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Book Complexity Science and World Affairs

Download or read book Complexity Science and World Affairs written by Walter C. Clemens Jr. and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2013-12-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applies complexity science to the study of international politics. Why did some countries transition peacefully from communist rule to political freedom and market economies, while others did not? Why did the United States enjoy a brief moment as the sole remaining superpower, and then lose power and influence across the board? What are the prospects for China, the main challenger to American hegemony? In Complexity Science and World Affairs, Walter C. Clemens Jr. demonstrates how the basic concepts of complexity science can broaden and deepen the insights gained by other approaches to the study of world affairs. He argues that societal fitness—the ability of a social system to cope with complex challenges and opportunities—hinges heavily on the values and way of life of each society, and serves to explain why some societies gain and others lose. Applying theory to several rich case studies, including political developments across post–Soviet Eurasia and the United States, Clemens shows that complexity science offers a powerful set of tools for advancing the study of international relations, comparative government, and, more broadly, the social sciences. “Clemens has written an outstanding book—the culmination of a half?century’s experience in and analysis of world affairs [It is] bound to interest not only political and other social scientists but all thoughtful persons concerned with understanding and perhaps improving the human condition.” — from the Foreword by Stuart A. Kauffman “This breakthrough book provides a new, promising general paradigm exploring and explaining the complexity of world politics. For scholars and analysts pushing the boundaries of our field, this is a must-read volume.” — Jacek Kugler, Claremont Graduate University “Complexity can be overwhelming and complexity science can be daunting, and, yet, in Walter Clemens’s skilled hands both become accessible, understandable, and useful tools for both scholars and practitioners. Once again, Clemens has shown that sophisticated academic theorizing only benefits from clarity, elegance, and wit. The book is ideal for graduate and undergraduate students as a supplementary text in international relations or comparative politics.” — Alexander Motyl, Rutgers University–Newark “Clemens offers a fresh, even startling, paradigm and process for analyzing the seemingly unpredictable relations within and among human societies. With impressive clarity he proposes that ‘the capacity to cope with complexity’ has become a key determinant of success in our intricately interrelated world. Careful study of this capacity in specific contexts can lead to revealing analyses in comparative politics and international relations. A provocative and stimulating treatise!” — S. Frederick Starr, Johns Hopkins University “Walt Clemens’s provocative new book can be appreciated at several levels: as an analytical framework in international relations—complexity science—that offers a compelling alternative to realism and neoliberalism; as an incisive critique of the ‘fitness’ of the supposedly most developed societies to deal with our complex world; and as a humanistic value-set that provides better standards for assessing governments than do GDP, trade levels, or military spending. Clemens skillfully integrates theory and practice to explore US ‘hyperpower,’ the two Koreas, China, and other states from new angles, and with consistent objectivity. IR specialists should find this book exciting, while IR and international studies students will be challenged by the new paradigm it presents.” — Mel Gurtov, Portland State University “Clemens proposes a powerful new way of looking at international relations and politics, and offers a productive method for assessing the fitness of societies in the early twenty-first century.” — Guntis Šmidchens, University of Washington, Seattle “You don’t have to be a political scientist to wonder why some states succeed and others do not, why some societies flourish while others suffer stagnation and conflict. Employing the relatively new tool of complexity science, Walter Clemens evaluates the ‘fitness’ of states and societies, i.e. their ability to cope with complex challenges and opportunities. He does so in a way that is erudite—how many studies quote Walt Whitman and Karl Marx in the same chapter?—yet clear and accessible. Clemens challenges both existing political science paradigms and policy perspectives. This is a stimulating, rich volume that can be read and re-read with profit and appreciation for its breadth and depth and most of all for its insistence that we see the world, and the states in it, in all their complexity.” — Ronald H. Linden, University of Pittsburgh

Book When the Press Fails

Download or read book When the Press Fails written by W. Lance Bennett and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sobering look at the intimate relationship between political power and the news media, When the Press Fails argues the dependence of reporters on official sources disastrously thwarts coverage of dissenting voices from outside the Beltway. The result is both an indictment of official spin and an urgent call to action that questions why the mainstream press failed to challenge the Bush administration’s arguments for an invasion of Iraq or to illuminate administration policies underlying the Abu Ghraib controversy. Drawing on revealing interviews with Washington insiders and analysis of content from major news outlets, the authors illustrate the media’s unilateral surrender to White House spin whenever oppositional voices elsewhere in government fall silent. Contrasting these grave failures with the refreshingly critical reporting on Hurricane Katrina—a rare event that caught officials off guard, enabling journalists to enter a no-spin zone—When the Press Fails concludes by proposing new practices to reduce reporters’ dependence on power. “The hand-in-glove relationship of the U.S. media with the White House is mercilessly exposed in this determined and disheartening study that repeatedly reveals how the press has toed the official line at those moments when its independence was most needed.”—George Pendle, Financial Times “Bennett, Lawrence, and Livingston are indisputably right about the news media’s dereliction in covering the administration’s campaign to take the nation to war against Iraq.”—Don Wycliff, Chicago Tribune “[This] analysis of the weaknesses of Washington journalism deserves close attention.”—Russell Baker, New York Review of Books

