Ashgate Plus Series in International Relations and Politics – serie

Through a multidisciplinary approach, African Frontiers counters the superficial, Eurocentric and gender insensitive dominant discursive representation of Africa within the discourse of war and conflict management, and security and peace/nation-building. The chapters historicize and theorize the realities in postcolonial African states, and the ramifications on the continents future. Situating the study within the context of the prevailing cultural and geo-political realities in the postcolonial African states, the chapters illustrate the complex ways in which events and processes are experienced at the local level, and how these local realities in turn impact and shape the patterns of political and military engagement in Africa and beyond. Organized along three major themes: Insurgency, governance and peacebuilding, expert researchers from around the world contribute chapters on: Rebel and insurgent formations such as the RUF, the LRA, and Boko Haram; state governance and corruption; terrorism and counter terrorism; security and peacebuilding; focussing on the tensions and challenges facing post-conflict societies such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and the newest nation-state on the continent, South Sudan. This highly significant and topical study problematizes the impact of wars on African nations, as well as the epistemological framing of the local realities and fallouts of armed conflict on post-colonial states.

Dynamics of entrepreneurship have attracted growing attention from scholars of political science, policy studies, public administration and planning, as well as more recently, from the realms of international relations and foreign policy analysis. Under the banner of political entrepreneurship, this volume considers and maps out conceptual approaches to the study of entrepreneurship drawn from these fields, discusses synergies, envisages new analytical tools and offers contemporary empirical case studies, illustrating the diverse political contexts in which entrepreneurship takes place in the polis. Drawing upon an international cast of senior academics and cutting edge young researchers, the volume takes a closer look at key aspects of political entrepreneurship, such as, defining political entrepreneurs, how it relates to change, decision-making and strategies, organizational arrangements, institutional rules, varying contexts and future research agendas. By highlighting the political aspects of entrepreneurship, the volume presents new exciting opportunities for understanding entrepreneurial activities at regional, national and international levels. The volume will be of particular relevance to scholars and students of political science, policy studies, public administration, planning, international relations and business studies as well as practitioners interested in the nexus and utility of entrepreneurship in the modern-day political world.

The Middle East is a hot spot of proliferation. It contains one state assumed to possess nuclear weapons, several states that tried and failed to develop a military nuclear capability, one state under suspicion of trying to do so, and it is the world region that witnessed the most frequent and severe employment of chemical weapons since the end of World War I. Notwithstanding, not a single arms control regime concerning weapons of mass destruction (WMD) covers the region as a whole. Instead we have seen several proliferation-related military operations which have rather contributed to destabilization than served non-proliferation. This volume, written under the auspices of the EU Consortium for Non-Proliferation and Disarmament determines the current state of diplomatic efforts to establish a WMD free zone in the Middle East. In doing so, it provides insights into central actors’ conflicting political positions, thereby explaining the stalemate of efforts to negotiate a WMD-free zone. Chapters written by renowned experts from academia and policy-oriented think tanks, as well as by next-generation Middle East and arms control experts, introduce the subject to the reader, give background information about arms control initiatives, provide technical expertise, and endeavour to make proposals for arms control measures in support of the creation of a Middle East WMD-free zone.