Europa Country Perspectives – serie

Ukraine: Contested Nationhood in a European Context challenges the common view that Ukraine is a country split between a pro-European West and a pro-Russian East. The volume navigates the complicated cultural history of Ukraine and highlights the importance of regional traditions for an understanding of the current political situation. A key feature is the different politics of memory that prevail in each region, such as the Soviet past being presented as either a foreign occupation or a benign socialist project. The pluralistic culture of Ukraine (in terms of languages, national legacies and religions) forms a nation that faces both internal and external challenges. In order to address this fully, rather than following a merely chronological order, this book examines different interpretations of Ukrainian nationhood that have been especially influential, such as the Russian tradition, the Habsburg past and the Polish connections. Finally, the book analyses Ukraine’s political and economic options for the future. Can the desired integration into EU structures overcome the concentration of investment of power in the hands of a few oligarchs and a continuing widespread culture of corruption? Will proposals to join NATO, which garnered robust support among the populace in the aftermath of the Russian aggression, materialise under the current circumstances? Is the political culture in Ukraine sufficiently functional to guarantee democratic procedures and the rule of law?

Boat arrivals have defined and divided 21st-century Australia. This book examines the ‘Stop the Boats’ era from between the 2013 and 2022 federal elections. During this time the dominant political view has been that to accept a single boat, family or person is to risk being overwhelmed by many others. It follows that government must do whatever it takes to command Australia’s borders and deter unauthorized arrivals; that is, Stop the Boats!This book sets out the key political events and arguments for and against Australia’s assurance that anyone who comes without permission will never be able to stay. It examines the impact of this commitment on regional and international relations, on those who seek refuge in Australia, and on those who call it ‘home’. This volume serves as a valuable political history and analysis for scholars, policymakers, students, journalists and anyone who is interested in questions of contemporary exclusion and belonging.

Sweden has often been described as a democratic forerunner, with one of the world's most stable party systems and with a well-functioning parliamentary system. However, the political landscape in Sweden has undergone a rapid change in recent years. The institutions of the political system – not least political parties – appear from a historical perspective to have become partly dysfunctional. The previously stable party system has become unstable. Consequently, it has become more difficult to form governments, and more difficult for governments to govern. The famous culture of consensus has been replaced by a harsher and more confrontational political climate; the tone in political debate has become more aggressive.During the so-called `golden age' of the party system, which lasted for a few decades from the middle of the twentieth century, parties could successfully mobilize broad and well-defined social interests with strong collective identities. Now, other conditions apply that have dramatically changed the role of parties in the democratic process. Parties have gone from being member-based popular movements to becoming professionalized voter-orientated campaign machines. Short-sightedness and a focus on median voters mean that the established parties have become increasingly similar, and populist parties have had great success in recent decades as a consequence.This volume, aimed at political scientists and those interested in discussion and analysis of Swedish political party dynamics, focuses on political parties in Sweden, how they have changed and what the changes mean in a wider sense.

This volume aims to go beyond the study of developments within Mexico’s criminal world and their relationship with the state and law enforcement. It focuses instead on the nature and consequences of what we call the ‘totalization of the drug war’, and its projection on other domains which are key to understanding the nature of Mexican democracy. The volume brings together chapters written by distinguished scholars from Mexico and elsewhere who deal with three major questions: what are the main features of and forces behind the persistent militarization of the drug war in Mexico, and what are the main consequences for human rights and the rule of law; what are the consequences of these developments on the public sphere and, more specifically, on the functioning of the press and freedom of expression; and how do ordinary people engage with the effects of violence and insecurity within their communities, and which initiatives and practices of ‘justice from below’ do they develop to counter an increased sense of vulnerability, suffering and impunity?

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has elaborated its own philosophy of security. Driven by emergencies and increasing risks, both in the region and globally, Emirati authorities have developed a sense of anticipation as well as an agility to react promptly to new threats through the ability to assess the risks in any given situation. War and the avatars of conflict are a constant reality in the Middle East. Transnational threats, including the regional context, the war in Yemen, insecurity in the Levant and tensions with Iran affect the overall stability of the Peninsula and consequently that of the UAE. Owing to the inclusion of the UAE in the networks of globalization, non-traditional security issues are not relegated to the background. Issues such as COVID-19, immigration, cybersecurity and human trafficking need to be addressed domestically as well as globally.This volume offers a comprehensive and multifaceted examination of the traditional and non-traditional security measures present in the UAE that allow the country to remain politically stable in an otherwise volatile region, and aims to offer a comprehensive overview of all forms of security in the UAE.

