TOL STORE

Romania and the European Union: How the Weak Vanquished the Strong

According to Tom Gallagher, Romania's predatory rulers, the heirs of the communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausecsu, have inflicted a stinging defeat
on the European Union. He argues convincingly that Brussels was tricked into offering full membership to this Balkan country in return for substantial reforms which its rulers now refuse to carry out. This book unmasks the failure of the EU to match its visionary promises of transforming Romania with the shabby reality. Benefiting from access to internal reports and leading figures involved in a decade of negotiations, it shows how Eurocrats were outwitted by unscupulous local politicians who turned the EU's multi-level decision-making processes into a laughing-stock. The EU's famous 'soft power' turnd out to be a mirage, as it was unable to summon up the willpower to insist that this key Balkan state embraced its standards of behaviour in the political and economic realms.

The book unravels policy failures in the realms of justice, administration, agriculture and pre-accession aid and shows how Romania moved backwards politically during the years of negotiations. It is an invaluable book for academic and studenmts who need to know about the practice, as well as the theory of eastern enlargement, and will be an effective tool for policy-makers, business people, and others involved with Romania.

The study of dynamics of democratisation in societies is divided along ethnic and religious lines. Challenging the commonly held belief that democratisation necessarily leads to aggressive ethnic nationalism and even violent conflict, this book offers an alternative account of democratisation and interethnic relations, suggesting that democratisation can in fact help to prevent violent conflict in divided societies, as demonstrated by two case studies, Bulgaria and Macedonia. In a time when democracy promotion is increasingly becoming part of international relations and foreign policy, this study offers some poignant lessons for democratisation and conflict resolution in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine to name but a few.

The Captive and the Gift: Cultural Histories of Sovereignty in Russia and the Caucasus

The Caucasus region of Eurasia, wedged in between the Black and Caspian Seas, encompasses the modern territories of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, as well as the troubled republic of Chechnya in southern Russia. A site of invasion, conquest, and resistance since the onset of historical record, it has earned a reputation for fearsome violence and isolated mountain redoubts closed to outsiders. Over extended efforts to control the Caucasus area, Russians have long mythologized stories of their countrymen taken captive by bands of mountain brigands.

In The Captive and the Gift, the anthropologist Bruce Grant explores the long relationship between Russia and the Caucasus and the means by which sovereignty has been exercised in this contested area. Taking his lead from Aleksandr Pushkin's 1822 poem "Prisoner of the Caucasus," Grant explores the extraordinary resonances of the themes of violence, captivity, and empire in the Caucasus through mythology, poetry, short stories, ballet, opera, and film.

Grant argues that while the recurring Russian captivity narrative reflected a wide range of political positions, it most often and compellingly suggested a vision of Caucasus peoples as thankless, lawless subjects of empire who were unwilling to acknowledge and accept the gifts of civilization and protection extended by Russian leaders. Drawing on years of field and archival research, Grant moves beyond myth and mass culture to suggest how real-life Caucasus practices of exchange, by contrast, aimed to control and diminish rather than unleash and increase violence.

The result is a historical anthropology of sovereign forms that underscores how enduring popular narratives and close readings of ritual practices can shed light on the management of pluralism in long-fraught world areas.

"Essad Bey, the sickly son of an oil millionaire from Baku, Azerbaijan, receives permission from his father to spend the summer with his "milk brother" (that is, with whom he was nursed by the same Caucasian nanny) Ali Khan, passing the holiday in his home village in the wild Caucasus. So the two set out, under the custody of a wise attendant, into an archaic world in which chivalry counted more than buying power and poets were more highly regarded than princes - into a country in which, as a kind of curiosity shop of world history, all that is outlived and forgotten was loyally preserved." This is Essad Bey's second book, which was first published in English in 1931. In it the author draws upon his Oriental imaginative powers, conjuring a vast panorama of the Caucasus, its people and customs. The result is a fresh and densely atmospheric work, even if not always laying claim to scientific accuracy. Often adding a touch of imagination, the author succeeds in bringing the heart and soul of this archaic world to life, which he had himself experienced and learned to love as a child.

The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944-1991

Serbia's national movement of the 1980s and 1990s was not the product of an ancient Serbian national identity, or created by powerful political actors looking to capitalize on its mobilizing power. Miller's subjects, three influential intellectuals, novelist Dobrica Cosic, painter Mica Popovic and literary critic Borislav Mihajlovic Mihiz, helped forge a new Serbian identity fusing older cultural imagery with modern conditions.

Russia and Globalization: Identity, Security, and Society in an Era of Change

Russia is a battered giant, struggling to rebuild its power and identity in an era of globalization. Several of the essays in this diverse and original collection point to the difficulty of guaranteeing a stable domestic order due to demographic shifts, economic changes, and institutional weaknesses. Other contributors focus on the country's efforts to respond to the challenges posed by globalization, and discuss the various ways in which Russia is reconceptualizing its role as an international actor. Ambivalence is a recurrent theme, according to editor Douglas W. Blum -- ambivalence about globalization's costs and benefits and the efforts required to manage them.

Everyday Life in Central Asia: Past and Present

For its citizens, contemporary Central Asia is a land of great promise and peril. While the end of Soviet rule has opened new opportunities for social mobility and cultural expression, political and economic dynamics have also imposed severe hardships. In this lively volume, contributors from a variety of disciplines examine how ordinary Central Asians lead their lives and navigate shifting historical and political trends. Provocative stories of Turkmen nomads, Afghan villagers, Kazakh scientists, Kyrgyz border guards, a Tajik strongman, guardians of religious shrines in Uzbekistan, and other narratives illuminate important issues of gender, religion, power, culture, and wealth. A vibrant and dynamic world of life in urban neighborhoods and small villages, at weddings and celebrations, at classroom tables, and around dinner tables emerges from this introduction to a geopolitically strategic and culturally fascinating region.

Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?

Adult/High School–Part travelogue, part primer, Road meanders through the often-overlooked stans of Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, with occasional excursions into the Xinjiang province of China, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. From 1997 to 2002, Rall endured a series of treks through the deserts and mountains of Central Asia. He had a knack for showing up at exactly the wrong time: he traveled through Kashmir just as the Taliban entered Pakistan as part of General Pervez Musharraf's 1999 coup, only to return a year later to lead a group of tourists into the middle of a siege as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan invaded Osh. Interspersed throughout this text, Rall's editorial cartoons provide breathing spaces in the form of graphic novellas. The author's travels are rife with indigestion, extortion, and 120-degree heat. Nevertheless, his awestruck descriptions of the region's natural beauty, crowded bazaars, and chaotic sporting tournaments will make adventurous readers want to see it all firsthand. The author takes a serious subject and infuses it with humor, examining the corruption, poverty, and political struggles that define Central Asia. Each page includes at least one illustration–photographs and maps as well as cartoons–and the volume includes historical summaries and country profiles that contextualize the events depicted.

For Prophet and Tsar: Islam and Empire in Russia and Central Asia

Russia occupies a unique position in the Muslim world. Unlike any other non-Islamic state, it has ruled Muslim populations for over five hundred years. Though Russia today is plagued by its unrelenting war in Chechnya, Russia's approach toward Islam once yielded stability. In stark contrast to the popular "clash of civilizations" theory that sees Islam inevitably in conflict with the West, Robert D. Crews reveals the remarkable ways in which Russia constructed an empire with broad Muslim support.

In the eighteenth century, Catherine the Great inaugurated a policy of religious toleration that made Islam an essential pillar of Orthodox Russia. For ensuing generations, tsars and their police forces supported official Muslim authorities willing to submit to imperial directions in exchange for defense against brands of Islam they deemed heretical and destabilizing. As a result, Russian officials assumed the powerful but often awkward role of arbitrator in disputes between Muslims. And just as the state became a presence in the local mosque, Muslims became inextricably integrated into the empire and shaped tsarist will in Muslim communities stretching from the Volga River to Central Asia.

For Prophet and Tsar draws on police and court records, and Muslim petitions, denunciations, and clerical writings--not accessible prior to 1991--to unearth the fascinating relationship between an empire and its subjects. As America and Western Europe debate how best to secure the allegiances of their Muslim populations, Crews offers a unique and critical historical vantage point.

Nazi-occupied Budapest, winter 1944. The Russians are smashing through the German lines. Miklos Farkas breaks out of the Jewish ghetto to find food - at the Nazis' headquarters. There he is handed a stolen copy of The Budapest Protocol, detailing the Nazis post-war plans. Miklos knows it must stay hidden for ever if he is to stay alive.The book jumps to present day Budapest. As the European Union launches the election campaign for the first President of Europe, Miklos Farkas is brutally murdered. His journalist grandson Alex buries his grief to track down the killers. He soon unravels a chilling conspiracy rooted in the dying days of the Third Reich, one that will ensure Nazi economic domination of Europe - and a plan for a new Gypsy Holocaust. The hunt is on for The Budapest Protocol. Alex is soon drawn deeper into a deadly web of intrigue and power play, a game played for the highest stakes: the very future of Europe. But Alex too is haunted. He must battle his own demons as he uncovers a shadowy alliance that the world thought had been defeated for good. Powerful, controversial and thought-provoking, "The Budapest Protocol" is a journey into Europe's hidden heart of darkness...Part of the proceeds from the sale of "The Budapest Protocol" will go to Victims of Torture.

Writing History in the Soviet Union: Making the Past Work

The history of the Soviet Union has been charted in several studies over the decades. However, earlier examinations have failed to draw attention to the political and academic environment within which these histories were composed. Identifying the significant hallmarks of the production of Soviet history by Soviet as well as Western historians, this book attempts to fill this gap. It shows how the Russian Revolution of 1917 triggered a shift in official policy towards historians and the publication of history textbooks for schools and surveys the rich body of writing the Russian Revolution generated as well as the divergent approaches to the history of the period. The conditions for research in Soviet archives are described as an aspect of official monitoring of history writing, which continues to this day.

On Dissidents and Madness: From The Soviet Union of Leonid Brezhnev to the "Soviet Union" of Vladimir Putin.

The book contains the memoirs of Robert van Voren covering the period 1977-2008 and provides unique insights into the dissident movement in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, both inside the country and abroad. As a result of his close friendship with many of the leading dissidents and his dozens of trips to the USSR as a courier, he had intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of the dissident movement and participated in many of the campaigns to obtain the release of Soviet political prisoners. In the late 1980s he became involved in building a humane and ethical practice of psychiatry in Eastern Europe and the (ex-) USSR, based on respect for the human rights of persons with mental illness. The book describes the dissident movement and many of the people who formed it, mental health reformers in Eastern Europe and the response of the Western psychiatric community, the battle with the World Psychiatric Association over Soviet, and later, Chinese political abuse of psychiatry, his contacts with former KGB officers and problems with the KGB's successor organization, the FSB. It also vividly describes the emotional effects of serving as a courier for the dissident movement, the fear of arrest, the pain of seeing friends disappear for many years into camps and prisons, sometimes never to return.