This edited volume fills a gap in current research on asylum seekers and refugees. By focusing on two East Asian countries, Japan and Taiwan, this volume offers material for comparison and reflection on an area of the world in which this theme is still relatively underdeveloped. By approaching the theme through the different perspectives of human rights, social construction through media representation and public opinion, and lived experiences, the book offers a multifaceted and sophisticated analysis of the phenomenon. The main aim of this collection is to expand current scholarship on refugee studies and offer policy recommendations on the timely topic of refugee and asylum seekers in East Asia.

This is an open access book.

Looks at how digitalization has changed the way we produce and interact, and the implications for working classes and countries of the Global South.

In the evolution of global capitalism and geopolitics, digitalization presents a new and yet unresolved chapter. In the lead up to digitalization, neoliberalism weakened the welfare states of the Global North and the developmental states of the Global South where they existed. Neoliberalism also disorganized working classes, as Left parties and labor organization declined across the globe. Into this deregulated and unchecked context, digitalization proceeded, and technology companies inserted themselves into multiple sectors, making use of first mover advantage and monopolistic practices to drive out smaller and less advanced firms. We can now characterize a landscape in which states have been weakened, working classes disorganized, and rival firms greatly handicapped, allowing big tech to operate as all-powerful quasi-monopolies. They enjoy unprecedented concentration of wealth, power, and advantage. Worryingly, deregulated technology now penetrates many areas of life with surveillance and control, setting us on a path towards anti-democratic, neo-imperial, and exclusionary futures. Aaron Schneider offers a popular and sovereign alternative, with particular focus on labor and the Global South.

This book investigates the ways in which the family unit is now perceived in South and Southeast Asia and the Asian diaspora: its numerous conceptions and the changes it has undergone over the last century and into the new one. The prevailing threads that run through a significant part of the literature and cinema emerging from these societies are the challenges that confront those negotiating changing forms of family, changes which are expressed historically, politically, and socio-culturally, and often in relation to gender, ethnic, or economic imbalances. Though regional and localized in many ways, they are also very much universal in the questions they ask, the lessons they teach, and the connections they make. Theoretically, and in terms of focus, the collection offers a broad range, embracing representation and analysis from scholars across the globe and across disciplines. It assembles written and visual texts from and about India, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore, and the Asian diaspora. How have more fluid concepts of family in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries affected the understanding of family in Asia? How have families in Asia resisted or embraced change? How have they responded to trauma? What do other readings-gendered, feminist, queer, and diasporic-bring to modern debates surrounding family? To what extent are notions of family, community, society, and nation represented as interchangeable concepts in Asian societies? This book questions the power dynamics, ethical considerations, and moral imperatives that underpin families and societies within, and beyond, Asian borders.

This book examines the processes and dynamics of cooperation between different actors in civil peace service projects in Kenya, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The joint handling of conflicts and peacebuilding challenges by local and international actors has a long tradition in German peace work and is becoming increasingly important in a globalized world. Therefore, the book explores the question, relevant for both academia and peace practitioners, to what extent an equal partnership can exist in the context of civil conflict transformation. By focusing on the opportunities and challenges of cooperation, the work succeeds in focusing on everyday activities, analyzing the actual processes and frictions of peace work, and making a valuable contribution to critical peace research and the discussion of hybridity and friction.

This book analyzes the 'Five Eyes' nations' concerns and policies relating to national security threats through an interdisciplinary theoretical engagement with the Political, Information, Security and Economic (PISE) Model. Through the analysis of secondary data sources such as scholarly and government reports, policy documents, press releases and interviews, the author analyzes the five case studies-Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, and the USA-to determine how and why nations use the PISE variables to shape favorable homeland security outcomes, to determine what the points of homeland intersectoral collaboration are among the 'Five Eyes' nations. In so doing, Weaver determines that although the 'Five Eyes' countries have concerns about homeland security and each, individually, identifies threats and hazards, they do also employ collaborative measures to build resilience and increase efforts to prepare for anticipated security breaches.

Intriguing unpublished manuscripts by Leo Strauss, which explore the intricate relationship between religion, philosophy, and politics, accompanied by fourteen interpretative essays.

