To Be or Not To Be: Sudan at Crossroads

To Be or Not To Be: Sudan at Crossroads PDF

Author: Jalal Hashim

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2019-02-19

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 9987083889

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To be or not to be is an analysis of linguistic, cultural, political, economic and social factors, which explain the intricate root causes of conflicts which have ravished Sudan. It stands in stark contrast to the dominant simplification and distortions which have come to typify presentations of the region. Central to the book is an unapologetic explanation of Arabization; which often is portrayed as individual choices of religious loyalty, but, in fact, masks an intentional power-system which viciously corrupts Afrikan identities. By highlighting the detrimental complexities of manipulation, geopolitics, identity confusion and cultural imperialism, Hashim has not only written an authoritative book about Sudan, but also presented a comprehensive case study that all of Afrika must learn from. Rarely are we presented with such a vigourous inside-view to an area of Afrika which once was held in the highest civilizational esteem, but has been reduced to an ideological field of Arab-led terror, massacres and disintegration.

South Korea at the Crossroads

South Korea at the Crossroads PDF

Author: Scott A. Snyder

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-01-02

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 0231546181

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Against the backdrop of China’s mounting influence and North Korea’s growing nuclear capability and expanding missile arsenal, South Korea faces a set of strategic choices that will shape its economic prospects and national security. In South Korea at the Crossroads, Scott A. Snyder examines the trajectory of fifty years of South Korean foreign policy and offers predictions—and a prescription—for the future. Pairing a historical perspective with a shrewd understanding of today’s political landscape, Snyder contends that South Korea’s best strategy remains investing in a robust alliance with the United States. Snyder begins with South Korea’s effort in the 1960s to offset the risk of abandonment by the United States during the Vietnam War and the subsequent crisis in the alliance during the 1970s. A series of shifts in South Korean foreign relations followed: the “Nordpolitik” engagement with the Soviet Union and China at the end of the Cold War; Kim Dae Jung’s “Sunshine Policy,” designed to bring North Korea into the international community; “trustpolitik,” which sought to foster diplomacy with North Korea and Japan; and changes in South Korea’s relationship with the United States. Despite its rise as a leader in international financial, development, and climate-change forums, South Korea will likely still require the commitment of the United States to guarantee its security. Although China is a tempting option, Snyder argues that only the United States is both credible and capable in this role. South Korea remains vulnerable relative to other regional powers in northeast Asia despite its rising profile as a middle power, and it must balance the contradiction of desirable autonomy and necessary alliance.

Waging Peace in Sudan

Waging Peace in Sudan PDF

Author: Hilde F. Johnson

Publisher: Apollo Books

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9781845194581

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Sudan is at a crossroads. The country could soon witness one of the first partitions of an African state since the colonial era. The 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement guarantees a referendum on self determination for Southern Sudan, which is scheduled for January 2011. The agreement ended a 20-year old civil war pitting the indigenous population against successive Arab Muslim regimes in Khartoum. By the late 1990s, the international community had largely judged the war insoluble and turned its attention elsewhere. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a peace process between the government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and Army (SPLM/A) took hold. Waging Peace in Sudan shows how that war, which ultimately claimed two million deaths and twice as many displaced, was finally brought to an end. The talks were facilitated by Intergovernmental Authority on Development under Kenyan leadership, and supported by a 'Troika' of the US, UK, and Norway - whose intense engagement in the negotiations was critical for reaching the peace agreement in January 2005. Although the cast of characters in this drama ranged from President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell to unnamed officials in East African hotels, two figures stood out: the SPLM/A Chairman, Dr. John Garang, and Ali Osman Taha, First Vice President of Sudan. Norwegian Minister of International Development Hilde F. Johnson's personal relationships with these two leaders gave her unique access and provided the basis for her pivotal role in the negotiations. She was party to virtually all their deliberations throughout this crucial period of Sudanese and African history. Waging Peace in Sudan describes this process from a unique, insider's perspective. Johnson's account provides a level of detail seldom achieved in works of contemporary African history and diplomacy. As Sudan soon faces the most decisive moment in its history, this book is indispensable reading.