This volume explains China’s foreign policy from the perspective of its historical recovery after 1949 and the country’s subsequent rise as a great power, including its transformation into a global power. It also illuminates how China has, in tandem with its rise, developed an increasing array of political, economic, ‘sharp power’ and military capabilities that is helping it to further its increasingly expansive foreign policy objectives. The volume examines two key questions: What have been the implications of China’s rise for its foreign policy? And how has an increasingly powerful and confident China used a range of foreign policy instruments to pursue its expanding national interests in Asia and beyond? The volume is divided into three parts, covering the conceptualization and drivers of China’s foreign policy, China’s relations with the world, and the instruments of China’s foreign policy, namely its economic power, military capabilities and its ‘sharp power’ manipulation of information and relationships. It will be of interest to academics, students and researchers interested in understanding China’s role in world politics.

For most of the first part of the 21st century Greece has been seen as a critical battlefield for the survival of the powerful and the adjustment or extinction of the weak, as if all the historical contradictions of the global financial crisis and the eurozone crisis were concentrated in that tiny part of the world, with a population of just 11 million people and a GDP of less than 2% of that of the European Union as a whole. While the country has been overpowered by the disciplinarian and deeply authoritarian policy mix of ordoliberal/neoliberal rules, as this book attempts to show, there is hope. Defeat does not end the crisis, and crisis means constant opportunity. In this state of affairs, all types of agencies try to take advantage of the conditions and opportunities in order to advance towards positions of power and provide the best of solutions for the class interests they represent. Thus, harsh conflict is inevitable and if history provides a yardstick, it is that in periods of conflict and crisis, the winner, usually, is the one who manages to strike the right political and social alliances at the right time. The editors have assembled in this volume a number of interdisciplinary chapters and arguments which, despite their differences, share the strategic aim of a critique of both neoliberalism/ordoliberalism and new authoritarianism. Chapters examine the eurozone crisis from a variety of angles with reference to Greece, and Greek politics and society. With this collection of heterodox and scholarly essays, the authors and editors aim to offer a progressive understanding of current historical circumstances.Constantine Dimoulas is an Assistant Professor in social administration and evaluation of social programmes at Panteion University, Greece.Vassilis K. Fouskas is Professor of international politics and economics at the University of East London, UK, and the founding editor of the Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies (Taylor & Francis).

Darfur is a vast region endowed with limited and unexplored natural resources, poor infrastructure, and lack of major development projects, and identifying its economic and human development needs brings us closer to finding ways to alleviate its human suffering and environmental stress. This book presents a broad spectrum of analytical perspectives from prominent academics, professionals, and practitioners from Darfur itself, adhering to the principles of scientific inquiry with intellectual rigor and objectivity in order to form a collective thesis on the political economy of Darfur.The first section in this title presents Darfur as a political entity, including its systems of land tenure and administration. The second section describes the water resources, agricultural production, and environmental conditions of the region. The third discusses the cost of the war, health issues, and women’s issues, and the fourth discusses energy and transportation infrastructure.While there are many existing books that discuss the current humanitarian and political crisis in Darfur, this is one of the first to explore the causes behind the crisis. This title is a valuable resource for academics, students, researchers and policy-makers with an interest in the region and in the wider fields of political economy and conflict studies.

This volume presents an interdisciplinary analysis of the practice of disappearances in Mexico, from the period of the so-called ‘dirty war’ to the current crisis of disappearances associated with the country’s ‘war on drugs’, during which more than 80,000 people have disappeared. The volume brings together contributions by distinguished scholars from Mexico, Argentina and Europe, who focus their chapters on four broad axes of enquiry. In Part I, chapters examine the phenomenon of disappearances in its historical and present-day forms, and the struggles for memory around the disappeared in Mexico with reference to Argentina. Part II addresses the political dimensions of disappearances, focusing on the specificities that this practice acquires in the context of the counterinsurgency struggle of the 1970s and the so-called ‘war on drugs’. The third section situates the issue within the framework of human rights law by examining the conceptual and legal aspects of disappearances. The final chapters explore the social movement of the relatives of the disappeared, showing how their search for disappeared loved ones involves bodily and affective experiences as well as knowledge production. The volume thus aims to further our understanding of the crisis of disappearances in Mexico without, however, losing sight of the historic origins of the phenomenon.

