In a time of great political change and unrest, these highly topical texts offer succinct accounts of the contemporary political environment in the Middle East.
 

Written in a clear and accessible manner, this series fills a conspicuous gap in the existing academic literature on the MENA region. It will be of interest not only to students of international politics and Middle East studies, but also to anyone travelling in or wanting to learn more about the region. Here we have provided a selection of the most recent titles, but you can see below for links to the rest of the series. 

To receive 20% off any of the series titles for a limited time only*, enter the code GDC72 at checkout.

 Lebanon: The Politics of a Penetrated Society

Systematically exploring Lebanon’s history, society and politics, the author stresses the importance of the crucial role of external actors in the Lebanese system. The analysis encompasses:

• the formation of the state
• weaknesses and dynamics of the Lebanese state
• the civil war
• post-war government and change
• the Lebanese economy
• foreign policy

 Libya: Continuity and Change

Following a brief look at pre-independence Libya, the author explores the way in which the fragility of the post-independence state, unable to contain rising Arab nationalist struggles and growing economic expectations, opened the way for the Free Unionist Officers led by Muammar al-Qaddafi to seize power. He then traces the progressive development of the revolutionary state through four stages:

• the consolidation of power to 1973
• the projection of power to 1986
• withdrawal and retrenchment to 1999
• the redefinition of the state after 1999.

Jordan: A Hashemite Legacy, 2nd Edition

Under the rule of King Abdullah II, Jordan has remained an influential regional player in the Middle East Peace Process, its strategic position on the borders of Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq ensuring that it cannot be overlooked in the regional and international politics. The new edition includes coverage and discussion of:

• the reign of King Abdullah II
• the involvement of the US in the Iraq war and the effect on this on Jordan’s alignment with the West
• the country’s recent economic growth, with an emphasis on economic liberalisation, privatisation, promotion of tourism and encouragement of foreign investment
• the position of Jordan as a point of continuity in an increasingly unstable Middle East.

Turkey: Challenges of Continuity and Change

The authors put issues relevant to Turkey today – such as consolidating democracy, dealing with economic development issues, improving its human rights record and its foreign policy – in an historical context, allowing comparisons with other late developers in the world and reflecting the complexity of Turkish political and socio-economic developments. Turkey also argues that the modernization process that started in the nineteenth century, with all its elements including secularization and Westernization, has taken root.

* = Offer valid until 26th February 2013.
 

Here you can listen to Gene being interviewed by East Asian Studies.

Listen to the interview with Gene Cooper here.

During the early communist period of the 1950s, temple fairs in China were both suppressed and secularized. Temples were closed down by the secular regime and their activities classified as feudal superstition and this process only intensified during the Cultural Revolution when even the surviving secular fairs, devoted exclusively to trade with no religious content of any kind, were suppressed. However, once China embarked on its path of free market reform and openness, secular commodity exchange fairs were again authorized, and sometimes encouraged in the name of political economy as a means of stimulating rural commodity circulation and commerce.

This book reveals how once these secular "temple-less temple fairs" were in place, they came to serve not only as venues for the proliferation of a great variety of popular cultural performance genres, but also as sites where a revival or recycling of popular religious symbols, already underway in many parts of China, found familiar and fertile ground in which to spread. Taking this shift in the Chinese state’s attitudes and policy towards temple fairs as its starting point, The Market and Temple Fairs of Rural China shows how state-led economic reforms in the early 1980s created a revival in secular commodity exchange fairs, which were granted both the geographic and metaphoric space to function. In turn, this book presents a comprehensive analysis of the temple fair phenomenon, examining its economic, popular cultural, popular religious and political dimensions and demonstrates the multifaceted significance of the fairs which have played a crucial role in expanding the boundaries of contemporary acceptable popular discourse and expression.

Since 2000, there has been a considerable effort in Turkish cinema to come to terms with the military’s intervention in politics and subsequent national trauma. It has resulted in an outpouring of cinematic texts. Texts such as Women and Turkish Cinema, The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema and Understanding Media and Culture in Turkey will be invaluable resources for students and scholars of Film Studies, Gender Studies and Middle East Studies, amongst others.
 