Eurasian Crossroads

Eurasian Crossroads PDF

Author: James A. Millward

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 472

ISBN-13: 9780231139243

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Presents a comprehensive study of the central Asian region of Xinjiang's history and people from antiquity to the present. Discusses Xinjiang's rich environmental, cultural and ethno-political heritage.

Japan at the Crossroads

Japan at the Crossroads PDF

Author: Nick Kapur

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2018-08-06

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0674988485

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In 1960, when Japan revised the postwar treaty that allows a U.S. military presence in Japan, the popular backlash changed the evolution of Japan’s politics and culture, and its global role. Nick Kapur’s analysis helps resolve Japan’s essential paradox as being innovative yet regressive, flexible yet resistant, imaginative yet wedded to tradition.

A Concise History of South Sudan

A Concise History of South Sudan PDF

Author: Anders Breidlid

Publisher: African Books Collective

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9970250337

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This textbook in history is primarily intended for secondary schools in South Sudan. The focus is on the history of South Sudan, and is in this sense a pioneer work since it is the country's first secondary school book dealing primarily with the history of the South. Even though the focus is on South Sudan its history cannot be interpreted in a vacuum, and particularly North-South relations are discussed extensively in the book. Secondary school students in Sudan have either studied the history of Kenya and Uganda, or the history of North Sudan since no history book for South Sudan has existed. The book may also be of interest to academics, politicians, historians and college and university students as well civil society groups such as churches, youth and women's groups.

Critical Theory at a Crossroads

Critical Theory at a Crossroads PDF

Author: Stijn De Cauwer

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2018-07-31

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 0231546831

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We are living in an age of crisis—or an age in which everything is labeled a crisis. Financial, debt, and refugee “crises” have erupted. The word has also been applied to the Arab Spring and its aftermath, Brexit, the 2016 U.S. election, and many other international events. Yet the term has contradictory political and strategic meanings for those challenging power structures and those seeking to preserve them. For critics of the status quo, can the rhetoric of crisis be used to foment urgency around issues like climate change and financialization, or does framing a situation as a “crisis” play into the hands of the existing political order, which then seeks to tighten the leash by creating a state of emergency? Critical Theory at a Crossroads presents conversations with prominent theorists about the crises that have marked the past years, the protest movements that have risen up in response, and the use of the term in political discourse. Tariq Ali, Rosi Braidotti, Wendy Brown, Maurizio Lazzarato, Angela McRobbie, Jean-Luc Nancy, Antonio Negri, Jacques Rancière, Saskia Sassen, and Joseph Vogl offer their views on contemporary challenges and how we might address them, candidly discussing the alternatives that new social movements have offered, alongside an exchange between Zygmunt Bauman and Roberto Esposito on theories of community. Sparring over crucial developments in these past years of catastrophe and the calamity of everyday life under capitalism, they shed light on how crises and the discourse of crisis can both obscure and reveal fundamental aspects of modern societies.

Pakistan at the Crossroads

Pakistan at the Crossroads PDF

Author: Christophe Jaffrelot

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2016-04-12

Total Pages: 359

ISBN-13: 0231540256

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In Pakistan at the Crossroads, top international scholars assess Pakistan's politics and economics and the challenges faced by its civil and military leaders domestically and diplomatically. Contributors examine the state's handling of internal threats, tensions between civilians and the military, strategies of political parties, police and law enforcement reform, trends in judicial activism, the rise of border conflicts, economic challenges, financial entanglements with foreign powers, and diplomatic relations with India, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and the United States. In addition to ethnic strife in Baluchistan and Karachi, terrorist violence in Pakistan in response to the American-led military intervention in Afghanistan and in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas by means of drones, as well as to Pakistani army operations in the Pashtun area, has reached an unprecedented level. There is a growing consensus among state leaders that the nation's main security threats may come not from India but from its spiraling internal conflicts, though this realization may not sufficiently dissuade the Pakistani army from targeting the country's largest neighbor. This volume is therefore critical to grasping the sophisticated interplay of internal and external forces complicating the country's recent trajectory.