead and worked on performative speech, rules in practice, and much else that I brought to attention, though often enough without realizing that I had already dealt with these matters. Few indeed have followed my initiatives with respect to rule and exploitation in world politics, even though there is much discussion of hegemony and hierarchy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If identity and interests are a pre-given as constructivism argues, how would you argue that this framework can be used to help academics and students of IR understand and analyse current affairs, e.g. the crisis in Syria or in the Ukraine?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I would never say that identity and interests are pre-given. In my opinion, anyone who does say this does not have even the remotest idea what it means to talk about <em>social</em> construction. As a general proposition, ongoing processes of identity- and interest-formation give us little help in understanding crises in world politics. The converse proposition is, however, another matter: What is the impact of crises on processes of identity- and interest-formation? When, for example, <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.diis.dk/hjem/eksperter/forskere/guzzini,+stefano" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="">Stefano Guzzini</a> talks about identity-triggers, I think he is on to something.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In <em>International Legal Theory</em>, you outline the key developments and problems in the field of International Law. What do you feel the most transformative have been and how have they affected the study and practice of International Law? Since its publication in 2008, are there any problems or developments that you wish you could address?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When I first started working in international legal theory, I saw three large issues needing further work. I used to think of them as the three S’s: the sources of international law, subjects of international law, and sanctions in international law. I wrote a great deal about the first, and some about the third, and very little about the second. I had my reasons at the time, but, looking back, I should probably have concentrated on the second, which has proven to be transformative. Instead I became increasingly interested in the properties of (legal) rules as instruments of social control, and this converged with a longstanding interest in world-order thinking and duly eventuated in my work on conditions of rule, to which I alluded earlier.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em>International Legal Theory</em> marked my exit from active scholarship in/on international law. By happenstance, my departure coincided with a spirited revival of theoretical work among international lawyers, and something of a rapprochement between IL and IR. I have no regrets about bowing out when I did, because so many people today are working on the three S’s in blissful ignorance of what I and others had written about decades earlier. The one exception is the discussion of ‘the fragmentation of international law’ as a reaction to accelerating functional differentiation in global administrative practice. Unlike me, Kratochwil has continued to engage international legal theory; his forthcoming book, <a class="ext-link" href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/status-law-world-society-meditations-role-and-rule-law?format=PB" rel="external" style="color: #fa5541; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title=""><em>The Status of Law in World Society</em></a>, has far more to say about this development and its implications than I could possibly hope to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What is the most important advice you could give to young scholars of International Relations?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">As an old dog, I routinely dispense advice to young scholars whom I know well enough to think that my advice fits their circumstances. Rather than trying to guess what, in general, constitutes the most important advice I can give, let me list a few things. Ten, actually—ten rules for flourishing as a scholar in IR:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1) Preparing at length for classes does not make you a better teacher. Insofar as it dampens spontaneity, students will think you are boring; this will undercut the self-confidence you thought your lengthy preparations had purchased for you. And, of course, it steals valuable time from your scholarship.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2) Writing is a craft; writing well takes most of us a great deal of work. The usual practice is to think of a problem or issue, formulate a project, do ‘research,’ and then write it up. Bad idea. Keep writing at every stage, even if, in the end, you throw out most of what you have written. Writing makes the problem clearer, points up what more you need to do in the way of research, and, most of all, keeps your writing skills well-honed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3) Don’t send sloppy, badly crafted papers out for review. As a frequent referee, I see them all too often. Many referees will punish you, not always consciously, for doing so, even if they think you are on to something. Once you think you have a well-crafted piece of work, do send it out, because most referees and editors take their duties seriously and will give you valuable feedback.