Have you ever sung a song with the lyrics "Worthy is the Lamb"?Or have you ever sung along to "The Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah? If so, congratulations, you have a greater understanding of the book of Revelation than you realize. Revelation has long spoken to us in powerful ways despite the confusion often thought of when trying to pick Revelation apart. The Song of the Lamb tries to focus on how Revelation is speaking a powerful message that anyone can appreciate. It t...

Joseph Campbell had a unique gift for helping us see deep meaning in our everyday struggles. Through his passion and wisdom we can see our lives as part of a vast continuum that connects us with all of humanity. As David Kudler puts it, Campbell taught us "to look up and say, 'This is part of something larger. I'm doing this for something that is important to me and to the people around me.'"

This new book shows how international crises are dangerous episodes that can be destabilizing not only to the actors directly involved but also to the entire international system.Recognizing the primacy of crises as defining moments in international relations, scholars and policy makers alike are increasingly concerned with identifying mechanisms for crisis prevention, management and resolution.Mediating International Crises is the first comprehensive study into on...

The appearance of the crossbow on the European battle field in A.D. 1100 as the weapon of choice for shooting down knights threatened the status quo of medieval chivalric fighting techniques. By 1139 the Church had intervened, outlawing the use of the crossbow among Christians. With this edict, arms control was born. As Robert L. O'Connell reveals in this vividly written history of weapons in Western culture, that first attempt at an arms control measure characterizes the complex and often...

The increased military employment of remotely operated aerial vehicles, also known as drones, has raised a wide variety of important ethical questions, concerns, and challenges. Many of these have not yet received the serious scholarly examination such worries rightly demand. This volume attempts to fill that gap through sustained analysis of a wide range of specific moral issues that arise from this new form of killing by remote control. Many, for example, are troubled by the impact that ...

The regime of Kim Jong-Il has been called "mad," "rogue," even, by the Wall Street Journal, the equivalent of an "unreformed serial killer." Yet, despite the avalanche of television and print coverage of the Pyongyang government's violation of nuclear nonproliferation agreements and existing scholarly literature on North Korean policy and security, this critical issue remains mired in political punditry and often misleading sound bites. Victor Cha and David Kang step back from the...

Winner of the THESEUS promising award for Research on European Integration 2011.Sanctions are an important tool within the foreign policy of the European Union, which have until now remained obscure to both scholars and the general public. This book examines sanctions as a political tool of influence and evaluates the efficacy of sanctions imposed by the EU against third countries and their ability to bring about the desired outcome.While the principal sanc...

Interest in nuclear energy has surged in recent years, yet there are risks that accompany the global diffusion of nuclear power—especially the possibility that the spread of nuclear energy will facilitate nuclear weapons proliferation. In this book, leading experts analyze the tradeoffs associated with nuclear energy and put the nuclear renaissance in historical context, evaluating both the causes and the strategic effects of nuclear energy development.They probe critical issues re...

Although there is often opposition to individual wars, most people continue to believe that the arms industry is necessary in some form: to safeguard our security, provide jobs and stimulate the economy. Not only conservatives, but many progressives and liberals, support it for these reasons.Indefensible puts forward a devastating challenge to this conventional wisdom, which has normalised the existence of the most savage weapons of mass destruction ever known. It is the e...

This book constitutes the Proceedings of a meeting held in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, 18-20 July 1989, which was the eighteenth in a series of Workshops on Nuclear Forces held in the framework of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. This particular series of Workshops was initiated in January 1980, that is, immediately after the NATO double-track decision of December 1979 that in the short run led to the deployment in Europe of new US nuclear-armed missiles – ground la...

This book examines the recent shift in US space policy and the forces that continually draw the US back into a space-technology security dilemma.The dual-use nature of the vast majority of space technology, meaning of value to both civilian and military communities and being unable to differentiate offensive from defensive intent of military hardware, makes space an area particularly ripe for a security dilemma. In contrast to previous administrations, the Obama Administration has ...

Provides insight into U.S. and Chinese involvement in aid, trade, direct investment and strategic ties in Latin AmericaIn recent years, China has become the largest trading partner for more than half the countries in Latin America, and demonstrated major commitments in aid and direct investment in various parts of the region. China has also made a number of strategic commitments to countries like Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela which have long-standing policies oppo...