This book is the first to provide an in-depth understanding of the 2014 crisis, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Europe’s de facto war between Russia and Ukraine. The book provides a historical and contemporary understanding behind President Vladimir Putin Russia’s obsession with Ukraine and why Western opprobrium and sanctions have not deterred Russian military aggression. The volume provides a wealth of detail about the inability of Russia, from the time of the Tsarist Empire, throughout the era of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and since the dissolution of the latter in 1991, to accept Ukraine as an independent country and Ukrainians as a people distinct and separate from Russians. The book highlights the sources of this lack of acceptance in aspects of Russian national identity. In the Soviet period, Russians principally identified themselves not with the Russian Soviet Federative Republic, but rather with the USSR as a whole. Attempts in the 1990s to forge a post-imperial Russian civic identity grounded in the newly independent Russian Federation were unpopular, and notions of a far larger Russian ‘imagined community’ came to the fore. A post-Soviet integration of Tsarist Russian great power nationalism and White Russian émigré chauvinism had already transformed and hardened Russian denial of the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians as a people, even prior to the 2014 crises in Crimea and the Donbas. Bringing an end to both the Russian occupation of Crimea and to the broader Russian–Ukrainian conflict can be expected to meet obstacles not only from the Russian de facto President-for-life, Vladimir Putin, but also from how Russia perceives its national identity.

This book is the first to provide an in-depth understanding of the 2014 crisis, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and Europe’s de facto war between Russia and Ukraine. The book provides a historical and contemporary understanding behind President Vladimir Putin Russia’s obsession with Ukraine and why Western opprobrium and sanctions have not deterred Russian military aggression. The volume provides a wealth of detail about the inability of Russia, from the time of the Tsarist Empire, throughout the era of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and since the dissolution of the latter in 1991, to accept Ukraine as an independent country and Ukrainians as a people distinct and separate from Russians. The book highlights the sources of this lack of acceptance in aspects of Russian national identity. In the Soviet period, Russians principally identified themselves not with the Russian Soviet Federative Republic, but rather with the USSR as a whole. Attempts in the 1990s to forge a post-imperial Russian civic identity grounded in the newly independent Russian Federation were unpopular, and notions of a far larger Russian ‘imagined community’ came to the fore. A post-Soviet integration of Tsarist Russian great power nationalism and White Russian émigré chauvinism had already transformed and hardened Russian denial of the existence of Ukraine and Ukrainians as a people, even prior to the 2014 crises in Crimea and the Donbas. Bringing an end to both the Russian occupation of Crimea and to the broader Russian–Ukrainian conflict can be expected to meet obstacles not only from the Russian de facto President-for-life, Vladimir Putin, but also from how Russia perceives its national identity.

Ukraine: Contested Nationhood in a European Context challenges the common view that Ukraine is a country split between a pro-European West and a pro-Russian East. The volume navigates the complicated cultural history of Ukraine and highlights the importance of regional traditions for an understanding of the current political situation. A key feature is the different politics of memory that prevail in each region, such as the Soviet past being presented as either a foreign occupation or a benign socialist project. The pluralistic culture of Ukraine (in terms of languages, national legacies and religions) forms a nation that faces both internal and external challenges. In order to address this fully, rather than following a merely chronological order, this book examines different interpretations of Ukrainian nationhood that have been especially influential, such as the Russian tradition, the Habsburg past and the Polish connections. Finally, the book analyses Ukraine’s political and economic options for the future. Can the desired integration into EU structures overcome the concentration of investment of power in the hands of a few oligarchs and a continuing widespread culture of corruption? Will proposals to join NATO, which garnered robust support among the populace in the aftermath of the Russian aggression, materialise under the current circumstances? Is the political culture in Ukraine sufficiently functional to guarantee democratic procedures and the rule of law?

