In this "refreshing antidote to the swell of books about the end of modernity" (Ivan Sanders, Commonweal), William Pfaff writes an enthralling narrative of the fall of empires and the rise of nations-- and with them, of modern nationalism, the most important of all political forces as we enter the next century. Rooted in the human need for secure place, communal loyalty, and individual identification, nationalism has both created nations and ruined them. It paved the way for Nazism but eventually destroyed it. It brought down the European colonial empires, but has left Africa confronting anarchy, and much of Asia dominated by ambitious and authoritarian new nations. It forced Soviet armies out of Afghanistan and Eastern Europe, and eventually led to the downfall of Communism. Writing with both urgency and sobriety, William Pfaff shows that without understanding this ineradicable factor in our political life, we cannot reckon with the realities that may await us.

This book examines the underlying factors of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the South Caucasus from 1905 to 1994, and explores the ways in which issues of ethnicity and nationalism contributed to that conflict. The author examines the historiography and politics of the conflict, and the historical, territorial and ethnic dimensions which contributed to the dynamics of the war. The impact of Soviet policies and structures are also included, pinpointing how they contributed to the development of nationalism and the maintenance of national identities. The book firstly explores the historical development of the Armenian and Azerbaijani national identities and the overlapping claims to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. The author goes on to assess the historical link between ethnicity and territorial location as sources of ethnic identification and conflict. He examines how identity differences shaped the relationsa between Armenians and Azerbaijanis during the different phases of conflict and presents a detailed historical account of Soviet nationalities policy and ethno-territorial federalism - the basis of which ethnic relations were conducted between governing and minority nations in the south Caucasus. This invaluable book offers students and scholars of post-Soviet politics and society a unique insight into the causes and consequences of this long-standing conflict.

Why do some violent conflicts endure across the centuries, while others become dimly remembered ancient struggles among forgotten peoples? Is nationalism really the powerful force that it appeared to be in the 1990s? This wide-ranging work examines the conceptual intersection of nationalist ideology, social violence, and the political transformation of Europe and Eurasia over the last two decades. The end of communism seemed to usher in a period of radical change-an era of "extreme politics" that pitted nations, ethnic groups, and violent entrepreneurs against one another, from the wars in the Balkans and Caucasus to the apparent upsurge in nationalist mobilization throughout the region. But the last twenty years have also illustrated the incredible diversity of political life after the end of one-party rule. Extreme Politics engages with themes from the micropolitics of social violence, to the history of nationalism studies, to the nature of demographic change in Eurasia. Published twenty years since the collapse of communism, Extreme Politics charts the end of "Eastern Europe" as a place and chronicles the ongoing revolution in the scholarly study of the post-communist world.

World politics can be viewed as the patterns of cooperation and conflict between groups of people with different cultural backgrounds. Surprisingly, though, for several decades the topics of culture in international relations has been largely ignored. Only recently an increasing interest has (re-)emerged in how world politics is affected by cultures, i.e. by collectively shared perceptions, norms and beliefs. Culture in World Politics contributes to this development by presenting a variety of ways in which the roles of cultures in world politics can be studied. A major aim of the book is to highlight alternative ways of thinking about the effects of culture on international relations, and to stimulate discussion on the relative merit of these various approaches. The book also shows the relevance of cultural studies for understanding two areas often assumed to be free of cultural influences: international violence, and the international political economy. The contributions not only include insightful theoretical discussions, but also show how illuminating empirical analyses can be undertaken with the help of cultural theories.

Analyses some of the new issues that are raising the temperature of contemporary world politics. Environmental scarcity, international migration and nationalism.

The essays collected in To Promote the General Welfare explore communitarianism, which examines the balance between rights and responsibilities, the need for a common good, and the need for diversity within unity. In the book ten preeminent scholars explore nine areas of the law-civil, criminal, constitutional-to explicate how a communitarian worldview might change or interpret the existing law. For example, Philip Selznick sketches a picture of communitarian justice in its broad terms. Robert Ackerman argues that tort liability needs to be expanded in some areas and contracted in others to effectuate a more communitarian tort regime. Akhil Reed Amar and Alan Hirsch offer a communitarian reading of the Second Amendment and related parts of the Constitution, challenging Supreme Court precedent on issues that spring from the Second Amendment. Milton Regan challenges recent law-and-economics approach to marriage and divorce, and counters with the need to assess relationships as shared experiences, not merely consumerist interactions. And Gordon Bazemore breathes new life into the crime-control debate by suggesting a communitarian approach to American criminal justice, an approach that emphasizes community justice and restorative justice. These thoughtful analyses along with the others included in To Promote the General Welfare comprise a must-read for anyone interested in the law and social policy.

Departing from conventional policy rhetoric on the unconventional "new world disorder," Max G. Manwaring, Wm. J. Olson, and their colleagues here build upon Ambassador David C. Miller, Jr.'s three pillars of success for foreign policy and military management. They provide a sound intellectual road map through the dense fog of the contemporary inter