TOL STORE

The Dissolution Process and the Recognition of New States: Beyond ex-Yugoslav context: Kosovo's statehood under International Law

This book focuses on a specific issue of the former Yugoslavia's dissolution, on the recognition of new states particularly on the long-awaited independence of Kosovo, which has been declared on 17th of February 2008, when 109 Kosovo's parliament member signed the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed Kosovo as a state. When Serbia in 2008 filled the request before the ICJ on whether, the unilateral declaration of independence by the of Kosovo was in accordance with International law, many authors were sceptical. The ICJ delivered its advisory opinion on 22 July 2010, "that the declaration of independence of the 17th of February 2008 did not violate general international law"? The author hails as many of the countries argued defending the Kosovo's recognition that in international law there is no rule that prohibits the declaration of independence, or secession. The author gives strong arguments as the most of the countries that already recognized Kosovo are hailing the decision of ICJ and saying it was ?unique? and does not set a precedent. As of 30 September 2010, seventy states have recognized formally Kosovar declaration of independence.

Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

This book examines the role of Western broadcasting to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe during the Cold War, with a focus on Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. It includes chapters by radio veterans and by scholars who have conducted research on the subject in once-secret Soviet bloc archives and in Western records. It also contains a selection of translated documents from formerly secret Soviet and East European archives, most of them published here for the first time.

Previous studies have examined the history and organization of RFE / RL and its place in American national security strategy. What has been lacking until now are studies of the impact of Western Cold War broadcasting, on both societies and Communist regimes, that draw on archival material from the other side of the former Iron Curtain.

Shrinking Citizenship: Discursive Practices that Limit Democratic Participation in Latvian Politics.

The book, based on research results from a three-year study of parliamentary and media debates in Latvia, analyses the discourses of Latvian politicians and the media about nation, citizenship, cultural diversity, history and the nation-state. This is the first large-scale study of political debates in a Baltic State from the perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Separate chapters, by researchers from Canada, Latvia, Lithuania and the UK, analyse the intersections between national identity construction, national mythmaking, concepts of citizenship, journalistic action, press ownership and questions of control of political and media discourses. All of these have impact on the fundamental questions of the relationship between individuals and the state. The authors conclude that even after the accession to the European Union in 2004, political pressures in Latvia, as also frequently on the political Right in other EU countries, promote ethnic membership as the guiding factor of state-building.

Set in a small and tight-knit community of ‘honest criminals’ in a remote part of Russia, this is a tale of an extreme boyhood – exotic, violent and completely unique.Told from the perspective of a boy gaining his ‘education’ as a member of the Mafia-like Urkas in Transnistria, we get a glimpse inside the strict codes of honour and the rituals of this bizarre community. Besides having a deep distrust of outsiders – especially the police – the community is split into ‘honest’ and ‘dishonest’ criminals and crime is all-pervasive. Even their youngest children are taught to understand violence and when it is appropriate to use it. By the age of six, Nicolai Lilin is given his first ‘pike knife’ by an uncle and by the age of twelve he has been convicted of attempted murder.

Read book review on TOL website Bending the Truth.

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) the leader of the Russian Revolution and Stalin s unyielding opponent remains an immensely controversial figure seventy years after his assassination in Mexico City. In this collection of essays and lectures, David North, an authority on Soviet history, examines the disputes surrounding Trotsky s life and ideas and explains their contemporary relevance. Exposing recent efforts by several British scholars to denigrate Trotsky s historical role by falsifying history, the author insists that their aim is to forestall a resurgence of interest in the great revolutionist at a time when millions of people are becoming disenchanted with capitalism. The passions evoked by [Trotsky s] name testify to the enduring significance of [his] ideas, North writes in the introduction of his book. Arguments about Trotsky are never simply about what happened in the past. They are just as much about what is happening in the world today, and what is likely to happen in the future. In the first section of In Defense of Leon Trotsky, North explores Trotsky s Theory of Permanent Revolution and insists that it had a decisive impact on the events of October 1917, which is often overlooked by scholars. Examining Trotsky s varying treatment at the hands of the liberal left intelligentsia over the post-war period, North argues that shifts in the attitude of scholars towards the Russian revolutionary have been bound up with changes in the objective political and economic situation. He challenges today s historians to once again turn serious and honest attention to Trotsky s life and ideas. In the last two parts of the collection, readers will find reviews of recent biographies of Trotsky written by Geoffrey Swain, Ian Thatcher, and Robert Service. North demonstrates that these biographies reproduce many of the same claims made by Stalin in order to besmirch Trotsky reputation and undermine his political authority in the working class. Rather than shedding light on the man and his work, these books, which are riddled with factual errors, are part of the unrelenting campaign of vilification of which Trotsky has been the object for decades. In Defense of Leon Trotsky contains numerous photographs of Trotsky and family members interspersed throughout the text, as well as a complete index.