Created by social movement activists and left-wing parties during years of austerity, Barcelona en Comú, or the Comuns (as they are known in Catalan), won control of the city council of Barcelona in May 2015. The ensuing municipal government gave the city its first ever female mayor in the form of former housing rights campaigner Ada Colau. The Comuns' administration proceeded to undertake ambitious initiatives, attempting to regenerate democracy by changing the relationship between municipal authority and citizen, addressing social inequality issues and seeking to curb the hitherto unbridled tourist expansion in the name of improving the environment for those who live in the Catalan capital.This book examines the extent to which the political project of the Comuns has brought radical change in Barcelona, where it has faced opposition from revolutionary anti-capitalists, traditional Catalan nationalists and independentistas, as well as conservative political and economic forces. It also considers the Comuns' relationship to Podemos and their prospects of growing beyond the city, in the metropolitan area of Barcelona and across Catalonia.

While global attention has been focused on other regional issues, such as China-US tensions and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, little attention has been paid to Taiwan. Yet the so-called Taiwan issue, namely the continued separation of the island from mainland China, remains a major regional security challenge that could potentially spark direct conflict involving the USA, China and Japan, the three largest economies in the world, two of which are nuclear powers. Although Taiwan has continued to find opportunities to maintain the current status quo despite a deteriorating geo-strategic environment as a result of the rise of China and the uncertainties of the Trump Administration, its room for manoeuvre continues to narrow. This volume examines the challenges and evaluates the prospects for preventing conflict on the Taiwan Strait, by focusing on the political conditions that Taiwan faces internally and externally.

Bolivia: Geopolitics of a Landlocked State goes beyond the traditional focus on inter-American relations, territorial issues and the maritime question to provide the first comprehensive study of Bolivian foreign policy from independence to the present day. It aims to redress the balance between the often overstated importance of external determinants – actors and forces outside Bolivia which have influenced the foreign policy process – and the understated impact of internal determinants, similar actors and forces within Bolivia.Drawing on 50 years of research and study, the author focuses on the five interrelated goals of sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity, continental solidarity and economic independence, which have characterized Bolivian foreign policy from the outset. In so doing, the negative impact which poor governance, weak state capacity and a fixation on the seaport issue had on the achievement of those five goals is centre stage in the discussion. In acknowledging the geopolitical ramifications of being landlocked, the singular nature of Bolivia’s approach to the problem also is detailed.An examination of foreign policy today can no longer be confined to intergovernmental relations; instead, it must consider the full range of internal and external forces which have influenced its scope and direction. In addition to bilateral relations, boundary disputes and the seaport issue, this volume explores the impact of foreign capital and multinational companies, together with the effects of domestic entrepreneurs, political parties, labour unions and social movements. It also assesses the overlap or linkage between domestic and foreign variables when the two combined to influence Bolivian foreign policy.

To the outside world, for some half a century, the words ‘Basque Country’ have provoked an almost instant association with the Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA, Basque Homeland and Liberty) separatist group and violent conflict. The Basque Contention: Ethnicity, Politics, Violence attempts to undo this simplistic correlation and, for the first time, provide a definitive history of the wider political issues at the heart of the Basque Country.Drawing on three decades of research on Basque nationalism, Ludger Mees weaves together the various historical and contemporary strands of this contention: from the late medieval kingdoms of Spain and France and the first articulations of a Basque ethno-particularism, to the dissolution of ETA in 2018, and all manner of dictatorships, conflict, peace, civil war, political intrigue, hope and failure in-between.For anyone who has ever wanted to gain an insight into the Basque Country beyond the headlines of ETA and grasp the complexity of its relationship with Spain, France and indeed itself, this volume provides a detailed, yet digestible, basis for such an understanding.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has elaborated its own philosophy of security. Driven by emergencies and increasing risks, both in the region and globally, Emirati authorities have developed a sense of anticipation as well as an agility to react promptly to new threats through the ability to assess the risks in any given situation. War and the avatars of conflict are a constant reality in the Middle East. Transnational threats, including the regional context, the war in Yemen, insecurity in the Levant and tensions with Iran affect the overall stability of the Peninsula and consequently that of the UAE. Owing to the inclusion of the UAE in the networks of globalization, non-traditional security issues are not relegated to the background. Issues such as COVID-19, immigration, cybersecurity and human trafficking need to be addressed domestically as well as globally.This volume offers a comprehensive and multifaceted examination of the traditional and non-traditional security measures present in the UAE that allow the country to remain politically stable in an otherwise volatile region, and aims to offer a comprehensive overview of all forms of security in the UAE.

