Provides basic reference material on Micronesia, a region encompassing a vast area of the tropical western Pacific Ocean. Includes the Mariana, Caroline, Marshall, and Gilbert islands and the island nation of Nauru.

The South Seas, as this region used to be called, conjured up images of adventure, belles and savages, romance and fabulous fortunes, but the long voyages of discovery and exploration of the vast Pacific Ocean were really an exercise in amazing logistics, navigation, hard grit, shipwreck and pure luck. The motivations were scientific and geographic, but at the same time nationalistic and materialistic. A series on global exploration and discovery would not be complete without this book by Quanchi and Robson. It is ambitious and informative and includes the familiar names of Laperouse, Bougainville, Cook and Dampier, as well as the intriguing stories of the Bounty Mutiny, scurvy, and the mysterious Northwest Passage, Terra Australis Ignotia and Davis Land. There are entries on first contacts, ships, navigational instruments, mapping, and botany. The scene is carefully set in the introduction, the chronology spans several centuries, and the extensive bibliography offers a guide to further reading. There are more than just dry facts in this book. It has a whiff of salt air, the clash of empires, cross-cultural beach encounters and personal adventure.

As Kim Jong Un approaches the seventh anniversary of his coming to power he has pushed the military back. The modified Constitution adopted in 2016 saw the demotion of the National Defense Council in favor of a new State Affairs Council which was a more party and government dominated body. He has put his own men and women into positions of authority. Sanctions are an irritant yet are already weakening as a result of first ever meeting between a DPRK leader and a U.S. president took place in June of Singapore, as well as a string of North-South meetings covered issues such as family reunions and railway and road connections. Military talks also ed to the demilitarization of Panmunjom. Since then Japan wants to talk and even the Pope may visit. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Democratic People's Republic of Korea contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 400 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Since its creation, the State of Israel has been a magnet for attention. A country beset by conflict in its region and faced with the need to integrate mainly Jewish immigrants of disparate backgrounds into a modern and advanced democratic state and society, Israel has preoccupied observers, scholars and journalists since its independence in May 1948. Although a Jewish state Israel is also a democratic state that guarantees the rights of all of its citizens, including its large Arab and Moslem minority, in law and in practice. Israel and its modern history and politics have been the subject of substantial and often highly partisan literature, being hotly and vigorously debated both at home and abroad. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Israel contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1100 cross-referenced entries onsignificant persons, places, events, government institutions, political parties, and battles, as well as entries on Israel’s economy, society, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about the various diplomatic and political personalities, institutions, organizations, events, concepts, and documents that together define the political life of the Jewish state of Israel.

Australia’s development, from the most unpromising of beginnings as a British prison in 1788 to the prosperous liberal democracy of the present is as remarkable as is its success as a country of large-scale immigration. Since 1942 it has been a loyal ally of the United States and has demonstrated this loyalty by contributing troops to the war in Vietnam and by being part of the “coalition of the willing” in the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and in operations in Afghanistan. In recent years, it has also been more willing to promote peace and democracy in its Pacific and Asian neighbors. This fourth edition of Historical Dictionary of Australia covers its history through a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 500 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Australia.

‘Iraq, the land of Hamurabi and Harun al-Rashid, has played a long and unique role in the history of human civilization. The oldest civilization known to humankind evolved on the shores of its twin rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. The great cities of antiquity—Uruk, Ur, Akkad, Babylon, al-Basra, Mawsil, and Baghdad—were major centers of high culture and political power for much of the course of human history. This updated edition offers new and expanded coverage of a broad range of political, economic, security, cultural, and religious topics, including the emergence of a sustained protest movement for reform, the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and the Kurdish independence referendum. This third edition of Historical Dictionary of Iraq contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 1,000 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Iraq.

Indonesia is Asia's third largest country in both population and area, a sprawling tropical archipelago of some 180 million people from hundreds of ethnic groups with a complex and turbulent history. One of Asia's newly industrializing countries, it is already a major economic powerhouse. In over 800 clear and succinct entries, the dictionary covers people, places, and organizations, as well as economics, culture, and political thought from Indonesia's ancient history up until the recent past. Includes a comprehensive bibliography, maps, chronology, list of abbreviations, and appendix of election results and major office-holders. This second edition has been thoroughly updated and expanded to cover the events that have occurred in Indonesia's history in the past fifteen years.