Combine a healthy dose of skepticism about well-intentioned big government agencies, mix it with a teaspoon of sage taken from rural life experiences, then throw in a pinch or two of salt from real-world farm economics; now you have the recipe this book is cooking up.

Farm stories can be fun again: The Last Conestoga, Finishing Wild Cattle, Moron Mice, Farmer Pitching an Idea in Washington D.C.! With the employ of lighthearted stories and musings, the author tries to shed light on serious ways we could improve the free market experience in rural America. The author attempts to preserve the middle-class farm and, in so doing, hold onto some of the good values archived in the heartland.

If you don't want to stand on the sidelines and watch as the system asks the last independent American farmers and ranchers to go now -- and close the big doors on your way out of the barn, please read on and consider encouraging long overdue change.

After seven decades of existence has the UN become obsolete? Is it ripe for retirement? As Jussi Hanhimäki proves in the second edition of this Very Short Introduction, the answer is no. In the second decade of the twenty-first century the UN remains an indispensable organization that continues to save lives and improve the world as its founders hoped. Since its original publication in 2008, this 2nd edition includes more recent examples of the UN Security Council in action and peacekeeping efforts while exploring its most recent successes and failures.

After a brief history of the United Nations and its predecessor, the League of Nations, Hanhimäki examines the UN's successes and failures as a guardian of international peace and security, as a promoter of human rights, as a protector of international law, and as an engineer of socio-economic development. This updated edition highlights what continues to make the UN a complicated organization today, and the ongoing challenges between its ambitions and capabilities. Hanhimäki also provides a clear account of the UN and its various arms and organizations (such as UNESCO and UNICEF), and offers a critical overview of the UN Security Council's involvement in recent crises in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Libya, and Syria, and how likely it is to meet its overall goals in the future.

Regardless of its obstacles, the UN is likely to survive for the foreseeable future. That alone makes trying to understand the UN in all its manifold - magnificent and frustrating - complexity a worthy task. With this much-needed updated introduction to the UN, Jussi Hanhimäki engages the current debate over the organizations effectiveness as he provides a clear understanding of how it was originally conceived, how it has come to its present form, and how it must confront new challenges in a rapidly changing world.

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The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

A wide-ranging new history of NATO, from its origins to the present day--published for the alliance's seventy-fifth anniversary

For seven decades, NATO's stated aim has been the achievement of world peace--but playing great power politics always involves conflict. Russia's war on Ukraine and on Europe's security order puts the alliance under threat, but also demonstrates why transatlantic cooperation is so necessary. But how did NATO get to where it is today, and what does its future hold?

In this incisive new account, Sten Rynning traces the full history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation from its origins to the present. Across its seventy-five years, NATO has navigated the twists and turns of Cold War diplomacy and nuclear deterrence, and has grown its membership. The alliance has become a guarantor of peace, but Rynning explores how its complex inner workings alongside Russian and Chinese opposition are now shaping its direction.

At a time of strategic competition and geopolitical upheaval, Rynning offers us a clear-sighted account of the alliance's intriguing history--and asks what its ambitions might be for the future.

What is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)? What role is played by its members and partners? Does the largest military alliance ever to exist serve the cause of peace or the causes of weapons sales and war mongering? Published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the alliance, this sharp, concise account examines NATO's origins, structure, and its goals at a time of mounting global tension.

NATO has remade itself repeatedly, as its past purposes have disappeared. In the last 35 years it has been part of wars in Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. It has played a major role in Ukraine, and supported warmaking by Israel. NATO is now expanding rapidly, both in geography and in scope, adding partners from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia, and claiming a role in policing, immigration, economics, public budgeting, scientific research, and environmental protection.

With pointed investigations of how NATO's decisions are made, the widely misunderstood question of the way it is funded, its relationship to international law, and the available alternatives to it, NATO: What You Need to Know is an indispensable primer on an organization that not only confronts expanding military conflict but, the authors contend, plays an active part in its escalation.

This book argues that the performance of our governments can be transformed by managing bureaucrats for their empowerment rather than compliance. Aimed at public sector workers, leaders, academics, and citizens alike, it contends that public sectors too often rely on a managerial approach which seeks to tightly monitor and control employees, and thus demotivates and repels the mission motivated. Mission Driven Bureaucrats suggests that better performance can in many cases come from a more empowerment-oriented managerial approach, which allows autonomy, cultivates feelings of competence, and creates connection to peers and purpose. This enables the mission motivated to thrive.

