Download or read book Cult of the Irrelevant written by Michael Desch and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-28 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How professionalization and scholarly “rigor” made social scientists increasingly irrelevant to US national security policy To mobilize America’s intellectual resources to meet the security challenges of the post–9/11 world, US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates observed that “we must again embrace eggheads and ideas.” But the gap between national security policymakers and international relations scholars has become a chasm. In Cult of the Irrelevant, Michael Desch traces the history of the relationship between the Beltway and the Ivory Tower from World War I to the present day. Recounting key Golden Age academic strategists such as Thomas Schelling and Walt Rostow, Desch’s narrative shows that social science research became most oriented toward practical problem-solving during times of war and that scholars returned to less relevant work during peacetime. Social science disciplines like political science rewarded work that was methodologically sophisticated over scholarship that engaged with the messy realities of national security policy, and academic culture increasingly turned away from the job of solving real-world problems. In the name of scientific objectivity, academics today frequently engage only in basic research that they hope will somehow trickle down to policymakers. Drawing on the lessons of this history as well as a unique survey of current and former national security policymakers, Desch offers concrete recommendations for scholars who want to shape government work. The result is a rich intellectual history and an essential wake-up call to a field that has lost its way.

Download or read book No Sure Victory written by Gregory A. Daddis and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conventional wisdom holds that the US Army in Vietnam, thrust into an unconventional war where occupying terrain was a meaningless measure of success, depended on body counts as its sole measure of military progress. In No Sure Victory, Army officer and historian Gregory Daddis looks far deeper into the Army's techniques for measuring military success and presents a much more complicated-and disturbing-account of the American misadventure in Indochina. Daddis shows how the US Army, which confronted an unfamiliar enemy and an even more unfamiliar form of warfare, adopted a massive, and eventually unmanageable, system of measurements and formulas to track the progress of military operations that ranged from pacification efforts to search-and-destroy missions. The Army's monthly "Measurement of Progress" reports covered innumerable aspects of the fighting in Vietnam-force ratios, Vietcong/North Vietnamese Army incidents, tactical air sorties, weapons losses, security of base areas and roads, population control, area control, and hamlet defenses. Concentrating more on data collection and less on data analysis, these indiscriminate attempts to gauge success may actually have hindered the army's ability to evaluate the true outcome of the fight at hand--a roadblock that Daddis believes significantly contributed to the many failures that American forces suffered in Vietnam. Filled with incisive analysis and rich historical detail, No Sure Victory is not only a valuable case study in unconventional warfare, but a cautionary tale that offers important perspectives on how to measure performance in current and future armed conflict. Given America's ongoing counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, No Sure Victory provides valuable historical perspective on how to measure--and mismeasure--military success.

Download or read book From Europeanisation to Diffusion written by Tanja A. Borzel and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-25 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a comprehensive account of the extent to which policies and institutions of the European Union (EU) spread across different contexts. Are the EU’s attempts to transfer its policies and institutions to accession and neighbourhood countries sustainable and effective? To what degree do other regions of the world emulate the EU’s institutional features, what are the mechanisms of, and conditions for, their diffusion? Chapters deal with Europeanization in the new EU member states, particularly in Romania and Bulgaria, in current accession candidates, i.e. the Western Balkans and Turkey, as well the Eastern (Southern Caucasus) and Southern Neighbourhood (Israel and the Maghreb). In addition, authors investigate the diffusion of EU policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The authors place Europeanization studies in the wider context of research on transnational diffusion, and examine the relevant mechanisms and processes, including incentives and capacity-building, socialization and learning as well as functional and normative emulation. Finally, the book discusses what conditions lead to the successful diffusion of European institutions and policies, such as domestic incentives, degrees of (limited) statehood, regime type, and power (a)symmetries. This book was originally published as a special issue of West European Politics.

Download or read book The Church of Irrelevance written by Mike T. Dark and published by Fuego Publications. This book was released on 2009-09 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the spiritual war between faith and reason continues to grow in the United States, Sid finds himself sans religion, leaving him without faith, without hope, without his very sense of self. As he regains control of his life, he starts the most important church of the 21st century.