State Collapse and Reconstruction in the Periphery: Political Economy, Ethnicity and Development in Yugoslavia, Serbia and Kosovo

In the 1990s, Yugoslavia, which had once been a role model for development, became a symbol for state collapse, external intervention and post-war reconstruction. Today the region has two international protectorates, contested states and borders, severe ethnic polarisation and minority concerns. In this first in-depth critical analysis of international administration, aid and reconstruction policies in Kosovo, Jens Stilhoff Sorensen argues that the region must be analysed as a whole, and that the process of state collapse and recent changes in aid policy must be interpreted in connection to the wider transformation of the global political economy and world order. He examines the shifting inter- and intracommunity relations, the emergence of a 'political economy' of conflict, and of informal clientelist arrangements in Serbia and Kosovo and provides a framework for interpreting the collapse of the Yugoslav state, the emergence of ethnic conflict and shadow economies, and the character of western aid and intervention. Western governments and agencies have built policies on conceptions and assumptions for which there is no genuine historical or contemporary economic, social or political basis in the region. As the author persuasively argues, this discrepancy has exacerbated and cemented problems in the region and provided further complications that are likely to remain for years to come.

Inter-Ethnic Reporting in Kosovo After the Conflict: Obstacles and Implications of Peace Journalism

This research focused on the issues related to journalism in post-conflict transitions with a particular case study - Kosovo, aims to shed some light in the implications of ?peace journalism' developments in Kosovo after the ethnic conflict. Mostly the commercial media in Kosovo is new, and based in a weak heritage regarding inter-ethnic reporting. During the period 1999 - 2008, international community aware of the power of media in a milieu characterized by deep ethnic divergences and tensions, endeavored to control, pressuring and moderating the media discourse concerning inter-ethnic issues. Nonetheless the media landscape in Kosovo remained unsustainable and problematic in regards to inter-ethnic reporting. This study is based on the field research that the author conducted in Kosovo during January-February 2008. The study covers theory of "peace journalism", history of media development in Kosovo, qualitative research (interviews), quantitative research (analysis of a daily newspaper in Kosovo). This research study aspires to present the specific obstacles that ?peace journalism' as a reporting genre is facing in Kosovo.

Just Assassins: The Culture of Terrorism in Russia

Examines terrorism as it manifested in Russian culture past and present, with essays devoted to Russian literature, film, and theater, historical narrative, and even amateur memoir, songs, and poetry posted on the Internet. These essays chart the evolution of modern political terrorism in Russia, from the Decembrist uprising to the horrific school siege in Beslan in 2004, showing how Russia's cultural engagement with its legacy of terrorism speaks to the wider world.

There Is No Freedom Without Bread!: 1989 and the Civil War That Brought Down Communism

The conventional story of the end of the cold war focuses on the geopolitical power struggle between the United States and the USSR: Ronald Reagan waged an aggressive campaign against communism, outspent the USSR, and forced Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

In There Is No Freedom Without Bread!, a daring revisionist account of that seminal year, the Russian-born historian Constantine Pleshakov proposes a very different interpretation. The revolutions that took place during this momentous year were infinitely more complex than the archetypal image of the “good” masses overthrowing the “bad” puppet regimes of the Soviet empire. Politicking, tensions between Moscow and local communist governments, compromise between the revolutionary leaders and the communist old-timers, and the will and anger of the people—all had a profound influence in shaping the revolutions as multifaceted movements that brought about one of the greatest transformations in history.

In a dramatic narrative culminating in a close examination of the whirlwind year, Pleshakov challenges the received wisdom and argues that 1989 was as much about national civil wars and internal struggles for power as it was about the Eastern Europeans throwing off the yoke of Moscow.

Yugoslavia's Sunny Side: A History of Tourism in Socialism (1950s–1980s)

Despite the central role of tourism in the political making of the Yugoslav socialist state after WWII and in everyday life, the topic has remained neglected as an object of historical research, which has tended to dwell on war and ethnicA" conflict in the past two decades. For many former citizens of Yugoslavia, however, memories of holidaymaking, as well as tourism as a means of livelihood, today evoke a sense of the good lifeA" people enjoyed before the economy, and subsequently the country, fell apart. Undertakes a critical analysis of the history of domestic tourism in Yugoslavia under Commumism. The story evolved from the popularization of tourism and holidaymaking among Yugoslav citizens in the 1950s and 1960s to the consumer practices of the 1970s and 1980s. It reviews tourism as a political, economic and social project of the Yugoslav federal state, and as a crucial field of social integration. The book investigates how socialist and Yugoslav ideologies aimed to turn workers into consumers of "purposeful" leisure, and how these ideas were set against actual practices of recreation and holidaymaking.

