The People’s Army of Vietnamese’s decision to utilize armor as part of its warfighting strategy was a product of various geopolitical factors that surrounded Hanoi during various parts of the Vietnam War. During the First Indochina War, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) emerged as the foremost communist benefactor of North Vietnam. The Soviet Union however, largely stood by. While worried by the PRC’s and Soviet Union’s actions during the Geneva Conference of 1954, Hanoi still felt the need to maintain good relations with both countries. This was reinforced when the Sino-Soviet split occurred in 1956 and Hanoi was forced to walk a tight rope between Beijing and Moscow. As the United States escalated its war in Vietnam, Moscow (now under new leadership) sought to increase its material support for Hanoi.As the war progressed, Hanoi sought to fight larger battles against the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies. In order to fight larger battles, the PAVN needed more modern military equipment that only the Soviet Union could provide. This, paired with the chaos of the ongoing Cultural Revolution in China, led Hanoi to lean more towards Moscow in the latter years of the Vietnam War.As part of this newly blossomed relationship, Moscow began to furnish the PAVN with more modern weapons including Soviet armor. Initially, the PAVN’s use of armor at Lang Vei (1968) and Laos (1971) was met with some success. However, in 1972, Hanoi panicked as the United States began to reach “détente” with Beijing and Moscow. This led to fears of another Geneva and thus lead Hanoi to pursue a rushed “Easter Offensive” in March 1972 which saw ill-trained PAVN tank crews fall prey to poor planning and bad strategy. This changed in 1975 when following the Paris Peace Accords and subsequent combined arms training in the Soviet Union, the PAVN victoriously drove its Soviet armor into Saigon.

"Houghton systematically unpacks Beijing's strategy in the Gulf…. Persistent rivalries and conflicts across the region will ensure that this work remains timely and relevant for years to come." —Robert Mogielnicki, Arab Gulf States InstituteChina's foreign and security policy in the Gulf region has been characterized by the cultivation of strong positive relationships with all of the Gulf states, irrespective of their domestic politics and the ubiquitous rivalries between neighbors. Has this "hedging strategy" proven fruitful? Or has it had negative consequences? Addressing this issue, Benjamin Houghton explores the contours of China's hedging strategy in the Gulf from the time of the 1979 Iranian revolution through early 2024.

"Impressively melds together a vast array of material to show the direction in which Israel is moving and how it is by turns similar to and distinct from other countries. This is a book that can profitably be understood and discussed on many levels."—Paul Scham, University of Maryland"An important and timely look at Israel's democratic backsliding under the leadership of Benjamin Netanyahu. ... Oren's comparative perspective on populist and antidemocratic trends and practices is especially welcome." —Gregory Mahler, Earlham CollegeDiscussions of democratic backsliding typically include examples from Hungary, Poland, Turkey, and even the United States, but rarely a mention of Israel. Neta Oren asks: Should scholars include Israel in this list? Should Benjamin Netanyahu be considered a populist leader? Are there lessons about populism and democratic decline to be learned from the Israeli case? Answering yes to each of these questions, Oren analyzes the related phenomena of populism and the erosion of Israel’s democracy during Netanyahu’s long tenure as prime minister. Her book contributes to an enhanced understanding of not only contemporary Israel, but also democratic backsliding and populism overall.

“An indispensable, lucid guide to the origins and recent development of the European Union…. Judicious and authoritative in his curation of historical facts and details about the individuals, social forces, and geopolitics that shaped key developments of the EU, Dinan provides deep insights and clarity about the EU’s accomplishments and its shortcomings…. This up-to-date history of the EU is unparalleled—eloquent and engaging in its narrative and compelling in its final analysis that ‘the EU is worth fighting for. ’” —Vicki L. Birchfield, Georgia Institute of Technology“This is modern European history at its best…. Dinan offers a balanced and up-to-date narrative of European integration from its inception in the post–World War II period to the present, with special emphasis on the contemporary European Union, its institutional and legal structures, the management of the crises it has encountered, its continuing relevance, and its future. His book will establish itself as one of the best concise introductions to the EU for not only students, but also any other readers interested in a deeper understanding of contemporary European affairs.” —Yannis A. Stivachtis, Virginia Tech University What explains the remarkable evolution of the European Union since its emergence in the early 1990s? How has the EU coped with a series of severe shocks, ranging from the euro crisis to Brexit to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? How is it dealing with the rise of illiberal democracy in some of its member states? And why is it more contested, while at the same time more relevant, than ever before?Addressing these questions, this concise text—authoritative, engaging, and well written—traces the development of the EU from its inception to the present. It is ideal for use in the early weeks of courses on European or EU politics, as well as for the EU portion of courses on contemporary European history.

