The reversion of Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 is an event of major historical significance. This volume examines this dramatic event from a long-term perspective against the background of earlier turning points in Hong Kong's political, economic and social history. It also explores Hong Kong's links with China and Britain in this troubled last decade of colonial rule, and offers a basis for assessing the territory's possible future as a part of the Chinese state.

International payments unions and clearing houses have been employed by 88 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean to liberalise regional trade and payments during the past 50 years. Yet, their impact on participating countries has not been well understood. When the republics of the former Soviet Union were deciding on new monetary regimes, many economists proposed a payments union but could not estimate its potential benefits or risks. This book presents the first fully articulated theory of international payments unions and clearing houses in order to answer the...

The bottom-line message of this book is democracy resurgent - but not triumphant. There are any number of conceivable anti-democratic threats and no prospect of ever achieving either a satisfactory or a permanent level of democracy in all countries and societies. Any lowering of the guard by democracy's defenders in academia or real-world politics risks the danger of democracy once again falling upon hard times or even regressing.

The Soviet Union and the PLO provides a comprehensive account of Soviet-PLO relations from the formation of the PLO in 1964 to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 199. By analysing in detail the complex and often turbulent evolution of the Soviet-PLO relationship, the book also provides critical insights into Soviet policy making towards the Arab-Israeli conflict and the various strategies Moscow adopted to attain its strategic and ideological interests in the region.

Sven Wunder gives an economic perspective on deforestation. Following a survey of deforestation definitions, theories and empirical evidence, a case study of Ecuador provides an historical picture of factors affecting forest loss throughout different periods, regions and ecosystems.

This is an overview of a new and normal Germany 50 years after World War II, and five years after unification. It identifies the big issues facing Germany today: immigration, demography, identity and their impact on politics, society and the economy.

This is an ethnographic study of Malay Muslim enterprise and entrepreneurial culture among the beneficiaries of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in Malaysia, a government programme of action intended to develop the indigenous Malay population in an ethnically-polarized nation.

This is the first comparative study of early twentieth-century French and British schools of political pluralism. A wide-ranging survey of the works of thinkers such as JN Figgis, GDH Cole, Harold Laski, Edouard Berth, Maxime Leroy and Leon Duguit, Pluralist Thought and the State in Britain and France, 1900-25 is a major contribution both to the study of national tradition of political thought and to the understanding of relationships between state, groups and individuals in democratic societies.