Recovering Solidarity: Lessons from Poland's Unfinished Revolution

In "Recovering Solidarity", Gerald J. Beyer provides a contextualized theological and ethical treatment of the idea of solidarity. He focuses particularly on the Polish Solidarity movement of the 1980s and the ways in which that movement originally embodied but, during the country's transformation to a capitalist democratic society, soon abandoned this important aspect of the Catholic social tradition. Using Poland as a case study, Beyer explores the obstacles to promoting an ethics of solidarity in contemporary capitalist societies and attempts to demonstrate how the moral revolution of the early Solidarity movement can be revived, both in its country of origin and around the world. "Recovering Solidarity" is widely interdisciplinary, utilizing Catholic social tradition, philosophical ethics, developmental economics, poverty research, gender studies, and sociology. It will appeal to those interested in the problems of poverty and justice.

Rome's Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914-1939

When an independent Poland reappeared on the map of Europe after When an independent Poland reappeared on the map of Europe after World War I, it was widely regarded as the most Catholic country on the continent, as 'Rome's Most Faithful Daughter.' All the same, the relations of the Second Polish Republic with the Church - both its representatives inside the country and the Holy See itself - proved far more difficult than expected. Based on original research in the libraries and depositories of four countries, including recently opened collections in the Vatican Secret Archives, "Rome's Most Faithful Daughter: The Catholic Church and Independent Poland, 1914-1939" presents the first scholarly history of the close but complex political relationship of Poland with the Catholic Church during the interwar period. Neal Pease addresses, for example, the centrality of Poland in the Vatican's plans to convert the Soviet Union to Catholicism and the curious reluctance of each successive Polish government to play the role assigned to it. He also reveals the complicated story of the relations of Polish Catholicism with Jews, Freemasons, and other minorities within the country and what the response of Pope Pius XII to the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939 can tell us about his controversial policies during World War II. Both authoritative and lively, "Rome's Most Faithful Daughter" shows that the tensions generated by the interplay of church and state in Polish public life exerted great influence not only on the history of Poland but also on the wider Catholic world in the era between the wars.

Twilight of Impunity: The War Crimes Trial of Slobodan Milosevic

An eyewitness account of the first major international war-crimes tribunal since the Nuremberg trials, Twilight of Impunity is a gripping guide to the prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The historic proceedings, which tried not only the “Butcher of the Balkans,” but also the viability of international law itself, began in 2002 and ended abruptly with Milosevic’s death in 2006. Judith Armatta, a lawyer who spent three years in the former Yugoslavia during Milosevic’s reign, had a front-row seat at the trial. In Twilight of Impunity she brings the dramatic proceedings to life, explains complex legal issues, and assesses she brings the dramatic proceedings to life, explains complex legal issues, and assesses the trial’s implications for victims of the conflicts in the Balkans during the 1990s and international justice more broadly. Armatta acknowledges the trial’s flaws, particularly Milosevic’s grandstanding and attacks on the institutional legitimacy of the International Criminal Tribunal. Yet she argues that the trial provided an indispensable legal and historical narrative of events in the former Yugoslavia and a valuable forum for victims to tell their stories and seek justice. It addressed crucial legal issues, such as commanders’ responsibility for crimes committed by subordinates, and it helped to create a framework for conceptualizing and organizing other large-scale international criminal tribunals. The prosecution of Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague was an important step toward ending impunity for leaders who perpetrate egregious crimes against humanity.

From Fear to Fraternity: A Russian Tale of Crime, Economy and Modernity

The end of communism marked the re-emergence of a huge rise in organised crime across Russia and Eastern Europe. High-profile efforts to combat it have met with little success. Patricia Rawlinson argues that burgeoning crime rates result not only from the failures of communism but also from the problems of free market economies.Drawing on interviews with members of the Russian criminal underworld, the business community, journalists and the militia, she argues that organised crime provides us with a barometer of economic well-being, not just for Russia but for any market economy.

Londongrad: From Russia with Cash: The Inside Story of the Oligarchs

A group of buccaneering Russian oligarchs made colossal fortunes after the collapse of communism—and many of them came to London to enjoy their new-found wealth. Londongrad tells for the first time the true story of their journeys from Moscow and St. Petersburg to mansions in Mayfair, Knightsbridge, and Surrey—and takes you into a shimmering world of audacious multi-billion pound deals, outrageous spending, and rancorous feuds. But while London's flashiest restaurants echoed to Russian laughter and Bond Street shop-owners totted up their profits, darker events also played themselves out. The killing of ex-KGB man Alexander Litvinenko in London to the death—in a helicopter crash he all but predicted—of Stephen Curtis, the lawyer to many of Britain's richest Russians, chilled London's Russians and many of those who know them. This is the story of how Russia's wealth was harvested and brought to London—some of it spent by Roman Abramovich on his beloved Chelsea Football Club, some of it spent by Boris Berezovsky in his battles with Russia's all-powerful Vladimir Putin. Londongrad is a must-read for anyone interested in how vast wealth is created, the luxury it can buy, and the power and intrigue it produces.