This book examines how Russia and Kazakhstan navigated the dilemmas associated with building regulatory state institutions on the ruins of the Soviet command and control system. The two nations developed predatory and wasteful crony capitalism but still improved their business climates and economic performance. To better understand these seemingly incompatible outcomes, the book advances a theory of authoritarian regulatory statehood. It argues that politicians use institutions of the state as a means to balance conflicting elite demands for economic rents and popular demands for public goods and economic growth. An effective balancing of the two prevents elite subversion and popular revolt in the short run and ensures elites' continued access to economic rents in the long run. Empirical analysis of nearly a million national and regional regulatory documents enacted in Russia and Kazakhstan between 1990 and 2020 shows that formal regulatory institutions the autocrats built have a profound effect on economic outcomes. Moreover, at times of political vulnerability, autocracies use formal regulatory mechanisms to discipline state agencies responsible for policy implementation. By reducing capricious policy implementation by the regulatory bureaucracy, autocrats are able to reinvigorate economic performance and rebalance elite and popular interests. The theoretical argument advanced in the book links the use of institutional instruments of policy implementation to the political survival strategy. This study effectively shows that regulatory state building has emerged as an effective tool for strengthening autocratic regimes and enhancing their long-term survival.

This book explains the unexpected mobilization of the Crimean Tatar diaspora in recent decades through an exploration of the exile experiences of the Crimean Tatars in Central Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North America. This book adds to the growing literature on diaspora case studies and is essential reading for researchers and students of diasporas, migration, ethnicity, nationalism, transnationalism, identity formation and social movements. Moreover, this book is relevant both for specialists in Crimean Tatar Studies and for the larger fields of Communist, Post-Communist, Middle Eastern, European, and American studies.

This books aims at analyzing Turkish foreign and security policies in the 21st century. Turkey’s foreign and security policies have become the focus of academic discussions since Turkey is located in the middle of the most unstable region in the world. Turkey’s self-assured foreign policy has similarly attracted the attention of academicians worldwide. Meanwhile, Turkey’s security policy has also been the subject of discussions as the country has been struggling with ethnic terrorism for 35 years. Furthermore, the US invasion of Iraq and the recent Syrian civil war, along with other factors, have caused religious radicalism to expand its power throughout the Middle East, which has heavily impacted on Turkey’s security. Turkey’s longstanding problems with its neighbors have also affected the general characteristics of its foreign policy, particularly leading to its securitization.

This book explores various contemporary aspects of the growing field of housing, land and property (HLP) rights. HLP rights have undergone a major transformation in recent decades, but much remains to be done to bring their promise to the billions of people who have yet to access them. This work presents several innovative ways by which the entire field of HLP rights can be strengthened in support of those to whom they are promised by human rights laws. It outlines the author’s suggestions for creating a new World Restitution Agency, expanding our understanding of the term ‘internationally wrongful act’ to HLP crimes, the links between mine action and HLP rights in post-conflict societies and the need to include HLP issues in peace agreements. The book concludes with several chapters that outline suggestions for better addressing climate displacement, including the need for national climate land banks, the role of the courts and how to redistribute global wealth towards rehousing the millions set to be displaced from their homes and lands due to the effects of climate change. The volume will be essential reading for academics, researchers and policymakers working in the areas of international human rights law, housing, land and property issues, humanitarian issues and climate change.

“An urgent and at times terrifying dispatch from a distinguished reporter who has given heart and soul to his subject.”—Hampton Sides In The End of Plenty, award-winning environmental journalist Joel K. Bourne Jr. puts our fight against devastating world hunger in dramatic perspective. He travels the globe to introduce a new generation of farmers and scientists on the front lines of the next green revolution. He visits corporate farmers trying to restore Ukraine as Europe's breadbasket, a Canadian aquaculturist, the agronomist behind the world's largest organic sugarcane plantation, and many other extraordinary farmers, large and small, who are racing to stave off catastrophe as climate change disrupts food production worldwide. A Financial Times Best Book of the Year and a Finalist for the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.

Examines the challenges and opportunities of the Crimean peninsula within the newly independent country of Ukraine and in light of the strong separatist movement. The nine studies are from an international conference in Kiev, Ukraine, in October 1994 . Among the topics are the socioeconomic situation, interethnic relations, Ukrainian presidential and parliamentary elections, the importance of Crimea to Ukraine, the balance of power in the Black Sea, and US security interests in Crimea. Includes a detailed chronology and appends texts of 11 important documents. Published in conjunction with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Paper edition (unseen), $22.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Now in its second year of annual publication, the UNPO Yearbook contains important information about the current state of affairs of the 50 Members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). UNPO was created in 1991, by the members themselves, in order to provide a platform for those nations, minorities and peoples who are not represented in established international forums such as the United Nations. The mission of UNPO is to assist these people to advance their interests effectively through non-violent means, including diplomacy, through the use of the United Nations and other international procedures for the protection of human rights, through development of public opinion and through the exploration of legal options to defend their rights. The number of UNPO Members has grown rapidly since its founding and today the 50 Members represent over 100 million people. The UNPO Yearbook provides a comprehensive overview of the 1996 activities of UNPO, a review of the history and current positions of UNPO Members, a selection of key UNPO documents and annual information, as well as 1996 Conference and Mission Reports. An essential reference work for anyone involved in current international affairs, the UNPO Yearbook is the only publication which gives access to the material of the UNPO and its Members. The UNPO Yearbook for 1996 represents a considerable body of information providing a record of the changes and developments relating to UNPO and to the activities of its Members during the past year.

In March and April 2021, Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to deploy thousands of people and equipment along its border with Ukraine and in Crimea, the greatest mobilization since the 2014 invasion of Crimea. This caused a crisis and invasion fears. Satellite photography indicated armour, missiles, and heavy weapons. The forces were largely evacuated by June 2021, but in October and November 2021, over 100,000 Russian troops massed around Ukraine on three sides. The 2014 Russo-Ukrainian War and the War in Donbas caused the problem. In December 2021, Russia advanced two draft treaties containing "security guarantees," including a legally binding promise that Ukraine would not join NATO and a reduction in NATO troops and military hardware in Eastern Europe, and threatened an unspecified military response if those demands were not met in full. NATO rejected these recommendations, and the US threatened Russia with "swift and punishing" economic consequences if it invaded Ukraine further. Many observers called it Europe's worst crisis since the Cold War. On February 21, 2022, Russia recognised Donetsk and Luhansk as separate republics and sent soldiers to Donbas, a move viewed as Russia's departure from the Minsk Protocol. The breakaway republics were recognized inside their Ukrainian oblasts, which stretch beyond the line of contact. Putin declared the Minsk accords invalid on February 22. The Federation Council authorised military force the same day. On February 24, Putin declared a "special military operation" in the Donbas and a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on March 1.