Women and Turkish Cinema: The central proposition of this book is that enforced depolticisation introduced after the coup is responsible for uniting feminism and film in 1980s Turkey. The feminist movement was able to flourish precisely because it was not perceived as political or politically significant. In a parallel move in the films of the 1980s there was an increased tendency to focus on the individual, on women’s issues and lives, in order to avoid the overtly political.

The Routledge Dictionary of Turkish Cinema (forthcoming: This book is a comprehensive dictionary of Turkish cinema, which offers reliable, up-to-date and independent information from a critical and analytical point of view regarding prominent filmmakers, films, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, editors, producers, significant themes, genres, movements, theories, production modes, film journals, film schools and professional organizations. 

Understanding Media and Culture in Turkey (forthcoming): Three themes, "Structures," "Spaces" and "Voices," make up the core structure of the book, providing an intellectual and epistemological arc. Following an introductory chapter written by the co-editors, the first section, "Structures," provides critical examinations of the structural underpinnings of contemporary Turkish media and culture through analyses of, for example, journalism, cultural policy, Information Society and citizenship. The second section, "Spaces," connects Turkish media and culture to spatial/locational factors: Turkey’s role and place in Europe; the Turkish diasporic space; representations of the Turkish "East;" and Istanbul as urban/social space. In the final section, "Voices," the book turns toward chapters that address central issues in contemporary Turkish media—for example, Islam, arabesk music and the presentation of Kurds on national television—from a cultural perspective.

For more books on Turkish Cinema, view our online catalogue.

This ground-breaking book contains over forty essays by some of the leading commentators on the burgeoning academic field of Surveillance Studies, covering most if not all of the critical challenges of surveillance and population control; policing, intelligence and war; the new social networking media; the emerging capacities of geo-location, identity recognition and real time tracking, as well as the thorny questions of future regulation and resistance, over a generous volume of some 437 pages.
Whilst there are other excellent Surveillance Studies readers, such as the work edited by Hier and Greenberg (2007), the formidable profile, diversity, breadth and scope of the Routledge collection, make it quite simply, definitive. Here we have authors such as James Rule, Gary Marx, David Lyon and Clive Norris—who essentially founded the field—mixed with new authors who take the insights of these pathfinders into new domains. The Handbook could not be more timely, as the pace of technological innovation in surveillance transcends many of the existing legal and cultural limits and understandings of its role and function. The year of its publication sees new evaluation and ethical initiatives by the EU,
such as the PACT project which will question 27,000 citizens on their perceptions of the trade-off between security and privacy. 2012 also heralded a new awareness of policy in research funding into security to fully evaluate the societal impacts of surveillance research which is now a formal EC requirement for all the work it funds. But the wave of second and third order impacts of the new surveillance capacity are affecting people world-wide, often with little comprehension of what can now be remotely seen.
The Handbook is divided into four substantive parts which cover (i) the broader issues of understanding surveillance; (ii) surveillance as sorting, (iii) the variable contexts of surveillance and (iv) the question of how we should limit surveillance: each part coming with an invaluable introduction to core concepts and background material.
The first section has a comprehensive overview of Surveillance Studies by the editors, Lyon, Haggerty and Ball, which provide key building blocks to understand surveillance covered by the introductory chapters. Contributions by Elmer, Bogart and Ceyhan take theories of surveillance beyond Foucault. Such theory is complemented in chapters by Koskela who examines the problematic of surveillance and gender, Steve Wright, Leeds Metropolitan University, UK
 

The Routledge Jewish Studies Series covers the disciplines of history, sociology, anthropology, culture, politics, philosophy, theology, religion, as they relate to Jewish affairs. Here we present five books that emphasise the diversity and originality of the series. Click on the links below to find out more!

Bestseller God, Jews and the Media delves into the complex relationship between Judaism and the mass media to provide a comprehensive examination of modern Jewish identity in the information age. Chapters explore how the impact of Judaism is to be found particularly in the religious media in Israel – haredi and modern Orthodox – and looks at the evolution of new patterns of religious advertising, the growth and impact of the internet on Jewish identity, and the very legitimacy of certain media in the eyes of religious leaders.

