Colin Alexander – författare

This edited volume provides one of the most formidable critical inquiries into public diplomacy’s relationship with hegemony, morality and power. Wherein, the examination of public diplomacy’s ‘frontiers’ will aid scholars and students alike in their acquiring of greater critical understanding around the values and intentions that are at the crux of this area of statecraft.For the contributing authors to this edited volume, public diplomacy is not just a political communications term, it is also a moral term within which actors attempt to convey a sense of their own virtuosity and ‘goodness’ to international audiences. The book thereby provides fascinating insight into public diplomacy from the under-researched angle of moral philosophy and ethics, arguing that public diplomacy is one of the primary vehicles through which international actors engage in moral rhetoric to meet their power goals.The Frontiers of Public Diplomacy is a landmark book for scholars, students and practitioners of the subject. At a practical level, it provides a series of interesting case studies of public diplomacy in peripheral settings. However, at a conceptual level, it challenges the reader to consider more fully the assumptions that they may make about public diplomacy and its role within the international system.

This edited volume provides one of the most formidable critical inquiries into public diplomacy’s relationship with hegemony, morality and power. Wherein, the examination of public diplomacy’s ‘frontiers’ will aid scholars and students alike in their acquiring of greater critical understanding around the values and intentions that are at the crux of this area of statecraft.For the contributing authors to this edited volume, public diplomacy is not just a political communications term, it is also a moral term within which actors attempt to convey a sense of their own virtuosity and ‘goodness’ to international audiences. The book thereby provides fascinating insight into public diplomacy from the under-researched angle of moral philosophy and ethics, arguing that public diplomacy is one of the primary vehicles through which international actors engage in moral rhetoric to meet their power goals.The Frontiers of Public Diplomacy is a landmark book for scholars, students and practitioners of the subject. At a practical level, it provides a series of interesting case studies of public diplomacy in peripheral settings. However, at a conceptual level, it challenges the reader to consider more fully the assumptions that they may make about public diplomacy and its role within the international system.

August 2020 marked the fortieth anniversary of the opening of the first section of the Tyne & Wear Metro between Haymarket and Tynemouth. It is an exciting time for the system, with a new fleet of trains about to be ordered, and extensions to the network being proposed.This book explores the decline of the BR suburban lines that were replaced, the phased opening of the new system from 1980, and subsequent extensions. It also looks at those being considered in the future. The successful integration of the Metro with bus and ferry services is considered, alongside the inclusivity of the railway’s design, which allows disabled people unprecedented access to public transport. It also illustrates Metro’s unique combination of brand-new tunnels, spectacular viaducts and underground stations, taking in the magnificent Victorian infrastructure of the former North Eastern Railway and Blyth & Tyne Railway.

Long before Brexit, the Common Market and even the Commonwealth, Britannia truly did rule the waves. Perhaps more unsung is the fact that she also ruled the rails over much of the world, for Britain’s engineers effectively exported the Industrial Revolution and specifically the railway around the globe. This was especially true in that forerunner of the Commonwealth, the British Empire. In those parts of the world that were coloured pink on schoolroom maps, the rapidly expanding colonial railways were supplied by British companies like Neilson Reid, Bagnall, Kitson, Cravens and Cammell-Laird.This book tells the story of the expansion of the railways of the British Empire in Africa, featuring stunning photographs, contemporary maps, posters, travel brochures and extracts from other interesting documents.

North-east England, defined here as the historic counties of Northumberland and Durham, has a long, proud tradition of producing great innovators, some very well known and others almost forgotten.This book explores their stories and legacies, examining such titanic figures as the Stephensons, Swan and Hunter. The partnership of Richard Grainger and John Dobson, who together transformed Newcastle from a cramped medieval port to a beautiful Victorian city, also feature.Lavishly illustrated throughout, this is a terrific celebration of the industrial and civic achievements of north-east England.

The North Yorkshire Moors Railway is Britain's most popular heritage railway, and runs for 18 miles through the national park of the same name. The journey commences at the market town of Pickering, whose station has a recently restored overall roof. It continues through remote Levisham and into the spectacular glaciated gorge of Newtondale and onto Fen Bog, where George Stephenson floated the railway on a bed of sheep fleeces and timber. Once over Goathland summit, the line descends steeply to Goathland station, famous as both Aidensfield in Heartbeat and Hogsmeade station in the Harry Potter films. From Goathland the line drops at a continuous gradient of 1 in 49 to Grosmont, junction with the Esk Valley Railway and site of the busy engine sheds.Today, many NYMR trains continue to the coast at Whitby, a journey of 24 miles from Pickering, mostly on Stephenson's 1836 route.

