Everybody these days needs to know about international relations, because their workings shape all our lives. This book, explaining the particular significance of the international level of world politics, offers a comprehensive, accessible, and challenging overview of what is at stake, and what you need to know. World politics can be understood, simply, as Who Gets What, Where and How? (globally) to borrow a title from a famous old book by Harold Lasswell. International relations are a critical level in that business of determining who gets what across the world. Decisive things take place at the international level, and they directly or indirectly affect all our lives: war, trade, and the provision (or not) of human rights for example. This is why the practice of international relations matter. The reason academic International Relations matter is because it is the subject that asks the most fundamental questions about the politics of who gets what and how, and in the biggest political arena of all.

Everybody these days needs to know about international relations, because their workings shape all our lives. This book, explaining the particular significance of the international level of world politics, offers a comprehensive, accessible, and challenging overview of what is at stake, and what you need to know. World politics can be understood, simply, as Who Gets What, Where and How? (globally) to borrow a title from a famous old book by Harold Lasswell. International relations are a critical level in that business of determining who gets what across the world. Decisive things take place at the international level, and they directly or indirectly affect all our lives: war, trade, and the provision (or not) of human rights for example. This is why the practice of international relations matter. The reason academic International Relations matter is because it is the subject that asks the most fundamental questions about the politics of who gets what and how, and in the biggest political arena of all.

Set in Vancouver's Chinatown in the 1930s and 1940s, Choy continues the story of the Chen family household, this time narrated by First Son, Kiam-Kim. We first meet Kiam-Kim at the age of eight, staring at the yellowed photograph of his mother, who died in China when he was just a baby. Kiam-Kim, Poh-Poh (his larger-than-life grandmother) and Mr. Chen, his demure and honest father, journey to a new life in Vancouver's Old Chinatown. Following the dream of finding gold and then one day returning to China -- wealthy -- they, like many Chinese families around them, find themselves in a country on the brink of the Second World War, struggling to survive in a foreign land and keep alive the traditions of an older world. Finely crafted, and rich in historical detail, All That Matters depicts 1930s Vancouver in the haunting hues of memory, and sees in the Chen family a fragile miniature of a larger world. Dwelling on Kiam-Kim's sense of responsibility to his community, Choy unfolds the Chen family's secrets in thoughtful and luminous prose, leading the reader to a breathtaking conclusion that far transcends the limits of its time and place, and gestures towards all humanity.

DOES TERRORISM WORK? Terrorism is surrounded by myths. One of the most enduring of these myths and half-truths is that terrorism never works; that in the end, the state will prevail and the terrorists will either be dead or imprisoned or otherwise forced to end their campaign of violence. It is true that most terrorist groups are beaten. Within twelve months of their first attack most terrorist groups have been crushed. Within ten years half of the rest have been beaten. However, a small proportion - roughly one group in twenty - endures and incredibly goes on to win the conflict and beat the governments opposing them. This book is about these triumphs of terror, how and why they happen and what the beaten governments could and should have done differently. It is a book about blunders and miscalculations, of the danger of underestimating a weak enemy and the hubris of empire. It encompasses tales of courage and despair, ruthlessness and tragedy, brutality and hope. In the end, it represents not just one but many warnings from history. About the care that is needed when confronted with terrorism and about just how badly events can go for even the most powerful state if they get it wrong. ABOUT THE SERIES All That Matters books are written by the world's leading experts to introduce the most exciting and relevant topics in an accessible, readable way. From Bioethics to Future Cities and Philosophy to Terrorism, the All That Matters series covers controversial and engaging subjects from science, philosophy, history, religion and politics. The authors are world-class academics or leading public intellectuals, on a mission to bring the most interesting and challenging areas of their subject to new readers.

Conflicts involving religion have returned to the forefront of international relations. And yet political scientists and policymakers have continued to assume that religion has long been privatized in the West. This secularist assumption ignores the contestation surrounding the category of the "secular" in international politics. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations shows why this thinking is flawed, and provides a powerful alternative. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd argues that secularist divisions between religion and politics are not fixed, as commonly assumed, but socially and historically constructed. Examining the philosophical and historical legacy of the secularist traditions that shape European and American approaches to global politics, she shows why this matters for contemporary international relations, and in particular for two critical relationships: the United States and Iran, and the European Union and Turkey. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations develops a new approach to religion and international relations that challenges realist, liberal, and constructivist assumptions that religion has been excluded from politics in the West. The first book to consider secularism as a form of political authority in its own right, it describes two forms of secularism and their far-reaching global consequences.