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">4) Be cautious about taking on collaborative projects. We all know that scholarship is a lonely occupation. Collaboration reduces the loneliness quotient and can result in better work than any of the collaborators could have produced on their own. It can also result in a piece of work that no one is entirely happy with. Sometimes collaboration causes damaging tension and bad feelings because of temperamental differences, greater or lesser commitment to the project, and perceived inequities in the distribution of work. All that said, collaborating with my brother on two book projects was hugely rewarding. That it might have been hugely risky never occurred to us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">5) Be even more cautious in participating in symposium projects. Their thematic foci may not match your interests very well; they tend to be superficially refereed and thus are not taken seriously; they also tend to disappear quickly from view. There are exceptions—symposia that mark major developments in the field—but you’ll have a pretty good idea if a particular symposium project has that potential. As a senior scholar, I contribute to symposia because it is fun to do projects with friends and I can afford the luxury. Most of all, avoid editing symposium volumes. This involves collaboration under the most difficult conditions. It is extraordinarily time consuming. Wrangling recalcitrant contributors is too often a thankless and disheartening responsibility.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">6) Do not take on too many projects at one time. You will spread yourself too thin, miss deadlines, and make it all the more likely that you will succumb to the 90% rule—you run out of steam when any given project is 90% done and only needs some fine-tuning to be sent off. You will end up with a drawer full of nearly done projects that you have progressively lost interest in and will therefore never finish.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">7) Dissertations are apprentice projects, immediately recognizable as such. Turning a dissertation into a book is probably the smart thing to do, but it will often take longer than writing the dissertation did. For most of us, it takes five years to write a good book; <em>World of Our Making</em> took me ten years. Whether you have that much time, institutionally speaking, is another matter.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">8) Read every day. When I get up in the morning (early) and get my coffee, I read for 45 minutes. In my case, it has always been something that I do not have to read for whatever I am doing at the time. While this has broadened me immeasurably, for many scholars, a fixed time for reading is an opportunity—perhaps the only opportunity—to keep up on the literature in the field.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">9) Whether to jump on a trend in the field’s scholarship, try anticipating a trend, come late to a trend but treat it critically, jump around from thing to thing, or plug away at something few others seem to be interested in is a tricky question, having much to do with temperament. It requires you to ask yourself how ambitious you are, how much you need validation from others, how long you can stayed focused on one thing, et cetera.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">10) On the assumption that you are smarter than most people (or you would not be a scholar), seek out people whom you know to be smarter than you in various obvious ways. On the one hand, the more of these people you know, the less intimidating you will find them, and the more you will learn from them. On the other hand, knowing really smart people will remind you of your own limitations and help you be less arrogant. Arrogance is, of course, a constant hazard in our line of work. I like to think that hanging out with people who are smarter than I am has been the key to my own success as a scholar. Some of them have been my students. (I could name names, but it would not be appropriate here.) As for making me less arrogant as a human being, anything I might venture to say about that can only sound—what is the right word?—arrogant.</span><br />
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-19716005720038136542014-04-23T13:42:00.002+01:002014-04-23T13:50:13.208+01:00The Prospects for Arab Democracy<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjJRkgS8rmvOkeO5JNCIfceLte9_7Gz96gPRW6LH3hVW1AxIY0hK19eKoB0VCfQL0kZ1aq_Gn9hMcUzP9m00R8eUvJbQOBxDB44h3WKhMhTfggy5cOnav42ylIjd-hDIY2C83lMIQKBheDpZA7sYNhjW6wyow8426F5ttC0v5Thel8PRoJCs0BnWfFV-YCErUqWZ8K7fpcSdEfxF9ALOxePJOI1z5eNOusQ77DB5ZTn2alj_e4=s0-d-e1-ft" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Book_3D_-_Understanding_Tahrir_Square_small_cropped_transparent" border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEjJRkgS8rmvOkeO5JNCIfceLte9_7Gz96gPRW6LH3hVW1AxIY0hK19eKoB0VCfQL0kZ1aq_Gn9hMcUzP9m00R8eUvJbQOBxDB44h3WKhMhTfggy5cOnav42ylIjd-hDIY2C83lMIQKBheDpZA7sYNhjW6wyow8426F5ttC0v5Thel8PRoJCs0BnWfFV-YCErUqWZ8K7fpcSdEfxF9ALOxePJOI1z5eNOusQ77DB5ZTn2alj_e4=s0-d-e1-ft" width="212" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Stephen Grand</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="line-height: 21.600000381469727px;">Brookings Insitution Press, 2014</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 19.5px;">Amid the current turmoil in the Middle East, </span></span><em style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; text-align: justify;">Understanding Tahrir Square</em><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; text-align: justify;"> sounds a rare optimistic note. Surveying countries in other parts of the world during their transitions to democracy, author Stephen Grand argues that the long-term prospects in many parts of the Arab world are actually quite positive. If the current polarization and political violence in the region can be overcome, democracy will eventually take root. The key to this change will likely be ordinary citizens—foremost among them the young protestors of the Arab Spring who have filled the region's public spaces—most famously, Egypt's Tahrir Square.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The book puts the Arab Spring in comparative perspective. It reveals how globalization and other changes are upending the expectations of citizens everywhere about the relationship between citizen and state. Separate chapters examine the experiences of countries in the former Eastern bloc, in the Muslim-majority states of Asia, in Latin America, and in Sub-Saharan Africa during the recent Third Wave of democratization. What these cases show is that, at the end of the day, democracy requires democrats.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many complex factors go into making a democracy successful, such as the caliber of its political leaders, the quality of its constitution, and the design of its political institutions. But unless there is clear public demand for new institutions to function as intended, political leaders are unlikely to abide by the limits those institutions impose. If American policymakers want to support the brave activists struggling to bring democracy to the Arab world, helping them cultivate an effective political constituency for democracy —in essence, growing the Tahrir Square base —should be the lodestar of U.S. assistance.</span></span></div>
