From Confrontation To Cooperation

This book explores the roots of transformations in world politics and suggests how the art and science of conflict resolution may be used to guide these changes in constructive and peaceful ways. The author proposes that a new emphasis, or more precisely, a corrective to the power-politics approach, should prevail in the study and practice of international relations and diplomacy. Using the example of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the author presents a methodology for intergroup and international conflict management analysis, training, policy making and intervention. Comparative cases are also included to help readers build upon the approaches suggested for their own educational and peacemaking activities.

Co-publication with Banyan Publications, New Delhi. No sales rights in India.

Negotiation is the "great unknown" of human communication. When a baby demands or refuses food, when an international peace conference decides on the future of peoples and nations, everybody interacts with everybody. Power and balance, methods and styles, often dictated by the negotiator's cultural background, influence the outcome. The aim is cooperation, based on common interests. The way to get there quite often starts with confrontation and includes the competition of ideas and proposals. The author, an experienced diplomat who supports his theories with innumerable and often amusing anecdotes, shows politicians, business people and students how to do it - and improve their skills.

Students love good stories. That is why case studies are such a powerful way to engage students while teaching them about concepts fundamental to the study of international relations. In Cases in International Relations, Glenn Hastedt, Vaughn P. Shannon, and Donna L. Lybecker help students understand the context of headline events in the international arena. Organized into three main parts—military, economic, and human security—the book’s fifteen cases examine enduring and emerging issues from the longstanding Arab-Israeli conflict to the rapidly changing field of cyber-security. Compatible with a variety of theoretical perspectives, the cases consider a dispute’s origins, issue development, and resolution so that readers see the underlying dynamics of state behavior and can try their hand at applying theory.

Ours is indeed a broken world! And if you're reading this, it's likely you're among the rapidly increasing number of people throughout the world who are asking how we got to these times of confrontation. And, like the author, you may well be asking how we could move towards a new era of cooperation, essential if we are to overcome the twin challenges of climate change and over-population which threaten the very survival of mankind. John Pedler first shows how, since the two World Wars, we have arrived at our disjointed epoch: its rash of wars and civil wars, its scattering of religious and military dictatorships, its oligarchy of international billionaires and vast corporations, its crushing poverty, its epidemics, and its resurgence of religious violence. As a British diplomat and diplomatic consultant, war correspondent in Vietnam, businessman in Mao's China, first Director of the Cambodia Trust, adviser to the government in Sarajevo during the siege, John Pedler has for over half a century had a ringside seat at the world's circus. Here he shares not only his experiences but the conclusions he has reached - both about 'the material world' and what he terms 'the beyond' - with a close look at the religious intolerance and violence now plaguing so many countries. This book is written for the general reader worldwide - those who haven't got the time to study the mass of expert information on these subjects, nor to visit the key countries involved. But diplomats and others in world affairs will also find quite a bit of interest - a fresh 'take' filling some gaps in their knowledge. It is also written for the young in particular - for they will have to deal with our mistakes. It will not quickly date for it shines a spotlight well into the future. John Pedler was educated in England, the United States, and at the London School of Economics where he took an additional course in Comparative Religion.

At midnight on October 2, 1990, the West German armed forces took over the approximately 90,000 men comprising the National People's (East German) Army (NVA) and assumed control of its substantial arsenal. This study is an analysis of that unification from its beginning in July 1990 to the end of summer of 1993 when all applications for future service of former NVA officers and non-commissioned officers had been processed. Using numerous un-published sources and interviews, the author addresses the following areas: the organization used by the Bundeswehr and the political control exerted in the Takeover, the key decisions reached and the explanation of these decisions, the relationship of the Takeover to the new Army Structure 5 being implemented at the time, and the effect of the Takeover on the Bundeswehr's operational readiness, especially its ability to perform its new tasks identified in the spring 1991. The first scholarly study of the Takeover, this study focuses on 11 key decisions, made not only for military reasons, but also for political, economic, social, and psychological purposes. Overall, the Takeover was a success in light of the numerous goals it achieved while avoiding the outbreak of violence. The Bundeswehr achieved this success mainly because it relied on liberal democratic principles, including those comprising the unique German concept of Innere F^Duhrung (civic education and moral leadership). This book also provides an overall evaluation of the Takeover and contributes to theory-building on army amalgamations.