Strained Relations is a substantial account of Irish-USA relations during the Second World War. Much of the material is based on previously classified documents, and on personal interviews with the Americans sent to Ireland as spies. The author explores the suspicion and occasional hostility with which the USA and Great Britain viewed this neutral but strategically important country. He discusses the contingency plans for the seizure of Irish ports, the attempt to discredit de Valera, as well as the novel forms of intelligence work engaged in by American diplomats. Contents: Preface; Neutrals at Odds; America Goes to War; Gray Advised by Ghosts; Just in Case; Getting Behind the Green Curtain; The Absent Treatment; American Spies in Ireland; Convenient Fiction for Allied Airmen; Ireland's Phoney Neutrality; The Irish Threat to Postwar Stability; Military did not want Irish Bases; The Truth Behind the American Note; Diplomatic Manoeuvrings; Amid the Press Hysteria; What they Knew; Towards a Troubled End; In the Final Days; Notes; Bibliography; Index D

During the twentieth century, foreign-exchange intervention was sometimes used in an attempt to solve the fundamental trilemma of international finance, which holds that countries cannot simultaneously pursue independent monetary policies, stabilize their exchange rates, and benefit from free cross-border financial flows. Drawing on a trove of previously confidential data, Strained Relations reveals the evolution of US policy regarding currency market intervention, and its interaction with monetary policy. The authors consider how foreign-exchange intervention was affected by changing economic and institutional circumstances—most notably the abandonment of the international gold standard—and how political and bureaucratic factors affected this aspect of public policy.

This book is about understanding equations of relationships with the help of Vedic Astrology. One cannot ignore the importance of relationships in life and always desires to be loved and respected by others. The book gives an approach for making relationships better if one understands the potential of planets in the birth chart. By understanding the weak and strong points in the chart one can mould himself accordingly and move in the right direction to get the desired result and improve his relationships and living.. In each chapter - the converse charts are taken to describe the events however it advisable that no prediction should be made by studying the charts on the surface only. All factors should be taken into consideration while predicting an event and the reading should be done by scientific approach only. A special chapter in the beginning is given for the reader to make him understand the terminology and its role in understanding the chart which will then enable him to understand and improve his relations via Vedic Astrology easily. Though the calculative part has been explicitly ignored to make reading easy, the combinations, the in depth analysis and use of simple tools, the use of converse charts and their analysis will stimulate the mind for deep study and make it interesting for all. Each chapter is supported with suitable examples. All cases taken are genuine and supported by real incidents. The book is a result of some authentic research done by the author over the years. #v&spublishers

This is the first monograph-length study that charts the coercive diplomacy of the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford as practised against their British ally in order to persuade Edward Heath's government to follow a more amenable course throughout the 'Year of Europe' and to convince Harold Wilson's governments to lessen the severity of proposed defence cuts. Such diplomacy proved effective against Heath but rather less so against Wilson. It is argued that relations between the two sides were often strained, indeed, to the extent that the most 'special' elements of the relationship, that of intelligence and nuclear co-operation, were suspended. Yet, the relationship also witnessed considerable co-operation. This book offers new perspectives on US and UK policy towards British membership of the European Economic Community; demonstrates how US détente policies created strain in the 'special relationship'; reveals the temporary shutdown of US-UK intelligence and nuclear co-operation; provides new insights in US-UK defence co-operation, and re-evaluates the US-UK relationship throughout the IMF Crisis.

President Nixon's historic trip to China in February 1972 marked the beginning of a new era in Sino-American relations. For the first time since 1949, the two countries established high-level official contacts and transformed their relationship from confrontation to collaboration. Over the subsequent twenty years, however, U.S.-China relations have experienced repeated cycles of progress, stalemate, and crisis, with the events in Tiananmen Square in June 1989 the most recent and disruptive example. Paradoxically, although relations between the two countries are vastly more extensive today than they were twenty years ago, they remain highly fragile. In this eagerly awaited book, China expert Harry Harding offers the first comprehensive look at Sino-American relations from 1972 to the present. He traces the evolution of U.S.-China relations, and assesses American policy toward Peking in the post- Tiananmen era. Harding analyzes the changing contexts for the Sino-American relationship, particularly the rapidly evolving international environment, changes in American economic and political life, and the dramatic domestic developments in both China and Taiwan. He discusses the principal substantive issues in U.S.-China relations, including the way in which the two countries have addressed their differences over Taiwan and human rights, and how they have approached the blend of common and competitive interests in their economic and strategic relationships. He also addresses the shifting political base for Sino-American relations within each country, including the development of each society's perceptions of the other, and the emergence and dissolution of rival political coalitions supporting and opposing the relationship. Harding concludes that a return to the Sino-American strategic alignment of the 1970s, or even to the economic partnership of the 1980s, is less likely in the 1990s than continued tension or even confrontation over such issues as