Regional / International studies Books

Rapid urbanization in China in recent decades and the challenges of social and regional integration and governance have been issues of major concern. This book explores the course of urbanization and development in China over recent decades. It considers...

The Chinese government has recently adopted a radical welfare approach by contracting out social services to non-governmental organisations (NGOs). This is a big departure from its traditional welfare model, whereby all public services were directly...

Taiwan has often been characterised as an isolated society in its search for sovereignty and security. Its contact with the world in an era of globalization and post-modernity, however, has increasingly led to Taiwanese actors successfully participating...

Cities are constructed and organized by people, and in turn become an important factor in the organization of human life. They are sites of both social encounter and social division and provide for their inhabitants "a sense of place". This book explores...

The growing importance of Central and Inner Asia and the Silk Road is much discussed at present. This book compares the nature of present day networks in these regions with the patterns of similar connections which existed at the time of the Mongol...

This book explores how sex trafficking has been reported in the media. The book is set in the context of reportage of this human rights abuse in two varying political landscapes - the United States being a developed democracy and Thailand experiencing...

The purpose of this book is to move beyond the approach which views energy as a purely geopolitical tool of the Russian state and assumes a 'one size fits all' approach to energy security in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It argues that in order...

This book examines the development of television broadcasting in Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea. It explores the policy regimes guiding the development of television broadcasting as a powerful institution and the extent to which new forms of television...

Environmental conflicts are the source of many large-scale popular protests in China, with some protests substantially endangering social order. Such protests have often prompted severe counter measures by both national and local government, but have...

This book explores the key ideas and the key people who were responsible for the development of China's economy from 1949 through 2016. It discusses how economic policy evolved, how economic policy was formulated and how the role of economists in...

The Third Indochina Conflict (1975-) is seen by some as the escalation of a local quarrel between Vietnam and Kampuchea; others attribute it to the attempts of external powers to advance their own interests by encouraging conflict among the various...

This book examines regime stability and political change in the heartland of the Middle East. It discusses the distribution of power within each regime of the Middle East; the sources of regime legitimacy; and the social, economic, and ideological trends...

This book provides basic information and analysis concerning how the forces of change during the Pacific Century will provide a base for the future of the Pacific Asia. It presents a general chronological development of the civilizations and empires in...

A comparative look at North and South Korea's political and economic institutions and processes, and an examination of their evolution since 1945. Problems such as leadership succession, democratization, nuclear weapons, education and reunification are...

This annual reference provides a statistical study of military trends in the Middle East and a collection of essays analyzing the details and strategic significance of events in the region. This fourth annual volume of the Middle East Military Balance...

This annual reference provides a statistical study of military trends in the Middle East and a collection of essays analyzing the details and strategic significance of events in the region. With this edition, The Middle East Military Balance moves to a...

This book examines the progress of internationalisation of European and Japanese business in four different fields: the commodities and service trade, capital transfers, enterprise management, and information and culture.

As the nations of the Pacific Ocean region experience rapid economic growth, they have begun to recognize the vast potential benefits of regional interdependence. Recent threats of economic nationalism, according to many specialists, have only...

Originally published in 1986. The oil crises of the 1970s and the shockwaves they sent throughout the industrialized countries and the Third World, appeared at one point to be ushering in an "Arab Century." But the first half of the 1980s produced a...

Terrorism, by its very nature, is a dynamic and rapidly changing phenomenon. This is particularly true of Palestinian terrorism: it is pluralistic in composition, flourishes in a highly volatile region, and is affected by numerous external actors and...

The second edition of this introductory textbook provides students with an overarching understanding of social, political, and economic institutions of South Asia.

This book is a chronicle of the 1975 flight of Vietnamese from their country. It traces the departure from Vietnam and the resettlement of 130,000 of these refugees in the United States and focuses on the process by which Vietnamese went from refugees to...

This study examines the important political and economic developments in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia since the Communist victories in 1975 and analyzes the critical policy issues facing the Carter administration in dealing with these states. Summarizing...

This book is a nontechnical assessment of nutritional status and its relationship to policy reforms in the People's Republic of China. It reviews the impact of agricultural and health care policy reforms on the level of food production and the...

This book deals with important issues in China's financial reform, such as the central bank and monetary policies, banking and non-banking financial institutions, and corporate governance. It discusses the lessons from and implications of other...

