Informal Alliance is the first archive-based history of the secretive Bilderberg Group, the high-level transatlantic elite network founded at the height of the Cold War. Making extensive use of the recently opened Bilderberg Group archives as well as a wide range of private and official collections, it shows the significance of informal diplomacy in a fast-changing world of Cold War, decolonization, and globalization. By analyzing the global mindset of the postwar transatlantic elite and by focusing on private, transnational modes of communication and coordination, this study provides important new insights into the history of transatlantic relations, anti-Americanism, Western anti-communism, and European integration during the 1950s and 1960s. Informal Alliance also debunks the persistent myth that the Bilderberg Group was created by the CIA and repudiates widespread conspiracy theories alleging that Bilderberg was some sort of secret world government.

This volume provides the first history of the secretive Bilderberg Group, the high-level transatlantic elite network founded at the height of the Cold War. It aims to show the importance of informal diplomacy and private transnational elite networks in a fast changing world of Cold War, decolonization, and globalization.

State and Tribes in Syria: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns explores the policies of the successive Syrian governments towards the Arab tribes and their reactions to these policies. The book examines the consequences of the relationship between state and tribe since the fall of the Ottoman Empire and its withdrawal from Syria in 1916 until the eruption of the current Syrian civil war. Throughout history and up to the present day, tribalism continues to influence many issues related to governance, conflict and stability in the Middle East and North Africa. The book provides a dissection of a crucial, but neglected axis of the current crisis on the relationship between the state and the tribes. The research draws on data gathered through interviews with members of Syrian tribes, as well as written literature in various languages including English, Arabic and French. The book combines the research focus of political scientists and anthropologists by relating the local patterns (communities and tribal affiliations) to the larger system (state institutions and policies) of which they are a part. State and Tribes in Syria: Informal Alliances and Conflict Patterns advances our knowledge of an under-studied component of the Syrian society: the tribes. Therefore it is a vital resource for students, scholars and policymakers interested in Syrian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies.

Africa's Informal Workers is a vigorous examination of the informalization and casualization of work, which is changing livelihoods in Africa and beyond. Gathering cases from nine countries and cities across sub-Saharan Africa, and from a range of sectors, this volume goes beyond the usual focus on household ‘coping strategies’ and individual agency, addressing the growing number of collective organizations through which informal workers make themselves visible and articulate their demands and interests. The emerging picture is that of a highly diverse landscape of organized actors, providing grounds for tension but also opportunities for alliance. The collection examines attempts at organizing across the formal-informal work spheres, and explores the novel trend of transnational organizing by informal workers. Part of the ground-breaking Africa Now series, Africa’s Informal Workers is a timely exploration of deep, ongoing economic, political and social transformations.

This book explores the various ways in which citizens are represented in EU policy-making. Most accounts naturally focus on the European Parliament as the prime source of democratic representation. This collection focuses instead on four other channels that are as and often more important: namely, representation via governments, national parliaments, civil society organisations and directly, via referenda. Based on original research, the book combines democratic theory with detailed empirical analysis to provide an innovative, timely and up-to-date evaluation of the nature of representation in the EU. Policy advisors, practitioners and those scholars interested in democracy and the European Union will find this volume to be a valuable resource. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of European Integration.

This book examines the success of the US rebalancing (or pivot) strategy towards Asia, placing the US pivot in a historical context while highlighting its policy content and management dilemmas. Further, the contributors discuss the challenges and opportunities that each regional state confronts in responding to the US rebalancing strategy. In 2011, President Barack Obama laid out the framework for a strategic pivot of US policy towards the Asia Pacific region. Writers in this volume focus specifically on Asian perception of the strategy. Among the topics they explore are: China’s desire to be seen as equal to the US while maintaining foreign policy initiatives independent of the US strategic rebalance; the strengthening of Japan’s alliance with the US through its security policies; the use of US-China competition by South Korea to negotiate its influence in the region; and Australia’s embrace of the strategy as a result of foreign direct investment that provides economic benefits to the country.

"Tsou, one of the country's senior and most widely respected China scholars, has for more than a generation been producing timely and deeply informed essays on Chinese politics as it develops. Eight of these (from a wide variety of sources) are gathered here with a substantial new introduction. Tsou considers events not simply from the point of view of a widely read political scientist (even political philosopher) and a concerned Chinese, but also in the light of history, the dynamics of Marxism-Leninism, individual personalities, and humane realism."—Charles W. Hayford, Library Journal

Artioles and symposia on major controversial social issues: integration and civil rights; President Clinton's recent race initiative; poverty; education; the environment; democratic participation; disability rights; corporate welfare; and others. The range of contributors is wide, and includes Julian Bond, Herbert Gans, James Loewen, Jonathan Kozol, Manning Marable, Howard Zinn, Benjamin DeMott, Frances Fox Piven, and Marian Wright Edelman.

"Where is Turkey Headed? Culture Battles in Turkey" looks into the dynamics of social change in Turkey from the broad perspective of a German journalist who lived in Istanbul for nearly two decades. With a panoramic view of the history of the Turkish republic, including the late Ottoman era, the author presents a critical analysis of the cultural, economic and political transformation Turkey has long been going through. He discusses that the driving force for this change has its roots in the very society that has discovered its cultural, religious and ethnic diversity, and is pushing back against omnipotent government control.