"This volume is a treasure trove of ideas about how to make our electoral system better—less polarized, more responsive to citizens. In it, big thinkers discuss big ideas. Their analyses are rich, detailed, and incisive. This might very well turn out to be the book that launches a thousand reforms." —Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University"At this time when distrust and partisanship are too often justifications for the status quo, the authors offer evidence-based, consensus-driven, achievable proposals to improve governance in the United States. Anyone interested in reforming US democracy should start here."—Derek T. Muller, Notre Dame Law SchoolIn the midst of the political ugliness that has become part of our everyday reality, are there steps that can be taken to counter polarization and extremism—practical steps that are acceptable across the political spectrum? To answer that question, starting from the premise that the way our political processes are designed inevitably creates incentives for certain styles of politics and candidates, the Task Force on American Electoral Reform spent two years exploring alternative ideas for reforming key aspects of the US electoral process. The results of their work are presented in this essential book.

"A must read for anyone interested in the future of innovation and world politics." —Abraham Newman, Georgetown University"Illustrates clearly how the realm of technology could be disrupted by geopolitical rivalry. In no uncertain terms, the authors lay out the state of play in the competition for technological dominance, the challenges and pitfalls of escalation, and the lessons for governments and businesses. " —Christoph Heusgen, Munich Security Conference"A timely contribution to the literature on tech competition between the United States and China, and a must-read for those who want to understand where global tech competition is headed."—William Klein, FGS Global"Sheds much-needed light on the iterative back-and-forth between politics and business, actions and reactions, and at times, outcomes that neither side intended. Tech Cold War shows the effects, but as much the limitations of political tech control."—Björn Conrad, SinolyticsTikTok, Huawei, semiconductors, AI … Technology has become a field of fierce geopolitical competition, especially between the United States and China. What drives this particular rivalry, and how are these two tech superpowers trying to curb each other's innovation systems? What roles do private companies play? As they delve into the complex dynamics of the US-China battle for technological supremacy, Ansgar Baums and Nicholas Butts unpack the two states' diverging approaches to developing technology infrastructure. Not least, they also highlight the deleterious consequences of this tech cold war on the global economy.

In this edited volume, authors seek to document and analyze how state and non-state actors leverage digital rhetoric as a twenty-first-century weapon of war. Rhet Ops offer readers a chance to focus on the human dimension of rhetorical practice within mobile technologies and social networks: to reflect not only on the durable question of what it means to conduct oneself ethically as a speaker or writer, but also what it means to learn the art of rhetoric as a means to engage adversaries in war and conflict.

The volume examines the process of globalization from a genealogical point of view. By doing so, it offers a contribution to the understanding of the deep and critical spatial transformation reshaping our world from both a political and a conceptual point of view, taking into consideration recent developments including Brexit and the politics of Donald Trump. Focusing his analysis on the natural element of “air”, Vegetti provides an original approach to globalization. Following in the the footsteps of the German jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt, Vegetti defines our global age as characterized by the transformation of the air into a concrete social space, first through the advent of airplanes, radio waves, and radar and now in the present-day structure of global networks.

At the conclusion of WWII, no part of the world experienced a more dramatic transformation than East Asia. The region's political stability throughout the postwar period prompted exponential economic growth that ultimately established South Korea, Japan, and China as East Asia's most important powers. While many citizens of these nations now live in a time of unprecedented prosperity, the arrangement that supported this region's transformation is fragile. With the second largest economy and a burgeoning military sector, China is widely acknowledged as the preeminent rising world power. The onus of maintaining balance in the region now rests primarily with South Korea and Japan in partnership with the United States. However, because of long-standing weaknesses in South Korea–Japan relations and an inconsistent US commitment to the region, the possibility that China could usher in a more uncertain era of revisionism has never been more likely.In Strengthening South Korea-Japan Relations: East Asia's International Order and a Rising China, Dennis Patterson and Jangsup Choi address the historical roots of this weak alliance. Combining decades of research with current public opinion data, the authors warn that the tendency of these nations to rely on the United States to maintain the status quo has become dangerously unstable. A new strategy, one of cooperation and collaboration, is needed to prevent China from upending the region's current liberal international order.

How can we approach the world and guide our thinking in the face of profound, myriad challenges? This is the ambitious question that animates the current volume. The book seeks to formulate these challenges and develop ways to tackle them through a set of wide-ranging interviews with leading intellectuals of our times, including Nancy Fraser, Seyla Benhabib, Michael Walzer and Etienne Balibar. Contributing fresh perspectives on current events – from the liberation of women’s voices to the crisis of secularism; from populism, the pandemic, and the rise of conspiracy theories to new forms of resistance – these essays show a refusal to lapse into rigid and reductive oppositions, instead providing critically nuanced interpretations of contemporary events and struggles. The collection brings together original and accessible points of view, selected by researchers from the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade, in the pursuit of and safeguarding intellectual freedom.