Thousands of years before the Romans and the Venerable Bede, Northumberland was a landscape of hilltop forts, many of which can be traced today. Military order was imposed on the region by Hadrian’s legionaries, who built the 73-mile northern frontier of the Roman Empire across the county. Through the Dark Ages and into Medieval times, the kingdom of Northumbria was governed from massive castles, and the constant threat of the Border Reivers is evidenced in the masonry of fortified farmhouses, pele towers and churches. There are 600 recognised pele towers in England, stretching as far south as Norfolk and Cornwall; 258 of the 600 are in Northumberland.At the end of the border warfare, the magnificent castles became either romantic ruins or stately homes, while Britain’s east coast needed more modern defences against new, foreign enemies. With a fascinating array of images, Colin Alexander tells the defensive story of England’s border county, Northumberland, from prehistory to modern times.

The North British Locomotive Company came into existence in 1903 as an amalgamation of three established Glasgow locomotive manufacturers: Dübs & Co., Sharp Stewart and Neilson Reid. Each of these companies enjoyed an excellent reputation for its products both at home and abroad.The amalgamation that formed NBL created the largest locomotive builder in the British Empire, building on the worldwide renown of its predecessors and exporting its products all over the world to places as diverse as Palestine, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. Its locomotive output was as varied as its clients, with steam locomotives of every gauge, and ranging from tiny tank engines to massive Beyer-Garratts.Moving with the times, North British entered the market for diesel and electric traction after the Second World War and its lack of success in this field ultimately brought the company to its knees.Here, Colin Alexander and Alon Siton present a lavishly illustrated exploration of one of Britain’s greatest locomotive companies, including the products of its three Victorian constituents and official works photographs, images of locos in service and some of the many preserved Dübs, Sharp Stewart, Neilson and North British locomotives on heritage railways and in museums around the world.

George Stephenson was born in 1781, the son of a Northumberland colliery engineman. Within a hundred years of his birth his railway legacy had opened up vast tracts of the planet, many of those routes engineered by George himself or his son Robert. Their locomotive factory at Newcastle upon Tyne soon outgrew its premises and a much larger site was founded at Darlington.The father and son are well known for their pioneering work on the Stockton & Darlington and Liverpool & Manchester railways, but they engineered more than locomotives. Robert is responsible for some of the world’s most innovative and impressive bridges and the company the Stephensons founded continued (as Robert Stephenson Hawthorn) to build locomotives for a burgeoning worldwide market for well over a century. This book will tell its story and show its global influence.

The ‘British’ period in the Middle East began with Lawrence of Arabia's attacks on the Hedjaz Railway in the First World War and the eventual defeat of the Ottoman Empire. It ended with the creation of the state of Israel after the stormy British mandate in Palestine. New international routes were established into Egypt and western Lebanon. There was also a powerful British influence on the railways of Iraq, Egypt and Sudan.This book is divided into chronological periods: pre-1918, the interwar years, and 1939 to the present day. All manner of British-built locomotives and rolling stock, whether purpose-built or hastily requisitioned in wartime, saw service all over this fascinating region, and this book attempts to show that variety.

Elegance in Engineering showcases an interesting and diverse collection of British-built steam locomotives from all builders, for railways at home and abroad. These examples of British engineering at its best tell the story of the development of the archetypal British steam locomotive from the 1830s to the end of steam locomotive manufacture.Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder and any selection of locomotives is bound to be subjective, but nobody can deny that by comparison, locomotives built overseas tended to be angular and austere. Maintenance staff would argue that having many of their fittings on the outside made them easier to look after but the purist would contest that it did not make them easier on the eye.

Long before Brexit, the Common Market and even the Commonwealth, Britannia truly did rule the waves. Perhaps more unsung is the fact that she also ruled the rails over much of the world, for Britain’s engineers effectively exported the Industrial Revolution and specifically the railway around the globe. This was especially true of the forerunner of the Commonwealth, the British Empire. In those parts of the world that were coloured pink on schoolroom maps, the rapidly expanding colonial railways were supplied by British companies like Neilson Reid, Bagnall, Kitson, Cravens and Cammell-Laird.This book tells the story of the expansion of the railways of the British Empire in the Indian subcontinent, featuring stunning photographs, contemporary maps, posters, travel brochures and extracts from other interesting documents.