Jews and India is a topic that has received little attention and this book seeks to rectify the situation. Despite the fact that the Indian Jewish population constitutes one of the country’s tiniest minorities, the relations of the local Jews with other communities form an integral part in the history of Indian multiculturalism. This has become increasingly apparent over the last two centuries as Judaism and its image have been incorporated into the discussions of some of the most prominent figures of different religious and nationalist movements, leaders of independent India, and the Indian mass media. Furthermore, recent decades witnessed mass adoption of Israelite identity by Indians from two different regions and religious groups.

Collaboration with the Nazis examines the changes in representing collaboration, during the Holocaust, especially in the destruction of European Jewry, in the public discourse and the historiography of various countries in Europe that were occupied by the Germans, or were considered, at least during part of the war, as Germany's allies or satellites.

Muscular Judaism has been described by the Journal of Israeli History as the "outcome of a serious, illuminating, and original project that successfully integrates its insights into a well-established field of research and contributes to an ongoing critical discussion on the origins and implications of the Zionist discourse. The book is very well written, its arguments are clear and convincing. Presner's use of theory is useful but not exaggerated, and his historiographical methods are very productive".

The Jews of Ethiopia offers the results of the most recent research carried out in European and Israeli universities on Ethiopian Jews. With a special focus on Europe and the role played by German, English and Italian Jewish communities in creating a new Jewish Ethiopian identity, it investigates such issues as the formation of a new Ethiopian Jewish elite and the transformation of the identity from Ethiopian Falashas to the Jews of Ethiopia during the twentieth century.
 

In the last two years India and Pakistan have managed to rebuild ties after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks struck a devestating blow to bilateral relations between the two countries. However, the escalation of tensions over the latest incident on the Line of Control (LoC) threatens this normalization of ties.

In 2012, after much discussion and deliberation, both countries agreed to the easing of visa and trade regulations. Pakistan also agreed to grant India MFN (Most Favored Nation) status. To many it appeared as if the two countries would finally break the jinx that has plagued them since their independence.

However, while there is a civilian consensus in Pakistan for improving ties with India, until and unless there is a change in the mindset of Pakistan’s security establishment there will be repeated roadblocks.

India's civilian leadership, especially the current administration, has sought to improve ties with Pakistan notwithstanding the reality that incidents like these and others will keep occurring. For decades successive Indian leaders and administrations have tried to pursue with Pakistan what has happened on the India-China front. India and China still have a border dispute, but they have managed to carve out a relationship in other walks of life, especially economic relations. Further, while tensions on the border occur on a regular basis they are never allowed to irrevocably damage the Sino-Indian relationship. With Pakistan, the Indian argument has been to build economic, cultural, educational and other ties and keep issues like Kashmir on the backburner.

Pakistan’s policy, under various governments both civilian and military, however, has been the reverse. For decades Pakistan insisted that the Kashmir issue needed to be resolved before ties were regularized with India. Pakistan’s foreign and security policies are framed by the security establishment, which has benefited by adopting a policy of constant confrontation with India as justification for the existence of this establishment. The growth in civilian, and public, consensus on better ties with India helped the current Pakistani civilian administration to succeed to the extent it has in the areas of visa and trade with India. However, with an India-centric security establishment framing foreign and security policies that civilian initiative was sooner or later destined to hit a brick wall.

A few days ago India and Pakistan exchanged fire over the Line of Control. Trading of fire at the India-Pakistan border is a routine incident and has been occurring for the past few decades. In most cases all it results in is demarches issued by the two governments. The fact that soldiers have been killed on both sides led to ramping up of emotions and demands from the media and political parties. What actually happened will only unfold in the next few weeks or months. However, the reactions of both countries demonstrate how key players on each side view the long-term relationship.

The Indian reaction demonstrates the tightrope that the Indian administration has to walk on ties with Pakistan between those who advocate being tougher and those who would like to keep building ties. As External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid remarked, “we cannot and must not allow for an escalation of a very unwholesome event that has taken place.” National Security Advisor Shiv Shankar Menon’s comment, that there has been an increase in “infiltration” in recent years and incidents like these are “a fact” India has to deal with, means that as of now the Indian government will continue with its current policy of normalizing ties with Pakistan.

Pakistan’s reaction also reflects continuity, as demonstrated in Islamabad’s appeal to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to investigate the incident. While India treats Kashmir as a bilateral issue, Pakistan has always preferred to internationalize the matter.

