Genocide October 1993 August 1998 Russia And The New World Order

During the 1990s, the "roving bandits", big business or the oligarchs, stole Russia. They gained influence over President Yeltsin and his government, and gradually shaped policy in their own interests. In this first comprehensive account to explain why Russia took the course it did, Martin McCauley examines the period through the prism of government, including Yeltsin's shadow government, and looks at the military, police, security and intelligence services. Relations between Moscow and the regions, industry, agriculture, social policy and foreign policy are also explored.

Allegations of Russian conspiracies meddling in the affairs of Western countries have been a persistent feature of Western politics since the Cold War – allegations of Russian interference in the US presidential election are only the most recent in a long series of conspiracy allegations that mark the history of the twentieth century. But Russian politics is rife with conspiracies about the West too. Everything bad that happens in Russia is traced back by some to an anti-Russian plot that is hatched in the West. Even the collapse of the Soviet Union – this crucial turning point in world politics that left the USA as the only remaining superpower – was, according to some Russian conspiracy theorists, planned and executed by Russia’s enemies in the West. This book is the first-ever study of Russian conspiracy theories in the post-Soviet period. It examines why these conspiracy theories have emerged and gained currency in Russia and what role intellectuals have played in this process. The book shows how, in the new millennium, the image of the ‘dangerous, conspiring West’ provides national unity and has helped legitimize Russia’s rapid turn to authoritarianism under Vladimir Putin.

This book explores how international organizations (IOs) have expanded their powers over time without formally amending their founding treaties. IOs intervene in military, financial, economic, political, social, and cultural affairs, and increasingly take on roles not explicitly assigned to them by law. Sinclair contends that this 'mission creep' has allowed IOs to intervene internationally in a way that has allowed them to recast institutions within and interactions among states, societies, and peoples on a broadly Western, liberal model. Adopting a historical and interdisciplinary, socio-legal approach, Sinclair supports this claim through detailed investigations of historical episodes involving three very different organizations: the International Labour Organization in the interwar period; the United Nations in the two decades following the Second World War; and the World Bank from the 1950s through to the 1990s. The book draws on a wide range of original institutional and archival materials, bringing to light little-known aspects of each organization's activities, identifying continuities in the ideas and practices of international governance across the twentieth century, and speaking to a range of pressing theoretical questions in present-day international law and international relations.

What does the future hold for the UN? In this book, twenty-two scholars from all continents contribute twelve chapters that cover prevention of violence, creating economic and social structures that sustain human fulfilment, sharing and protecting the commons, and peace education. The search for future potential, based on experience in these twelve "laboratories," leads to sixty-six recommendations for new institutions and programs on issues that include controlling weapons, humanitarian intervention, collaboration between UN peacekeepers and NGOs, human rights, economic policies, advancement of women, refugees, ecological security, communications, and peace education. These recommendations are brought together in a concluding chapter and summarized in the appendix. Most of the recommendations do not require amendments to the UN Charter or to the treaties establishing the UN Specialized Agencies. Instead, their implementation would require creative efforts of Member States, secretariats, NGOs, and dedicated individuals that are pointed toward attainment of multilateral capacity for coping with an array of global problems that increasingly threaten the quality of human life. This is stimultaing reading for anyone who wants to be challenged to think creatively about the potential for coping with a growing array of global problems.