Book Press and Foreign Policy

Download or read book Press and Foreign Policy written by Bernard Cecil Cohen and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-08 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between the Washington correspondents of major news-gathering media and representatives of the foreign policy sections of the United States government has long been assumed, but its nature has never been analyzed. In a pioneering study of this relationship, Professor Cohen has used the observable results of contact, the printed and spoken words of the correspondents, as well as data from two sets of structured interviews with members of the press and government in Washington in 1953-1954 and again in 1960. Because the treatment is placed in the general context of a theory of the foreign-policy making process, many of its insights should be applicable to government-press relationships in other fields and in other countries. The degree and kind of influence of the press on American foreign policy will come as a surprise to many readers. Originally published in 1963. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Book Global Communications  International Affairs and the Media Since 1945

Download or read book Global Communications International Affairs and the Media Since 1945 written by Philip Taylor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-11 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analysis of the nature, role and impact of communications within the international arena since 1945. Taylor provides an accessible guide to this growing field for students of media, communications studies and international history.

Book Private Authority and International Affairs

Download or read book Private Authority and International Affairs written by A. Claire Cutler and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores in detail the degree to which private sector firms are beginning to replace governments in "governing" some areas of international relations.

Book Worlds of Journalism

Download or read book Worlds of Journalism written by Thomas Hanitzsch and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-18 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do journalists around the world view their roles and responsibilities in society? Based on a landmark study that has collected data from more than 27,500 journalists in 67 countries, Worlds of Journalism offers a groundbreaking analysis of the different ways journalists perceive their duties, their relationship to society and government, and the nature and meaning of their work. Challenging assumptions of a universal definition or concept of journalism, the book maps a world populated by a rich diversity of journalistic cultures. Organized around a series of key questions on topics such as editorial autonomy, journalistic ethics, trust in social institutions, and changes in the profession, it details how the practice of journalism differs across the world in a range of political, social, and economic contexts. The book covers how journalism as an institution is created and re-created by journalists and how they experience their profession in very different ways, even as they retain a commitment to some basic, widely shared professional norms and practices. It concludes with a global classification of journalistic cultures that reflects the breadth of worldviews and orientations found in disparate countries and regions. Worlds of Journalism offers an ambitious, comparative global understanding of the state of journalism in a time when it is confronting a series of economic and political threats.

Book Rethinking Religion and World Affairs

Download or read book Rethinking Religion and World Affairs written by Timothy Samuel Shah and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, the role of religion in the study and conduct of international affairs has become increasingly important. The essays in this volume seek to question and remedy the problematic neglect of religion in extant scholarship, grappling with puzzles, issues, and questions concerning religion and world affairs in six major areas. Contributors critically revisit the "secularization thesis," which proclaimed the steady erosion of religion's public presence as an effect of modernization; explore the relationship between religion, democracy, and the juridico-political discourse of human rights; assess the role of religion in fomenting, ameliorating, and redressing violent conflict; and consider the value of religious beliefs, actors, and institutions to the delivery of humanitarian aid and the fostering of socio-economic development. Finally, the volume addresses the representation of religion in the expanding global media landscape, the unique place of religion in American foreign policy, and the dilemmas it presents. Drawing on the work of leading scholars as well as policy makers and analysts, Rethinking Religion and World Affairs is the first comprehensive and authoritative guide to the interconnections of religion and global politics.