Fully revised and updated, this second edition of Gender Matters in Global Politics is a comprehensive textbook for advanced undergraduates studying feminism & international relations, gender and global politics and similar courses. It provides students with an accessible but in-depth account of the most significant theories, methodologies, debates and issues. This textbook is written by an international line-up of established and emerging scholars from a range of theoretical perspectives, and brings together cutting-edge feminist scholarship in a variety of issue areas. Key features and benefits of the book: Introduces students to the wide variety of feminist and gender theory and explains the relevance to contemporary global politics Explains the insights of feminist theory for a range of other disciplines including international relations, international political economy and security studies Addresses a large number of key contemporary issues such as human rights, trafficking, rape as a tool of war, peacekeeping and state-building, terrorism and environmental politics Features detailed pedagogical tools and resources – seminar exercises, text boxes, photographs, suggestions for further reading, web resources and a glossary of key terms New chapters on - Environmental politics and ecology; War; Terrorism and political violence; Land, food and water; International legal institutions; Peacebuilding institutions and post-conflict reconstruction; Citizenship; Art, aesthetics and emotionality; and New social media and global resistance. This text enables students to develop a sophisticated understanding of the work that gender does in policies and practices of global politics.

In no nation on earth has history accelerated with such speed as in Korea. A medieval dynasty at the end of the 19th century, it underwent a traumatic colonization, then, in its hour of liberation was divided by the great powers at the end of World War II. Devastated by a fratricidal war, the peninsula has remained divided ever since. South Korea is the greatest national success story of the 20th century. From the ashes of war, it transformed itself, against the odds - and against much advice - into an industrial powerhouse and thriving democracy. Now a high-tech wonderland, it is undergoing social and cultural transformations that add further layers to its dynamic DNA. North Korea is an economic, social and political disaster, successful only at totalitarianism. Having transmogrified from a blood-and-iron communist dictatorship into a bizarre, neo-fascist monarchy, it is a black hole at the heart of Asia. Engulfed by paranoia, the regime presides over a malnourished populace, a 1.1 million man army and a nuclear arsenal. From nuclear missiles to Samsung smartphones; from assassins to salarymen; from Kim Il-sung to Psy; this is the extraordinary story of the flashpoint peninsula that dominates talk in boardrooms and newsrooms. Korea, the author argues, provides two stark benchmarks for national development: Epic success and catastrophic failure. And its final chapter has yet to be written.

In this book: Donna Dickenson - Winner of the International Spinoza Lens Award Should we do what ever science lets us do?Bioethics: All That Matters, new developments in biotechnology like genetics, stem cell research and artificial reproduction arouse both our greatest hopes and our greatest fears. Many people invest the new biotechnology with all the aspirations and faith once accorded to religious salvation. But does everyone benefit equally from scientific progress? Commercialised modern biomedicine runs the risk of exploiting vulnerable groups, from Indian 'surrogate' mothers to professional guinea pigs in drug research. Professor Dickenson argues that although we've entered new scientific territory, there's no need to jettison our existing moral sense. By discussing a range of real-life cases, she equips readers to make up their own minds on these important and controversial questions. Good science and good ethics needn't be contradictory. This accessible and concise book will appeal to both students and general readers, giving a fascinating introduction to a wide range of perspectives on Bioethics. All That Matters books: All books in the All That Matters series are written by world experts in their subject field. These experts work to distil a topic and get right to its heart, making the book accessible for both students and general readers. Each compelling book contains new and interesting perspectives and tells stories that matter. The Author: All That Matters - Interesting introductions to important issues Books on the following subjects are available from the All That Matters series: Muhammad, God, Water, Political Philosophy, Sustainability, Philosophy, Intelligence, Love, Russian Revolution, War, and Creativity.To find out more visit: www.allthatmattersbooks.com

The world's population is increasing; but its supply of water is not. Empires have grown and declined due to discovery and exhaustion of their water sources, and now the West is at last catching on to the fact that abundance of water can no longer be taken for granted. For the last fifty years, wars have been fought over oil; for the next fifty, they may be fought over water (in fact, some local wars already have been). Remarkably, this new book is the first to bring together the ecological, geographical, political and scientific aspects of water. Its author, Professor Paul Younger, is one of the UK's leading experts on water - a substance of which we consume 150 litres of a day, and in its bottled form are willing to pay more for than for petrol.

Critical and scientific realism have emerged as important perspectives on international relations in recent years. The attraction of these approaches lies in the claim that they can transcend the positivism vs postpositivism divide. This book demonstrates the vitality of this approach and the difference that 'realism' makes.

