The resilience of the Communist party-state, in combination with a rapidly expanding economy, represents a significant deviant case for the debate about models of development. This book focuses on the manner in which China's governmental system can be developed, formulated, implemented, adjusted, and revised. Policy-making is seen as an open ended process with an uncertain outcome, driven by conflicting interests, recurrent interactions, and continuous feedback, rather than determined by history, regime type, or institutions. Key to this are the capacity to deal with both existing and emerging challenges, correction mechanisms when conflicts arise, and adaptive capabilities in a changing economic or international context.

Includes fifty folktales from around the world, relating them to contemporary fantasy, science fiction, and cartoon themes.

Written with the authority of twenty-six years of military and government service at sea and in Washington, Red Swan is a brilliant, provocative thriller about the contemporary war that no one sees, but which will shape the future of America and China. Set in contemporary Washington D.C., Red Swan begins with an ominous phone call from Carson McGill, the Deputy Director of Operations in the CIA, to retired CIA officer Preston Allender. Henry Wallace is dead. A behind-the-scenes operator at the CIA, Wallace was integral to the Agency’s secret war against China’s national intelligence service, which infiltrates government and military offices, major businesses, and systems crucial to our security. Wallace had severely damaged China’s Washington spy ring with a devastating ruse, a so-called “black swan,” in which a deep-undercover female agent targeted and destroyed a key Chinese official. Now, Wallace’s mysterious death suggests that the CIA itself has been compromised and that China has someone inside the Agency. But as Allender quietly investigates, he makes a shocking discovery that will upend the entire American intelligence apparatus. For Wallace’s black swan operation may have been turned against the CIA; a red swan is flying and the question is: who is she, what is her target, and where will she land?

Fraternal twins, separated at birth, are raised in the same small town, where they struggle for freedom from their families, their destinies, and, sometimes, each other--all with the underground railroad as a haunting presence in their lives

Sky Loom offers a dazzling introduction to Native American myths, stories, and songs drawn from previous collections by acclaimed translator and poet Brian Swann. With a general introduction by Swann, Sky Loom is a stunning collection that provides a glimpse into the intricacies and beauties of story and myth, placing them in their cultural, historical, and linguistic contexts. Each of the twenty-six selections is translated and introduced by a well-known expert on Native oral literatures and offers entry into the cultures and traditions of several different tribes and bands, including the Yupiit and the Tlingits of the polar North; the Coast Salish and the Kwakwaka’wakw of the Pacific Northwest; the Navajos, the Pimas, and the Yaquis of the Southwest; the Lakota Sioux and the Plains Crees of the Great Plains; the Ojibwes of the Great Lakes; the Naskapis and the Eastern Crees of the Hudson Bay area in Canada; and the Munsees of the Northeast. Sky Loom takes the reader on a wide-ranging journey through literary traditions older than the “discovery” of the New World.

Contains myths and tales from tribes such as the Mbaya, Yuki, Uitoto, Pit River, Omaha, Aztec, Jicarilla Apache, Okanagon, Nunviak Eskimo, Central Eskimo, Diegueno, Anambe, Tenetehara, Coos, Zuni, Seneca, Warrau, Hidatsa, Kwakiutl, Mohawk, Arapaho, Menominee, Yamana, Navajo, Tsimshian, Quechua, Greenland Eskimo, Smith Sound Eskimo, Blackfoot, Maya, Cheyenne, Crow, Mundurucu, Upper Cowlitz, Chippewa, Alabama, Onondaga, Makah, Quileute, Shawnee, Kamaiura, Iowa, Bororo, and Micmac.

In Reading Games, Kimberly Bohman-Kalaja guides us through an entertaining and instructive exploration of a neglected literary genre, the Play-Text. Focusing on the works of Flann O'Brien, Samuel Beckett, and Georges Perec, Bohman-Kalaja's book provides insightful analysis of game and play theories, as well as a new perspective on the world of experimental fiction -- discovering, step by step, the innovative strategies of those authors who play reading games.