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<strong style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Advance Praise for <em>Understanding Tahrir Square</em></span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Judicious and far-ranging examination of how the experience of democratization from Central and Eastern Europe to Latin America, Asia, and Africa can help inform our understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary movements in the Middle East. A timely and practical guide for democracy activists as well as policymakers who want to support their aspirations."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">—James B. Steinberg, Dean, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, and former Deputy Secretary of State</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"With rigor and clarity Grand assembles an enormous amount of insight and information about democratic transitions from around the world and highlights important possible applications of this comparative experience to the daunting challenges that democracy faces in the Arab world."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">—Thomas Carothers, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">"</span><em style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;">Understanding Tahrir Square</em><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"> is not just a name of a book. It is a long-forgotten fantasy, a desperate wish, and a dilemma more complicated than a daytime soap opera. So, if you really have a weird urge to still try to understand Tahrir Square, get an 8-ball, or better, try your luck with this book."</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19.5px;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">—Bassem Youssef, Host, Al Bernameg (“The Jon Stewart of Egypt”)</span></span></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-8390036801448846462014-04-04T20:47:00.000+01:002014-04-04T20:54:11.619+01:00Good-Bye Hegemony!: Power and Influence in the Global System<h1 style="display: table-cell; vertical-align: top;">
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Simon Reich & Richard Ned Lebow</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many policymakers, journalists, and scholars insist that U.S. hegemony is essential for warding off global chaos. <i>Good-Bye Hegemony!</i> argues that hegemony is a fiction propagated to support a large defense establishment, justify American claims to world leadership, and buttress the self-esteem of voters. It is also contrary to American interests and the global order. Simon Reich and Richard Ned Lebow argue that hegemony should instead find expression in agenda setting, economic custodianship, and the sponsorship of global initiatives. Today, these functions are diffused through the system, with European countries, China, and lesser powers making important contributions. In contrast, the United States has often been a source of political and economic instability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rejecting the focus on power common to American realists and liberals, the authors offer a novel analysis of influence. In the process, they differentiate influence from power and power from material resources. Their analysis shows why the United States, the greatest power the world has ever seen, is increasingly incapable of translating its power into influence. Reich and Lebow use their analysis to formulate a more realistic place for America in world affairs.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>Simon Reich</b> is professor of global affairs and political science at Rutgers University, Newark. <b>Richard Ned Lebow</b> is professor of international political theory at King's College London and the James O. Freedman Presidential Professor of Government Emeritus at Dartmouth College.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="reviews"></a><b>Endorsement:</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"Mounting a frontal challenge to reigning theories in international relations and the conventional wisdom regarding the place of the United States in the international system, <i>Good-Bye Hegemony!</i> shows that the country stopped acting like a hegemon a long time ago. This accessible and engaging work will spark interesting and useful discussions in international relations and comparative foreign policy."<b>--Jeffrey Anderson, Georgetown University</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"It seems that only yesterday 'American empire' was a hot topic, but Reich and Lebow demonstrate that even U.S. hegemony was a short-lived post-World War II phenomenon. Though the United States maintains enormous military and economic capabilities, its actual influence and legitimacy are seriously limited in today's multipower world. The authors' argument--that the United States is most effective when emphasizing persuasion and sponsorship--will be central to future policy debates."<b>--Yale H. Ferguson, Rutgers University</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"In this thought-provoking and sobering narrative, Reich and Lebow take direct aim at the international relations establishment, arguing for the limits of material power and the importance of legitimacy in gauging America's global influence."