Download or read book How We Fight written by Helen Frowe and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-04-17 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How We Fight: Ethics in War presents a substantial body of new work by some of the leading philosophers of war. The ten essays cover a range of topics concerned with both jus ad bellum (the morality of going to war) and jus in bello (the morality of fighting in war). Alongside explorations of classic in bello topics, such as the principle of non-combatant immunity and the distribution of risk between combatants and non-combatants, the volume also addresses ad bellum topics, such as pacifism and punitive justifications for war, and explores the relationship between ad bellum and in bello topics, or how the fighting of a war may affect our judgments concerning whether that war meets the ad bellum conditions. The essays take a keen interest in the micro-foundations of just war theory, and uphold the general assumption that the rules of war must be supported, if they are going to be supported at all, by the liability and non-liability of the individuals who are encompassed by those rules. Relatedly, the volume also contains work which is relevant to the moral justification of several moral doctrines used, either explicitly or implicitly, in just war theory: in the doctrine of double effect, in the generation of liability in basic self-defensive cases, and in the relationship between liability and the conditions which are normally appended to permissible self-defensive violence: imminence, necessity, and proportionality. The volume breaks new ground in all these areas.

Download or read book Institutionalizing East Asia written by Alice D. Ba and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-10 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Institutional activities have remarkably transformed East Asia, a region once known for the absence of regionalism and regime-building efforts. Yet the dynamics of this Asian institutionalization have remained an understudied area of research. This book offers one of the first scholarly attempts to clarify what constitutes institutionalization in East Asia and to systematically trace the origins, discern the features, and analyze the prospects of ongoing institutionalization processes in the world’s most dynamic region. Institutionalizing East Asia comprises eight essays, grouped thematically into three sections. Part I considers East and Southeast Asia as focal points of inter-state exchanges and traces the institutionalization of inter-state cooperation first among the Southeast Asian states and then among those of the wider East Asia. Part II examines the institutionalization of regional collaboration in four domains: economy, security, natural disaster relief, and ethnic conflict management. Part III discusses the institutionalization dynamics at the sub-regional and inter-regional levels. The essays in this book offer a useful source of reference for scholars and researchers specializing in East Asia, regional architecture, and institution-building in international relations. They will also be of interest to postgraduate and research students interested in ASEAN, the drivers and limits of international cooperation, as well as the role of regional multilateralism in the Asia-Pacific region.

Download or read book The Australian Study of Politics written by R. Rhodes and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-11-11 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Australian Study of Politics provides the first comprehensive reference book on the history of the study of politics in Australia, whether described as political studies or political science. It focuses on Australia and on developments since WWII, also exploring the historical roots of each major subfield.

Download or read book Handbook on Global Governance and Regionalism written by Jürgen Rüland and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-18 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Handbook expertly explores the profound transformations in international relations in recent decades. Proliferating cross-border challenges, including global financial crises, climate change, environmental degradation, irregular migration, and COVID-19, require governance structures that transcend the nation state and take both global and regional interplay, as well as problem-solving capacities, into account. Contributing authors investigate the effectiveness of international cooperation and performance in a diverse range of policy fields.

Download or read book The Irrelevant You written by Ashok K. Sharma and published by Notion Press. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both nature and the human life follow a cyclic pattern where nothing seems to last forever. The pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, birth and death, honor and dishonor, prosperity and poverty, spring and fall, all follow a cyclic pattern. If you have one today, you shall have the other tomorrow. That is the reality of life. No one can escape it. The Irrelevant You is a guide on how to deal with difficult situations in life, how to avoid divorce; how to handle isolation at home and in the office, how to live with less and excesses, and how to face life and death with dignity and lead a happy life even under painful conditions. Always remember, there is no one like you in the entire universe, and you can remain relevant, all through your life, if you follow some simple rules of life. The most important: Accept imperfections as the natural traits of human life and conduct yourself in a selfless manner. The book explores the various faculties of our minds and how one can harness the abundant energy available within us and solve even the most complex problems of life.

Download or read book Fighting Hislam written by Susan Carland and published by Melbourne Univ. Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Muslim community that is portrayed to the West is a misogynist’s playground; within the Muslim community, feminism is often regarded with sneering hostility. Yet between those two views there is a group of Muslim women many do not believe exists: a diverse bunch who fight sexism from within, as committed to the fight as they are to their faith. Hemmed in by Islamophobia and sexism, they fight against sexism with their minds, words and bodies. Often, their biggest weapon is their religion. Here, Carland talks with Muslim women about how they are making a stand for their sex, while holding fast to their faith. At a time when the media trumpets scandalous revelations about life for women from Saudi Arabia to Indonesia, Muslim women are always spoken about and over, never with. In Fighting Hislam, that ends.

