Author: Kenneth Hall Publisher: Trafford Publishing ISBN: 1466941480 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 737
Book Description
On July 4, 2009, the region celebrated thirty-six years as a formal Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The analyses contained in this publication in the The Integrationist Series all tend to suggest that CARICOM now, more than ever, needs to transform its experiences over these years into a more structured foundation for maximising the multiplier effects of collective representation, and for leveraging CARICOMs diplomatic efforts and resources in a more coordinated and integrated manner. This imperative is necessitated by the rapidly changing international environment which has far too often impacted negatively on small developing countries, leaving them increasingly vulnerable and marginalized.
Author: Guy D. Middleton Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 110715149X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 463
Book Description
In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.
Author: Joseph Tainter Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521386739 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.
Author: Jared Diamond Publisher: Penguin UK ISBN: 0141976969 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 608
Book Description
From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times
Author: Dmitry Orlov Publisher: New Society Publishers ISBN: 155092527X Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 291
Book Description
A user’s guide to economic, political, social and cultural collapse. In the face of political impotence, resource depletion, and catastrophic climate change, many of us have become reconciled to an uncertain future. However, popular perception of how this future might actually unfold varies wildly from "a severe and prolonged recession," to James Howard Kunstler's "long emergency," to the complete breakdown of civilization. In The Five Stages of Collapse , Dmitry Orlov posits a taxonomy of collapse, offering a surprisingly optimistic perspective on surviving the sweeping changes of the day with health and sanity intact. Arguing that it is during periods of disruption and extreme uncertainty that broad cultural change becomes possible, Orlov steers the reader through the challenges of financial, commercial, and political collapse. He suggests that if the first three stages are met with the appropriate responses, further breakdown may be arrested before the extremes of social and cultural collapse are reached. Drawing on a detailed examination of post-collapse societies, including the Somali people of Africa, the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, and even the Russian mafia, The Five Stages of Collapse describes successful adaptations in areas such as finance, self-governance, and social and cultural organization. These fascinating case studies provide a unique perspective on the characteristics that determine highly resilient communities. Shot through with Orlov's trademark dark humor, this is an invaluable toolkit for creating workable post-collapse solutions. Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, Russia, and immigrated to the United States. He is the author of Reinventing Collapse and maintains the phenomenally popular blog Club Orlov.
Author: Josh DeWind Publisher: NYU Press ISBN: 1479815853 Category : Law Languages : en Pages : 302
Book Description
As a nation of immigrants, the United States has long accepted that citizens who identify with an ancestral homeland may hold dual loyalties; yet Americans have at times regarded the persistence of foreign ties with suspicion, seeing them as a sign of potential disloyalty and a threat to national security. Diaspora Lobbies and the US Government brings together a group of distinguished scholars of international politics and international migration to examine this contradiction in the realm of American policy making, ultimately concluding that the relationship between diaspora groups and the government can greatly affect foreign policy. This relationship is not unidirectional—as much as immigrants make an effort to shape foreign policy, government legislators and administrators also seek to enlist them in furthering American interests. From Israel to Cuba and from Ireland to Iraq, the case studies in this volume illustrate how potential or ongoing conflicts raise the stakes for successful policy outcomes. Contributors provide historical and sociological context, gauging the influence of diasporas based on population size and length of time settled in the United States, geographic concentration, access to resources from their own members or through other groups, and the nature of their involvement back in their homelands. This collection brings a fresh perspective to a rarely discussed aspect of the design of US foreign policy and offers multiple insights into dynamics that may determine how the United States will engage other nations in future decades.
Author: Jonathan Laurence Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691219788 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 606
Book Description
The surprising similarities in the rise and fall of the Sunni Islamic and Roman Catholic empires in the face of the modern state Coping with Defeat presents a historical panorama of the Islamic and Catholic political-religious empires and exposes striking parallels in their relationship with the modern state. Drawing on interviews, site visits, and archival research in Turkey, North Africa, and Western Europe, Jonathan Laurence demonstrates how, over hundreds of years, both Sunni and Catholic authorities experienced three major shocks and displacements—religious reformation, the rise of the nation-state, and mass migration. As a result, Catholic institutions eventually accepted the state’s political jurisdiction and embraced transnational spiritual leadership as their central mission. Laurence reveals an analogous process unfolding across the Sunni Muslim world in the twenty-first century. Identifying institutional patterns before and after political collapse, Laurence shows how centralized religious communities relinquish power at different rates and times. Whereas early Christianity and Islam were characterized by missionary expansion, religious institutions forged in the modern era are primarily defensive in nature. They respond to the simple but overlooked imperative to adapt to political defeat while fighting off ideological challenges to their spiritual authority. Among Laurence’s findings is that the disestablishment of Islam—the doing away with Islamic affairs ministries in the Muslim world—would harm, not help with, reconciliation to the rule of law. Examining upheavals in geography, politics, and demography, Coping with Defeat considers how centralized religions make peace with the loss of prestige.
Author: Anne Glyn-Jones Publisher: Imprint Academic ISBN: 9780907845607 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 662
Book Description
The good news is: that faith in material goods really does bring prosperity to society. The bad news is: that self-same commitment to material things leads inexorably to the destruction of the civilizations it builds. Using theatre as a measure society's health, this book shows that Ancient Greece and Rome, Mediaeval Christendom and our own contemporary society all follow the same pattern: prosperity thrives on the conviction that the material world alone constitutes true 'reality'; but that very conviction leads to a rejection of the supernatural, undermines absolute moral standards, and leads to cultural and social disintegration.
Author: Quick Savant Publisher: QUICK SAVANT ISBN: Category : Business & Economics Languages : en Pages : 151
Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This lengthy summary begins with a Ray Dalio synopsis of Principles of Dealing with Changing World Order. A full analysis of his chapters on China follows. This book and the audiobook are meant to complement as study aids, not to replace the irreplaceable Ray Dalio’s work. “A provocative read...Few tomes coherently map such broad economic histories as well as Mr. Dalio’s. Perhaps more unusually, Mr. Dalio has managed to identify metrics from that history that can be applied to understand today.” —Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times From legendary investor Ray Dalio, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Principles, who has spent half a century studying global economies and markets, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order examines history’s most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the times ahead will likely be radically different from those we’ve experienced in our lifetimes—and to offer practical advice on how to navigate them well. Ray Dalio recognized a combination of political and economic situations that he had not seen before a few years ago. Huge debts and near-zero interest rates led to massive money printing in the world's three major reserve currencies; major political and social conflicts within countries, particularly the United States, due to the largest wealth, political, and values disparities in more than a century; and the rise of a world power to challenge the existing world order. Between 1930 and 1945, this confluence happened for the final time. Dalio was inspired by this discovery to look for the recurring patterns and cause-and-effect correlations that underpin all significant shifts in wealth and power over the previous 500 years. Dalio takes readers on a tour of the world's major empires, including the Dutch, British, and American empires, in this remarkable and timely addition to his Principles series, putting the "Big Cycle" that has driven the successes and failures of all the world's major countries throughout history into perspective. He unveils the timeless and universal forces for what is ahead. Humans are more likely to commit evil than good under legalism because they are only driven by self-interest and need rigorous regulations to restrain their urges.
Author: Kenneth Hall
Author: Guy D. Middleton
Author: Edmond Taylor
Author: Joseph Tainter
Author: Jared Diamond
Author: Dmitry Orlov
Author: Josh DeWind
Author: Jonathan Laurence
Author: Anne Glyn-Jones
Author: Quick Savant