There is a strange disconnect between the scientific consensus and the public mind on intelligence testing. Just mention IQ testing in polite company, and you'll sternly be informed that IQ tests don't measure anything "real", and only reflect how good you are at doing IQ tests; that they ignore important traits like "emotional intelligence" and "multiple intelligences"; and that those who are interested in IQ testing must be elitists, or maybe something more sinister. Yet the scientific evidence is clear: IQ tests are extraordinarily useful. IQ scores are related to a huge variety of important life outcomes like educational success, income, and even life expectancy, and biological studies have shown they are genetically influenced and linked to measures of the brain. Studies of intelligence and IQ are regularly published in the world's top scientific journals. This book will offer an entertaining introduction to the state of the art in intelligence and IQ, and will show how we have arrived at what we know from a century's research. It will engage head-on with many of the criticisms of IQ testing by describing the latest high-quality scientific research, but will not be a simple point-by-point rebuttal: it will make a positive case for IQ research, focusing on the potential benefits for society that a better understanding of intelligence can bring.

In Modern China: All That Matters, Jonathan Clements presents China as the Chinese themselves see it. He explains the key issues of national reconstruction; the Cold War, the Cultural Revolution, and the dizzying spectacle of China's economic reform. Clements offers a Chinese perspective on such events as the Handover of Hong Kong, and chronicles the historical events that continue to resonate today in Chinese politics, economics, culture and quality of life. A final chapter examines China's role in the global marketplace, its indirect effect on foreign economies from Australia to America to Africa, and its growing military might, with an assessment of the damage done to its environment and population. In his most provocative assertion, Clements suggests that China's contemporary problems are not the trials of a developing nation, but a possible vision of our own future. This accessible and readable book will appeal both to students and general readers, giving a fascinating introduction to modern China - and what matters most about it.

Describes the TOMS Shoes founder's transformation from a businessperson to an advocate, in an account that outlines his philosophy about working in ways that both fulfill material desires and have philanthropic and social benefits.

Animal Rights is a big deal. From animal testing to vegetarianism, and hunting to preservation of fish stocks, it's a topic that's always in the news. Mark Rowlands, author of The Philosopher and the Wolf, is the world's best known philosopher of animal rights. In this, the first introduction he has written to the topic, he starts by asking whether there is anything about humans that makes us psychologically or physiologically distinctive - so that there might be a moral justification for treating animals in a different way to how we treat humans. From this foundation, he goes on to explore specific issues of eating animals, experimentation, pets, hunting, zoos, predation and engineering animals. He ends with a challenging argument of how an improved understanding of animal ethics can and should affect readers' choices.

Perspectives on International Relations: Power, Institutions, and Ideas shows students new to the field how theories (perspectives) of international affairs—realism, liberalism, constructivism (identity), and critical theory—play a decisive role in explaining every-day debates about world affairs. Why, for example, do politicians and political scientists disagree about the causes of the ongoing conflict in Syria, even though they all have the same facts? Or, why do policymakers disagree about how to deal with North Korea when they are all equally well informed? The new Sixth Edition of this best-seller includes updates on Brexit, the rise of Donald Trump and other populist leaders, and continuing developments for ISIS, Syria, and Russia.

How can a divided world share a single planet? As the environment rises ever higher on the global agenda, the discipline of International Relations (IR) is engaging in more varied and transformative ways than ever before to overcome environmental challenges. Focusing in particular on the key trends of the past 20 years, this volume explores the main developments in the global environmental crisis, with each chapter considering an environmental issue and an approach within IR. In the process, adjacent fields including energy politics, science and technology, and political economy are also touched on. Traditions and Trends in Global Environmental Politics is aimed at anybody interested in the key international environmental problems of the day, and those seeking clarification and inspiration in terms of approaches and theories that decode how the environment is accounted for in global politics. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars of global environmental politics and governance, environmental studies and IR.

