In the wake of an acrimonious debate on big dams, the World Bank brokered a global agreement on financing as well as on the sharing of the rewards and risks of the controversial Nam Theun 2 Hydroelectric Project in Lao PDR. Through this process, it prepared the project for the country and the country for the project. This book describes how skillful management, effective communications, and technical expertise helped to reach consensus and nurtured private-public partnerships, engaged stakeholders, strengthened the country's development framework and poverty reduction efforts, and addressed...

This story is set against the backcloth of the 1888 Whitechapel murders in which the question is posed whether, by focusing attention on the East End, the murders did more to accelerate social change than philanthropists and politicians. The novel asks whether the end can ever justify the most terrible of means. The story is woven around real-life characters and events, and voices are given to the strong, independent women of the slums.

The Wilhelmine period is a crucial period of German history and the focus of great historical controversy; greater understanding of this period is also vital to explain the rise of the Third Reich. The authors focus on Germany's role as a major military and imperial power, industrialiastion and the economy, the crucial effects of the war years and the disturbing evidence that Germany's response to Hitler is to be found in the Wilhelmine era.