An overview of the state of Russia after the 2012 presidential election. It considers a wide range of both domestic and international issues, covers political/economic/social topics, and discusses the nature of and likely future of democracy in Russia. Chapters discuss the election’s impact on the Russian economy; Russia’s relationships with the United States, the European Union, and other parts of the world; the next phase in Russia’s post-communist transition; courts, law and policing under Medvedev; center-periphery relations in Putin’s Russia; reforming Russia’s higher education system; the Putin-Medvedev tandem and women’s rights; the present economic situation, etc.

(RUSSIA)

China’s ubiquitous presence in Africa, Asia, and Latin America is reshaping the world with regards to economics, politics, and national security. Chapters examine China’s energy security strategy, Chinese relations with energy markets and the world (with in-depth country case studies of Angola, Brazil and Cambodia), and opportunities and risks to China. Key features: 1) offers an analysis of the geopolitics of China's resource quest; 2) assists students and scholars in understanding the Chinese model of autocratic capitalism and China’s novel ways of securing resources across three continents; 3) explains China’s energy security strategy and its implications for US national security; 4) explores links between international relations and the geopolitics of scarcity.

(ENERGY AND CHINA * CHINA * RESOURCES AND CHINA)

Humanity is facing an unprecedented global catastrophe as a result of global warming. Weston examines the reasons why international agencies, together with national governments, are seemingly unable to provide real and binding solutions to the problems and points to the global capitalist political economy as essential cause. Chapters discuss inaction on global warming; the state of the planet; evidence, causes and projections of global warming; Kyoto and emissions trading schemes; global political economy and global warming; inequality, ecological debt and global warming; metabolic rift, development, de-peasantisation; Africa, global warming and the future of the continent; South Africa as a microcosm of the global political economy; alternatives; and capitalism vs. the planet.

(CLIMATE CHANGE * ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS * AFRICA * SOUTH AFRICA * CAPITALISM VS. ENVIRONMENT)

China has famously become the "workshop of the world." Thirty years ago, China's role in global affairs beyond its immediate East Asian periphery was decidedly minor and it had little geostrategic power. The country’s expanding economic power has allowed it to extend its reach virtually everywhere--from mineral mines in Africa, to currency markets in the West, to oilfields in the Middle East, to agribusiness in Latin America, to the factories of East Asia. Shambaugh discusses the manifestations of China's global presence: its extensive commercial footprint, its growing military power, its increasing cultural influence or "soft power," its diplomatic activity, and its new prominence in global governance institutions to conclude that China's global presence is more broad than deep and it still lacks the influence befitting a major world power--what Shambaugh terms a "partial power." Also considers China’s future roles in world affairs.

(CHINA * CHINA’S PARTIAL POWER)

While the international media and most of the public focus on Islamist terrorism in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Middle East, little attention is given to Africa. In fact, revolutionary Muslim groups have made significant strides throughout vast swathes of Africa. The authors cover dangerous trends in many volatile regions of Africa and developments such as the radical Islamist influence on the recent Arab Spring in Egypt, and creation of a major militant force throughout Africa’s Sahel that calls itself AQIM for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. They explore evidence that AQIM seeks to attack oil fields in Nigeria, and targeting Arab countries farther north—Morocco, Tunisia, and Egypt.

(ISLAMIC EXTREMISM * AFRICA: EXTREMISM)

In the last decade, despite the gruesome drug war, Mexico has become a real democracy, providing its citizens a greater voice and opportunities to succeed on their own side of the border. Armed with higher levels of education, upwardly-mobile men and women have been working their way out of poverty, building the largest, most stable middle class in Mexico's history. Mexico has undergone an unprecedented and under-publicized political, economic, and social transformation. Argues that the United States is making a grave mistake by focusing on the politics of antagonism toward Mexico. Rather, we should wake up to the revolution of prosperity now unfolding there.

(MEXICO AND U.S.)

Within one generation, China has transformed from an impoverished, repressive state into an economic and political powerhouse; yet conflicting impressions of the country and its leaders abound. Wasserstrom demonstrates that China today shares many traits with other industrialized nations during their periods of development, in particular the United States during its rapid industrialization in the 19th century. Povides guidance on the ways we can expect China to act in the future vis-ã-vis the United States, Russia, India, and its East Asian neighbors. Topics include Western and Japanese imperialism, the Mao era, the massacre near Tiananmen Square, the Chinese Communist Party, the building boom in Shanghai, the environmental fall-out of rapid Chinese industrialization, and unique aspects of Chinese culture such as the one-child policy.

(REGIONS/NATIONS * CHINA)

A native of the former Soviet Union and former exchange student in North Korea provides a history of the nation and focuses on what North Korea is, what its leadership thinks, and how its people cope with living in such an oppressive and poor place. North Korea is not irrational, and nothing shows this better than its continuing survival against all odds. A living political fossil, it clings to existence in the face of limited resources and a zombie economy, manipulating great powers despite its weakness. Its leaders preside over a failed state, but they have successfully used diplomacy-including nuclear threats to extract support from other nations. The old system is slowly falling apart, the regime is unsustainable, and reforms, if attempted, will trigger a dramatic implosion of the regime.

(REGIONS/NATIONS * NORTH KOREA)

Examines the history, the conditions, and the current efforts of monetary integration in Asia and explores some possible future paths, highlighting the roles and perspectives of East Asian countries in the integration process.

(REGIONS/NATIONS * MONETARY INTEGRATION IN ASIA)

Presents post-apartheid South Africa as a country caught between a democratic future and a political meltdown: “a teetering nation whose destiny will determine the fate of a continent.” Reflects on the role and point of view of the emerging black elite and ordinary citizens by drawing on hundreds of interviews over a six-year period.

(POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA * SOUTH AFRICA)