2020 marks 75 years since the end of World War II, yet even as the war slips from living memory, its legacies continue to influence current political and military thinking. This anthology will analyse these legacies for a number of countries and regions including China, Russia, the United States, the Near East, and Germany illustrating in detail how World War II is not merely a historical event, but a defining moment for current military and political thinking around the globe. This book will therefore be of interest for those interested in history, but also political and military decision makers, and followers of current political and military affairs.

On 24 September 2019 the 17-year-old activist Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations Climate Action Summit saying, ‘People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction’. A day earlier, however, the climate policy foundation Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) sent the UN their World Climate Declaration, signed by 800 prominent scientists including Nobel Laureate Professor Ivar Giaever and Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore, stating that there is no climate emergency: ‘You’re tired of alarmism and failed predictions of climate models that can’t predict the past, let alone the future. You distrust the business leaders, politicians and scientists of the climate industrial complex – you just want The Facts.’ This book contains original research and new theories of climate and will arm you with these facts. Leading scientists are contributors, including former Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Center Dr Roy Spencer, and lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Third Assessment Report Professor Emeritus of Meteorology Richard Lindzen of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and many more.

The story of Magna Carta is the essential prologue to the story of Western democracy. It is a foundation stone in the political culture and legal system of Australia and other countries that share a common law heritage. This book combines a most readable general history of the influence of Magna Carta in the emergence of Western democracy since 1215 with beginning and concluding observations on the Great Charter’s relevance to Australia, the European settlement of which began as that of a penal colony. Magna Carta was soon, however, to provide a sound basis for the ‘British right’ to colonial self-government. This is the tale of the importance of history and culture in securing rights, and how the Great Charter is far more pivotal to our present freedom than a face-value reading of the document would allow.

The relationship among neo-nationalisms, populisms and racisms has long existed in the political landscape of western societies and, today, it is a key issue to understand current affairs and the popularity of racist, anti-Semite and Islamophobic positions. This book provides a lucid and accurate analysis of European and American social contexts, including United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and United States, where the socio-political debate is dominated by neo-nationalist instances.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed by a group of wealthy white men in 1776, poor white men, African Americans, and women quickly discovered that the unalienable rights it promised were not truly for all. The Nineteenth Amendment eventually gave women the right to vote in 1920, but the change was not welcomed by people of both genders in politically and religiously conservative Kentucky. As a result, the suffrage movement in the Commonwealth involved a tangled web of stakeholders, entrenched interest groups, unyielding constitutional barriers, and activists with competing strategies. In A Simple Justice, Melanie Beals Goan offers a new and deeper understanding of the women's suffrage movement in Kentucky by following the people who labored long and hard to see the battle won. Women's suffrage was not simply a question of whether women could and should vote; it carried more serious implications for white supremacy and for the balance of federal and state powers -- especially in a border state. Shocking racial hostility surfaced even as activists were working to make America more equitable.Goan looks beyond iconic suffragette figures such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to reveal figures whose names have been lost to history. Laura Clay and Madeline McDowell Breckinridge led the Kentucky movement, but they did not do it alone. This timely study introduces readers to individuals across the Bluegrass State who did their part to move the nation closer to achieving its founding ideals.

The election of Donald Trump as the 45th US president in 2016 was a pivotal moment in history for America and for the world. A celebrity rather than a politician, Trump promised to turn politics on its head - and he did. Is he an aberration or does he represent a continuity of forces already in play? Who was he, where did he come from, and what did he do? These are questions future historians will ask as they grapple with the meaning of Trump, the implications of his presidency and his place in history.

Soon after its foundation in 1901, the Commonwealth of Australia gave women the vote and the right to sit in parliament. Women’s suffrage was in fact a major aspect of the new nation’s progressive and international thinking. With great vigour, Australian women, including the Melbourne-born artist Dora Meeson Coates, ably involved themselves with the women’s movement in Great Britain. And with astounding presumption, the Australian parliament sent a Resolution to its lofty Westminster counterpart recommending that women’s suffrage be adopted. Here, Myra Scott vividly describes the increasingly violent women’s movement in England, the opposition to it by menfolk generally, the British Prime Minister’s personal bias against it, Australia’s part in this scenario, Meeson’s creative activism - and her rousing Suffrage Banner, which has pride of place in Australia’s parliament house.