<b>--James Goldgeier, American University</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"This book's main arguments against hegemonic theory are strong and necessary: the hegemonic period was not as great as rose-colored remembrances portray, the United States was not as benevolent a hegemon as often claimed, and hegemony did not last as long as often depicted. The book makes a forceful statement and should be part of the debate."<b>--Bruce W. Jentleson, Duke University</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"This beautifully provocative book turns the mainstream debate on the global power shift upside down. Reconceptualizing the relationship between power and influence, it refutes the widespread view that the United States must remain the world's hegemon and provides the blueprint for a more cooperative U.S. foreign policy. A must-read for all who care about the world's future."<b>--Harald Mueller, executive director of the Peace Research Institute, Frankfurt</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="TOC"></a><b>Table of Contents:</b></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">List of Tables</i><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ix</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Preface</i> xi</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chapter 1 The Wall Has Fallen 1</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chapter 2 Power and Influence in the Global System 15</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chapter 3 Europe and Agenda Setting 51</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chapter 4 China and Custodial Economic Management 83</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chapter 5 America and Security Sponsorship 131</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Chapter 6 The Future of International Relations 171</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Index</i> 185</div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i></i></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="http://press.princeton.edu/quotes/q10271.html" style="background-color: white;">http://press.princeton.edu/quotes/q10271.html</a></span></div>
Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-75819918571067336682014-03-17T19:34:00.000+00:002014-03-18T19:34:40.545+00:00Duties Without Borders<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><b>Joseph Nye, Harvard University<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><i>Project-Syndicate.org</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">CAMBRIDGE
– More than 130,000 people are said to have died in Syria’s civil war. United
Nations reports of atrocities, Internet images of attacks on civilians, and
accounts of suffering refugees rend our hearts. But what is to be done – and by
whom?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Recently,
the Canadian scholar-politician Michael Ignatieff urged US President Barack
Obama to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/opinion/with-syria-diplomacy-needs-force.html?_r=1"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">impose a
no-fly zone over Syria</span></a>, despite the near-certainty that Russia would
veto the United Nations Security Council resolution needed to legalize such a
move. In Ignatieff’s view, if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is allowed to
prevail, his forces will obliterate the remaining Sunni insurgents – at least
for now; with hatreds inflamed, blood eventually will flow again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
an <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/26/opinion/friedman-dont-just-do-something-sit-there.html?ref=thomaslfriedman"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">adjoining
article</span></a>, the columnist Thomas Friedman drew some lessons from the
United States’ recent experience in the Middle East. First, Americans
understand little about the social and political complexities of the countries
there. Second, the US can stop bad things from happening (at considerable
cost), but it cannot make good things happen by itself. And, third, when
America tries to make good things happen in these countries, it runs the risk
of assuming responsibility for solving their problems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So
what are a leader’s duties beyond borders? The problem extends far beyond Syria
– witness recent killings in South Sudan, the Central African Republic,
Somalia, and other places. In 2005, the UN General Assembly unanimously
recognized a <a href="http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/adviser/responsibility.shtml"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">“responsibility
to protect</span></a>” citizens when their own government fails to do so, and
in 2011 it was invoked in <a href="https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/sc10200.doc.htm#Resolution"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">UN Security
Council Resolution 1973</span></a>, authorizing the use of military force in
Libya.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Russia,
China, and others believe that the principle was misused in Libya, and that the
guiding doctrine of international law remains the <a href="https://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">UN Charter</span></a>, which
prohibits the use of force except in self-defense, or when authorized by the
Security Council. But, back in 1999, when faced with a Russian veto of a
potential Security Council resolution in the case of Kosovo, NATO used force
anyway, and many defenders argued that, legality aside, the decision was
morally justified.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So
which arguments should political leaders follow when trying to decide the right
policy to pursue? The answer depends, in part, on the collectivity to which he
or she feels morally obliged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Above
the small-group level, human identity is shaped by what Benedict Anderson calls <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Imagined_Communities.html?id=8YlMLiUzaEcC&redir_esc=y"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">“imagined
communities.”</span></a> Few people have direct experience of the other
