Peter Van Ham – författare

This is the first book to look at the process of European integration by drawing on both established and new trends in postmodern thinking and analysis. The book asks how we can study the process of European integration in the current climate, and maps out the central elements of the academic debate dealing with the future of integration, and 'Europe' in general.The author stimulates fresh readings of the European issue, encouraging the development of new analytical horizons. This is a significant cutting-edge contribution to debates in politics, comparative politics and European studies.

Social power, defined as "the ability to set standards, create norms and values that are deemed legitimate and desirable, without resorting to coercion or payment", is a central part of contemporary international politics. This text introduces and defines the concept of social power and considers how it works in international politics. It demonstrates how social power is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in a wide variety of ways and circumstances, particularly in culture, institutions, law, and the media. Providing a global perspective on the role of social power from the EU, the US, the Middle East, and China, this book: Focuses on the key aspects of social power: centrality, complexity, and comprehensiveness. Examines the complex relationship between soft and hard power, the role of the media, and new communications technologies. Explores the interplay between state and non-state actors in framing the public discourse, setting the agenda, molding identities, and ultimately determining the outcome of policy processes. Features a broad range of international case studies and addresses issues including: culture and pop culture, media, public diplomacy, and branding. With particular focus on the social power of non-state actors, such as non-governmental organizations, the media, and consumers, Social Power in International Politics offers a thought-provoking new perspective on how power is exercised in the complex reality of the contemporary world. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of international relations, political science, and media and communications studies.

Social power, defined as "the ability to set standards, create norms and values that are deemed legitimate and desirable, without resorting to coercion or payment", is a central part of contemporary international politics. This text introduces and defines the concept of social power and considers how it works in international politics. It demonstrates how social power is a complex phenomenon that manifests itself in a wide variety of ways and circumstances, particularly in culture, institutions, law, and the media. Providing a global perspective on the role of social power from the EU, the US, the Middle East, and China, this book: Focuses on the key aspects of social power: centrality, complexity, and comprehensiveness. Examines the complex relationship between soft and hard power, the role of the media, and new communications technologies. Explores the interplay between state and non-state actors in framing the public discourse, setting the agenda, molding identities, and ultimately determining the outcome of policy processes. Features a broad range of international case studies and addresses issues including: culture and pop culture, media, public diplomacy, and branding. With particular focus on the social power of non-state actors, such as non-governmental organizations, the media, and consumers, Social Power in International Politics offers a thought-provoking new perspective on how power is exercised in the complex reality of the contemporary world. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of international relations, political science, and media and communications studies.

Adopted in April 2004, UN Security Council Resolution 1540 obliges all states to take steps to prevent non-state actors, especially terrorist organizations and arms traffickers, from acquiring weapons of mass destruction and related materials. The United Nations placed itself firmly in the center of one of the world's key international security challenges.Global Non-Proliferation and Counter-Terrorism brings together renowned scholars and policymakers to examine a wide range of new policy-related questions arising from the resolution's impact on the bio-scientific community, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the IAEA, trade and customs, and counter-proliferation initiatives such as the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI). The impact of 1540 goes beyond setting new legal requirements. It focuses on enforcement not only nationally but also internationally, pressing all states to place their own houses in order. Among the key questions is how the resolution will change the existing network of non-proliferation regimes. Will it merely reinforce requirements of the existing non-proliferation treaties? Or will it offer a legal framework for counter-proliferation activities and other measures to enforce the non-proliferation network? This book provides an overview of the novel policy questions UNSCR 1540's future implementation and enforcement will offer for years to come. Contributors include Jeffrey Almond, Thomas J. Biersteker (Brown University), Olivia Bosch (Chatham House), Gerald Epstein (CSIS), Chandré Gould (Center for Conflict Resolution, Cape Town )], Ron Manley (former OPCW Director of Verification) Sarah Meek (ISS), Siew Gay Ong (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore), Elizabeth Prescott (AAAS Congressional Fellow), Tariq Rauf (IAEA), Will Robinson (World Customs Organization), Roelof Jan Manschot (Eurojust), Peter van Ham (Netherlands Institute of International Relations), Ted Whiteside (NATO), and Angela Woodward (VERTIC).

East-West trade and technology transfer have always been linked to the issue of "national security". The author identifies many different Western doctrines on East-West trade, demonstrating that two basic belief systems underly these doctrines.

This text argues that the process of West European integration was encouraged and facilitated by the Cold War, in which the threat posed by the Soviet Union temporarily inhibited internal conflicts, and in which American hegemony provided the relatively stable and secure economic, political and military framework in which the major West European countries were able to co-operate and take major steps towards the ultimate ideal of a European Union.

Expedition Naga is a multisensory trip into one of the world's most remote and least accessible regions. Diaries written by British administrators/explorers during punitive expeditions in the 1920s and '30s against the Naga, a people once notorious for their headhunting activities, are compared with contemporary notes written during the last 5 years when the authors were given special permission to do fieldwork in the long-forbidden border areas between India and Myanmar (Burma). Four hundred contemporary and historic photographs, most of which are published here for the first time ever, along with film and sound material on the enclosed free DVD, allow the reader to explore both the present and the past of one of the least known, yet most interesting cultural realms as it has never been possible before. The book will appeal to travellers, anthropologists, people interested in exploration and photography. Furthermore, the subject is spectacular in that many rituals, such as headhunting and other rites associated with fertility, are still taking place, the area having been closed for such a long time. The culture of the Naga people is amazing to witness in the twenty-first century when such cultural traits rarely exist. Furthermore, they are not associated with Indian culture, but rather with African or Indonesian.

Over one thousand years old, the Buddhist monastery complex of Tabo with its exquisitely preserved works of art ranks among the most fascinating cultural and historical treasures of mankind. The new edition of this richly illustrated volume shows the beauty of these legendary sanctuaries for the first time in the highest digital resolution and describes in detail the entire gamut of Western Tibetan artistic styles.The monastery of Tabo, located in the northern Indian Himalayan region and founded in 996 AD, is the oldest temple complex in the Tibetan cultural area that has been preserved in its original state. Tabo's main temple, the "Temple of the Enlightened Gods", is a unique work of art: 1000-year-old sculptures and paintings, created in an incomparably fine style by Indian and Western Tibetan artists, together form a walk-in, horizontal mandala. Only with special permission was Peter van Ham able to spend decades photographing the temple halls, which are otherwise off-limits to cameras - most recently in the world's highest digital resolution. In the book, he also provides detailed background information and the latest research findings on the spectacular yet endangered sanctuary.

Hailing from the cultural realm of India, the mandala signifies in its original sense a sacred circle. It serves as a meditation aid and at the same time reflects an ancient symbolism of strictly geometric basic forms accompanied by an interpretation of its sacred content. As an expression of the awareness of higher affinities, the symmetrically arranged geometry can be found in a variety of pictorial works and the architecture of various epochs and cultural realms, for example in medieval book illumination, the floor plan of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, in Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, or in various objects of the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Australia, and the Americas. Based on these and other masterpieces from renowned museums and private collections and illustrated in fascinating photographs of unique buildings and rituals, this publication offers an impressive first analysis of the phenomenon of sacred geometry in art and architecture and their underlying ideologies.Text in German.