Arguing against conventional wisdom, Honig asserts that compliance often thwarts public value and that we can often get less corruption and malfeasance with less monitoring. He provides a handbook of strategies for managers to introduce empowerment-oriented strategies into their agency and describes what everyday citizens can do to support the empowerment of bureaucrats in their governments. Interspersed throughout this book are featured profiles of real-life mission driven bureaucrats, who exemplify the dedication and motivation which is typical of many civil servants. Drawing on original empirical data from several countries and the prior work of other scholars from around the globe, Mission Driven Bureaucrats argues that empowerment-oriented management will cultivate, support, attract, and retain mission driven bureaucrats and should have a larger place in our thinking and practice.

International Organizations (IOs) have been at the forefront of responding to crises in the 21st century, and yet there is little comparative research on how, and how effectively, they have done this.

This book fills this gap by exploring what roles IOs take in response to global crises and to what effect. Bringing together a range of international contributors, the book examines a vast array of international and regional organizations, including the International Organization for Migration, World Health Organization, African Union and European Union. Aiming to answer key questions about IO behaviour, the book investigates these IOs' responses to pressing issues including the global COVID-19 pandemic, the liberal order and security, and the climate crisis.

This book is divided into three sections.
The first section examines the political relationships/structures of Somalia's clans with focus on the pre-Siad Barre era. Somalis are largely one people further linked by one religion (Sunni Islam). Establishing their connectivity is crucial in view of this project's contention that Indigenous methods of conflict resolution that have so far worked in the north (Somaliland and Puntland) can work in the south-central regions where conflict still pervades.
The next section examines the conflict in Somalia from events leading to the exit of Siad Barre (the point where the conflict really begins) and the growth of the Aristocratic/Gerontocratic system of government in the north to address the situation. It will capture the rise of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) in the south-central areas whose aim was the stability of the regions under their control. The gains, gaps and setbacks of these Indigenous systems will also be discussed in this section.
The third section captures the intervention of Ethiopia and the United States in Somalia's conflict and how the African Union (AU) was drawn into the fray to legitimize this intervention. Here the book deals with the following (research) question: Should the AU have gone ahead with the intervention plans of the US/Ethiopia that were directed at debilitating the ICU, or, should focus have been directed at supporting local structures put in place by the ICU to foster stability as had been done in the north by the clan elders? This section discusses the current state of affairs in view of what was forfeited.

Best known for its World Heritage program committed to the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was founded in 1945 as an intergovernmental agency aimed at fostering peace, humanitarianism, and intercultural understanding. Its mission was inspired by leading European intellectuals such as Henri Bergson, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann, H. G. Wells, and Aldous and Julian Huxley. Often critiqued for its inherent Eurocentrism, UNESCO and its World Heritage program today remain embedded within modernist principles of progress and development and subscribe to the liberal principles of diplomacy and mutual tolerance. However, its mission to prevent conflict, destruction, and intolerance, while noble and much needed, increasingly falls short, as recent battles over the World Heritage sites of Preah Vihear, Chersonesos, Jerusalem, Palmyra, Aleppo, and Sana'a, among others, have underlined.

A Future in Ruins is the story of UNESCO's efforts to save the world's heritage and, in doing so, forge an international community dedicated to peaceful co-existence and conservation. It traces how archaeology and internationalism were united in Western initiatives after the political upheavals of the First and Second World Wars. This formed the backdrop for the emergent hopes of a better world that were to captivate the minds of men. UNESCO's leaders were also confronted with challenges and conflicts about their own mission. Would the organization aspire to intellectual pursuits that contributed to the dream of peace or instead be relegated to an advisory and technical agency? An eye-opening and long overdue account of a celebrated yet poorly understood agency, A Future in Ruins calls on us all to understand how and why the past comes to matter in the present, who shapes it, and who wins or loses as a consequence.