Addressing the central theme of his work-the complex relationship between religion, philosophy, and politics-the twelve newly available transcripts included in Leo Strauss on Religion offer unprecedented insights into Leo Strauss's thoughts on previously unexplored subjects. Essential for both avid readers and newcomers, this collection unveils sharper formulations and frank discussions, providing a rare peek into the ambiguous aspects of Strauss's renowned reticence in formulating his ultimate thoughts. Accompanied by fourteen interpretative essays from distinguished scholars, this volume serves as a comprehensive guide to Strauss's intellectual odyssey. Offering fresh perspectives, these essays navigate the understudied aspects of Strauss's reflections on religion, putting his thought in a new perspective thereby enriching the scholarly debate around the controversial yet influential legacy of Leo Strauss.

States are thought only to exercise power over the land of the living. Benjamin Ginsberg argues otherwise, exploring the state's reach into the realm of the Grim Reaper, bureaucratizing death to strengthen the state's hold on life. He notes that increasingly institutions are using the regulation of death as an essential source of power. They do this by not only threatening death to their enemies but also securing loyalty and obedience by extending citizens' lives and promising to effectuate the postmortem fulfillment of citizens' antemortem desires. The state treats the loyal dead with respect, sometimes offering them a place in the secular afterlife of honor and memory, while consigning the faithless to the void.

Before the U.S. campaign finance system can be fixed, we first have to understand why it has developed into the system as it exists today. The nature of democracy itself, the American capitalist economic system, the content of the U.S. Constitution and how it is interpreted, the structure of our governmental institutions, the competition for governmental power, and the behavior of campaign finance actors have all played a role in shaping the system.

The Fundamentals of Campaign Finance in the U.S. takes care to situate the campaign finance system in the context of the broader U.S. political and economic system. Dwyre and Kolodny offer readers a brief tour through the development of the campaign finance regulatory structure, highlighting the Supreme Court's commitment to free speech over political equality from Buckley v. Valeo (1976) through the passage of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA, 2002). They also examine the driving force behind campaign finance reform-corruption-through historical, transactional, and institutional perspectives. While diving into the insufficiency of the disclosure and enforcement of campaign finance laws and calling attention to multiple federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Internal Revenue Service, and (principally) the Federal Election Commission, the authors show how a narrow view on campaign finance makes change difficult and why reforms often have limited success. By examining the fundamentals, Dwyre and Kolodny show the difficulties of changing a political system whose candidates have always relied on private funding of campaigns to one that guarantees free speech rights while minimizing concerns of corruption.

Inspiring stories of six US presidents and the distinctive leadership characteristics that set them apart and transformed America.

Finalist for the 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in the History category

The histories presented here are of a select group of US presidents, their inspired leadership characteristics, and how they may inspire us today. The traits these presidents possessed were cultivated over a lifetime of lived experience and immortalized through the power of the presidential word-speeches, letters, and addresses-which collectively represent the most transcendent documents in American history. Viewed through the lens of nuance, complication, human emotion, pathos, and drama, William Haldeman sets forth the lives of these presidents in ways to help inform our own lives, from leveraging our experience and instincts to making the right calls when they matter the most. Grounded in an interdisciplinary approach, Haldeman appeals to both scholars and general audience readers alike, offering a refreshing view of presidential leadership that not only elevates leadership as a central part of the scholarly field, but also broadly engages American presidency enthusiasts and readers of history, biography, politics, and leadership development.

This book offers a key analysis of the changing perceptions of family in East Asian societies and the dynamic metamorphosis of "traditional" family units through the twentieth century and into the new millennium. The book focuses on investigations of the Asian family as it is represented in literature, film, and other visual media emerging from within China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and on contestations of the power hegemonies and moral codes that underpin such representations, while also assessing Western and global influences on the Asian family. Individually and collectively, these essays examine traditions and transformations in the evolving conception of family itself and bring together a range of scholars from within and beyond the region to reflect upon the social and cultural mores represented in these texts, the issues that concern Asian families, and projections for future families in their own societies and in a globalized world. Through the written text and the lens of the camera, what directions has the understanding of family in an Asian context taken in the twenty-first century? How have the multiple platforms of media represented, encouraged, or resisted transitions during this time? Amid broader and mutating referential frameworks and cross-cultural influences, is the traditional concept of the "nuclear family" still relevant in the twenty-first century? This book lends further prominence to the diverse literary and cinematic production within East Asia and the eclectic range of media used to represent these ideas. It will be essential reading for scholars of literature, film studies, and Asian studies, and for those with an interest in the cultural and sociological implications of the changing definitions and parameters of the family unit.

