This book is a short history of Russia since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe. In a matter of months, Russia was apparently demoted from "evil empire" to despondent poor relation of the prosperous West. Yet the country also seemed extraordinarily -- and alarmingly -- open to all manner of political outcomes: from the return of Communism to the creation and consolidation of liberal democracy. Many of the scripts written for Russia in 1991 have had to be drastically revised in subsequent years. This book is a historian's attempt to stand back from the turbulent post-Soviet era and...

North Korea and South Korea are never far from the news headlines - one for the alleged danger it poses to the world, the other for its apparent capitalist success story. In Bipolar Orders, Hyung Gu Lynn analyzes the processes driving both countries since the 1980s.
North Korea has experienced severe economic deterioration and increasing international isolation, while South Korea has undergone democratization and witnessed the emergence of a vibrant consumer culture. Paradoxically, this growing gap in ideologies and material standards has led to improved relations between the two...

The Caribbean stands out in the popular imagination as a 'place without history', a place which has somehow eluded modernity. Haiti is envisioned as being trapped in an endless cycle of violence and instability, Cuba as a 1950s time warp, Jamaicans as ganja-smoking Rastafarians, while numerous pristine, anonymous islands are simply peaceful idylls. The notion of 'getting away from it all' lures countless visitors, offering the possibility of total disconnect for the world-weary.
In On the Move Alejandra Bronfman argues that in fact the opposite is true; the Caribbean is, and has always...

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the failure of the Oslo Accords as they pass into history. Mark LeVine argues that Oslo was never going to bring peace of justice to Palestinians or Israelis and that the accords collapsed not because of a failure to live up to the agreements, but precisely because of the terms of and ideologies that underlay them. Today more than ever, it's crucial to understand why these failures happened and how they will impact on future negotiations towards any "final status agreement." This fresh and honest account of the peace process in the Middle East...

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the failure of the Oslo Accords as they pass into history. Mark LeVine argues that Oslo was never going to bring peace of justice to Palestinians or Israelis and that the accords collapsed not because of a failure to live up to the agreements, but precisely because of the terms of and ideologies that underlay them. Today more than ever, it's crucial to understand why these failures happened and how they will impact on future negotiations towards any "final status agreement." This fresh and honest account of the peace process in the Middle East...

1989 marks the unraveling of India's 'Nehruvian Consensus' around the idea of a modern, secular nation with a self-reliant economy.
Caste and religion have come to play major roles in national politics. Global economic integration has led to conflict between the state and dispossessed people, but processes of globalization have also enabled new spaces for political assertion, such as around sexuality. Older challenges to the idea of India continue from movements in Kashmir and the North-East, while Maoist insurgency has deepened its bases. In a world of American Empire, India as a...

Since its re-emergence as nation-state in 1923, Turkey has often looked like an odd appendix to the West situated in the borderlands of Europe and the Middle East, economically backward, inward looking, marred by political violence, yet a staunch NATO ally, it has been eyed with suspicion by both 'East' and 'West'. The momentous changes in the regional and world order after 1989 have catapulted the country back to the world stage. Ever since, Turkey has turned into a major power broker and has developed into one the largest economies in the world. In the process, however, the country has...