Sayle's book is a remarkably well-documented history of the NATO alliance. This is a worthwhile addition to the growing literature on NATO and a foundation for understanding its current challenges and prospects.â- Choice

Born from necessity, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has always seemed on the verge of collapse. Even now, some seventy years after its inception, some consider its foundation uncertain and its structure weak. At this moment of incipient strategic crisis, Timothy A. Sayle offers a sweeping history of the most critical alliance in the post-World War II era.

In Enduring Alliance, Sayle recounts how the western European powers, along with the United States and Canada, developed a treaty to prevent encroachments by the Soviet Union and to serve as a first defense in any future military conflict. As the growing and unruly hodgepodge of countries, councils, commands, and committees inflated NATO during the Cold War, Sayle shows that the work of executive leaders, high-level diplomats, and institutional functionaries within NATO kept the alliance alive and strong in the face of changing administrations, various crises, and the flux of geopolitical maneuverings. Resilience and flexibility have been the true hallmarks of NATO.

As Enduring Alliance deftly shows, the history of NATO is organized around the balance of power, preponderant military forces, and plans for nuclear war. But it is also the history riven by generational change, the introduction of new approaches to conceiving international affairs, and the difficulty of diplomacy for democracies. As NATO celebrates its seventieth anniversary, the alliance once again faces challenges to its very existence even as it maintains its place firmly at the center of western hemisphere and global affairs.

There's a thin blue line between fact and fiction. Blue Lies tells the story left out by the media. Domestic terrorism, denial of constitutional rights, wrongful prosecutions, stripping away qualified immunity, disarming and defunding police, all designed to weaken America's cops while emboldening the lawless. Radicals have declared war on American Justice. They hold public office as city council members, mayors, county prosecutors, state legislators, governors, members of congress and even the highest office in the land. Meanwhile, American police officers are being forced to fight a media battle while struggling to maintain law and order in our streets, as violent crime soars.

Blue Lies: The War on Justice and the Conspiracy to Weaken America's Cops dissects the systematic agenda of the radical left who has declared war on police. Combining statistical analysis, evidence based facts from high profile cases, and a career of personal experience, the author takes the reader on a literary ride-along behind the scenes of the most controversial issues facing today's blue warriors. Among those issues are police deadly force encounters, eliminating traffic stops, systemic racism in law enforcement, and the defund, disarm, and dismantle the police movements.

With unparalleled insight, Sgt. Wolf delves into the consequences of blue lies - the distortion and manipulation of facts in an effort to sway public opinion. He reveals the intricate web of deception spun by those with an agenda, intent on vilifying police officers and sowing discord within society.

Through the pages of this powerful book, readers will gain an understanding of the multifaceted challenges faced by law enforcement professionals as they navigate an increasingly complex landscape. Sgt. Wolf explores the impact of media sensationalism, political interference, and the erosion of due process, shedding light on the ripple effects felt by both cops and the communities they serve.

Blue Lies is not just an indictment of a broken system; it is a call to action. Sgt. Wolf passionately argues for a balanced approach, one that upholds justice while also addressing the legitimate concerns of marginalized communities. He emphasizes the importance of unity and understanding in order to overcome the divisions that threaten to tear our society apart.

Thought-provoking and emotionally charged, Blue Lies stands as a testament to the bravery and dedication of the men and women who don the blue uniform. It challenges readers to question the narratives they encounter and to engage in a constructive dialogue that can lead to positive change and a stronger, more just society.

In an era defined by polarization and mistrust, Sgt. Jeff Wolf's Blue Lies: The War on Justice and the Conspiracy to Weaken America's Cops serves as a beacon of truth, urging us to confront the complexities of the issues at hand and strive for a future where justice prevails and the bond between police and communities is restored.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a pivotal institution in global economic governance tasked with ensuring monetary stability and preventing financial crises through promoting balanced trade, economic growth, and poverty reduction. It also plays a powerful normative role by shaping economic policies worldwide through its research and expertise. The IMF played a crucial role in managing crises like the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, providing significant financial aid and advocating for stimulus measures. However, the IMF faces both internal and external challenges from reforming its governance structure to better represent emerging economies to finding its place in a world increasingly defying liberal internationalism and multilateralism. Despite reforms, power remains concentrated among advanced economies, hindering inclusivity and trust, particularly in regions like sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitical tensions, populist nationalism, and economic imbalances further strain the IMF's effectiveness.

