Global Security Watch—Central Asia is the first authoritative examination of the security issues affecting, and affected by, the region where Russia,... South Asia, China, and the Middle East meet. The author provides a comprehensive account of the strategic importance and challenges facing Central Asia written for policymakers, students, researchers, and interested general readers alike.Global Security Watch—Central Asia goes behind the scenes to explore both the internal factors and global influences affecting the stability of region and the nations that comprise it. Coverage includes the dynamics of each country's domestic politics, the allure of the region's natural resources, Central Asia's role in U.S./Russian relations, and the renewed focus on the region in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Written from a multidisciplinary perspective, Global Security Watch—The Caucasus States is the first serious study to investigate the 21st-century... security concerns raised by the Caucasus states of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia—states that interact with the Great Powers in a region that has become even more significant as a new energy corridor for the West. Following a review of the geographic and historical characteristics of the South Caucasus region, the book examines the political and security conditions of each Caucasus state, providing a highly detailed analysis of the political roots of security challenges, the key players, and the farthest-reaching effects of events and leaders. A final chapter summarizes the main security concerns of all three states for the future. Beyond the policy significance of this work, readers will find it useful for examining the relevance of the Clash of Civilization theory to a geographic region that led previous generations to formulate theories such as the "Great Game" and the "New Great Game."

Global Sex is the first major work to take on the globalization of sexuality, examining the ways in which desire and pleasure--as well as ideas about... gender, political power, and public health--are framed, shaped, or commodified by a global economy in which more and more cultures move into ever-closer contact.

Global Sex Workers presents the personal experiences of sex workers around the world. Drawing on their individual narratives, it explores international... struggles to uphold the rights of this often marginalized group.

Both on the continent and off, “Africa” is spoken of in terms of crisis: as a place of failure and seemingly insurmountable problems, as a moral... challenge to the international community. What, though, is really at stake in discussions about Africa, its problems, and its place in the world? And what should be the response of those scholars who have sought to understand not the “Africa” portrayed in broad strokes in journalistic accounts and policy papers but rather specific places and social realities within Africa?In Global Shadows the renowned anthropologist James Ferguson moves beyond the traditional anthropological focus on local communities to explore more general questions about Africa and its place in the contemporary world. Ferguson develops his argument through a series of provocative essays which open—as he shows they must—into interrogations of globalization, modernity, worldwide inequality, and social justice. He maintains that Africans in a variety of social and geographical locations increasingly seek to make claims of membership within a global community, claims that contest the marginalization that has so far been the principal fruit of “globalization” for Africa. Ferguson contends that such claims demand new understandings of the global, centered less on transnational flows and images of unfettered connection than on the social relations that selectively constitute global society and on the rights and obligations that characterize it.Ferguson points out that anthropologists and others who have refused the category of Africa as empirically problematic have, in their devotion to particularity, allowed themselves to remain bystanders in the broader conversations about Africa. In Global Shadows, he urges fellow scholars into the arena, encouraging them to find a way to speak beyond the academy about Africa’s position within an egregiously imbalanced world order.

This bestselling work is the definitive text on globalization. Peter Dicken provides a comprehensive, balanced yet critical account of globalization... processes and their sweeping, highly uneven effects on people’s lives. Each chapter reflects current globalization and antiglobalization debates, the latest empirical developments, and new ideas about the shaping and reshaping of production, distribution, and consumption in the world economy. Of special utility are detailed case studies of key global industries and more than 250 specially designed figures and tables. To facilitate use in the classroom, the figures and tables are also available online as PowerPoint slides.

Widely adopted throughout the world, this definitive text comprehensively examines how the global economy works and its effects on people and places.... Peter Dicken provides a balanced yet critical analysis of globalization processes and debates. The text synthesizes a wealth of data on production, distribution, consumption, and innovation, including detailed case studies of key global industries. Students learn how the global economic map is being shaped and reshaped by dynamic interactions among transnational corporations, states, consumers, labor, and civil society organizations. Useful features include nearly 250 quick-reference figures and tables. The companion website offers PowerPoint slides of the figures and tables, additional case studies and questions, annotated Web links, and more. New to This Edition*Revised throughout to incorporate the latest ideas in the field; gives increased attention to global production networks as a major organizing principle.*Addresses the current global financial crisis.*Chapter on environmental impacts of global production networks.*Case study chapter on the extractive industries.*Fully updated empirical data; additional maps and charts. 

Investigating the global financial meltdown as the first systemic crisis of the neoliberal stage of capitalism, this analysis argues that—far from... having ended—the crisis has ushered in a period of worldwide economic and political turbulence. In developing an account of the crisis as rooted in fundamental features of capitalism, this study challenges the view that capitalism's source lies in financial deregulation, and highlights the emergence of new patterns of world inequality and new centers of accumulation, particularly in East Asia, and the profound economic instabilities these have produced. This original account of the “financialization” of the world economy during this period explores the intricate connections between international financial markets and new forms of debt and dispossession. Analyzing the massive intervention of the world’s central banks to stave off another Great Depression, this study shows that while averting a complete meltdown, this intervention also laid the basis for recurring crises for poor and working class people: job loss, increased poverty and inequality, and cuts in social programs. Taking a global view of these processes, exposing the damage inflicted on countries in the Global South, as well as the intensification of racism and attacks on migrant workers, this book also traces new patterns of social and political resistance—from housing activism and education struggles, to mass strikes and protests in Martinique, Guadeloupe, France, and Puerto Rico—as indicators of the potential for building anticapitalist opposition to the damage that neoliberal capitalism is inflicting on the lives of millions.