This book explores the complexity, multiplicity, intersectionality, and dynamism of cultures in connection with critical and emancipatory peacebuilding. It includes diverse voices to emphasize local and everyday peacebuilding within a narrative that links the personal to the political. It is a valuable resource for students, educators, and practitioners in peace and conflict studies, cultural studies, sociology, and related disciplines.

This book examines what the justification of political power and the character of a liberal political community in the conditions of pluralism should look like, with the aim of equal respect for all. Sylvie Blahova argues that if those who understand the principle of respect as the basis of political liberalism are to fulfill all the prerequisites of this principle, they must ensure respect within the liberal political community as a whole. The classic interpretation of political liberalism ensures respect during the process of justification of political power, yet many individuals in the liberal political community remain disrespected, mainly due to their group membership. Accordingly, Blahova looks for a more complex interpretation of the principle of respect within political liberalism, one that ensures respect beyond the justification of political power. The author argues that the way to achieve respect in the liberal political community is to interpret the criterion of reciprocity in a dual way. Specifically, Blahova claims that respect can be ensured only in conjunction with the principle of civic friendship, which makes respect more comprehensive. This novel interpretation can ensure unity of the liberal political community and make it stable, which is crucial in conditions of pluralism.

This book shows how multiple developments have caused the world to move from "an information society" to a "dream society". Ongoing social and technological forces are pushing us from a world of words, rationality, and truth into a world of images, performance, and make-belief. Rather than deny or reject this transformation, this book argues that one should understand and embrace it as waves of new futures that the world must strive to surf for fame and fun. As a political scientist and futurist, the author also offers hints of new goals and forms of governance fit for a dream society, as he demonstrates that all current systems are ineffective and dangerously obsolete. This book is of great interest to political philosophers, futures scientists, sociologists, and those interested in cultural studies.

Speaking at the Congress of African People in September 1970, Amiri Baraka said, "In Newark, when we greet each other on the streets, we say, 'what time is it?' We always say, 'It's nation time!' Nationalism is about land and nation, a way of life trying to free itself." National identity and nationhood are too often easily dismissed as retrograde populism or racist exclusion. Instead, they need to be understood as a key part of a vision of globalization that holds the imperatives of diversity and solidarity in a delicate balance.

Jerry White offers a defence of the nation based on the assumption that struggles for national identity have often unfolded in ways that should be familiar to those who defend the political standpoint of the progressive left. Having evolved into something that a wide variety of actors have sought to defend, nations can also serve as a defence against the homogenizing forces of globalization and as havens of diversity in opposition to more singularly minded forms of affiliation. It's Nation Time is structured as a series of specific case studies that speak to theories of nation and their historical and cultural manifestations. It includes examples as varied as Black nationalism, Simone Weil's hopes for a postwar France, the first independence period of Georgia, the Bollywood cinema of Nehru-era India, and small or stateless nations such as New Zealand, Quebec, Ireland, Catalonia, the Metis, the Mohawk, and the Inuit to argue that nationalism is a social form that has much potential and life in it.

Broadly internationalist but also deeply insightful about the particular cultures and politics of small nations, It's Nation Time defends an idea of nation, and a form of nationalism that are rooted in the potential for diversity, flexibility, and progressive politics.

Examines how Leo Strauss sought to recover the question of "nature," which he saw as inseparable from genuine philosophy since its inception in ancient Greece.

Among the political philosophers of the twentieth century, Leo Strauss is usually singled out for his attempt to revitalize the ancient approach to counter the relativism of both historicism and positivism. It is less commonly underscored, however, that the cornerstone of this attempt is the recovery of the question of "nature," which he regarded as inseparable from genuine philosophy since its inception in ancient Greece. Leo Strauss and the Recovery of "Natural Philosophizing" addresses such a theme, focusing on the theoretical presuppositions that Strauss found at the basis of the acquired inability to raise the question of nature. Prominent among these is the encounter between philosophy and revelation, which, due to their conceptual incompatibility, leads to a condition Strauss metaphorically described as a "second, 'unnatural' cave" characterized by insurmountable "prejudices" rather than "appearance and opinion." These, however, are the starting point of genuine philosophy in the Platonic "first, 'natural' cave," which has to be regained, by way of historical deconstruction of the presuppositions of the second cave, if the "natural philosophizing" embodied by Socratic dialectics is to be reactivated.