This volume is the result of the co-author's keen interest in better understanding the environmental problems faced by all countries in the Middle East. It is also the result of the co-authors' deep commitment to urge Middle Eastern citizens and their leaders to work together for better protection of their precious and fragile environment so that it may be saved for the enjoyment and safety of future generations. In the Middle East, geography and arid and simi-arid climatic conditions have led to a concentration of people in coastal zones and river valleys with acute water shortages, water...

This volume addresses the problem of military and economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, particularly the impact of the end of the Cold War, on the evolution of its four regional subsystems (Australasia, Southern Asia, Southeast Asia, and Northeast Asia), the level of institutionalization in its economic and military dimensions, and the tendency towards regional amity or regional enmity. It investigates the regional institutions of military and economic security organizing the interstate relations of the Asia-Pacific; assesses the military and economic ambitions of China, Japan, and the...

Values and Attitudes across Nations and Time contributes to an ever-growing body of work focussing on the elucidation of variations in values and attitudes throughout the world - not only what they actually are, but also strategies for their detection, description and classification. Researchers in the field seek to identify both similarities and differences. In this work, quantitative and qualitative views and methods are explored by nine well-known authors: Masamichi Sasaki, current President of the International Institute of Sociology; Theodore Caplow of the University of Virginia;...

The societies of the present world are experiencing many turbulent changes. New forces of change and modernization are driving people, business and cultures across borders. The world has become a home to a new generation of homo sapiens who are curious about others but, at the same time, cherish to preserve their own cultures. What is the nature of this evolving world society? Is the world driving toward a new global civilization--an "end of history"-- or an inevitable civilizational clash? The present volume has brought together leading scholars in the field to examine the concept of...

The collection of papers in Ascetic Culture: Renunciation and Worldly Engagement was entirely conceived and developed by K. Ishwaran, who died in June 1998. The original concept was to focus on "Tradition and Innovation in Monastic Life in South Asia," a topic which combined two of Ishwaran's major interests: comparative studies of the monastic systems of south Asia, and criticism of Western anthropological and sociological assumptions of tradition and modernity being antithetical, especially with regard to traditional religions. Ishwaran saw this collection of papers as reinforcing...

In today's European arts and sciences most of the time we see not only other, but also our own cultural traditions and the different forms of modernity like a dim image in a mirror. And the future of our own and other cultures seems to be shrouded in mystery, because our gift of knowledge and inspired messages are only partial. The question this book addresses is whether it is possible to get an almost face-to-face intimacy with various forms of cultural tradition and modernity by using our experiences and our powers of imagination, i.e. our expectations, in a more fruitful way. The...

The Control of Fuddle and Flash: A Sociological History of the Regulation of Alcohol and Opiates provides a historical and comparative overview describing the regulation of the use of alcohol and drugs (opiates) in the United States, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. It explains the conditions and causes of the various regulatory regimes, such as the economic benefits reaped from the colonial opium trade and the role that duties on alcohol played in state formation. Moreover, it explores the consequences of different regulatory regimes, e.g. the shift in the supply of...

Most people, and indeed governments, hold the conviction that reforms, rather than revolutions, are likely to produce more appropriate and acceptable results. This is especially true for developing countries. That is because reforms are gradual in their implementation and respectful to past policy fabrics of a society. On the other hand, the simultaneous spread of communication technology, global liberalization of the market, and peripheral homogenization of cultures, have caused extreme tensions in just these developing countries. In this book, scholars from different countries around the...

Ever since the end of China's civil war in 1949, Taiwan has embarked on its own distinct, divergent path of development. In light of its remarkable achievements and inherent difficulties, therefore, Taiwan should not be considered a renegade province of China, but a society with a democratically-elected government that has taken a route different from the rest of China in developing its own cultural norms and values. This book examines the issues of democratic transition, political imprisonment and the political economy in Taiwan.