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This book assesses the importance of enhanced ASEAN-Japan cooperation as a step toward a greater East Asian regional community. Fifteen international relations experts from ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and Japan, as well as China, South Korea, and the United States, review the history and current status of this bilateral relationship and propose how it can be strengthened. Chapters review the history of ASEAN-Japan relations and the rationale for renewed emphasis on c...

The European Union is the oldest and most highly developed example of institutionalized regional integration. Since its establishment in the early 1950s, the EU has moved from the shallow integration of dismantling trade barriers to the deep integration of accepting common policies on agriculture, environment, transport, and working conditions; common rules on competition, mergers, and financial transfers; and common laws in the domestic courts of member states. The EU experience is a successfu...

The People's Action Party (PAP) of Singapore is among the longest-ruling democratically-elected political parties in the world, in power continuously since Singapore gained self-rule in 1959. Such longevity is the product of an institution that is itself dynamic and responsive. But remarkably, the story of the party as institution has not received the sustained study it deserves from either historians or political scientists. This narrative history of the PAP follows the story through decision...

In this EU referendum year, it's time for people across Europe to look at what really goes on in Brussels in our name. It has been estimated that the EU costs us around £1,000 billion a year - an incredible £2000 for every man, woman and child in Europe. So what do we get for our money? Politicians and administrators selflessly working to bring us efficient government? Well-targeted regulations that promote economic prosperity? A safe and free society? A well-protected environment? Help for peop...

This book shows how environmentalists have shaped the world's largest multilateral development lender, investment financier and political risk insurer to take up sustainable development. The book challenges an emerging consensus over international organisational change to argue that international organisations (IOs) are influenced by their social structure and may change their practices to reflect previously antithetical norms such as sustainable development. This important text locates sources...

This book explains the creation of the European Union's Security and Defence Policy - to this day the most ambitious project of peacetime military integration. Whether hailed as a vital step in the integration of Europe or berated as a wasteful threat to U.S. power, European citizens are increasingly interested in the common defence policy. Today, "European Defence" is more popular than the European Union itself, even in Great Britain. Merand addresses the fundamental challenge posed by milita...

This is the official report of the Economic and Social Council for 2013.

The proliferation of "minilateral" summits is reshaping how international security problems are addressed, yet these summits remain a poorly understood phenomenon. In this groundbreaking work, Kjell Engelbrekt contrasts the most important minilateral summits -- the G7 (formerly G8) and G20 -- with the older and more formal UN Security Council to assess where the diplomacy of international security is taking place and whether these institutions complement or compete with each other. Engelbrekt's...

This effort constitutes the most comprehensive and authoritative work to date on the history of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or the World Bank. Author-editors John Lewis, Richard Webb, and Devesh Kapur chronicle the evolution of this institution and offer insights into its successes, failures, and prospects for the future. The result of their intense labors is an invaluable resource for other researchers and a fascinating study in its own right. The work is divided...

This new textbook provides an introduction to humanitarian protection, a field of study concerned with international responses to armed conflict, political violence, and humanitarian crisis. The book engages with a wide range of empirical and normative questions, providing an overview of the academic literature whilst simultaneously discussing the policies and practices associated with protective responses to conflict and humanitarian emergencies that put the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable...

Heart of the Nation traces America’s volunteer tradition—the golden thread of American democracy—and how Presidents from Washington to Obama have called on citizens to serve neighbor and nation.  From the bunker below the White House on 9/11 to villages in Africa, John Bridgeland shares his own experiences inside and outside of government to spark more Americans to volunteer to meet urgent needs.  He compellingly argues that such service is fundamental to our own happiness and to what the Foundi...

The book explores how the European Union and its members have been renegotiating Europeanisation and renationalisation in response to the multiple crises they faced in recent years. The authors highlight varying understandings of crises in different national and supranational policy and institutional contexts. They show how in some cases these have challenged the legitimacy of European Union norms and institutions and even triggered disintegration, while in other cases these crises have served a...

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is the best gift of the United Nations and its main human rights organ, the Human Rights Commission to “We, the Peoples of the World”. But that powerful instrument is often rendered powerless by the behaviour of individuals running the institutions and the states, arguably the most powerful institution conceptualised by human mind so far. In the process, the UN comes under serious criticism and its most important organ which helped give the UDHR w...

The book examines the dynamics between domestic and international statebuilding actors. While the dynamics between "local" and "international" statebuilding actors have been previously theorised through concepts such as hybridity and friction, there have been few attempts to develop conceptual tools for the empirical study of statebuilding dynamics. By drawing on a set of concepts and mechanisms developed in the Contentious Politics literature, this book fills this gap. It deploys concepts suc...

Over three-quarters of a century, the UN has been impacted by major changes in the balance of powers among its member states. This unique and insightful book offers detailed commentary on its historic effectiveness and reviews the capacity of the UN to reform and adapt to global challenges. This book constitutes a judgement on the overwhelming importance as well as the vulnerability of multilateralism at a time when the UN has never been more indispensable This book describes: How autocracy i...

How do voters decide in referendums on European integration? Direct democracy has become an increasingly common feature of European politics with important implications for policy-making in the European Union. Attempts to reform the EU treaties have been stalled, and even abandoned, due to no-votes in referendums. Europe in Question sheds new light on the pivotal issue of electoral behaviour in referendums and provides a major contribution to the study of democracy in the European Union and voti...