Book NGOs as Newsmakers

Download or read book NGOs as Newsmakers written by Matthew Powers and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As traditional news outlets’ international coverage has waned, several prominent nongovernmental organizations have taken on a growing number of seemingly journalistic functions. Groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Médecins Sans Frontières send reporters to gather information and provide analysis and assign photographers and videographers to boost the visibility of their work. Digital technologies and social media have increased the potential for NGOs to communicate directly with the public, bypassing traditional gatekeepers. But have these efforts changed and expanded traditional news practices and coverage—and are there consequences to blurring the lines between reporting and advocacy? In NGOs as Newsmakers, Matthew Powers analyzes the growing role NGOs play in shaping—and sometimes directly producing—international news. Drawing on interviews, observations, and content analysis, he charts the dramatic growth in NGO news-making efforts, examines whether these efforts increase the organizations' chances of garnering news coverage, and analyzes the effects of digital technologies on publicity strategies. Although the contemporary media environment offers NGOs greater opportunities to shape the news, Powers finds, it also subjects them to news-media norms. While advocacy groups can and do provide coverage of otherwise ignored places and topics, they are still dependent on traditional media and political elites and influenced by the expectations of donors, officials, journalists, and NGOs themselves. Through an unprecedented glimpse into NGOs’ newsmaking efforts, Powers portrays the possibilities and limits of NGOs as newsmakers amid the transformations of international news, with important implications for the intersections of journalism and advocacy.

Book Impact in International Affairs

Download or read book Impact in International Affairs written by James Gow and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-13 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how and to what extent academic research in politics and international studies has had 'impact' — in doing so, it also considers what might characterise ‘world-leading’ research impact. International Relations was always meant to have impact – it was intended to make a difference in the world, when the subject was formally founded to understand and prevent war in 1919. This volume addresses the concept of ‘impact’ and offers a typology of the term — instrumental, conceptual, capacity building and procedural. The authors examine 111 impact case studies in the UK Research Excellence Framework (2014) that were classified as having achieved the highest level of evaluation, and they identify eight characteristics that mark ‘world-leading’ impact. The book concludes that process and public and media engagement are previously underestimated aspects of impact in official approaches. It further demonstrates that achieving the top levels of impact in international relations is possible, but that factors such as the nature of the subject, the approach of researchers and mean-spiritedness in the peer review process inhibited this. This book will be of much interest to students of politics and international studies, as well as educational research and policy makers, and anyone interested in, or working on, research impact.

Book The Invention of International Relations Theory

Download or read book The Invention of International Relations Theory written by Nicolas Guilhot and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1954 Conference on Theory, sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, featured a 'who's who' of scholars and practitioners debating what would become the foundations of international relations theory. Assembling his own team of experts, the editor revisits a seminal event in the discipline.

Book Night Draws Near

    Book Details:
  • Author : Anthony Shadid
  • Publisher : Macmillan
  • Release : 2006-07-11
  • ISBN : 9780312426033
  • Pages : 532 pages

Download or read book Night Draws Near written by Anthony Shadid and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-07-11 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting from Iraq, this riveting account illuminates ordinary people caught between the struggles of nations.

Book Governance in World Affairs

    Book Details:
  • Author : Oran R. Young
  • Publisher : Cornell University Press
  • Release : 1999
  • ISBN : 9780801486234
  • Pages : 244 pages

Download or read book Governance in World Affairs written by Oran R. Young and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Governance without government -- Regime tasks and types -- The problem of problem structure -- Is enforcement the Achilles' heel of international regimes? -- The effectiveness of international regimes -- Toward a theory of institutional change -- Institutional interplay in international society -- Regime theory: past, present, and future.

Book Journalism After Snowden

Download or read book Journalism After Snowden written by Emily Bell and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Edward Snowden's release of classified NSA documents exposed the widespread government practice of mass surveillance in a democratic society. The publication of these documents, facilitated by three journalists, as well as efforts to criminalize the act of being a whistleblower or source, signaled a new era in the coverage of national security reporting. The contributors to Journalism After Snowden analyze the implications of the Snowden affair for journalism and the future role of the profession as a watchdog for the public good. Integrating discussions of media, law, surveillance, technology, and national security, the book offers a timely and much-needed assessment of the promises and perils for journalism in the digital age. Journalism After Snowden is essential reading for citizens, journalists, and academics in search of perspective on the need for and threats to investigative journalism in an age of heightened surveillance. The book features contributions from key players involved in the reporting of leaks of classified information by Edward Snowden, including Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of The Guardian; ex-New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson; legal scholar and journalist Glenn Greenwald; and Snowden himself. Other contributors include dean of Columbia Graduate School of Journalism Steve Coll, Internet and society scholar Clay Shirky, legal scholar Cass Sunstein, and journalist Julia Angwin. Topics discussed include protecting sources, digital security practices, the legal rights of journalists, access to classified data, interpreting journalistic privilege in the digital age, and understanding the impact of the Internet and telecommunications policy on journalism. The anthology's interdisciplinary nature provides a comprehensive overview and understanding of how society can protect the press and ensure the free flow of information.

