This book examines the theme of human–animal interactions contextualized against the idea of the Anthropocene. Focused on China and its immediate Asian borderlands, this interdisciplinary collection provides a powerful and insightful analysis of the ecological challenges that mankind’s traditional activities have created. Through in-depth case studies, each focusing on a particular human–animal dynamic, the book contextualizes and advances the understanding of existing environmental and ecological problems faced by local communities in Asia. In particular, the book hopes to transcend the duality of the nature versus culture debate by locating animal-ecological problems in the behavior of human institutions, beliefs, and practices, which are often affected by prevailing cultural proclivities, political ideologies, economic interests, and scientific agendas. Through interrogation of theoretical concepts of Anthropocene and human–animal binary, the volume highlights the controversial debates that follow their usage as well as their empirical utility understanding human– animal interactions historically, thereby engaging a broader interdisciplinary conversation increasingly links these two fields together. Providing a platform for discussion and dialogue for a wide audience, this book will appeal to students and scholars of environmental history and politics, anthropology, political science and policy studies, China studies, and Asian studies more generally.

A mandala is a diagram of the universe—a map of true reality intended to provide a focus for Buddhist religious practice and inspire the devout. This book highlights the distinctive Tibetan approach to creating mandalas, exploring how it crossed over from India into Tibet, and how continuous exchanges of art and ideas between the two cultures, led by monks and spiritual teachers, gave rise to a uniquely Tibetan style of Buddhist imagery. Featuring more than one hundred paintings, sculptures, and ritual objects, this superbly illustrated volume reflects the dazzling complexities of the Tibetan imagery that has provided a foundation for mandalas through the centuries. Most notably, a mesmerizing installation by the Tibetan American artist Tenzing Rigdol (b. 1982), specially created for the accompanying exhibition and published here for the first time, offers contemporary audiences a way of interrogating and understanding their world and underscores how this ancient tradition remains a vibrant living practice.

Jamyang Norbu has taken the stories of 'forgotten' Tibetansresistance fighters, secret agents, soldiers, peasants, merchants, even street beggarsand skillfully worked their myriad accounts into a single glorious 'memory history' of the Tibetan struggle. He uses recollections from his own childhood to ease the reader into an immersive understanding of the complexity of Tibet's modern history: the Chinese invasion, the uprisings in Kham and Amdo, the formation of the Four Rivers Six Ranges Resistance Force, the March '59 Lhasa Uprising, the CIA supported Air Operations, the Nyemo peasant Uprising of 68/69 and the Mustang Guerilla Force in northern Nepal, where Norbu later served. He writes of leaving home to drive tractors at refugee settlements, educate refugee children, produce plays at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, and collect intelligence for the Tibetan Office of Research and Analysis (TORA) and for France's External Intelligence Agency (SDECE). He uses these anecdotes not so much as autobiography but as a framing device to recount the lives, deeds and, too often, tragedies of the many Tibetans he encountered and befriended throughout his lifenearly all of whom played vital roles in shaping the recent history of their country but whose contributions are still unsung and forgotten. Jamyang Norbu's lifelong commitment to collecting and orchestrating the 'echoes' of these many forgotten voices from the past has resulted in a lyrical, learned and compassionate book that could well be described as the prose epic of the Tibetan freedom struggle.

A comprehensive and authoritative introduction to China's political history, contemporary political system, and key policy areas, such as the environment, population management, and public health. Politics in China is an authoritative introduction to how the world's second most populous nation and rapidly rising global power is governed today. Written by leading China scholars, each chapter offers an accessible overview of a key topic in Chinese politics. The opening section provides readers with a firm grounding in China's modern political history, covering the decline and fall of the last imperial dynasty and the rise to power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the radicalism of the era of Mao Zedong (1949-76), the dramatic economic reforms carried out by Deng Xiaoping and his disciples (1978 to 2012) and the era of Xi Jinping (2012-present), who has consolidated more personal power than any CCP leader since Mao.The next section sets the framework of politics in the People's Republic of China (PRC) with chapters on the ideology of the CCP, the structure and dynamics of the political system, the role of law and legal reform, and the policies behind the country's spectacular economic transformation. The book then shifts to a discussion of a series of major political issues in China today: reform and resistance in the countryside; changes and challenges in the cities; the arts and culture; the environment and climate change; public health; population policy; and internet politics. The final chapters of the book covers politics in four important areas located on China's geographic periphery: Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. The fourth edition of Politics in China has been thoroughly updated and includes a new chapter on the rise and rule of Xi Jinping. It is essential reading not only for students studying the PRC, but also for any reader interested in learning how China has evolved in recent times, how its political system works, and about the most important challenges it faces in years ahead.

"How do great countries stay that way? The United States is the most powerful actor in the international system, but it is facing a set of challenges that might lead to its decline as this century unfolds. This book looks to the past for guidance, examining the grand strategy of previous superpowers to see how they maintained, or failed to maintain, their status. Over the course of six cases, from Ancient Rome to the British Empire, it seeks guidance from the past for present U.S. policymakers. How did previous empires, regional hegemons, or simply dominant powers forge grand strategy? How did they define their interests, and then assemble the tools to address them? What did they do right, and where did they err? What - if anything - can current U.S. strategists learn from the experience of earlier superpowers?"--