Many people today have never heard of the Comoros, but these islands were once part of a prosperous economic system that stretched halfway around the world. A key node in the trading networks of the Indian Ocean, the Comoros thrived by exchanging slaves and commodities with African, Arab and Indian merchants. By the seventeenth century, the archipelago had become an important supply point on the route from Europe to Asia, and developed a special relationship with the English.The twentieth century brought French colonial rule and a plantation economy based on perfumes and spices. In 1975, following decades of neglect, the Comoros declared independence from France, only to be blighted by a series of coups, a radical revolutionary government and a mercenary regime. Today, the island nation suffers chronic mismanagement and relies on foreign aid and remittances from a diasporic community in France. Nonetheless, the Comoros are largely peaceful and culturally vibrant--connected to the outside world in the internet age, but, at the same time, still slightly apart.Iain Walker traces the history and unique culture of these enigmatic islands, from their first settlement by Africans, Arabs and Austronesians, through their heyday within the greater Swahili world and their decline as a forgotten outpost of the French colonial empire, to their contemporary status as an independent state in the Indian OceanΓÇï.
Democracy Works asks how we can learn to nurture, deepen and consolidate democracy in Africa. By analysing transitions within and beyond the continent, the authors identify a ''democratic playbook'' robust enough to withstand threats to free and fair elections. However, substantive democracy demands more than just regular polls. It is fundamentally about the inner workings of institutions, the rule of law, separation of powers, checks and balances, and leadership in government and civil society. It is also about values and the welfare and well-being of its citizens, and demands local leadership with a plan for the country beyond simply winning the popular vote. This volume addresses the political, economic and extreme demographic challenges that Africa faces. It is intended as a resource for members of civil society and as a guide for all who seek to enjoy the political and development benefits of democracy in the world''s poorest continent. Finally, it is for donors and external actors who have to face critical decisionsΓÇôΓÇôespecially after ill-fated electoral interventions such as Kenya 2017ΓÇôΓÇôabout the future of observer missions and aid promoting democracy and good governance.
This landmark volume presents vivid and intimate portraits of Palestinian Presidents Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, revealing the impact these different personalities have had on the struggle for national self-determination. Arafat and Abbas lived in Palestine as young children. Uprooted by the 1948 war, they returned in 1994 to serve as the first and second presidents of the Palestinian Authority, the establishment of which has been the Palestine Liberation Organization''s greatest step towards self-determination for the Palestinian nation. Both Arafat and Abbas were shaped by earlier careers in the PLO, and each adopted their own controversial leadership methods and decision-making styles. Drawing on primary sources in Arabic, Hebrew and English, Klein gives special attention to the lesser known Abbas: his beliefs and his disagreements with Israeli and American counterparts. The book uncovers new details about Abbas'' peace talks and US foreign policy towards Palestine, and analyses the political evolution of Hamas and Abbas'' succession struggle. Klein also highlights the tension between the ageing leader and his society.''Arafat and Abbas'' offers a comprehensive and balanced account of the Palestinian Authority''s achievements and failures over its twenty-five years of existence. What emerges is a Palestinian nationalism that refuses to disappear.
Eleftherios Venizelos (1864ΓÇô1936) was the outstanding Greek statesman of the first half of the twentieth century. Michael Llewellyn-Smith traces his early years, political apprenticeship in Crete, and energetic role in that island''s emancipation from both Ottoman rule and the arbitrary rule of Prince George of Greece. Summoned to Athens in 1910 by a cabal of officers, Venizelos mastered the Greek political scene, sent the military back to barracks, and led the country through a glorious period of constitutional and political reform, ending in a Balkan alliance waging successful war against Ottoman rule in Europe. By 1914, Greece had doubled in territory and population, and was about to face the challenges of European war. Tensions were rising between the king and the prime minister, foreshadowing political schism. This book illuminates Venizelos'' political mastery, liberalism and nationalism, and traces his fateful friendship with David Lloyd George. A second volume will complete his story, with the Great War, the post-war peace settlement, Greece''s Asia Minor disaster, and Venizelos'' late years of renewed prime ministerial office, political polarisation and exile in Paris.