The armed anti-Soviet resistance movement which arose in the second half of 1944 in Lithuania, as Soviet forces began to reoccupy the Baltic countries and Galicia, sparking a nearly decade-long fierce military conflict, has yet to become established in the common narrative of contemporary European history. However, controversy regarding the nature of this `war after the war' and its legacies constitutes one of the core elements in the contemporary information warfare waged by Russia against its neighbouring countries. The origins of various distortions surrounding the story of the partisan war in the western borderlands of the Soviet Union can even be traced to the final stages of that war, when Soviet propaganda sought to discredit the campaign as a battle waged by criminal elements. In this example of a historical event charged with controversial memories and geopolitical connotations, a thorough academic approach is extraordinarily instrumental. Responding to the growing need for historical research capable of providing international readers with the latest findings in the thematic field under question, six scholars from Vilnius University address the diverse aspects of this phenomenon as well as its role in the culture and politics of memory. Toward this end, this analysis – among the most comprehensive explorations of this history to date – is being released in both Lithuanian and English.

The armed anti-Soviet resistance movement which arose in the second half of 1944 in Lithuania, as Soviet forces began to reoccupy the Baltic countries and Galicia, sparking a nearly decade-long fierce military conflict, has yet to become established in the common narrative of contemporary European history. However, controversy regarding the nature of this `war after the war' and its legacies constitutes one of the core elements in the contemporary information warfare waged by Russia against its neighbouring countries. The origins of various distortions surrounding the story of the partisan war in the western borderlands of the Soviet Union can even be traced to the final stages of that war, when Soviet propaganda sought to discredit the campaign as a battle waged by criminal elements. In this example of a historical event charged with controversial memories and geopolitical connotations, a thorough academic approach is extraordinarily instrumental. Responding to the growing need for historical research capable of providing international readers with the latest findings in the thematic field under question, six scholars from Vilnius University address the diverse aspects of this phenomenon as well as its role in the culture and politics of memory. Toward this end, this analysis – among the most comprehensive explorations of this history to date – is being released in both Lithuanian and English.

This volume presents an interdisciplinary analysis of the practice of disappearances in Mexico, from the period of the so-called ‘dirty war’ to the current crisis of disappearances associated with the country’s ‘war on drugs’, during which more than 80,000 people have disappeared. The volume brings together contributions by distinguished scholars from Mexico, Argentina and Europe, who focus their chapters on four broad axes of enquiry. In Part I, chapters examine the phenomenon of disappearances in its historical and present-day forms, and the struggles for memory around the disappeared in Mexico with reference to Argentina. Part II addresses the political dimensions of disappearances, focusing on the specificities that this practice acquires in the context of the counterinsurgency struggle of the 1970s and the so-called ‘war on drugs’. The third section situates the issue within the framework of human rights law by examining the conceptual and legal aspects of disappearances. The final chapters explore the social movement of the relatives of the disappeared, showing how their search for disappeared loved ones involves bodily and affective experiences as well as knowledge production. The volume thus aims to further our understanding of the crisis of disappearances in Mexico without, however, losing sight of the historic origins of the phenomenon.

Across Western Europe, the global financial crisis of 2008 and its aftermath not only brought economic havoc but also, in turn, intense political upheaval. Many of the political manifestations of the crisis seen in other Western and especially Southern European countries also hit Spain, where challenger parties caused unprecedented parliamentary fragmentation, resulting in four general elections in under four years from 2015 onwards. Yet Spain, a decentralised state where extensive powers are devolved to 17 regions known as ‘autonomous communities’, also stood out from its neighbours due to the importance of the territorial dimension of politics in shaping the political expression of the crisis.This book explains how and why the territorial dimension of politics contributed to shaping party system continuity and change in Spain in the aftermath of the financial crisis, with a particular focus on party behaviour. The territorial dimension encompasses the demands for ever greater autonomy or even sovereignty coming from certain parties within the historic regions of the Basque Country, Catalonia and, to a lesser extent, Galicia. It also encompasses where these historic regions sit within the broader dynamics of intergovernmental relations across Spain’s 17 autonomous communities in total, and how these dynamics contribute to shaping party strategies and behaviour in Spain. Such features became particularly salient in the aftermath of the financial crisis since this coincided with, and indeed accelerated, the rise of the independence movement in Catalonia.

