Far-reaching in scope encompassing government regulation and sport's intersections with other government policies.

This is the third book to be produced by members of the Gambling Research Group a " associated with Tilburg Universitya (TM)s Faculty of Law concerning issues closely connected with the debate on the gambling policies that the European Union and its Member States are pursuing. The first book a " Alan Littler and Cyrille Fijnaut (eds), "The Regulation of Gambling: European and National Perspectives" (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007) a " mainly considers the legal aspects of gambling regulation, at both European Union and Member State level. The second book a " Tom Coryn, Cyrille Fijnaut and Alan Littler (eds), "Economic Aspects of Gambling Regulation: EU and US Perspectives" (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2008) a " looks at research conducted in the United States and the European Union into the costs and benefits involved in the regulation of gambling. The contributions to this third book turn the spotlight on two social problems: crime and addiction, both of which play a significant part in the institutional debate in the European Union concerning whether gambling should be treated as a service that a " like other services a " should be subject to the laws universally applicable to the internal market. This volume is primarily devoted to the research that has been conducted in several Member States into the problems of gambling-related crime and addiction. It also examines developments at EU level: What policy is the European Commission currently pursuing? And what stance does the European Court of Justice take these days? Crime and addiction problems that can arise in the context of online gambling and at possible ways of keeping them under control. are also examined.

Since independence, Ukrainians have been evenly split between those who desire to be part of the Euro-Atlantic (European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organization) community and those who gravitate toward Eurasia (Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States). During the 1990s, when the European Union and NATO were focused on Central Europe and Russia was politically down and economically weak, Ukraine was able to have it both ways. Since the Orange Revolution, Ukraine has made significant progress developing a Euro-Atlantic style democratic political system, demonstrated a vibrant open media and civil society, and successfully advanced civilian oversight of its military. Despite this progress, Ukrainian opinion remains sharply divided on integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. Attempts by Ukrainian leaders and some current members of NATO to promote a Membership Action Plan have backfired. Not only has Russia, now more autocratic, responded with missile threats, cutting gas supplies, and meddling in Ukraine's domestic politics, but the crosscutting internal and external pressures are aggravating profound political instability, actually making Ukraine a less appealing candidate for membership in either the European Union or NATO. Under these circumstances, the challenge is to provide Ukraine sufficient time to consolidate successful democratic governance and develop domestic consensus on this critical strategic choice. Rather than pressing Ukraine toward early accession, the new U.S. administration should keep open the possibility of NATO membership, but for the time being encourage Ukraine to follow the model of Finland, another nonaligned Partner for Peace, as it attempts to reconcile the competing popular factions in the country and to navigate between its Euro-Atlantic and Eurasian neighbors. By nurturing its political stability, the United States will enhance Ukraine's value to the Alliance over the longer term.

This book offers a novel approach to thinking about public policy and a distinctive methodology for analysing policy. It introduces a set of six questions that probe how ‘problems’ are represented in policies, followed by an injunction to apply the questions to one’s own policy proposals. This form of analysis, it suggests, is crucial to understanding how policy works, how we are governed, and how the practice of policy-making implicitly constitutes us as subjects. The book mounts a challenge to the problem-solving paradigm currently dominating the intellectual and policy landscape, a paradigm manifest in ‘evidence-based policy’. Arguing that such a paradigm denies the shaping that goes on in the process of problematisation, it offers a ‘what’s the problem represented to be?’ approach to policy analysis as a counter-discourse. In this view critical thinking involves putting ‘problems’ into question rather than learning how to ‘solve’ them. Bacchi’s approach to policy analysis offers exciting insights in a wide array of policy areas, including welfare, drugs/alcohol and gambling, criminal justice, health, education, immigration and population, media and research policy. Invaluable to those involved in policy studies and public administration, it will also appeal to students and academics in sociology, social work, anthropology, cultural studies and human geography.