In December 1572 the Mughal emperor Akbar arrived in the port city of Khambayat. Having been raised in distant Kabul, Akbar, in his thirty years, had never been to the ocean. Presumably anxious with the news about the Mughal military campaign in Gujarat, several Portuguese merchants in Khambayat rushed to Akbar’s presence. This encounter marked the beginning of a long, complex, and unequal relationship between a continental Muslim empire that was expanding into south India, often looking back to Central Asia, and a European Christian maritime empire whose rulers considered themselves ‘kings of the sea’. By the middle of the seventeenth century, these two empires faced each other across thousands of kilometres from Sind to Bijapur, with a supplementary eastern arm in faraway Bengal. Focusing on borderland management, imperial projects, and cross-cultural circulation, this volume delves into the ways in which, between c. 1570 and c. 1640, the Portuguese understood and dealt with their undesirably close neighbours—the Mughals.

A kiss from a mean man is so wonderful it melts you...? Pernelle tried to buy a beautiful home in Cotswolds, but a rich man swooped in and took it from under her. She ends up buying the tiny house next to it, but her new neighbor isn't very welcoming. He makes fun of her butt in shorts, sees her drenched in the rain while she's locked out of her house, and countless other embarrassing moments. But despite his not-so-nice demeanor around her, she can't help but melt at his spur-of-the-moment kiss... From that day on, her heart is filled with only him.

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.

Life is never dull when you have neighbours! Neighbours – we all have them. Whether they’re amazing or the bane of your life, everyone has a story about them. Have you ever had a disagreement with a neighbour? Have your neighbours ever woken you up shouting? Slamming doors? Revving a car? Do you avoid your neighbours because they’re irritating, boring or nosy? Do you sometimes wish you had normal neighbours? Or do your neighbours go out of their way to help you? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these, then this book is for you! Written with humour, insight and perception, this book explores our relationships with our neighbours, how they work, why they break down and the strategies we all employ to survive. An Annoyance of Neighbours will help you to identify and classify your neighbours, discover how to remedy a relationship and take the quiz to find out what kind of neighbour you are. This book will appeal to anyone who is curious about their neighbours, as well as those who wish to ease unresolved tension with theirs.

The third edition addresses the most important current topics in Irish politics. It fills a major gap in the academic literature on Irish politics, providing students with a comprehensive Introduction to the issues dominating debates in both parts of Ireland. The recent emergence of emigration, environmental risk and technological changes on to the political agenda is reflected. It also revisits Ireland's economic performance, the peace process and the policy areas of health, housing and industrial relations.

Edward P. Jones, a prodigy of the short story, returns to the form that first won him praise in this new collection of stories, All Aunt Hagar's Children. Here he turns an unflinching eye to the men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them in the city, people who in Jones's masterful hands emerge as fully human and morally complex. With the legacy of slavery just a stone's throw behind them and the future uncertain, Jones's cornucopia of characters will haunt readers for years to come.