This volume focuses on the spotlight on Romania and Moldova, two distinct nations that share a common language, history and culture. Romania is a NATO member since 2004 and a fully integrated nation into the European Union since 2007, while The Republic of Moldova (a former Soviet republic) is attempting to join both international organizations for security and development reasons. Ever since the Iron Curtain fell on Europe at the end of World War II, the term “Eastern Europe” has been used without much regard for the diversity of the region. Given the geographical proximity, perhaps this is an understandable error. However, moving forward into the twenty-first century, and considering the highly sensitive geopolitical, security and development issues playing out in the region, we believe each nation should be treated with the unique distinction it deserves. Building a mosaic of the most current research, practical application, and policy, the authors, who represent unique, insider perspectives, cover a range of emerging and timely topics from Black Sea security to cultural analyses, organizational development and risk assessment shedding light on social, political and economic challenges of rapid transition in the region, while considering the implications for research, practice and policy in other front-line regions around the world.

Analyzes the history, evolution, and processes of national security policies This text examines national security from two fundamental fault lines-the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 terrorist attacks-and considers how the resulting era of globalization and geopolitics guides policy. Placing this trend in conceptual and historical context and following it through military, semi-military, and non-military concerns, National Security for a New Era treats its subject as a nuanced and subtle phenomenon that encompasses everything from the nation to the individual.

This collection of essays and reviews on national security, geopolitics and war combines a broad historical and geopolitical overview of U.S. national security policy with commentary on historical events and biographical sketches of historical figures.

This accessible and stimulating new book from renowned security scholar Donald Snow examines the United States' national security situation today and what policies the U.S. should adopt to confront it. National Security for a New Era is the first comprehensive examination of American national security policy since the events of 9/11 galvanized change. It starts from the premise that there have been two fundamental fault lines in national security policy over the past 15 years, the end of the Cold War and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Each transformed security policy: the end of the Cold War ushered in the era of globalization for the 1990s, and 9/11 initiated a shift to a more traditional geopolitical view of the world for the early 2000s. The text attempts to place these traumatic events into the context of the prior American experience of the Cold War, traditional concerns over American interests, politics, and military problems, and to extend that experience into the future. Asymmetrical warfare, the Iraq war precedent, the neo-conservative challenge, state building, and the future reconciliation of globalization and geopolitics are all examined.

The essays here address the relationship between economic interdependence and international conflict, the political economy of economic sanctions, and the role of economic incentives in international statecraft.

This concise introduction to the growth and evolution of geopolitics as a discipline includes biographical information on its leading historical and contemporary practitioners and detailed analysis of its literature. An important book on a topic that has been neglected for too long, Geopolitics: A Guide to the Issues will provide readers with an enhanced understanding of how geography influences personal, national, and international economics, politics, and security. The work begins with the history of geopolitics from the late 19th century to the present, then discusses the intellectual renaissance the discipline is experiencing today due to the prevalence of international security threats involving territorial, airborne, space-based, and waterborne possession and acquisition. The book emphasizes current and emerging international geopolitical trends, examining how the U.S. and other countries, including Australia, Brazil, China, India, and Russia, are integrating geopolitics into national security planning. It profiles international geopolitical scholars and their work, and it analyzes emerging academic, military, and governmental literature, including "gray" literature and social networking technologies, such as blogs and Twitter.

Sicker examines the role of the United States within the Western Hemisphere and the geopolitical and geostrategic factors that have helped shape its policies in the region. He demonstrates that such factors have contributed heavily to establishing the patterns of state development and interstate relations in the Western Hemisphere throughout its modern history. The prevailing geopolitical environment has been conditioned to a large extent by the emergence of the United States as the unquestionably dominant power in the extensive region. However, that status did not exist at the time it achieved its independence. It was brought about through almost incessant conflict with, and expansion at the expense of, other states, nations, and peoples over more than a century. As a result, the concerns and interests of the dominant power became and remain, of necessity, factors that states beyond the borders of the United States must take into consideration when pursuing their own national interests and policies. As Sicker amply demonstrates, failure to do so will often produce undesirable consequences for the offending state. As is clear, however, the states of the hemisphere have their own geopolitical interests and concerns independent of, and sometimes conflicting with, those of the United States. As Sicker shows throughout the volume, and especially in his analysis of inter-American conflicts, many of the nations of Latin America have unresolved territorial controversies with their neighbors that date to their origins as independent states. Because of this troubled geopolitical legacy, there have been numerous conflicts among the states of Latin America, some of which the United States has attempted to mediate or arbitrate, and some that seem impervious to a permanent negotiated settlement. This is a provocative analysis that will be of interest to scholars, students, researchers, and policymakers involved with inter-American relations and U.S. diplomacy.