The world economy had barely recovered from the global financial crisis when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and knocked it back to the floor. Governments already struggling with low growth and high debt have, once again, been forced to take extraordinary measures to protect businesses and jobs. The future looks grim. The pandemic swept across the globe in 2020 as quickly as confidence in the banking system had vanished in 2008. In Ireland, only the tough decisions of a small group of regulators and officials kept the country from collapse, though the price of salvation was a huge national debt and years of lost opportunities. As a key insider to the Irish bailout, Jonathan McMahon was at the heart of the response, witnessing what it takes to manage a crisis that threatens a nation. Battle-hardened by his experiences at the top of UK financial regulation during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Jonathan's advice on how to deal with crises is invaluable as countries all around the globe grapple with the effects of COVID-19. Jonathan does not have all the answers, but as Henry David Thoreau said, "It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see." Jonathan argues that we have to attend to the real, underlying causes of crises, not expediently dodge the difficult choices to be made. The bitter truth is that even if a vaccine is found to eradicate the virus, the huge challenges facing political and business leaders will persist. Post-Pandemic is essential reading as we make decisions about our future. It is a book for our times. "… a magnificent book. McMahon brings his policy experience … to give us key lessons of looking at the data, making judgements, and acting quickly before the problems become unmanageable. … [W]ritten in a fun, racy style … in the post-pandemic world of pervasive uncertainty, it carries profound messages." – Ashoka Mody, Visiting Professor in International Economic Policy at Princeton University, former Assistant Director with the International Monetary Fund and author of EuroTragedy: A Drama in Nine Acts "Can our reactions to the previous crisis help us navigate the post-pandemic economic recovery? Drawing on a shrewd interpretation of his experience in Ireland a decade ago, and illustrating the discussion with vivid cameos, Jonathan McMahon makes a persuasive case that they can. A lively and instructive read." – Professor Patrick Honohan, former Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and author of Currency, Credit and Crisis: Central Banking in Ireland and Europe. "The Covid 19 pandemic has produced an economic crisis which, as usual, is quite unlike its predecessors. But Jonathan McMahon shows that there are some enduring principles which should govern crisis management. He has drawn on his experience in the eye of the storm in the euro zone banking crisis to write an entertaining and extremely useful book." – Sir Howard Davies, Chairman of the Royal Bank of Scotland and former Director of the London School of Economics.

On March 28, 1966, Peace Corps personnel in Tanzania received word that volunteer Peppy Kinsey had fallen to her death while rock climbing during a picnic. Local authorities arrested Kinsey's husband, Bill, and charged him with murder as witnesses came forward claiming to have seen the pair engaged in a struggle. The incident had the potential to be disastrous for both the Peace Corps and the newly independent nation of Tanzania. Because of the high stakes surrounding the trial, questions remain as to whether there was more behind the final "not guilty" verdict than was apparent on the surface. Peter H. Reid, who served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania at the time of the Kinsey murder trial, draws on his considerable legal experience to expose inconsistencies and biases in the case. He carefully scrutinizes the evidence and the investigation records, providing insight into the motives and actions of both the Peace Corps representatives and the Tanzanian government officials involved. Reid does not attempt to prove the verdict wrong but critically examines the events of Kinsey's death, her husband's trial, and the aftermath through a variety of cultural and political perspectives. This compelling account sheds new light on a notable yet overlooked international incident involving non-state actors in the Cold War era. Meticulously researched and replete with intricate detail, Every Hill a Burial Place explores the possibility that the course of justice was compromised and offers a commentary on the delicacy of cross-national and cross-cultural diplomacy.

The need to quickly enter into conflict and succeed in the initial engagements is an enduring demand on militaries around the world. Given today's dynamic geopolitical environment, the concept of successful, rapid transition or organizational and mental readiness is more relevant than ever. Using the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as a case study , Meir Finkel explores four important but generally neglected challenges of a swift transition from peace to wartime operations. He investigates the challenging mental transition from peace or routine security employment to a higher-intensity mode of action in combat. Then, Finkel explains that militaries must be capable of rapidly resolving debated prewar concepts and doctrine even as war breaks out. He also discusses how to integrate and employ new weapons systems delivered at the last minute or during a conflict. Lastly, he delves into methods for managing the tension between the need to win every tactical engagement in low-intensity conflict and the preparation of forces for a high-intensity conflict. With clear applications for the IDF and US armed services, Finkel's study offers specific examples of hard-to-accomplish rapid transitions as well as broad suggestions for how to improve readiness. Military Agility will appeal to military personnel and leadership, strategists, historians with an interest in comparative analysis, and policymakers.

Leading one of the two great political parties in the United States between 1834 and 1856, the Whigs battled their opponents, the Jacksonian Democrats, for offices, prestige, and power. Boasting such famous members as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and William Henry Seward, the party supported tariffs, banks, internal improvements, moral reform, and public education. However, because the Democrats were more successful in controlling the White House, they have received more attention from historians. In The Whig Promise, Joseph W. Pearson provides a counterbalance to this trend through an attentive examination of writings from party leaders, contemporaneous newspapers, and other sources. Pearson explores a variety of topics, including the Whigs' understanding of the role of the individual in American politics, their perceptions of political power and the rule of law, and their impressions of the past and what should be learned from history. Throughout, he shows that the party attracted optimistic Americans seeking achievement, community, and meaning through collaborative effort and self-control in a world growing more and more impersonal. Pearson effectively demonstrates that, while the Whigs never achieved the electoral success of their opponents, they were rich with ideas. His detailed study adds complexity and nuance to the history of the antebellum era by illuminating significant aspects of a deeply felt, shared culture that informed and shaped a changing nation.