This handbook aims to uncover these challenges by providing diverse perspectives and proposing policy recommendations that the Fund could undertake to better navigate the complex landscape of 21st-century global governance. Part I delves into its historical origins and key debates of the IMF. Part II focuses on formal operations such as lending, surveillance, and capacity development. Part III explores the involvement of different actors including states, markets, and civil society. Part IV discusses partnerships with other international organizations and collaboration in financial regulation. Part V analyzes shifts in policy instruments and ideological frameworks. Part VI broadens concerns to include gender mainstreaming, labor markets, climate policy, and inclusive growth. Part VII addresses internal challenges including cultural diversity concerns and uniformity of treatment. Part VIII evaluates external challenges such as populist movements, China's influence, global inequality and unresolved issues in Europe. Part IX explores how the IMF can meet the multiple challenges identified in this volume and positively impact 21st century global governance.

I Mohammed Zamen Mohman was born in the village of Mangwal, which is part of Khas Kunar Walwali Kunar Province, in east of Afghanistan. During my childhood, there were no schools in Mangwal, so my parents decided to send me to Kabul, where I graduated from Khushal Khan High School. I performed well academically and eventually joined Kabul University, where I was admitted to the Faculty of Economics. After three months, I applied for a foreign scholarship. When the exams were announced, I was selected to pursue a Bachelor's degree at Aligarh Muslim University in India. In 1969, I completed my BA degree. In 1971, I earned a diploma in Foreign Affairs from the same university. That same year, I also completed a Master of Arts degree, achieving two degrees within two years. Upon finishing my master's and diploma degrees, I joined Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). At JNU, I completed two advanced degrees: M.Phil and a PhD. However, just as I completed my PhD, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and I could not return to my homeland. I then joined All India Radio's Pashto service and worked there for some time. Later, I decided to apply for a position at Voice of America, where I was selected and officially joined on 21st September 1985 and retired in 2023.

La información contenida en este libro contradice prácticamente todo lo que le han hecho creer acerca de la democracia y el 'gobierno representativo'.

Basado en la revolucionaria investigación del respetado historiador Carroll Quigley, Tragedia y la Esperanza 101 revela un sistema político inimaginablemente retorcido, hábilmente manipulado por una pequeña élite, la cual está socavando la libertad y la democracia tal como la conocemos.

La meta de los que controlan dicho sistema, en palabras del propio Quigley, es la dominación de 'todas las partes habitables del mundo'. Utilizando el engaño, el robo y la violencia, han llegado más lejos en esta tarea de lo que ningún gobernante de la historia ha llegado jamás.

Sin embargo, la Era de la Información está descarrilando sus planes rápidamente. La inmoralidad de su sistema, y la de aquellos que le sirven, se ha vuelto casi imposible de esconder. La conciencia y la resistencia están creciendo... La tragedia está cediendo ante la esperanza.

History of the Deep State Volume 3 is the long-awaited third book written & published in the History of the Deep State trilogy and series by Jeremy Stone. While Volumes 1 & 2 extensively covered the complete history and hidden agendas of the Deep State, Volume 3 takes a glimpse into what these radical elitist groups advocating and calling for a Welfare-State are planning & plotting against America and the world.Who are they? What are their true intentions? Why are these strange & radical agendas emerging globally now? Who put them into power?Are they truly connected to the Socialist puppet-masters behind World War II, with a new agenda? Are their Agenda 2030 & income equality economic agendas just a scare tactic or a threat? Why are they simultaneously planning a secret coup against the President while offering an Anti-American form of Government now?The length of time the New World Order has waited for this period in time and series of crises is no coincidence and will astound you.Are you prepared for a New World that does not remotely resemble our current one? If not, you need to read this book.

Thoroughly revised and updated, a new edition of the most popular guide to the United Nations for students and interested readers

My UN bible. Linda Fasulo knows all the right questions and brings back all the answers readers need to know to navigate the UN.--Olivia Ward, Toronto Star

The perfect guide to the global work on peace, development and human rights. It is 'hands on' and practical.―Jan Eliasson, former UN Deputy Secretary-General

Prominent NPR journalist Linda Fasulo's guide to the United Nations has established a reputation as the most lively, authoritative, and insightful book on its subject. Thoroughly revised and updated, with many new interviews of diplomats, experts, and officials, this fourth edition remains indispensable for understanding the UN's role and impact on the world today.