Sweden has often been described as a democratic forerunner, with one of the world's most stable party systems and with a well-functioning parliamentary system. However, the political landscape in Sweden has undergone a rapid change in recent years. The institutions of the political system – not least political parties – appear from a historical perspective to have become partly dysfunctional. The previously stable party system has become unstable. Consequently, it has become more difficult to form governments, and more difficult for governments to govern. The famous culture of consensus has been replaced by a harsher and more confrontational political climate; the tone in political debate has become more aggressive.During the so-called `golden age' of the party system, which lasted for a few decades from the middle of the twentieth century, parties could successfully mobilize broad and well-defined social interests with strong collective identities. Now, other conditions apply that have dramatically changed the role of parties in the democratic process. Parties have gone from being member-based popular movements to becoming professionalized voter-orientated campaign machines. Short-sightedness and a focus on median voters mean that the established parties have become increasingly similar, and populist parties have had great success in recent decades as a consequence.This volume, aimed at political scientists and those interested in discussion and analysis of Swedish political party dynamics, focuses on political parties in Sweden, how they have changed and what the changes mean in a wider sense.

India’s anticipated rise to prominence in what has been termed the ‘Asian 21st century’ will have a significant impact upon geopolitics in the coming decades. As India’s stature continues to increase across Asia and the world, appreciating which interests and principles structure the country’s international interaction has never been more important. Central to these dynamics is how India’s identity – and the longstanding values, principles and practices underpinning it – acts as the paramount factor that deeply structures the conduct of its international affairs. Acknowledging this centrality, this edited volume uses this factor as its foremost theme of analysis through which to understand and analyse India’s most important regional, great power and diplomatic interactions. Not only providing a mechanism better to appreciate the historical foundations of these relationships, the focus on identity is also necessary to appreciate how the Hindu nationalism of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under the leadership of Narendra Modi is now permeating Indian diplomacy. For the BJP, the pursuit – and attainment – of global influence and heightened status is the driving imperative of the BJP with regard to India’s contemporary international affairs.Chapter 6 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.taylorfrancis.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This volume explains China’s foreign policy from the perspective of its historical recovery after 1949 and the country’s subsequent rise as a great power, including its transformation into a global power. It also illuminates how China has, in tandem with its rise, developed an increasing array of political, economic, ‘sharp power’ and military capabilities that is helping it to further its increasingly expansive foreign policy objectives. The volume examines two key questions: What have been the implications of China’s rise for its foreign policy? And how has an increasingly powerful and confident China used a range of foreign policy instruments to pursue its expanding national interests in Asia and beyond? The volume is divided into three parts, covering the conceptualization and drivers of China’s foreign policy, China’s relations with the world, and the instruments of China’s foreign policy, namely its economic power, military capabilities and its ‘sharp power’ manipulation of information and relationships. It will be of interest to academics, students and researchers interested in understanding China’s role in world politics.

This volume examines and analyses electoral politics in Sri Lanka through the theoretical framework of manipulation. The following questions guided the study: how do political actors manipulate elections, and what are the salient features of electoral politics in Sri Lanka? Primary and secondary data formed the basis of the analysis, examining eight presidential elections. The research findings indicated that Sri Lankan governments, political parties and political leaders have taken advantage of six types of electoral manipulation, including constitutional tinkering, field fixing, time fixing, vote suppression, process manipulation and resource manipulation. Through a close examination of eight presidential elections, research carried out for the volume found that elections are often associated with violence; presidential elections are mainly a majoritarian affair in which minority communities play only a marginal role; there is a significant gender imbalance, as women’s participation in the electoral process is very limited; despite the presence of a large number of candidates contesting the election, it always remains a two-way race; and amid extensive manipulation and other problems, voter participation tends to be high.This volume will be a valuable resource for students, academics and researchers who focus on democracy, good governance, electoral studies and South Asian politics and history, and will enhance the conceptual foundation of democracy advocates and activists.