Book Religion and International Relations Theory

Download or read book Religion and International Relations Theory written by Jack Snyder and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-31 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religious concerns stand at the center of international politics, yet key paradigms in international relations, namely realism, liberalism, and constructivism, barely consider religion in their analysis of political subjects. The essays in this collection rectify this. Authored by leading scholars, they introduce models that integrate religion into the study of international politics and connect religion to a rising form of populist politics in the developing world. Contributors identify religion as pervasive and distinctive, forcing a reframing of international relations theory that reinterprets traditional paradigms. One essay draws on both realism and constructivism in the examination of religious discourse and transnational networks. Another positions secularism not as the opposite of religion but as a comparable type of worldview drawing on and competing with religious ideas. With the secular state's perceived failure to address popular needs, religion has become a banner for movements that demand a more responsive government. The contributors to this volume recognize this trend and propose structural and theoretical innovations for future advances in the discipline.

Book Deciding What   s True

Download or read book Deciding What s True written by Lucas Graves and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade, American outlets such as PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and the Washington Post's Fact Checker have shaken up the political world by holding public figures accountable for what they say. Cited across social and national news media, these verdicts can rattle a political campaign and send the White House press corps scrambling. Yet fact-checking is a fraught kind of journalism, one that challenges reporters' traditional roles as objective observers and places them at the center of white-hot, real-time debates. As these journalists are the first to admit, in a hyperpartisan world, facts can easily slip into fiction, and decisions about which claims to investigate and how to judge them are frequently denounced as unfair play. Deciding What's True draws on Lucas Graves's unique access to the members of the newsrooms leading this movement. Graves vividly recounts the routines of journalists at three of these hyperconnected, technologically innovative organizations and what informs their approach to a story. Graves also plots a compelling, personality-driven history of the fact-checking movement and its recent evolution from the blogosphere, reflecting on its revolutionary remaking of journalistic ethics and practice. His book demonstrates the ways these rising organizations depend on professional networks and media partnerships yet have also made inroads with the academic and philanthropic worlds. These networks have become a vital source of influence as fact-checking spreads around the world.

Book Normalization in World Politics

Download or read book Normalization in World Politics written by Nicolas Lemay-Hebert and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2022-02-08 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As we face new challenges from climate change and the rise of populism in Western politics and beyond, there is little doubt that we are entering a new configuration of world politics. Driven by nostalgia for past certainties or fear of what is coming next, references to normalcy have been creeping into political discourse, with people either vying for a return to a past normalcy or coping with the new normal. This book traces main discourses and practices associated with normalcy in world politics. Visoka and Lemay-Hébert mostly focus on how dominant states and international organizations try to manage global affairs through imposing normalcy over fragile states, restoring normalcy over disaster-affected states, and accepting normalcy over suppressive states. They show how discourses and practices come together in constituting normalization interventions and how in turn they play in shaping the dynamics of continuity and change in world politics.

Book National Security  Leaks and Freedom of the Press

Download or read book National Security Leaks and Freedom of the Press written by Lee C. Bollinger and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fighting for balance / Avril Haines -- Crafting a new compact in the public interest : protecting the national security in an era of leaks / Keith B. Alexander and Jamil N. Jaffer -- Leaks of classified information : lessons learned from a lifetime on the inside/ Michael Morell -- Reform and renewal : lessons from Snowden and the 215 program / Lisa O. Monaco -- Government needs to get its own house in order / Richard A. Clarke -- Behind the scenes with the Snowden files : "how the Washington Post and national security officials dealt with conflicts over government secrecy" / Ellen Nakashima -- Let's be practical : a narrow post-publication leak law would better protect the press / Stephen J. Adler and Bruce D. Brown -- What we owe whistleblowers / Jameel Jaffer -- The long, (futile?) Fight for a federal shield law / Judith Miller -- Covering the cyberwars : the press vs the government in a new age of global conflict / David Sanger -- Outlawing leaks / David A. Strauss -- The growth of press freedoms in the United States since 9/11 / Jack Goldsmith -- Edward Snowden, Donald Trump, and the paradox of national security whistleblowing / Allison Stanger -- Information is power : exploring a constitutional right of access / Mary-Rose Papandrea -- Who said what to whom / Cass R. Sunstein -- Leaks in the age of Trump / Louis Michael Seidman the report of the commission, Lee C. Bollinger, Eric Holder, John O. Brennan, Ann Marie Lipinski, Kathleen Carroll, Geoffrey R. Stone, Stephen W. Coll -- Closing statement / Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone.