Rethinking Third World Politics

Providing a thorough reassessment of our understanding of politics in Third World societies, this book contains some of the liveliest and most original analyses to have been published in recent years. The severity of the political and economic crisis throughout Africa, Asia and Latin America in the 1980s has highlighted the inadequacy of existing political science theories and the urgent need to provide new paradigms for the 1990s.

A systematic reassessment, by two leading figures in the field, of the paradigm of international development in both theory and practice. It offers an overview and critique of development theory and strategy, and a new framework for the analysis of global inequality, poverty and development in an era of globalization.

Ray Oldenburg’s concept of third place is re-visited in this book through contemporary approaches and new examples of third places. Third place is not your home (first place), not your work (second place), but those informal public places in which we interact with the people. Readers will come to understand the importance of third places and how they can be incorporated into urban design to offer places of interaction – promoting togetherness in an urbanised world of mobility and rapid change.

Both ambitious and original, Clapham's book covers governance, economic management, external relations, military leadership, and revolutionary orientations for all the nations involved. He shows how fragile Western institutions of political and economic management and accountability are in the Third World, and--on the other hand--how dependent on the advanced industrial nations Third World leaders remain. For all who seek a better understanding of the emerging nations of the Third World, Clapham's book will provide illuminating introductory and background information. The Wisconsin edition is not for sale in the British Commonwealth (excluding Canada) or Japan.

The study of international relations, has traditionally been dominated by Western ideas and practices, and marginalized the voice and experiences of the non-Western states and societies. As the world moves to a "post-Western" era, it is imperative that the field of IR acquires a more global meaning and relevance. Drawing together the work of renowned scholar Amitav Acharya and framed by a new introduction and conclusion written for the volume, this book exposes the narrow meaning currently attached to some of the key concepts and ideas in IR, and calls for alternative and broader understandings of them. The need for recasting the discipline has motivated and undergirded Acharya's own scholarship since his entry into the field over three decades ago. This book reflects his own engagement, quarrels and compromise and concludes with suggestions for new pathways to a Global IR- a forward-looking and inclusive enterprise that is reflective of the multiple and global heritage of IR in an changing and interconnected world. It is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about the history, development and future of international relations and international relations theory.

This title was first published in 2002. Placed within the broad fields of International Relations and International Political Economyš this book specifically focuses upon the conceptual and strategic debates concerning the relationship between social movements and the politics of globalization. Outlining current theories concerning the activity and interaction of social movements and globalizationš Watson reconsiders this debate by mapping an alternative conceptual and strategic account of the politics of resistance to globalization. Considering the responses of neoliberal institutionsš the book also assesses the implications of struggles for understanding the site and nature of political power and authority in the present and future global political economy. This text is an important addition to the collections of those involved in issues that impact on international politicsš international political economyš the politics of development and democracyš third world politics and sociology.

Rethinking Middle East Politics considers a range of debates on the character of political and socioeconomic development in the Middle East, focusing on the linked processes of state formation and capitalist development. Simon Bromley seeks to reformulate the central questions involved in the study of state formation. He builds a comparative framework based on an examination of key developmental processes in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran and offers a range of substantive theses on the place of democracy and Islam in the region. His findings explain a very large part of what appears to be significant in the emergence of the modern Middle East. Rethinking Middle East Politics presents a new way of analyzing politics in the Middle East, offering a perspective that has major implications for rethinking Third World politics more generally and for the social and political theory of modernity.