members of the community with which they identify. In recent centuries, the
nation has been the imagined community for which most people were willing to
make sacrifices, and even to die, and most leaders have seen their primary
obligations to be national in scope.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">In
a world of globalization, however, many people belong to multiple imagined
communities. Some – local, regional, national, cosmopolitan – seem to be
arranged as concentric circles, with the strength of identity diminishing with
distance from the core; but, in a global information age, this ordering has
become confused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Today,
many identities are overlapping circles – affinities sustained by the Internet
and cheap travel. Diasporas are now a mouse click away. Professional groups
adhere to transnational standards. Activist groups, ranging from
environmentalists to terrorists, also connect across borders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As
a result, sovereignty is no longer as absolute and impenetrable as it once
seemed. This is the reality that the UN General Assembly acknowledged when it
recognized a responsibility to protect endangered people in sovereign states.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But
what moral obligation does this place on a particular leader like Obama? The
leadership theorist Barbara Kellerman <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Bad_Leadership.html?id=8lJCRJHRYMoC&redir_esc=y"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">has accused</span></a> former
US President Bill Clinton of the moral failure of insularity for his inadequate
response to the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. In one sense, she is right. But
other leaders were also insular, and no country responded adequately.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Had
Clinton tried to send American troops, he would have encountered stiff
resistance in the US Congress. Coming so soon after the death of US soldiers in
the 1993 humanitarian intervention in Somalia, the American public was in no
mood for another military mission abroad.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So
what should a democratically elected leader do in such circumstances? Clinton
has acknowledged that he could have done more to galvanize the UN and other
countries to save lives in Rwanda. But good leaders today are often caught
between their personal cosmopolitan inclinations and their more traditional
obligations to the citizens who elected them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Fortunately,
insularity is not an “all or nothing” moral proposition. In a world in which
people are organized in national communities, a purely cosmopolitan ideal is
unrealistic. Global income equalization, for example, is not a credible
obligation for a national political leader; but such a leader could rally
followers by saying that more should be done to reduce poverty and disease
worldwide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As
the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=853T-hj-TKMC&pg=PA235&lpg=PA235&dq=Thou+shalt+not+kill+is+a+test+you+take+pass-fail.+Honor+thy+father+and+thy+mother+admits+of+gradations&source=bl&ots=s_HJjXUf60&sig=OEwE6UrBJzPU9I_argCv364nEvg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=M2sWU6qKENHo4QTjtYHwCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Thou%20shalt%20not%20kill%20is%20a%20test%20you%20take%20pass-fail.%20Honor%20thy%20father%20and%20thy%20mother%20admits%20of%20gradations&f=false"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">has put it</span></a>,
“<i>Thou shalt not kill</i> is a test you take pass-fail. <i>Honor
thy father and thy mother</i> admits of gradations.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">The
same is true of cosmopolitanism versus insularity. We may admire leaders who
make efforts to increase their followers’ sense of moral duties beyond borders;
but it does little good to hold leaders to an impossible standard that would
undercut their capacity to remain leaders.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As
Obama wrestles with determining his responsibilities in Syria and elsewhere, he
faces a serious moral dilemma. As Appiah says, duties beyond borders are a
matter of degree; and there are also degrees of intervention that range from
aid to refugees and arms to different degrees of the use of force.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 14pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But
even when making these graduated choices, a leader also owes his followers a
duty of prudence – of remembering the Hippocratic oath to first of all, do no
harm. Ignatieff says Obama already owns the consequences of his inaction;
Friedman reminds him of the virtue of prudence. Pity Obama.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 22.5pt 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: TR; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/joseph-s--nye-considers-the-limits-of-political-leaders--transnational-moral-obligations"><span style="color: windowtext;">http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/joseph-s--nye-considers-the-limits-of-political-leaders--transnational-moral-obligations</span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-19792061828559427642014-02-10T16:50:00.000+00:002014-03-02T15:12:49.080+00:00The Precariat: Emergence of a global ‘dangerous class’?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Jan Breman, New Left Review 84 (11-12 2013)</b><br />
<br />
<i>Guy Standing, The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class, Bloomsbury Academic: London 2011</i></div>
