Catalogue 2012 - GB Gerakbudaya

Catalogue 2012 International Politics 11
New New
Who’s Afraid of China?
The Challenge of Chinese Soft Power
Michael Barr
If China suddenly democratized, would
it cease being labeled as a threat? This
provocative book argues that fears of China
often say as much about those who hold
them as they do about the rising power
itself. It focuses not on the usual trope of
economic and military might, but on China’s
growing cultural influence and the
connections between China’s domestic politics and its
attempts to brand itself internationally. Using examples
from film, education, media, politics and art, Who’s Afraid of
China? is both an introduction to Chinese soft power and a
critical analysis of international reaction to it. It examines how
the West’s own past, hopes and fears shape the way it thinks
about and engages with China and argues that the rising
power touches a nerve in the Western psyche, presenting a
fundamental challenge to ideas about modernity, history and
international relations.
Publisher: Zed Books
2011: 154 pp
ISBN: 9781848135901: RM93.00 / S$40.45
New
Militias and the Challenges of Post-
Conflict Peace
Silencing the Guns
Chris Alden, Monika Thakur and Matthew Arnold
Militias have proven to be an enduring
obstacle to peace in war zones around
the world. Linked variously to atrocities
against civilians or international criminal
elements, these groups occupy an
uncertain and deeply controversial position
in the changing landscape of conflict. Their
diversity of form, unorthodox nature and
sheer numbers make achieving short-term stability and an
enduring peace consistently difficult.
Bringing together four intensively researched case
studies – the Democratic Republic of Congo, Timor-Leste,
Afghanistan and Sudan – Militias and the Challenges
of Post-conflict Peace argues that the international
community’s ‘cookie-cutter’ approach to demilitarization
is ineffective at meeting the myriad of challenges involving
militias. In doing so, the authors propose a radical new
framework for demilitarization that questions conventional
models and takes into account the reality on the ground.
Publisher: Zed Books
2011: 191 pp
ISBN: 9781848135277: RM110.00 / S$47.80
The Politics of Indigeneity
Dialogue and Reflections on Indigenous
Activism
Edited by Sita Venkateswar and Emma Hughes
Provocative and original, The Politics
of Indigeneity explores the concept of
indigeneity across the world and the
ways in which it intersects with local,
national and international social and
political realities. The authors act as
critical interlocutors with indigenous
spokespersons, scholars and activists, as
well as with each other, to discuss the
possibilities of a ‘second-wave indigeneity’, one that is alert
to the challenges posed by the neoliberal agenda of nationstates.
Featuring a variety of indigenous voices, The Politics
of Indigeneity is a vital and timely contribution to an often
contentious topic.
Publisher: Zed Books
2011: 283 pp
ISBN: 9781780321202: RM105.00 / S$45.65
New
Postmodern Imperialism
Geopolitics and The Great Games
Eric Walberg
“Those who think that the ‘Great Game’
played for control of Central Asia is a
superannuated relic of Europe’s imperial
past must read Walberg’s epic corrective
to their egregious error. In extensive,
richly textured and carefully documented
detail he reveals the evolution of this
competition into the planetary quest for
dominance it has become, as well
as the imperatives animating its new ‘players’, among
whom many will find, to their surprise or consternation.
Tiny Israel and its symbiotic liaison with America Inc. Prime
imperial architect Zbigniew Brzezinski actually called the
blood-soaked playing field The Grand Chessboard, but
like all his rapacious forebears omitted to mention the
pawns. Walberg places them at the heart of this much
needed remediation of the sinister falsehoods propagated
in a political culture manufactured from above and
offers hope that this anti-human playboard may yet be
overturned. – Paul Atwood, American Studies, University
of Massachusetts and author of War and Empire: The
American Way of Life (2010)
Publisher: Clarity Press
2011: 300 pp
ISBN: 9780983353935: RM68.00 / S$29.60
Tel: +603 - 7957 8342/8343 Fax: +603 - 7954 9202 E-mail: sird@streamyx.com
Website: www.gerakbudaya.com & bookshop.gbgerakbudaya.com