Border fixity—the proscription of foreign conquest and the annexation of homeland territory—has, since World War II, become a powerful norm in world politics. This development has been said to increase stability and peace in international relations. Yet, in a world in which it is unacceptable to challenge international borders by force, sociopolitically weak states remain a significant source of widespread conflict, war, and instability. In this book, Boaz Atzili argues that the process of state building has long been influenced by external territorial pressures and competition, with the absence of border fixity contributing to the evolution of strong states—and its presence to the survival of weak ones. What results from this norm, he argues, are conditions that make internal conflict and the spillover of interstate war more likely. Using a comparison of historical and contemporary case studies, Atzili sheds light on the relationship between state weakness and conflict. His argument that under some circumstances an international norm that was established to preserve the peace may actually create conditions that are ripe for war is sure to generate debate and shed light on the dynamics of continuing conflict in the twenty-first century.

In this exciting novel, an upwardly mobile black family moves to the affluent suburbs--with dramatic, sexy, funny, and provocative results. Mabel Turner, born and raised in the small and all-black town of Lovejoy, Illinois, meets and marries Tom Spader, a driven man, who shares her dreams of the good life. Together they flee Lovejoy, Tom becomes a successful attorney at a prestigious law firm, and eventually they move to Greenwich, Connecticut. At first, life in the elite suburb is like paradise--they seem to have finally knocked down the fences between themselves and the white American dream. But soon they discover that some of the highest fences are the ones they cannot see. The kids act up and out, and Mabel feels she has to hide who she really is, secreting Jet magazine under her fancy new sofa cushions and serving expensive gourmet cookies to the other PTA mothers. In the novel's startling climax, these problems are suddenly overshadowed by the very odd behavior of Mabel's neighbors, and of Tom, too. Fresh, illuminating, and written in a captivating voice, Good Fences introduces a strong new fiction talent, with a can't-put-it-down story.

Stone walls, concrete walls, chain-link walls, border walls: we live in a world of walls. Walls mark sacred space and embody earthly power. They maintain peace and cause war. They enforce separation and create unity. They express identity and build community. Yard to nation, city to self, walls define and dissect our lives. And, for Thomas Oles, it is time to broaden our ideas of what they can—and must—do. In Walls, Oles shows how our minds and our politics are shaped by–and shape–our divisions in the landscape. He traces the rich array of practices and meanings connected to the making and marking of boundaries across history and prehistory, and he describes how these practices have declined in recent centuries. The consequence, he argues, is all around us in the contemporary landscape, riven by walls shoddy in material and mean in spirit. Yet even today, Oles demonstrates, every wall remains potentially an opening, a stage, that critical place in the landscape where people present themselves and define their obligations to one another. In an evocative epilogue, Oles brings to life a society of productive, intentional, and ethical enclosure—one that will leave readers more hopeful about the divided landscapes of the future.

Here at last is the comprehensive collection you've been searching for to minister effectively to your children during worship. Drawn from every book of the New Testament, The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons -- Matthew To Revelation contains five full years worth of material you can share with your young disciples. Each of the 260 talks teach children God's Word through the use of common objects that illustrate an important concept in the scriptures. The messages come from Wesley Runk, a pastor and master communicator with kids who has written over 30 best-selling collections of children's sermons and object lessons. Runk uses a warm and often humorous approach to take on even the tough topics of the New Testament -- and the analogies he creates with the use of such simple objects as bananas, clocks, puzzles, and funnels add visual focus for the kids and help them grasp the point on a level suitable for their age. Now, whether you are preaching from the Gospels, Acts, the letters of Paul, the general Epistles, or even Revelation, you are sure to find an appropriate related talk for the children. And with convenient features like scripture and object indexes for quickly locating material as well as a CD with text files that lets you easily adapt the messages to your specific circumstances, The Giant Book Of Children's Sermons may be the last children's collection you ever need!

Indigenous Conflict Management Strategies in West Africa:Beyond Right and Wrong expands the discourse on indigenous knowledge. With several examples and case histories, the work defines, characterizes, and explains indigenous conflict management strategies in West Africa, particularly in Ghana, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The book critically evaluates indigenous conflict management strategies with a view to determining their effectiveness in the context of the societies’ history and culture, and the relevance and adaptability of these strategies in contemporary contexts. This book takes a scholarly approach, avoiding romanticizing or idealizing indigenous conflict management strategies in West Africa. It advocates a set of mechanisms by which the best elements of indigenous knowledge and skills in conflict management may be deployed to settle contemporary disputes, and made portable for adoption and adaptation by other complex societies in the region and beyond.

No Longer Bound is about the intersection of reading comprehension and interpretation that leads to the development of a powerful and transformative sermon. Reading facilitates the interpretive process, which is the essence of any sermon. The sermon is an interpretation of an interpretation and as such presents itself as a new gospel message. The ability to write and preach a sermon is an exercise in freedom. The book is grounded in a narrative theological form that begins with the author's experience and filters that experience through the lens of hermeneutic philosophy and theology. Reading and preaching constitute the thread that runs throughout the book. The book suggests that the sermon is the philosophic theology of Black practical religion inasmuch as the Black church is central to religion and culture. This is a fresh and new understanding of homiletics, philosophical theology, and interpretation theory that is intended to produce better preachers and more powerful and life-changing sermons by all who endeavor to preach.

The three units of Bible lessons in this quarter unify around the theme, Respond. The lessons move through various responses people of faith are called to make as they live out their faith in both good times and difficult ones. Unit 1: Intended for Good The Genesis story of Joseph and his brothers is one of the great stories from the Bible, with forgiveness and grace among its underlying themes. As the story stretches over several chapters of Genesis, the four weeks of this unit give us ample time to explore it and see how the meaning of its events changed as Joseph recognized God at work behind the scenes. Scriptures: Genesis 37:5-28; Genesis 39:1-21; Genesis 41:1-16, 25-32; Genesis 45:1-15 Spiritual Practice: Forgiveness Unit 2: The People Next Door “Neighbor” is an important theme in both the Old and New Testaments, and so this four-lesson unit delves into it from several perspectives. The first lesson (Lesson 5 in this quarter) gathers various verses from Proverbs on that topic. The second lesson, using a passage from the book of Ruth, invites us to think about what it means to be a neighbor to immigrants. The third lesson looks in the book of Acts for how the early church leaders incorporated neighborliness into the church’s structure. And the fourth lesson takes us to Mark’s Gospel for an example of four individuals who were true neighbors to a man in need. Scriptures: Proverbs 3:27-30; 6:1-5; 25:20-23; Ruth 2:4-16; Acts 6:1-7; Mark 2:1-12 Spiritual Practice: Scripture Unit 3: The Five Stages of Job As suffering in some form comes to most of us at some point (or points) in life, it is useful to consider how Job, who suffered greatly, responded to it, and to learn from his experience. The five lessons of this unit show us five diverse ways Job responded to his calamities: worship, resignation, protest, angry despair, and acceptance. While not suggesting that all of these are useful in every case, the lessons help us recognize what may be going on in our spirits when suffering overtakes us. Scriptures: Job 1:8-20; Job 1:21-22, 2:7-10; Job 19:1-6, 13-19; Job 30:16-23; Job 40:1-5; 41:1-10; 42:1-6 Spiritual Practice: Lament