In the late eighties and early nineties, driven by the post--Cold War environment and lessons learned during military operations, United States policymakers made intelligence support to the military the Intelligence Community's top priority. In response to this demand, the CIA and DoD instituted policy and organizational changes that altered their relationship with one another. While debates over the future of the Intelligence Community were occurring on Capitol Hill, the CIA and DoD were expanding their relationship in peacekeeping and nation-building operations in Somalia and the Balkans.

By the late 1990s, some policy makers and national security professionals became concerned that intelligence support to military operations had gone too far. In Subordinating Intelligence: The DoD/CIA Post--Cold War Relationship, David P. Oakley reveals that, despite these concerns, no major changes to either national intelligence organization or its priorities were implemented. These concerns were forgotten after 9/11, as the United States fought two wars and policy makers increasingly focused on tactical and operational actions. As policy makers became fixated with terrorism and the United States fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CIA directed a significant amount of its resources toward global counterterrorism efforts and in support of military operations.

Who governs? On the surface, such a question should be easy to answer by simply reading the law. Taking a deeper examination, it is one of the most hotly contested questions, often without a clear-cut answer. With recent controversies in the United States related to confederate monuments, transgender rights, and unconventional oil and gas development, for example, the answer is: it depends and is subject to change. Intergovernmental Relations: State and Local Challenges in the Twenty-First Century examines the sources behind state-local conflict to better understand where this critical intergovernmental relationship may be breaking down, and to ultimately identify solutions and policy tools that build upon the strengths of state and local governments, mitigate conflicts, and improve the quality of life for citizens.

Author Jonathan M. Fisk begins by defining the basic institutional structures and offices and addressing the intergovernmental legal environment. He then offers a framework for understanding possible sources behind state-local conflict, with a recognition that intergovernmental relationships have historical roots, are place-based, and dependent on context, before examining concrete issues that have become ensnared in intergovernmental conflict via case studies including environmental (plastic bags, climate change), social and constitutional (confederate statues, transgender bathrooms), and economic (living wage, affordable housing) to name a few. Each case study possesses its own history, intergovernmental actors, costs, benefits, opportunities, and challenges. Readers are asked to confront difficult questions about property and constitutional rights, intergenerational equity, economic growth, wage fairness, and local democracy. This book offers an ideal supplement for students enrolled in courses on public policy, federalism, state and local government, and public administration.

If you were tasked to conduct a negotiation, would you know how to do it? If not, you are not alone. Few people receive formal training before finding themselves at a negotiating table, and all can benefit from a primer that explains the process, practices, and tactics for ensuring success in a negotiation. This primer for diplomats, alliance managers, and other practitioners offers the tools needed to succeed whether it is one's first negotiation or hundredth.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2020, is one of the most recognizable acronyms in international politics. The organization has undergone decades of changing importance, from political irrelevance to the spotlight of world attention and back; and from economic boom for its members to deep political and financial crisis.

This handbook, with chapters provided by scholars and analysts from different backgrounds and specializations, discusses and analyzes the history and development of OPEC, its global importance, and the role it has played, and still plays, in the global energy market. Part I focuses on the relationship between OPEC and its member states. Part II examines the relationship between OPEC and its customers, the consuming countries and their governments, while Part III addresses the relationship between OPEC and its competitors and potential partners, the non-OPEC producers, and the international oil companies. The final section, Part IV, looks at OPEC and the governance of international energy.

International Organizations (IOs) are vital institutions in world politics in which cross-border issues can be discussed and global problems managed. This path-breaking book shows the efforts that small states have made to participate more fully in IO activities. It draws attention to the challenges created by widened participation in IOs and develops an original model of the dilemmas that both IOs and small states face as the norms of sovereign equality and the right to develop coincide. Drawing on extensive qualitative data, including more than 80 interviews conducted for this book, the authors find that the strategies which both IOs and small states adopt to balance their respective dilemmas can explain both continuity and change in their interactions with institutions ranging from UN agencies to the World Trade Organization.