This English-language translation of Mark Hengerer's Kaiser Ferdinand III: 1608–1657 Eine Biographie is based on an analysis of the weekly reports sent by the papal nuncio’s office to the Vatican. These reports give detailed information about the daily whereabouts of the dynasty, courtiers, and foreign visitors, and they contain the gossip of the court in addition to weekly analysis of some political problems. This material enabled the author to report on daily life of the dynasty and to analyze the circumstances under which policy was made, which has led to a balance between the personality of Ferdinand III and the problems with which he dealt. In this biography, Hengerer provides answers to the question: Why did it take the emperor more than ten years to end a devastating war, the traumatizing effects of which on central Europe lasted into the twentieth century, particularly since there was no hope of victory against his foreign adversaries from the very moment he came into power?

With the powerful words that marked her long and distinguished career, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick explores where America has gone wrong—and raises lingering questions about what perils tomorrow might hold. In Making War to Keep Peace, the former U.S. Ambassador to the UN traces the course of diplomatic initiatives and armed conflict in Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo to illuminate the dangerous shift from the first Bush administration's ambitious vision of a New World Order to the overambitious nation-building efforts of the Clinton administration. Kirkpatrick questions when, how, and why the United States should resort to military solutions—especially in light of the George W. Bush administration's challenging war in Iraq, about which Kirkpatrick shares her "grave reservations" for the first time.

In the complex process of turning war into peace, international conflict mediators play an increasingly pivotal role. Yet almost nothing is known about these influential individuals. In Kings of Peace, Pawns of War, six of the world's leading mediators talk in detail for the first time about their efforts to secure peace in Iraq, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Iraq and Aceh. Former war correspondent Harriet Martin draws on unparalleled access to top-level mediators at work on the international scene today. Thus she is able to provide for the first time important insights into a profession rarely subjected to public scrutiny. She investigates the tactics they use to keep the two sides talking, and their drive to complete what is often a thankless task. She exposes how the warring parties, and also the international backers of a mediation, will manipulate a peace effort - and the mediator himself - in order to retain the upper hand.

An informed modern plan for post-2020 American foreign policy that avoids the opposing dangers of retrenchment and overextension Russia and China are both believed to have "grand strategies"--detailed sets of national security goals backed by means, and plans, to pursue them. In the United States, policy makers have tried to articulate similar concepts but have failed to reach a widespread consensus since the Cold War ended. While the United States has been the world's prominent superpower for over a generation, much American thinking has oscillated between the extremes of isolationist agendas versus interventionist and overly assertive ones. Drawing on historical precedents and weighing issues such as Russia's resurgence, China's great rise, North Korea's nuclear machinations, and Middle East turmoil, Michael O'Hanlon presents a well-researched, ethically sound, and politically viable vision for American national security policy. He also proposes complementing the Pentagon's set of "4+1" pre-existing threats with a new "4+1" biological, nuclear, digital, climatic, and internal dangers.

"The poems gathered here span the last three decades of Levertov's life, their subjects ranging from Vietnam to the death-squads of El Salvador to the first Gulf War." -- Back cover. -- Provided by publisher.

Making Peace with the Earth outlines how a paradigm shift to earth-centred politics and economics is our only chance of survival and how collective resistance to corporate exploitation can open the way to a new environmentalism."--pub. desc.