Pakistan’s decision to halt trade and travel across the Line of Control in Kashmir by closing its check posts in Poonch reflects a push back from the security establishment on the recent improvement of ties with India. There were signs all of last year that the military-intelligence establishment was uneasy about the easing of visa and trade ties. The repeated delay in signing the required declarations and memorandums were signs ignored by many. However, the security establishment faces a dilemma: Unlike in earlier decades, it is today easier to rile public opinion against the United States than against India. For that, an incident of the kind that happened at the Line of Control is required, one that draws on human emotions as well as vestigial emotions tied to Kashmir.

By Aparna Pande for Real Clear World.

Aparna Pande is Research fellow and Director, Hudson Institute’s Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia. Her book Explaining Pakistan’'s Foreign Policy: Escaping India was published in 2011.

Watch a video of the author talk about Governing Health in Contemporary China here.

The below review of Governing Health in Contemporary China is by Liz Economy for Asia Unbound on the Council on Foreign Relations website.

Trying to wrap one’s arms around China today is a significant challenge. It is a global power with a growing economy, rising military, and expanding diplomatic reach. Yet there continues to be a gnawing sense in and outside China that all is not quite right. Whether it is the 180,000 protests annually, the growing flight of capital and people to the West, or the potentially ruinous impact of corruption on the Communist Party’s legitimacy, uncertainty about China and its future is much greater than the country’s impressive global standing might suggest.

In the face of such uncertainty, what we need most is to understand better—issue by issue—what is happening on the ground in the country; and a terrific new book Governing Health in Contemporary China by my CFR colleague and renowned public health expert Huang Yanzhong provides precisely that kind of insight. It details Beijing’s efforts to tackle one critical and politically explosive issue—health care—and helps us understand where and why the country has succeeded and failed, and what more needs to be done.

The statistics are startling. China has one-third of the world’s smokers and suffers around one million tobacco-related deaths annually; the cardiovascular disease death rate is higher in China than in the United States; and close to one hundred million Chinese are believed to suffer from diabetes. Public anger over poor care, rising costs, and corruption in the health care system triggered over 17,000 violent attacks against hospital doctors and health care workers in 2010. Moreover, horrific stories of tainted food and drugs have further undermined the Chinese people’s faith in their government’s capacity to provide an effective health care regime. As Huang notes, over the past ten years, the Chinese people have come to refer to health care as one of the Three New Mountains—health care, education, and social security—modeled after the old Three Mountains (imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic-capitalism) that the Communist Party deployed to bring down the government of Chiang Kai-Shek.

Huang takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the twists and turns of the various efforts by Chinese leaders from Mao Zedong through Hu Jintao to tackle the country’s health care crisis. He explores the political battles surrounding three of the most pressing health care challenges the country faces: provision of good and affordable health care for all Chinese citizens, managing health care crises such as HIV/AIDs and the outbreaks of SARS and Avian flu; and developing an effective regulatory and enforcement system for food and drug safety. In each case, Huang finds evidence that Chinese leaders have learned from experience and from the outside world how to improve their practices. As a result, he can point to a number of advances in areas such as health insurance coverage or the strengthening of grassroots health care providers.

Yet as Huang amply demonstrates, these remain changes at the margin. He quotes a senior official from the Ministry of Health as noting that the most recent set of reforms launched in 2009 have not “solved the fundamental, systematic and structural problems [in China’s health sector].” Even president-elect Xi Jinping’s pledge to bring higher levels of health care to the Chinese people, coupled with increased investment in the health care sector (according to a recent McKinsey & Co. study, Beijing plans to triple its health care investment to $1 trillion by 2020), will not be enough to make the kind of difference in the country’s public health system that China’s leaders desire and its people demand.

Real change needs a far more radical set of political and institutional reforms that address how health care policy is made, financed, delivered, and evaluated. For Huang, that means health care policy “by fiat” cannot continue. What is needed, instead, he proposes, is reform in Beijing’s relations with local governments, greater democratic participation, a robust civil society, the rule of law, and a true market economy. Without such reform, Beijing will never get at the heart of its public health care crisis.

Asian films are now widely distributed and popular with western audiences. In response to this increasingly global audience, Routledge has recently published several new books that address the history, censorship problems and cultural variations of Asian cinema.

