Author: Joseph M. Parent
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199782237
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
What causes a state to unify voluntarily with another state? If realists are right, voluntary union should never happen. In their view, states value their sovereignty above all else and would never give it up without a fight. Yet the United States and Switzerland are glaring exceptions to this paradigm. If liberals and constructivists are right, voluntary unions should be much more common and actually increasing in frequency. After all, classic determinants of integration such as international trade and communication are stronger than they have ever been. Yet the number of states in the world continues to climb, and the most favorable arena for unification, the European Union, seems to be hitting a glass ceiling. In Uniting States, Joseph Parent argues that unions are the balancing coalitions of last resort. Elites can weld separate states into a lasting union only when facing particularly serious threats. Drawing on five major historical cases of union--the United States, Switzerland, Sweden--Norway, Gran Colombia, and the European Union--Uniting States sheds new light on political polarization, state dissolution, federalism, and the possibility of uniting without fighting.

Author: Benjamin F. Shearer
Publisher: Greenwood
ISBN: 0313327033
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This three-volume set brings together the unique stories of each of the fifty United States' journey into statehood.

Author: Edward J. Larson
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062248693
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 231

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An elegantly written account of leadership at the most pivotal moment in American history" (Philadelphia Inquirer): Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Edward J. Larson reveals how George Washington saved the United States by coming out of retirement to lead the Constitutional Convention and serve as our first president. After leading the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington shocked the world: he retired. In December 1783, General Washington, the most powerful man in the country, stepped down as Commander in Chief and returned to private life at Mount Vernon. Yet as Washington contentedly grew his estate, the fledgling American experiment floundered. Under the Articles of Confederation, the weak central government was unable to raise revenue to pay its debts or reach a consensus on national policy. The states bickered and grew apart. When a Constitutional Convention was established to address these problems, its chances of success were slim. Jefferson, Madison, and the other Founding Fathers realized that only one man could unite the fractious states: George Washington. Reluctant, but duty-bound, Washington rode to Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 to preside over the Convention. Although Washington is often overlooked in most accounts of the period, this masterful new history from Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward J. Larson brilliantly uncovers Washington’s vital role in shaping the Convention—and shows how it was only with Washington’s support and his willingness to serve as President that the states were brought together and ratified the Constitution, thereby saving the country.

Author: Ban Ki-moon
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 9354893082
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description
Born just one year before the United Nations itself, Ban Ki-moon came of age with the world body. His earliest memories are haunted by the sound of bombs dropping on his Korean village. The six-year-old boy fled with his family, trudging for miles until the United Nations rescued them. Young Ban grew up determined to repay this lifesaving generosity. Resolved is his personal account of his decade at the helm of the organization during a period of historic turmoil and promise. Meeting challenges with a belief in the UN's mission of peace, development and human rights, he steered the world body through a volatile period. He offers a candid assessment of the people and events that shape our era and a bracing analysis of what lies ahead.

Author: Carolyn Kousky
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1642831395
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
Tens of millions of Americans are at risk from sea level rise, increased tidal flooding, and intensifying storms. A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation identifies a bold new research and policy agenda and provides implementable options for coastal communities responding to these threats. In this book, coastal adaptation experts present a range of climate adaptation policies that could protect coastal communities against increasing risk, including concrete financing recommendations. Coastal adaptation will not be easy, but it is achievable using varied approaches. A Blueprint for Coastal Adaptation will inspire innovative and cross-disciplinary thinking about coastal policy at the state and local level while providing actionable, realistic policy and planning options for adaptation professionals and policymakers.

Author: Alexander Grant
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134791887
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
A group of Britain's most prestigious historians assemble to explore the formation of the UK, its history and its identity. Traditional regional and chronological frontiers are broken down as mediev- alists, modernists and early modernists debate.

Author: Don Higginbotham
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN: 0742581578
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
In 1776, thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. Although they came together to fight a war, the colonies were far from a unified nation. In George Washington: Uniting a Nation, Don Higginbotham argues that Washington's greatest contribution to American life was creating a sense of American unity. In clear and concise prose, Higginbotham shows that as Revolutionary War commander, proponent of the Constitution, and president, George Washington focused on building national identity and erecting institutions to cement the fledgling nation. The first book on Washington to examine exclusively his role in state formation, George Washington is essential reading for scholars, students, and everyone interested in America's first, and most formative, president.

Author: Daniel Kemmis
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806168110
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 shocked the American political system, and the aftershocks have widened the nation’s partisan divide and magnified deep tensions in the public sphere. At a time when our political focus so often shrinks to the immediacy of the latest jolt, this book puts these alarming events in a much broader—and more manageable—context. Even as we become more polarized along partisan and ideological lines, author Daniel Kemmis reminds us that authentic conservatism and progressivism are both deeply rooted in genuine human concerns and in the shared history of our democratic republic. Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy is at once a cogent analysis of what ails our body politic and a wide-ranging, deeply informed prescription for healing our wounded democracy. The Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission amplified the role of big money in American politics. But, as Kemmis notes, the threats to our democracy long preceded Citizens United. While the influence of big money and relentless partisanship can make ordinary citizens feel powerless in a chaotic political culture, Citizens Uniting to Restore Our Democracy offers a stirring reassertion of the power Americans possess as collaborative problem-solvers—namely, the very homegrown self-governing skills needed to rebuild our democracy. Drawing on several decades of public service—as a politician, activist, and scholar, one of Utne Reader’s “100 Visionaries Changing the World”—Kemmis highlights the transformative potential latent in the everyday practice of engaged citizenship. Leveraged by new mechanisms, such as an effective democratic lobby of the kind his book advocates, that reservoir of active, hands-on citizenship must be mobilized into a twenty-first-century version of the Progressive movement, providing both necessary and sufficient conditions for the renewal of the nation’s democratic institutions.

Author: Belgin San-Akca
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019063782X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
There is a long history of state governments providing support to nonstate armed groups fighting battles in other countries. Examples include Syria's aid to Hamas, Ecuador's support for FARC, and Libya's donation of arms to the IRA. What motivates states to do this? And why would rebel groups align themselves with these states? In States in Disguise, Belgin San-Akca builds a rigorous theoretical framework within which to study the complex and fluid network of relationships between states and rebel groups, including ethnic and religious insurgents, revolutionary groups, and terrorists. She proves that patterns of alliances between armed rebels and modern states are hardly coincidental, but the result of systematic and strategic choices made by both states and rebel groups. San-Akca demonstrates that these alliances are the result of shared conflictual, material and ideational interests, and her theory shows how to understand these ties via the domestic and international environment. Drawing from an original data set of 455 groups, their target states, and supporters over a span of more than sixty years, she explains that states are most likely to support rebel groups when they are confronted with internal and external threats simultaneously, while rebels select strong states and democracies when seeking outside support. She also shows that states and rebels look to align with one another when they share ethnic, religious and ideological ties. Through its broad chronological sweep, States in Disguise reveals how and why the phenomenon of state and rebel group alliances has evolved over time.

Author: Austin Buffum
Publisher: Solution Tree Press
ISBN: 1936764903
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
Ensure students acquire the academic skills, dispositions, and knowledge necessary for long-term success. The authors examine effective academic and behavior supports and offer a step-by-step process for determining, targeting, and observing academic and behavior interventions. You’ll discover how to work in collaborative teams using a research-based framework to provide united and simultaneous interventions to students at risk.