Focusing on the Libyan crisis, the volume sets discourse on interference within a theoretical framework. The first part tries to understand the lawfulness of the duty to interfere and the responsibility to protect, as well as the semantic difference between these two forms of interventionism. The second part offers an investigation on how the right to protect was applied in Libya in 2011.

‘This book will save lives - human and animals.’Victoria Thompson is a passionate advocate for the protection of animals from great harm. She movingly describes our appalling failures in this regard and praises those who press for the enlightened awareness and humane treatment of animals. She believes profoundly that we must not continue to think of animals as just resources to exploit - for animals too have a right to live naturally. And she gives us solutions for a kinder world.

Between 1945 and 1965, more than fifty nations declared their independence from colonial rule. At the height of the Cold War, the global process of decolonization complicated US-Soviet relations, while Soviet and American interventionism transformed the decolonizing process. Remaking the World examines the connections between the Cold War and decolonization, which helped define the post-World War II global order. Drawing on new scholarship, this comprehensive study provides a chronological overview from World War I to the Soviet collapse and highlights key developments in the international system as decolonization unfolded in tandem with the Cold War. Through six carefully selected case studies - India, Egypt, the Congo, Vietnam, Angola, and Iran - historian Jessica M. Chapman addresses the shifting of Soviet, American, Chinese, and Cuban policies, the centrality of modernization, the role of the United Nations, the often-outsized influence of regional actors like Israel and South Africa, and seminal post-Vietnam War shifts in the international system. Each of the case studies analyzes at least one geopolitical turning point, demonstrating that the Cold War and decolonization were mutually constitutive processes in which local, national, and regional developments altered the superpower competition. Chapman presents a picture of the complexities of international relations and the ways in which local communist and democratic movements differed from their Soviet and American ties, as did their visions for independence and success.

In 1948 the United Nations launched the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization following the conflict that erupted between Israel and its Arab neighbors, who profoundly opposed the creation of a Jewish state. UNTSO quickly found itself overseeing the ceasefire lines between combatant parties. In the ensuing decades, as countries along the eastern Mediterranean engaged in a series of escalating military conflicts, UNTSO was continually challenged in its peacekeeping mission, often having to alter its configuration. Matters came to a head in 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon for a second time, calling into question the efficacy of UN peacekeeping operations and US support for them. In Yanks in Blue Berets: American UN Peacekeepers in the Middle East, retired US Army colonel and former UN military observer L. Scott Lingamfelter chronicles the role of the US military in UN Middle East peacekeeping operations. Framed by his personal experiences, the book examines the difficulties faced by UN forces wedged between warring sides with limited trust in their authority as well as the challenging dichotomy of a soldier trained for combat yet immersed in unarmed peacekeeping. Yanks in Blue Berets is a "boots on the ground" perspective of the building Arab-Israeli tensions and geopolitics preceding the 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

Since the 1990s, deliberative democracy has been the focus of increased scholarly attention, as well as the locus of initiatives intended to directly engage the public in matters of public concern. Geared to bringing the core tenets of public deliberation to bear onto different contexts within the public sphere, deliberative processes have been implemented in a range of forms, from citizens’ juries to national issue forums, from deliberative opinion polls to participatory budgeting. Ever more frequently, public deliberation has also gained traction in the field of public bioethics. Seizing on their intrinsic dialogic nature, scholars have proposed to harness deliberative processes as a means to address moral disagreement in the public sphere, in order to manage the ensuing and often irreconcilable conflicts around topics of bioethical sensitivity that challenge contemporary liberal democracies. Building upon these premises, this volume aims to reconstruct the theoretical as well as empirical processes of cross-pollination between deliberative democracy and public bioethics.

Since the end of World War II, the United States has come to dominate the world economically and politically, leading many to describe the United States as an empire. Scholars have analyzed how the US government has worked through international financial institutions, its Central Intelligence Agency, and outright warfare to achieve its will. In this book, Timothy M. Gill spotlights how the US government also worked through democracy promotion to undermine governments abroad, including in Venezuela. President Hugo Chávez, who ruled from 1999 until his death in 2013, was among the democratically elected Latin American state leaders who embraced socialism and challenged the idea of US global power. Gill shows how US government agencies funded and trained opposition parties and activists, and how such intervention often was justified in neocolonial and racist terms. Through analysis of documents obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, embassy cables, and interviews with US government and Venezuelan nonprofit members, Gill details such operations and the imperial thinking behind them.