It may not surprise you to learn that seventy percent of cross-border joint ventures fail within the first three years. But did you know that the reason... most commonly cited by transnational executives for this phenomenal failure rate isn't geopolitics, global competition, or economic volatility, but culture clash? As one frustrated transnational manager quipped, "How are you supposed to get all your ducks in a row when half of them think they're turtles?"Why, despite the vast sums spent each year on cross-cultural executive training, do so many well-laid business plans continue to fall apart under the strain of cultural differences? Author Sheida Hodge finds the answer in the training itself, which typically focuses on "the ten percent of the iceberg above the surface-how to bow or shake hands, whether to cross your legs, what gestures to use." Much more dangerous is "the ninety percent of the iceberg that is under water"-the deep-seated cultural values on which unsuspecting executives routinely founder.In this book, as in her world-renowned training courses and seminars, Hodge departs from the common practice of drilling readers in the do's and don'ts of doing business in various cultures. She concentrates instead on helping you build cross-cultural competence by acquainting you with the basic values, beliefs, and biases that inform the business styles in most Asian, Latin American, and European cultures. Rather than simply offering tips on how to eat and what colors to wear-which do appear, in abundance, throughout the book-she coaches you in a proven set of strategies and skills that will enable you to successfully navigate the people dimension of doing business virtually anywhere in the world.For Hodge, learning to see past one's own cultural hobbyhorses-while avoiding getting trampled by everyone else's-is the first big step toward succeeding in global business. Thus, most of her discussions of specific cultural differences start by exploring values and business practices that seem "natural" to North Americans, and go on to show how they differ from values and practices in other cultures. To better illustrate her points, she has included anecdotes throughout told by managers from North America and around the world that provide vivid, sometimes hilarious, object lessons in how minor cultural frictions and misunderstandings can mushroom into major business disasters.A complete guide to building solid cross-border business relationships, Global Smarts is must reading for all managers and entrepreneurs in today's global business world.Proven strategies for breaking down cultural barriers and building prosperous business relationships anywhere in the worldAmerican executives need to know how to communicate effectively with their associates around the world to remain competitive. In Global Smarts, Sheida Hodge, a successful international entrepreneur and one of the most sought-after cross-cultural business trainers, shares her proven strategies for successfully dealing with such issues as language barriers, culture shock, international negotiation tactics, and how to establish trust on a cross-cultural basis.Unlike other authors who merely list the various do's and don'ts of doing business in specific regions, Hodge helps you to develop a high degree of cross-cultural competency that translates into an unbeatable competitive edge, virtually anywhere in the world. Packed with practical insider tips and eye-opening anecdotes from cross-cultural managers from the United States and other countries, this thoroughly engaging guide is an indispensable resource for anyone doing business in today's global business world.

The essays in Global Social Change explore globalization from a world-systems perspective, untangling its many contested meanings. This perspective... offers insights into globalization's gradual and uneven growth throughout the course of human social evolution. In this informative and exciting volume, Christopher Chase-Dunn and Salvatore J. Babones bring together accomplished senior sociologists and outstanding younger scholars with a mix of interests, expertise, and methodologies to offer an introduction to ways of studying and understanding global social change.In both newly written essays and previously published articles from the Journal of World Systems Research, the contributors employ historical and comparative social science to examine the development of institutions of global governance, the rise and fall of hegemonic core states, transnational social movements, and global environmental challenges. They compare post–World War II globalization with the great wave of economic integration that occurred in the late nineteenth century, analyze the rise of the political ideology of the "globalization project"—Reaganism-Thatcherism—and discuss issues of gender and global inequalities.

Global Social Policy and Governance explores these issues and presents a critical analysis of policy-making in an interconnected world. The chapters... caution against a superficial account of understanding global social policy and instead discuss the complexities and controversies surrounding the global actors shaping international policy. Overall the book presents an authoritative understanding of the way social policies at national and supra-national level are shaped in the context of globalization.

In this major new textbook, Vic George and Robert Page provide an original and much-needed introduction to global social problems and the emergence of a... global social policy response. In an increasingly globalized world, it is inevitable that many of the social problems which have so far been seen as national in character will assume a global character. Global social problems are those which cannot be confined within national boundaries and which need both national and international attention if they are to be ameliorated. Pollution of the atmosphere is a stark example of this process. Global Social Problems begins with a discussion of the contested concept of globalization. Then eight of the most important global social problems are explored and explained by leading experts in environmental degration, international poverty, crime, AIDS, drugs, family violence, racism and migration. The book also includes chapter which explores the global social policy implications of these developments.With suggestions for further reading and accessible style, this book will be essential reading for undergraduate students in the social science, particularly those studying social policy, sociology and politics.

While conventional social problems textbooks focus on issues in the United States, Global Social Problems examines major problems around the world.... Beginning with a broad history of how humanity came to be divided along its present major social cleavages, the text then turns to the specific problems of war, social inequality, population, and resources and environment. It is intended as a core reading for a class on global social problems including war, inequality, population, and resources and environment.