<div class="artbody" style="background-color: #fef6f5; color: #2c2c2f; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Up till the 1970s, the notion that the Rest would follow in the footsteps of the West was intrinsic to the dominant development paradigm.<a class="footnote_reference" href="http://newleftreview.org/II/84/jan-breman-a-bogus-concept#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="color: #1e5c97; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" title=""> [1] </a>Through industrialization and urbanization, the ‘underdeveloped world’ would replicate the experience of the advanced economies in the nineteenth century: growing employment in manufacturing, rising living standards, mass consumption. If there were not, as yet, many industrial jobs available for the land-poor migrants who began flocking to the cities of Latin America, Africa, the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia, where land reform had been negligible, the consensus was that urban life itself would help them in their search for employment. For the time being they had to make do with whatever low-paid work was accessible to them, as waged hands or self-employed, living in makeshift shelters on the city outskirts or on vacant land. The burgeoning informal sector was at first seen as a zone of transition, a buffer that would disappear as labour was absorbed by the dynamics of industrialization into a growing formal economy. This upward mobility turned out to be a rare occurrence, however, and millions remained stuck in the informal economy that they had helped to build, or drifting back and forth between the slums of the urban periphery and the impoverished rural hinterland, forming a vast stratum of precarious labour.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
</div>
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<a 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" 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" /></a><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Now, it seems, it is the West that is following the Rest when it comes to the growing insecurity of work conditions. With every recession since the 1970s, prolonged episodes of high unemployment, privatizations and public-sector cutbacks have served to weaken the position of labour in North America, Europe and Japan; trade-union movements were hollowed out by the shrinkage of the industrial workforce, through factory re-location or robotization, and the growth of the non-unionized service and retail sectors; the rise of China, the entry of hundreds of millions of low-paid workers into the world workforce and the globalization of trade helped to depress wages and working conditions further. Part-time and short-contract work has been on the rise, along with that ambiguous category, self-employment. An extensive literature has now grown up around the issue of informal and precarious labour in the advanced economies. What relation does this bear to the condition of workers outside the <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">OECD</span>, where the vast mass of humanity is located? Is it possible to generalize about global trends, or do specific economies need to be examined comparatively? What are the political implications of changing workforce patterns? Are we in fact talking about a new phenomenon?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An economist at the International Labour Organization from 1975 until 2006, Guy Standing should be well placed to address these questions. Though his recent work has focused largely on the condition of labour in the Western world, he is well acquainted with the precarious nature of work and life for most people in the global South; he has been a presence at international seminars and conferences discussing the vulnerability of workers in the informal economy for many decades. His first publication with the <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">ILO</span> was a scholarly treatise on labour-force participation in low-income countries in 1978, followed by labour-force studies on Jamaica, Guyana, Malaysia, Thailand and elsewhere. In the mid-80s, Standing was responsible for a series of <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">ILO</span> analyses of labour-market ‘flexibility’ in the <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">OECD</span> countries, which took a sceptical view of neoliberal nostrums while accepting that the capitalist economies had entered a new era, marked by unemployment and fiscal crises. In the early 90s he switched to Russia, editing <i>In Search of Flexibility: The New Soviet Labour Market</i> (1991) for the <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">ILO</span>, followed by post-Apartheid South Africa with<i>Restructuring the Labour Market: The South African Challenge</i> (1996).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Three more general books have followed over the last fifteen years: <i>Global Labour Flexibility</i>(1999), <i>Beyond the New Paternalism</i> (2002) and <i>Work after Globalization</i> (2009) all addressed similar themes, looking at the transition from the post-war era of ‘statutory regulation’ to that of post-1975 ‘market regulation’ from a critical Polanyian perspective, with data drawn mainly from the advanced-capitalist world. Standing defined seven forms of labour security—adequate opportunities, protection against dismissal, barriers to skill dilution, health and safety regulations, training, stable income, representation—all of which were being eroded in the new era. He identified six components of ‘social income’—direct production, wages, community support, company benefits, state provision, private/rentier income—each of which was shifting in different ways for different groups. Globalization, he argued, was creating a new class landscape, with seven clearly delineated social strata. In 2002, <i>Beyond the New Paternalism</i> identified ‘flexiworkers’ as a crucial group; seven years later, <i>Work after Globalization</i> replaced the term ‘flexiworkers’ with ‘precariat’, which by then was already in relatively wide circulation. Standing argued by way of remedy, as he has done since the mid-80s, for a new ‘politics of paradise’, underwritten by a universal basic-income grant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">His latest work, <i>The Precariat</i>, aims in part to rehearse these themes for what Standing calls ‘the lay reader’. But it also introduces a new claim: that there is now a new class in the making, a ‘global precariat’. Standing argues once again that the dynamics of globalization, along with concerted government drives for labour flexibility—a euphemism he abhors—have led to a fragmentation of older class divisions. He locates the ‘precariat’ in the bottom half of what is now a seven-class system. Above it are the elite (‘a tiny number of absurdly rich global citizens lording it over the universe with their billions of dollars, able to influence governments everywhere’); the ‘salariat’, well entrenched in large corporations and government administration, still enjoying stable full-time employment, pensions and paid holidays; a smaller segment of skilled ‘proficians’, highly rewarded own-account consultants and specialists; and the rump of the old working class, about which Standing is particularly scathing. Below the ‘precariat’ come the unemployed and the lowest class of all, ‘socially ill misfits living off the dregs of society’.