'Bollywood' is the dominant global term to refer to the prolific Hindi language film industry in Bombay (renamed Mumbai in 1995). Characterised by music, dance routines, melodrama, lavish production values and an emphasis on stars and spectacle, Bollywood films have met with box-office success and enthusiastic audiences from India to West Africa to Russia, and throughout the English-speaking world. Bollywood and Globalization outlines the theoretical issues relevant to the spread of popular Indian cinema and emergence of India’s growing soft power, while in Bollywood, anthropologist and film scholar Tejaswini Ganti provides a guide to the cultural, social and political significance of Hindi cinema, outlining the history and structure of the Bombay film industry, and the development of popular Hindi filmmaking since the 1930s.

Film censorship has always been a controversial matter, particularly in jurisdictions with restrictive state-based censorship systems. Film Censorship in the Asia-Pacific Region reviews the film censorship system in the Asia-Pacific by comparing the systems used in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Australia.

To find out more about these titles and more on Asian Cinema, click on the links below.
 

Dafydd Fell is the Senior Lecturer in Taiwan Studies at the Centre for Financial and Management Studies and the Department of Political and International Studies of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is also the Deputy Director of the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies and is the coordinator for the European Association of Taiwan Studies.

American Government 7th Edition + Perspectives on American Government bundle:

Adding Perspectives on American Government: Readings in Political Development and Change, edited by Cal Jillson and David Robertson, to your list of course texts will provide classic political science scholarship and the best contemporary analysis to your students. Students will be invited to probe the historical dynamics that brought the United States to where it is today and how those dynamics are likely to affect its future course.

American Government 7th Edition + The American Anomaly bundle:

Adding The American Anomaly, by Raymond A. Smith, to your list of course texts will add a comparative perspective that provides much needed insight of the American political system into global context. Introductory textbooks on American government, however, rarely emphasize in sufficient depth how the United States compares to other political systems. And introductions to comparative politics infrequently situate the United States in their analysis.

American Government 7th Edition + In Defense of Politicians bundle:

Adding In Defense of Politicians, by Stephen K. Medvic, to your list of course texts will give your students a provocative contrarian argument to supplement the framework of American politics described in American Government.

American Government 7th Edition + New Directions in American Politics bundle:

Adding New Directions in American Politics, edited by Raymond J. La Raja, to your list of course texts will add analytical perspectives to American Politics. New Directions in American Politics introduces students not just to how the American political system works but also to how political science works. La Raja brings together top scholars to write original essays across the American government curriculum, capturing emerging research in the discipline in a way that is accessible for undergraduates.

Routledge Major Works WINTER BACKLIST OFFER! (from 12/12/12 – 12/3/13)

There is a fantastic range of titles on offer from subject areas such as Allied Health, Asian Studies, Business, Economics, Education, History, Linguistics, Literature, Media, Philosophy, Politics, Psychology, Religion and Sociology.

This eclectic mix of titles includes collections on Mao Zedong, Sufism, Marketing Research, Journalism, Radio, French Feminists, War and Human Rights.

Click here to download our list of 50 titles currently available to purchase!

To receive 20% off simply add your selection of books to your cart, place MWINTER20 into the Discount code field and then “Update Cart”!

This particular offer really shows the scope and range of Routledge Major Works-an essential reference teaching programme for your library.

He concludes: 'This is a colourful and intriguing textbook which I highly recommend. It is the sort of book you wish you had written yourself, but Niko Roorda has done just that and in the process added a remarkable edition to the sustainability library.'

For the full review, click here!

With new case studies, a full new chapter on Green Criminology, and a brand-new companion website, this is the essential introductory textbook to the field of criminology!

Want to get the complete rundown of all the new content?  Click here!

Want to request your complimentary exam copy?  Click here, fill out our simple, pre-set form, and we'll take care of the rest!

Globalization From Below explores globalization as actually experienced by most of the world’s people, buying goods from street vendors brought by traders moving past borders and across continents under the radar of the law. Click here to read more.

"The word globalization summons up images of transnational corporations and internet-savvy human rights campaigners. This important book brings to our attention a wholly different and quite fascinating phenomenon - vast webs of traders, travelers, and marketers, crossing borders and transforming economies and societies from the bottom up." - Josiah Heyman, University of Texas at El Paso, USA