This volume examines and analyses electoral politics in Sri Lanka through the theoretical framework of manipulation. The following questions guided the study: how do political actors manipulate elections, and what are the salient features of electoral politics in Sri Lanka? Primary and secondary data formed the basis of the analysis, examining eight presidential elections. The research findings indicated that Sri Lankan governments, political parties and political leaders have taken advantage of six types of electoral manipulation, including constitutional tinkering, field fixing, time fixing, vote suppression, process manipulation and resource manipulation. Through a close examination of eight presidential elections, research carried out for the volume found that elections are often associated with violence; presidential elections are mainly a majoritarian affair in which minority communities play only a marginal role; there is a significant gender imbalance, as women’s participation in the electoral process is very limited; despite the presence of a large number of candidates contesting the election, it always remains a two-way race; and amid extensive manipulation and other problems, voter participation tends to be high.This volume will be a valuable resource for students, academics and researchers who focus on democracy, good governance, electoral studies and South Asian politics and history, and will enhance the conceptual foundation of democracy advocates and activists.

Conventional wisdom and ideologies hold that responsibility for the partition of the Republic of Cyprus in the wake of Turkey’s multiple advances on the island in summer 1974 rests on domestic ethnic and religious tensions between the Turks and the Greeks. This book, drawing on a wealth of archival material, shows that this is not the case at all. As the detailed report of the United Nations mediator, Galo Plaza, had shown in 1965, the Turks and the Greeks living on the island could easily have co-existed if left alone to determine their future. This did not happen. The partition of the island had been inscribed in NATO’s policy since the 1950s, rewarding the strongest component of NATO’s southern flank, Turkey, at the expense of Greece, the weaker component. The volume details the role of CIA agents in Greece and the machinations of the Greek junta of Dimitrios Ioannides to overthrow the charismatic leader of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, who had been fighting for an independent and non-aligned Cyprus. It also explains how the partition of Cyprus in 1974 has opened up prospects for the partition of the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, with Greece’s eastern Aegean islands becoming ‘NATOlands’ in the service of the war against Russia.The volume is an essential reading for researchers and students of the history and politics of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and south-eastern Europe.

Conventional wisdom and ideologies hold that responsibility for the partition of the Republic of Cyprus in the wake of Turkey’s multiple advances on the island in summer 1974 rests on domestic ethnic and religious tensions between the Turks and the Greeks. This book, drawing on a wealth of archival material, shows that this is not the case at all. As the detailed report of the United Nations mediator, Galo Plaza, had shown in 1965, the Turks and the Greeks living on the island could easily have co-existed if left alone to determine their future. This did not happen. The partition of the island had been inscribed in NATO’s policy since the 1950s, rewarding the strongest component of NATO’s southern flank, Turkey, at the expense of Greece, the weaker component. The volume details the role of CIA agents in Greece and the machinations of the Greek junta of Dimitrios Ioannides to overthrow the charismatic leader of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, who had been fighting for an independent and non-aligned Cyprus. It also explains how the partition of Cyprus in 1974 has opened up prospects for the partition of the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey, with Greece’s eastern Aegean islands becoming ‘NATOlands’ in the service of the war against Russia.The volume is an essential reading for researchers and students of the history and politics of Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and south-eastern Europe.

Portuguese democracy is now celebrating its 50th anniversary. Portugal joined the European Union (EU) in 1986, but the enduring legacies of the country’s transition process from authoritarianism to democracy became apparent during the European sovereign debt crisis, when Portugal experienced its third bailout since the institutionalization of democratic government. Although the first decade after EU accession was one of slight growth and investment, Portugal’s economy has, in effect, been performing poorly since the beginning of the 21st century. Among the major changes in Portuga - as in much of Southern Europe - as a result of the ‘great recession’, was the emergence of important new actors, including populist parties, new social movements and the polarization of attitudes toward the EU. In some of these areas, the phrase ‘with the exception of Portugal’ was always present. This book explores the factors that might explain why this is no longer the case, presenting a global overview, with an interdisciplinary focus, of the processes of economic, social and political changes in Portuguese democracy since the 2008 economic crisis.The volume is accessible to a broad academic audience, with chapters examining economic, political, social and foreign policy issues, for scholars interested in an analysis of Portugal’s emergence from the economic crisis.