Download or read book Roads to Regionalism written by Kai Striebinger and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2013-04-28 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past few decades states all around the globe have intensified institutionalized cooperation at the regional level. To deepen our understanding of state-led regionalism, the authors use an analytical framework comprising four main strands. First, they describe and explain the genesis and growth of regional organizations. Second, they account for institutional design, looking at important similarities and differences. Third, they examine the interaction between organizations and member states in an attempt to reveal factors that shape the level of commitment to and compliance with regional initiatives. Finally, they consider the impact of regional organizations on their member states. They conclude by providing a foundation for future research on the dynamic development of regionalism.

Download or read book Irrelevant or Indispensable written by Paul Heinbecker and published by Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suffering from a divided membership, the United Nations is at a crossroads, unable to assure human or national security. The UN has been criticized as irrelevant by its most—and least—powerful members alike because it can’t reach consensus on how to respond to twenty-first-century challenges of global terrorism, endemic poverty, and crimes against humanity. Secretary General Kofi Annan has proposed a package of sweeping reforms that would safeguard the rule of law, outlaw terrorism, protect the innocent from abusive governments, reduce poverty by half, safeguard human rights, and enlarge the Security Council. Intended to reinvigorate the institution and galvanize its members into action, his proposals are extensive and innovative, courageous and controversial. This volume assembles the perspectives of current practitioners, leading academics, civil society representatives, and UN officials on transforming the secretary general’s proposed reforms into action. Their assessments are frank and their views varied, but they do agree on one thing—the United Nations must be made more effective precisely because it is indispensable to the promotion of economic development and collective security in the twenty-first century. Co-published with the Centre for International Governance Innovation

Download or read book Evil written by Roy F. Baumeister, Ph.D. and published by Holt Paperbacks. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 445 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is there evil, and what can scientific research tell us about the origins and persistence of evil behavior? Considering evil from the unusual perspective of the perpetrator, Roy F. Baumeister asks, How do ordinary people find themselves beating their wives? Murdering rival gang members? Torturing political prisoners? Betraying their colleagues to the secret police? Why do cycles of revenge so often escalate? Baumeister casts new light on these issues as he examines the gap between the victim's viewpoint and that of the perpetrator, and also the roots of evil behavior, from egotism and revenge to idealism and sadism. A fascinating study of one of humankind's oldest problems, Evil has profound implications for the way we conduct our lives and govern our society.

Download or read book Military Resilience in Low Intensity Conflict written by Rachel Suissa and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012-06-14 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Military Resilience in a Low-Intensity Conflict: A Comparative Study of New Directions Worldwide,by Rachel Suissa, offers a prognosis for the dilemma of army resilience in the post-modern era. She clarifies the concept of military resilience among the challenges of the twenty-first century, examining how the military model affects resilience, and how those effects are expressed during the management of a given conflict. She investigates the issue through a comparative study of armies and states which have been involved or are currently involved in low intensity conflicts—the countries discussed include France and Algeria, Great Britain and Ireland, Russia and Chechnya, and Israel and the Palestinian authority. Another challenge that Suissa addresses is that of peace coalitions and their organizational resilience. She further discusses the connection between political and military ranks, and under which conditions the former affects the latter. Military Resilience in a Low-Intensity Conflict makes the issues associated with resilience and conflict accessible to both academics and those who might translate its findings into practicable insights.

Download or read book The Bible Irrelevant or Invaluable written by Christianity Today Intl., and published by HarperChristian Resources. This book was released on 2009-03-02 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christianity Today Study Series delves into today's vital cultural issues to get to the heart of what these topics mean to readers. Each eight-week study is based on articles written by today's leading Christian authors and published by Christianity Today magazines. These remarkable studies foster deep, authentic, and relevant discussion that will challenge and grow any small group. The Bible: Irrelevant or Invaluable? is scheduled to coincide with the release of the film sequel to The DaVinci Code and takes on the hot topics of the authority, origin, and infallibility of the Bible.

Download or read book Exam Scorer Science Class XII written by SBPD Editiorial Board and published by SBPD Publications. This book was released on 2021-11-18 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1. Physics 2.Chemistry 3.Biology, 4.Mathematics 5.Computer Science 6.Hindi (Core) 7.English (Core)

Download or read book Asia Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2011 written by and published by UN. This book was released on 2012-02 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Report identifies the challenges and opportunities for trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region and concludes that with the right policies and strengthened regional cooperation, the region will be able to continue strong trade- and investment-led growth. With the continued stalling of the Doha Round, regional trade agreements remain an important approach to controlling protectionism. A fresh look at negotiations of the rules under these agreements in order to make them perform their enabling role is recommended. The Report emphasizes that governments need to step up efforts to improve the environment for business and investment.