Do information and communication technologies networks really lead to a weakening of the nation-state? This volume revisits the 'retreat of the state' thesis and tests its validity in the 21st century. It will intrigue the reader with expert-level analysis, providing historical context and conceptualizing trends and social dynamics.

Exploring the politics and morality that pulled the United States into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, this collection of essays, stories, and satirical pieces lambasts the highest officials in the executive branch for incompetence and moral blindness. Analyses of both wars and the crisis following 9/11 portray the conflicts as opportunities for special interests to entrench themselves in the U.S. government at the expense of U.S. citizens’ civil liberties and tax dollars, and the lives of numerous Afghan and Iraqi non-combatants. Pulling no punches, this work holds George W. Bush and members of his cabinet accountable for acts that would have been prosecutable were the defendants in question not government entities.

“Concise, clear and convincing. . . a vision for the country as a whole.” —James Fallows, The New York Times Book Review A leading sociologist's brilliant and revelatory argument that the future of politics, work, immigration, and more may be found in California Once upon a time, any mention of California triggered unpleasant reminders of Ronald Reagan and right-wing tax revolts, ballot propositions targeting undocumented immigrants, and racist policing that sparked two of the nation's most devastating riots. In fact, California confronted many of the challenges the rest of the country faces now—decades before the rest of us. Today, California is leading the way on addressing climate change, low-wage work, immigrant integration, overincarceration, and more. As white residents became a minority and job loss drove economic uncertainty, California had its own Trump moment twenty-five years ago, but has become increasingly blue over each of the last seven presidential elections. How did the Golden State manage to emerge from its unsavory past to become a bellwether for the rest of the country? Thirty years after Mike Davis's hellish depiction of California in City of Quartz, the award-winning sociologist Manuel Pastor guides us through a new and improved California, complete with lessons that the nation should heed. Inspiring and expertly researched, State of Resistance makes the case for honestly engaging racial anxiety in order to address our true economic and generational challenges, a renewed commitment to public investments, the cultivation of social movements and community organizing, and more.

The transnational architecture of global information networks has made territorial borders less significant. Boundaries between spaces are becoming blurred in the evolving information age. But do information and communication technologies networks really lead to a weakening of the nation-state? This volume revisits the 'retreat of the state' thesis and tests its validity in the 21st century. It considers cyberspace as a matter of collective and policy choice, prone to usurpation by governance structures. Governments around the world are already reacting to the information revolution and trying to re-establish their leading role in creating governance regimes for the Information Age. The volume comes at a historical moment when new political dynamics are detected and new conceptual models are sought to categorize the attempts to deal with global/transnational issues. It will intrigue the reader with expert-level analysis of the role of the state in the emerging global/supranational governance structures by providing historical context and conceptualizing trends and social dynamics.

A seminal introduction to the rise of Central Asia, covering Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan The Resurgence of Central Asia is Ahmed Rashid’s seminal study of the states that emerged in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. All have Muslim majorities and ancient histories but are otherwise very different. Rashid’s book, now with a new introduction by the author examining some of the crucial political developments since its first publication in 1994, provides entrée to this little-known but geopolitically important region. Rashid gives a history of each country, including its incorporation into Tsarist Russia, to the present day, provides basic socioeconomic information, and explains the diverse political situations. He focuses primarily on the underlying issues confronting these societies: the legacy of Soviet rule, ethnic tensions, the position of women, the future of Islam, the question of nuclear proliferation, and the fundamental choices over economic strategy, political system, and external orientation that lie ahead.

This book provides a broad-ranging analysis of the global resurgence of right-wing forces in the twenty-first century. These parties, organisations and social movements represent a break from right-wing forces in interwar political history in Europe and the United States, and the right-wing dictatorships in Latin America. The book reflects on the most appropriate conceptual categories to account for this phenomenon and whether terms such as populism, fascism, authoritarianism or conservatism can explain the new manifestations of the right. The book also explores this through a range of national case studies written by country specialists, focusing on Austria, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador and the United States of America. Providing a much-needed global perspective, this book will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of populism, fascism, right-wing extremism and conservatism.

How states can be responsive, responsible, and progressive political actors in government relations.