Nostalgia has become a major force in global politics. While Donald Trump hopes to ΓÇÿmake America great againΓÇÖ, Xi Jinping calls for a ΓÇÿgreat rejuvenation of the Chinese peopleΓÇÖ, and a majority of Russians still mourn the Soviet Union. But it is Brexit, with its idealisation of a bygone era of full sovereignty, that epitomises nostalgic nationalism in its purest form. Despite its romantic flavour, nostalgia is a malaiseΓÇöa combination of paranoia and melancholy that idealises the past, while denigrating the present. This epidemic of mythicising national history is shaping politics in risky ways, fuelled by ageing populations, shifts in the global order, and technological disruption. When deployed in the political debate, collective nostalgia is used as an emotional weapon, capable of mobilising a nation towards illusory goals.Drawing on psychology, political science, history and popular culture, Anglo Nostalgia analyses the rapid spread of this global phenomenon, before focusing on Brexit as a case study. With the detachment of informed outsiders, Campanella and Dass├╣ expose nostalgiaΓÇÖs great danger: the oversimplification of reality, leading to unprecedented political miscalculations and rising geopolitical tensions.
Contemporary Germany is a modern industrial democracy admired throughout the world. Many Germans believe that they live in the ''best Germany'' that has ever existed. Yet there are dissenting voices: individuals and groups that reject cosmopolitanism, globalisation and multiculturalism, and yearn for the more homogeneous country of earlier times. They are part of a global movement, often characterised as populist, that values tradition over innovation or constant change. In Germany, such people are routinely portrayed as reactionary or even neo- fascist. The present study seeks to provide a portrait of these individuals and their organisations. Very little has been written in English about the cultural figures who play a role in this movement. When the political side is discussed--whether in its manifestation as a party (the Alternative for Germany) or a citizens'' group (Pegida)--the cultural dimension is usually ignored. Jay Julian Rosellini places the so-called New Right in the context of currents in German culture and history that differ from those in other countries. With Germany the dominant country in the European Union, economically and politically, this volume offers an essential view of its current conditions, future prospects and political particularities.
The global financial sector is increasingly vulnerable to penetration by criminal money-launderers, terrorist financiers, and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, it offers  instruments that can be usefully employed to pursue foreign and security policy objectives. It is thus hardly surprising that finance has emerged as an arena of intense competition, if not conflict, between those seeking to exploit or attack this vital element of state power and those tasked with defending its integrity or harnessing it for legal purposes. Navias assesses the key threats to financial systems and shows how the public and private sectors are co-operating to contain them. He analyses the main characteristics of criminal money-laundering and terrorist financing, and reviews major multilateral and national regimes locked in the perpetual battle to shore up the financial sector against these constantly evolving security challenges. He also considers the uses of finance in support of key sanctions, counter-proliferation, and arms embargo policies. Uniquely, Finance and Security views these financial threats and weapons through a security and war studies prism. It will be equally invaluable to scholars of security and international relations and to professionals working in the legal, banking and compliance professions.
A timely history of Britain's complex relationship with 'the Continent'.
How does one navigate the rich cultural and political geography of West Africa? Mapping the diverse manifestations of Islamic influence, this issue of Critical Muslim brings together the resplendent but manifold articulations of Muslim and African identity. From the forest Kingdom of precolonial Ashanti to the cultural theatres of free and independent Senegal, Islam astounds nobility and flirts with creativity. A human story of struggle, living, belonging, and daring unfolds. About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centers on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews.
How is the future changing? Is there a single determinant future or a plethora of alternative futures? How do we actually study futures and can we trust anything anyone says about ''the future''? Are Muslim societies prepared for the coming tsunami of change? This issue of Critical Muslim takes a searching look at all things ''futures'', from trends to scenarios, from Sofia the Robot to weaponised code, and from Afrofuturism to climate change. It explores what images and metaphors of the future say about the present. With contributions from a string of noted futurists including Sohail Inayatullah, Wendy Schultz, Christopher Jones, Jordi Serra and others. About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centers on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews.