The acclaimed author of The Other Wes Moore continues his inspirational quest for a meaningful life and shares the powerful lessons—about self-discovery, service, and risk-taking—that led him to a new definition of success for our times. The Work is the story of how one young man traced a path through the world to find his life’s purpose. Wes Moore graduated from a difficult childhood in the Bronx and Baltimore to an adult life that would find him at some of the most critical moments in our recent history: as a combat officer in Afghanistan; a White House fellow in a time of wars abroad and disasters at home; and a Wall Street banker during the financial crisis. In this insightful book, Moore shares the lessons he learned from people he met along the way—from the brave Afghan translator who taught him to find his fight, to the resilient young students in Katrina-ravaged Mississippi who showed him the true meaning of grit, to his late grandfather, who taught him to find grace in service. Moore also tells the stories of other twenty-first-century change-makers who’ve inspired him in his search, from Daniel Lubetzky, the founder of KIND, to Esther Benjamin, a Sri Lankan immigrant who rose to help lead the Peace Corps. What their lives—and his own misadventures and moments of illumination—reveal is that our truest work happens when we serve others, at the intersection between our gifts and our broken world. That’s where we find the work that lasts. An intimate narrative about finding meaning in a volatile age, The Work will inspire readers to see how we can each find our own path to purpose and help create a better world. Praise for The Work “Powerful and moving . . . Wes Moore’s story and the stories of those who have inspired him, from family members to entrepreneurs, provide a model for how we can each weave together valuable lessons from all different types of people to forge an individual path to triumph. I’ve known and deeply admired Wes for a long time. Reading The Work, I better understand why.”—Chelsea Clinton “Wes Moore proves once again that he is one of the most effective storytellers and leaders of his generation. His gripping personal story, set against the dramatic events of the past decade, goes straight to the heart of an ancient question that is as relevant as ever: not just how to live a good life, but how to make that life matter. Above all, this book teaches us how to make our journey about more than mere surviving or even succeeding; it teaches us how to truly come alive.”—Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive “How we define success for ourselves is one of life’s essential questions. Wes Moore shows us the way—by sharing his incredible journey and the inspiring stories of others who make the world a better place through the choices they’ve made about how they want to live. We come away from this important book with a new understanding of what it truly means to succeed in life.”—Suze Orman “An intriguing follow-up to his bestselling The Other Wes Moore . . . Moore makes a convincing case that work has the most value if it’s built on a foundation of service, selflessness, courage, and risk-taking.”—Publishers Weekly “A beautifully philosophical look at the expectation that work should bring meaning to our lives.”—Booklist “The Work will resonate with people seeking their own purpose.”—BookPage From the Hardcover edition.

Jonathan Clements charts the rise of Japan since the end of World War Two. Presenting the country as the Japanese themselves see it, he explains key issues in national reconstruction, the often-overlooked US Occupation, the influence of the Cold War, student unrest, political scandals, and the meteoric rise and sudden fall of the Japanese economy in the late 20th century. He chronicles changes in women's rights and consumer habits, developments in politics, education and health today, and the shadow of nuclear issues from Hiroshima to Fukushima. He also raises topics rarely covered by the foreign media - Japan's ethnic minorities and burakumin underclass, the influence of organised crime and the hard sell behind "soft" power. A final chapter examines the price Japan has paid for its meteoric rise, the problems of a greying population and a declining countryside, and the long-term implications of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. All That Matters about modern Japan. All That Matters books are a fast way to get right to the heart of key issues.

Are social practices actions, or institutional frameworks of interaction structured by common rules? How do social practices such as signing a cheque differ from international practices such as signing a peace treaty? Traversing the fields of international relations (IR) and philosophy, this book defends an institutionalist conception of practices as part of a general practice theory indebted to Oakeshott, Wittgenstein and Hegel. The proposed practice theory has two core aspects: practice internalism and normative descriptivism. In developing a philosophical analysis of social practices that has a special relevance for international relations, Silviya Lechner and Mervyn Frost depart from Pierre Bourdieu's sociology of practice that dominates the current 'practice turn' in IR. The authors show that the contemporary global realm is constituted by two distinct macro practices - the practice of sovereign states and that of global rights.

This book examines the ways in which mixed ethnic identities in Scandinavia are formed along both cultural and embodied lines, arguing that while the official discourses in the region refer to a "post-racial" or "color blind" era, color still matters in the lives of people of mixed ethnic descent. Drawing on research from people of mixed ethnic backgrounds, the author offers insights into how color matters and is made to matter and into the ways in which terms such as "ethnic" and "ethnicity" remain very much indebted to their older, racialized grammar. Color that Matters moves beyond the conventional Anglo-American focus of scholarship in this field, showing that while similarities exist between the racial and ethnic discourses of the US and UK and those found in the Nordic region, Scandinavia, and Norway in particular, manifests important differences, in part owing to a tendency to view itself as exceptional or outside the colonial heritage of race and imperialism. Presenting both a contextualization of racial discourses since World War II based on documentary analysis and new interview material with people of mixed ethnic backgrounds, the book acts as a corrective to the blind spot within Scandinavian research on ethnic minorities, offering a new reading of race for the Nordic region that engages with the idea that color has been emptied of legitimate cultural content.