This book presents a study of the actual practice and development of national security decisionmaking in Israel based on the case history method and a general analytic approach. It provides recommendations for improving national security decisionmaking...

National Security and Public Opinion in Israel undertakes to depict the patterns of public opinion in Israel regarding national security policy. It analyzes some of the issues involved in the relationship between public opinion and the decisionmakers on...

This book provides a study of the causes of the 1989 spring unrest in China from various angles such as social, economic, political, intellectual, and military. It is concerned with why Tiananmen Square massacre occurred and what factors are likely to...

The idea of 'New India' has acquired a new currency. The dominant grammar of politics dilutes the critical impulse and deters the expression of alternate politics.  The interpretive possibilities have been replaced by a reactive exchange. Technology...

This book challenges the long-established structure of Chinese history around dynasties, adopting a more "organic" approach which emphasises cultural and economic trends that transcend arbitrary dynastic boundaries. It argues that with the collapse of...

This book examines the lives of the Malay and Cham Muslims in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam and examines how they co-exist and live in societies that are dominated by an alternative consensus and are illiberal and non-democratic in nature. Focusing on...

Retelling 30 myths and legends of the Eastern Cherokee, this book presents the stories with important details providing a culturally authentic and historically accurate context. Background information is given within each story so the reader may avoid...

The lives of Raymond Aron and Charles de Gaulle intersected at significant moments in twentieth-century history, though they differed on many issues during World War II and over the subsequent decades. Aron, for example, distinguished between the...

In the summer of 2008, a conflict that appeared to have begun in the breakaway Georgian territory of South Ossetia rapidly escalated to become the most significant crisis in European security in a decade. The implications of the Russian-Georgian war will...

Spanning more than a millennium, this anthology gathers literary sources from across the entire region of Southeast Asia. Its 24 selections derive from a variety of genres and reflect the diverse range of cultural influences the region has experienced...

This volume of the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women completes the four-volume project and contains more than 400 biographies of women active in the Tang through Ming dynasties (618-1644). Many of the entries are the result of original research...

Based upon the author's own experiences this study explores the Israeli government's attitude to the West Bank and Gaza over a period of 30 years. The "fools" in the book's title refers not only to the Arabs who rejected Israeli peace offers but to the...

In the 19th century, colonial rule brought the modern world closer to the Indonesian peoples, introducing mechanized transport, all-weather roads, postal and telegraph communications, and steamship networks that linked Indonesia's islands to each other,...

This is Volume XVI of sixteen of the Oriental series looking at Buddhism. Initially published in 1906, this book presents a collection of Tibetan stories connected to Buddhism, taken from Indian sources and translated from the Kah-gyur and are Tibetan...

Based on field-work in Taiwan, this book examines the cult of Tudi Gong both as a religio-social phenomenon and as an appropriate medium for exploring and analysing the social changes that have been occurring in contemporary Taiwan.

This book raises interesting questions about the process of democratization in Hong Kong. It asks why democracy has been so long delayed when Hong Kong's level of socio-economic development has become so high. It relates democratization in Hong Kong to...

Sufis of Andalusia consists of biographical sketches of some of the contemplatives and spiritual masters among whom Ibn 'Arabi spent his early years.

As a new president takes power in Russia, this book provides an analysis of the changing relationship between control of Russian television media and presidential power during the tenure of President Vladimir Putin. It argues that the conflicts within...

The phenomenal growth of Chinese economic and military power in the first decade of the 21st century has drawn world-wide attention. Perceptions of China's rise have shifted from seeing China as a threat to a more mixed view, where China is seen as...

This book comprehensively analyses public sector reform in all parts of China's public sector - government bureaucracy, public service units and state-owned enterprises. It argues that Chinese leaders increasingly realise that efficient public...

Vietnam has enjoyed significant economic success and rapid growth in GDP, exports and investment in recent years. Despite this, however, the economic situation for ordinary people in Vietnam is fragile, with high inflation and...

This book examines and analyses the concept of diachronic development and variability of time and place within the Islamic tradition and relevant Muslim views which can frame the debates on pluralism and democracy in a modern Islamic context.

In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration for military and strategic reasons. This book analyses why and how the British took on the Palestine Mandate. It explores how their interests and policies changed during its course and why they...