Northern Australia is rediscovered by each new generation of Australian politicians. Dams, mines, large transport projects, a food bowl for Asia and many other projects are promised and sometimes delivered, but then the political momentum fades away and the focus of attention turns to other issues. What is often missing in discussion is the region’s long history of nation-building initiatives and proposals, stretching back to 1901. Without this knowledge we are likely to repeat the mistakes of the past. Northern Dreams brings to life the passionate arguments about Northern Australia’s national significance and analyses the political debates that have periodically drawn the public’s attention northwards. It also highlights the role that Australian politicians such as Gough Whitlam, Ben Chifley, Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke played in shaping northern development policies to suit their times. Northern Dreams is the definitive history of the politics of northern development in Australia.

Ian Killey examines what should be a simple question of who controls the body exercising the policing power of the State and it finds the current understanding is both confused and concerning. This is because previous examinations and changes to Australian legislation have been made without considering basic elements, such as the parliamentary intention of earlier legislation; the doctrine of ministerial responsibility; the Canadian review of the same statutory model; and the intention of the founder of modern policing, Sir Robert Peel.Despite these serious inadequacies, the legal or conventional independence of police is now widely believed to exist. Yet Australian parliaments have also routinely provided governments with indirect and non-transparent means of influencing police by reducing the security of tenure of police commissioners. Dr Killey argues that Australian police forces have, in different ways and to differing extents, the elements of the worst of all possible worlds: a confused mixture of asserted police independence based on bad history and poor legal analysis, combined with provisions which encourage police subordination by non-transparent, indirect government influence. He undertakes a complete assessment of the constitutional relationship of Australian police, and of government and proposals for law reform for the establishment of a clear, coherent and constitutional relationship between them.

One of the defining features of United States foreign policy since World War II has been the nation's special relationship with Israel. This informal alliance, rooted in shared values and culture, grew out of a moral obligation to promote Israel's survival in the aftermath of the Holocaust as US policymakers provided military aid, weapons, and political protection. In return, Israel served American interests through efforts to contain communism and terrorism in the region. Today, the US provides almost four billion dollars in military aid per year, which raises questions regarding interest and propriety: At what point does US support for Israel exceed the boundaries of the countries' unconventional relationship and become counterproductive to other national interests, including the pursuit of peace in the Middle East? Kenneth Kolander provides a vital new perspective on the US-Israel bond by focusing on Congress's role in developing and maintaining the special relationship during a crucial period. Previous studies have focused on the executive branch, but Kolander demonstrates that US-Israel relations did not follow a course preferred by successive presidential administrations, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. Instead, he illuminates how influential lobbies, America's affinity for Israel and antipathy towards Arabs, and economic pressures influenced legislators and inspired congressional action in support of Israel. In doing so, he presents an essential investigation of the ways in which legislators exert influence in foreign policy and adds new depth to the historiography of an important dynamic in postwar world politics.

Although the game is known by many names around the world - football, fútbol, Fußball, voetbal - soccer is a universal language. Throughout the past century, governments have used soccer to further their diplomatic aims through a range of actions including boycotts, carefully orchestrated displays at matches, and more. In turn, soccer organizations have leveraged their power over membership and tournament decisions to play a role in international relations. In Soccer Diplomacy, an international group of experts analyzes the relationship between soccer and diplomacy. Together, they investigate topics such as the use of soccer as a tool of nation-state - based diplomacy, soccer as a non-state actor, and the relationship between soccer and diplomatic actors in subnational, national, and transnational contexts. They also examine the sport as a conduit for representation, communication, and negotiation.Drawing on a wealth of historical examples, the contributors demonstrate that governments must frequently address soccer as part of their diplomatic affairs. They argue that this single sport - more than the Olympics, other regional multisport competitions, or even any other sport - reveals much about international relations, how states attempt to influence foreign views, and regional power dynamics.

In August 1974, while Richard Nixon resigned and Gerald Ford began a prolonged battle with Congress over executive power, a crisis was occurring in Cyprus. Desperate to shore up its declining popularity with a foreign policy triumph, the military government of Greece tried to overthrow the government of the independent island nation. In response, the Republic of Turkey invaded Cyprus in order to protect Turkish Cypriots. The invasion led to the downfall of the junta in Athens, the beginning of a United States embargo on arms sales to its ally Turkey, and years of increased tension and mistrust between the two nations. In his book, James F. Goode offers a revolutionary analysis of the complex factors leading to the imposition and continuance of the Turkish Arms Embargo. He demonstrates that, alone, the human rights issues surrounding the invasion fail to explain the resulting US-Turkish estrangement. Instead, he contends, factors including deep-seated "Turkophobia," growing concern about a deadly heroin epidemic in the United States, and pro-Greek lobbies played important roles in heightening tensions and extending the embargo.Goode draws on newly available archival materials from the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter Presidential Libraries as well as the personal papers of key senators and congressmen to present the most complete analysis of the affair to date. This timely study will not only change how this period is understood, but it will also provide valuable insights into the future of international relations.