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The ‘precariat’ in Standing’s definition consists of all those who are engaged in insecure forms of labour that are unlikely to help them build a desirable identity or career: temporary and part-time workers, sub-contracted labour, call-centre employees, many interns. It might be thought that these were classic proletarians: stripped of the means of subsistence and with no option but to sell their labour power in order to survive. Yet Standing is unequivocal: ‘The precariat is not part of the “working class” or the “proletariat”.’ He offers a peculiarly restrictive definition of the latter, limited to ‘workers in long-term, stable, fixed-hour jobs with established routes of advancement, subject to unionization and collective agreements, with job titles their fathers and mothers would have understood, facing local employers whose names and features they were familiar with’. Though he acknowledges that in <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">UK</span> surveys, for example, nearly two-thirds of those aged 25–34 define themselves as ‘working class’, in part precisely because they are in precarious jobs, Standing dismisses this as identity confusion. Terms coined in the past, it seems, will not do to express their predicament. Instead, the ‘precariat’ is described in terms of what it does not have. Standing lists once again seven forms of labour security—all of which the ‘precariat’ must do without. Of the six components that contribute to ‘social income’ the ‘precariat’ must depend largely on wages alone. Lacking any work-based identity, or sense of belonging to a solidaristic labour community, its psychology is liable to be determined by the ‘four As’: anger, anomie, anxiety, alienation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Demographically, the members of this class-in-the-making are remarkably heterogeneous. The ‘precariat’ is disproportionately female, Standing writes, though it is unclear whether the growing entry of women into insecure waged labour is ‘cause or effect’; men are more likely to experience ‘precarization’ as a loss of status. Youth make up its core, often forced to take dead-end jobs in order to service their debts; but with pension cuts, ‘old agers’ are also entering back into its ranks. Migrants not only comprise ‘a large share of the world’s precariat’ but, as ‘denizens’ rather than citizens, are ‘in danger of becoming its primary victims’. Defining ‘work’ as a broad category of human activity that includes social reproduction, and ‘labour’ as work done for wages, Standing describes the long hours of ‘work-for-labour’ involved in applying for precarious jobs—commuting, queueing, form-filling, answering questions, obtaining certificates—and ‘the ever-more complex procedures to gain and to retain entitlement to modest benefits’ that make large demands on claimants’ time and are fraught with tension.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The concluding chapters discuss the political propensities of this ‘new class’. Standing identifies a ‘bad precariat’ which, angry and bitter at seeing governments bail out bankers at its expense, and corroded by nostalgia for a golden social-democratic age, is drawn to ‘populist neo-fascism’. By contrast the ‘good precariat’ is young, unburdened by memories of full employment and said to favour a political agenda remarkably similar to Standing’s own: a ‘politics of paradise’ that envisages a universal basic income, lifelong education, residency rights for migrants, cooperatives and the revalorization of work, as steps towards ‘more equal access’ to five key assets—economic security, time, space, knowledge and finance capital. Current government strategies to deal with this incipient ‘dangerous class’ include surveillance, workfare and the demonization of migrants and the unemployed—policies more likely to deepen the insecurities of the precarious, in Standing’s view, leaving them open to the appeal of the far right. The centre-left must abandon the interests of ‘labour’ and a dying way of life, which it has upheld for too long: ‘The new class is the precariat; unless the progressives of the world offer a politics of paradise, that class will be all too prone to listen to the sirens luring society onto the rocks.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Many of these notions have been recurrent features of Standing’s work, now repackaged—as the subtitle about a new ‘dangerous class’ might indicate—in more meretricious form. Readers hoping for an informative new analysis will be disappointed: facts and figures are few and far between, and mainly consist of examples drawn from the Anglophone media—<i>New York Times</i>, <i>Guardian</i>,<i>Economist</i>—rather than the <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">ILO</span>’s vast databank. In style and method, <i>The Precariat</i> reads like a book-length opinion piece. Despite the claim that the ‘precariat’ is a global class, the focus remains firmly on the advanced economies: most of Standing’s examples are drawn from the <span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">US</span>,<span class="smallcaps" style="text-transform: uppercase;">UK</span>, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea. Once