International relations are what a government does when nobodys looking. While this may well once have been true, the conduct of international relations in South Africa and elsewhere has come under increasing scrutiny by the public. This is partially the result of specialist expertise around the formal study of international relations and the making of foreign policy, enhanced by the development of International Relations as a separate academic field. Like the growth of institutes of inter...

This book offers readers an alternative history of the origins of the discipline of International Relations. Conventional, western histories of the discipline point to 1919 as the year of the ‘birth of the discipline’ with two seminal initiatives – setting up of the first Chair of IR at Aberystwyth and the founding of the Institute of International Relations on the side-lines of the Paris Peace Conference. From these events, International Relations is argued to have been established as a p...

A multidisciplinary analysis of how state capture unfolded in South Africa and was contested within both civil society and the state itself. It presents a scholarly and empirical understanding of how things went awry, even with various regulating bodies in place, and how to prevent state capture from happening again in the future.The metaphor of ‘state capture’ has dominated South Africa’s political discourse in the post-Zuma presidency era. What is state capture and how does it ma...

This book questions the accepted origins of the field of International Relations (IR). Commonly understood to have emerged from the horrors of WW1 with the goal of bringing about world peace, the authors argue that on the contrary, IR came from a somewhat less noble tradition – that of the Round Table.The Round Table were a network of imperialists emerging in the late 1800s across five key British imperial societies: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Their aim...

How would you react if one day you found a genuine ghost sitting in your living room - declaring****that from now on he's your new housemate?Meet Sir Henry, the bitter, mischievous ghost of Urquhart Castle in Scotland. Cursed by his own son to haunt his castle until he saves a girl's life, he finally decides to leave his dilapidated, abandoned home and 'emigrate' to Switzerland, where he transforms himself into the genial and funny guardian spirit of his n...

As the Internet revolution reshapes the world, its usage across the globe reveals a glaring digital divide between developed and developing nations. This paper explores why the Stratification model of Internet diffusion exists, highlighting critical obstacles like prohibitive costs, inadequate infrastructure, language barriers, low education levels, and a lack of relevant content for underserved populations. Using diffusion theory, the study emphasises the Internet's unique challenges comp...

"A great book about a small railway with a lot of history that has managed to adapt . . . and become a tourist attraction without losing its charm." —Unos Cuantos Trenes (A Few Trains)Built to carry minerals from mines in the Rheidol valley, the 2ft gauge Vale of Rheidol Railway found its niche carrying tourists to the tourist attraction at Devil's Bridge, 12 miles inland from the Cardigan coast resort of Aberystwyth. Taken over by the Cambrian Railways and then the...

"Controverso, de Max Chafkin, é muito mais do que uma biografia consistentemente chocante de Peter Thiel, o investidor mais importante em tecnologia e um dos principais apoiadores da presidência de Donald Trump. É também uma história perturbadora do Vale do Silício que fará você reconsiderar as bases ideológicas do incansável mecanismo de destruição criativa dos Estados Unidos." — Brad Stone, autor de A Loja de Tudo e Amazon Unbound Em Controverso, Max Chafkin nos leva a uma fascinante jor...

A brilliant, fiercely funny novel that ponders the eternal question: is it better to laugh or cry?Joe Sandwich is a clown. Not literally, but what else do you call an eleven-year-old who goes to church to confess his good deeds: "I did my homework without being told"? A stockbroker who gets seasick watching the market tape and claims the gross national product is "deodorants"? A father who mows curse words into his lawn and names his son Hamilton because, well, who ...

(Multi)Vocal Exchanges Across the Ocean is the second volume of the project American Studies Over_Seas, an edited collection of texts honoring two pioneering Portuguese scholars in American literature and culture. Devoted to relations between Portugal and the United States, it includes essays by leading scholars whose research illuminates the multifarious ways in which history, sociology and literature intersect. A special feature of this collection is the inclusion of cr...

In 2013 and in 2014 respectively, the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS) and Politikon (the South African Journal of Political Studies) celebrate their 40th anniversary. Also, in April 2014 South Africa celebrates twenty years since the advent of the post-Apartheid democracy, and the birth of the ‘rainbow nation’. This book provides a timely account of the birth and evolution of South African politics over the past four decades, but also of the study of Politic...

American Studies Over_Seas I: Narrating Multiple America(s) is a contribution to the ongoing debate in the field of American Studies in its most recent turn—Transnational American Studies—a paradigm shift in the discipline which runs counter to a consensus version of U.S. history and culture. The essays highlight the dissenting narratives in the study of "America" as a mindscape, multivocal and varied in its discourses of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality. They also ...