A challenge to conventional wisdom, this eye-opening account explains how businesses can stabilise conflict and improve people''s lives while still pursuing the bottom line. Ours is an era of big companies, multinational brands and global business power, but also of seemingly unending conflict. Corporate Peace examines how corporations respond to the life-and-death business of war and peace. What happens when they come up against Mexican drug cartels, or the Ebola epidemic in Liberia? Through the experiences of behemoths such as Fiat, Veolia, BP and Unilever, Mary Martin shows how big business is increasingly critical in building a safer world, in the face of failed states, health pandemics, insurgencies and organised crime. Can companies do more than generate profits in the poorest and most fragile parts of the world? Should they also shoulder responsibilities neglected by government? Martin contends that corporations must move beyond simply ''doing no harm'', or upholding human rights. They are becoming part of the solution, contributing expertise and investment to resolve complex issues of violence, authority and law. Corporate Peace offers an alternative account of business, challenging our assumptions about security and how companies function in an unstable world. It is an invitation to anyone interested in how society works: to rethink how multinationals can mobilise their power and influence for the common good.
A rich exploration of the unexpected online worlds of British Muslims.
An urgent call to reform Britain's sickness culture, offering social-not medical-solutions.
A smart and lively journey through a century of pandemics, from the Spanish flu to Zika.
Exposes the secret global network that profited from apartheid.
A dramatic and intimate portrait of one of the world's great cities.
An impassioned and biting critique of the failure of American liberalism.
A first-hand account of India's widespread leftist insurgency, and the state's brutal response.
Englishness is an idea, a consciousness and a proto-nationalism. There is no English state within the United Kingdom, no English passport, Parliament or currency, nor any immediate prospect of any. That does not mean that England lacks an identity, although English nationalism, or at least a distinctive nationalism, has been partly forced upon the English by the development in the British Isles of strident nationalisms that have contested Britishness, and with much success. So what is happening to the United Kingdom, and, within that, to England? Jeremy Black looks to the past in order to understand the historical identity of England, and what it means for English nationalism today, in a post-Brexit world. The extent to which English nationalism has a "deep history" is a matter of controversy, although he seeks to demonstrate that it exists, from 'the Old English State' onwards, predating the Norman invasion. He also questions whether the standard modern critique of politically partisan, or un-British, Englishness as "extreme" is merited? Indeed, is hostility to "England," whatever that is supposed to mean, the principal driver of resurgent English nationalism? The Brexit referendum of 2016 appeared to have cancelled out Scottish and other nationalisms as an issue, but, in practice, it made Englishness a topic of particular interest and urgency, as set out in this short history of its origins and evolution.
A delightful memoir of a life lived in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Britain, brimming with poignancy, poetry and absurdity.
A vibrant narrative of India's magical traditions and their journey across the world. A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2018
In this revealing and engrossing book, Michel Eltchaninoff offers answers to an urgent question for our 21st century world: what is Vladimir Putin thinking?
What are values and how do we define them? Are there specific Islamic values? Do universal core values exist? How do we pass on appropriate values to future generations? This issue of Critical Muslim tackles these questions.
What is halal? Does Islam have a particular flavour? Is culture transferred through gastronomy? In this issue we resist intoxication by wine and soberly sample the culinary delights of the Muslim world-then and now.
An unsparing and revealing portrayal of Somalia, from the Siad Barre decades to Al-Shabaab, seen through the eyes of 'Tarzan', a formidable Mogadishu politician.
This rigorous account is the first overview of the Islamist terrorist campaign in Europe since 9/11. While most analysis of the growing phenomenon focuses on social explanations, Nesser highlights the role of Arab-Afghan veterans in promoting a jihadist agenda.
There has been an explosion of research into the experiences of British Muslims, but what has been conspicuous by its absence is a proper historical treatment of the phenomenon. This book aims to address this issue.
This is a probing enquiry into the thought of Marine Le Pen and the party under her leadership, seeking answers in her rhetoric,the history of French nationalism and unique insights shared by far right specialists and members of the FN entourage-- including Jean-Marie Le Pen himself.
This book conveys in vivid detail exactly whatnonviolence entailed, and the formidable difficultiesthat the pioneers of such resistance encountered in theyears 1905-19.
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