in a while there is a short excursion to distant lands, China in particular, but soon we are back in the capitalist heartlands, whose populations had become accustomed in the post-war period to the idea that life and work would carry on getting better, but have been confronted over the past few decades—and especially in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis—with a sharp deterioration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Where does the term ‘precariat’ come from? Its etymological origins lie in the Latin <i>precari</i>: beg, pray, entreat; hence, insecure, dependent on the favour of another, unstable, exposed to danger; with uncertain tenure. The precarious situation of labour was recognized in the nineteenth century as a defining condition of proletarianization, in the classic sense: stripped of the means of subsistence on the land, workers could only survive by selling their labour; the precariousness of their livelihood features in the <i>Communist Manifesto</i>. In the Catholic tradition, meanwhile, <i>precarità</i> also referred to an order funded by donations. In France, <i>précarité</i> came to describe the condition of those living hand-to-mouth in the 1990s, amid high youth unemployment and ‘McJobs’; the sense of danger intensified by the mass protests of 1995. In Italy, the inevitable neologism <i>il precariato</i>—combining ‘precarious’ with ‘proletariat’—had been coined not long after the 2001 Genoa protests against the G8. It was raised as a slogan by post-<i>operaisti</i>militants in Milan, organizing casual workers in an alternative May Day protest in 2004—but as one of them put it in a recent YouTube interview: ‘The precariat: is it a social subject, a social stratum, a class, a category, a cohort, a generational concept—who cares!’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">An assessment of <i>The Precariat</i>, then, must focus on its one novel claim: that ‘the precariat’ is a new global class. Yet the notion that those on temporary and part-time contracts will be forged into a single class—one with interests radically distinct from those of full-time or unionized workers—is so patently untenable that at times Standing himself hardly seems to take it seriously. At one point he writes that the ‘precariat’ comes in many different varieties; at another, that this ‘class-in-the-making’ could come to comprise ‘everybody’. His motive in distancing himself from the usual class terminology, or in employing it with eccentric new definitions of his own, lies in his hostility to what he calls ‘orthodox labourism’, by which he means not reformist trade-unionism, the usual referent, but a ‘Fordist pattern’ of ‘stable jobs with long-term employment security’—working conditions from a bygone era, which hardly require his disdain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Full-text available at: </span><a href="http://newleftreview.org/II/84/jan-breman-a-bogus-concept" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">http://newleftreview.org/II/84/jan-breman-a-bogus-concept </a></div>
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Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34922145.post-90396310127591465462014-01-20T12:45:00.001+00:002014-01-20T12:46:19.931+00:00Year Four of the Arab Awakening<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24.649999618530273px;"><b>Marwan Muasher</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24.649999618530273px;"><b>CEIP, December 2013</b></span></div>
<a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/images/experts/muasher_color_medium1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><img alt="Muasher is vice president for studies at Carnegie, where he oversees research in Washington and Beirut on the Middle East.
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24.649999618530273px;">How will history judge the uprisings that started in many parts of the Arab world in 2011? The label “Arab Spring” proved too simplistic from the beginning. Transformational processes defy black-and-white expectations, but in the end, will the awakenings be more reminiscent of what happened in Europe in 1848, when several uprisings took place within a few weeks only to be followed by counterrevolutions and renewed authoritarian rule? Or will they more closely resemble the 1989 collapse of the Soviet Union, after which some countries swiftly democratized while others remained in thrall to dictatorship?</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24.649999618530273px;">Whatever the case, it is clear that the process of Arab transformation will need decades to mature and that its success is by no means guaranteed. The movements driving it are more unanimous about what they are against than about what they are for. But the debate to define this awakening has begun.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24.649999618530273px;">Transforming the movements sweeping the Middle East into coherent and effective forces of change will take time. In all of history, no such process has taken only two or three years to mature, evolve, and stabilize. The question over the long term is whether the present changes, however uncertain and difficult, will lead to democratic societies. The coming year will offer signs that indicate whether countries of the Arab world are heading toward democracy and pluralism or away from them.</span></div>
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2014 will see the countries of the Middle East moving in different directions, with some making strides toward genuine democratic transitions while other governments perpetuate timeworn policies that allow them to avoid addressing the very real social, political, and economic challenges they face.</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 17px; line-height: 24.649999618530273px;"><a href="http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/12/12/year-four-of-arab-awakening/gw1m">http://carnegieendowment.org/2013/12/12/year-four-of-arab-awakening/gw1m</a></span></span></div>
Reflection Cafehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15613969718374472287noreply@blogger.com0