Defending Democracy and Securing Diversity

Defending Democracy and Securing Diversity PDF Author: Christian Leuprecht
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317986970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Old sergeants say, "we're here to defend democracy, not to practice it!" But are they right? The special mandate with which defence and security organizations are tasked imposes unique constraints with respect to the accommodation of diversity which differs from those faced by any other public or private organization. Yet, the compound effect of demographic, political, economic, social and legal pressures is making diversity as inevitable in the defence and security sector as in any other organization in advanced industrialized democracies. Owing in part to a dearth of research on the way the defence and security sectors can leverage diversity to enhance their functional imperatives, such sectors have been reticent about diversity. The chapters in this volume strive to enlighten the debate by laying out the concepts, clarifying theoretical issues, and providing empirical evidence. The case studies draw on Canada, Guyana, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. They examine ethno-cultural, gender, and sexual-minority diversity in a variety of missions, including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan. The chapters are notable for their methodological pluralism and interdisciplinary range including political science, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Although scholarly in nature, the book is readily accessible to professionals and practitioners alike. This book was published as a special issue of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

Defending Democracy and Securing Diversity

Defending Democracy and Securing Diversity PDF Author: Christian Leuprecht
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317986970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
Old sergeants say, "we're here to defend democracy, not to practice it!" But are they right? The special mandate with which defence and security organizations are tasked imposes unique constraints with respect to the accommodation of diversity which differs from those faced by any other public or private organization. Yet, the compound effect of demographic, political, economic, social and legal pressures is making diversity as inevitable in the defence and security sector as in any other organization in advanced industrialized democracies. Owing in part to a dearth of research on the way the defence and security sectors can leverage diversity to enhance their functional imperatives, such sectors have been reticent about diversity. The chapters in this volume strive to enlighten the debate by laying out the concepts, clarifying theoretical issues, and providing empirical evidence. The case studies draw on Canada, Guyana, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. They examine ethno-cultural, gender, and sexual-minority diversity in a variety of missions, including Bosnia-Herzegovina and Afghanistan. The chapters are notable for their methodological pluralism and interdisciplinary range including political science, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Although scholarly in nature, the book is readily accessible to professionals and practitioners alike. This book was published as a special issue of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics.

New Armies from Old

New Armies from Old PDF Author: Roy Licklider
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626160430
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
Negotiating a peaceful end to civil wars, which often includes an attempt to bring together former rival military or insurgent factions into a new national army, has been a frequent goal of conflict resolution practitioners since the Cold War. In practice, however, very little is known about what works, and what doesn’t work, in bringing together former opponents to build a lasting peace. Contributors to this volume assess why some civil wars result in successful military integration while others dissolve into further strife, factionalism, and even renewed civil war. Eleven cases are studied in detail—Sudan, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Rwanda, the Philippines, South Africa, Mozambique, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Burundi—while other chapters compare military integration with corporate mergers and discuss some of the hidden costs and risks of merging military forces. New Armies from Old fills a serious gap in our understanding of civil wars, their possible resolution, and how to promote lasting peace, and will be of interest to scholars and students of conflict resolution, international affairs, and peace and security studies.

Securing the Vote

Securing the Vote PDF Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030947647X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
During the 2016 presidential election, America's election infrastructure was targeted by actors sponsored by the Russian government. Securing the Vote: Protecting American Democracy examines the challenges arising out of the 2016 federal election, assesses current technology and standards for voting, and recommends steps that the federal government, state and local governments, election administrators, and vendors of voting technology should take to improve the security of election infrastructure. In doing so, the report provides a vision of voting that is more secure, accessible, reliable, and verifiable.

Defending Identity

Defending Identity PDF Author: Natan Sharansky
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 9781586487034
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
Who is better prepared to confront challenges and defend principles in a volatile modern world? Those with strong national, religious, ethnic, or tribal identities who accept democracy, or democrats who renounce identity as a kind of divisive prejudice? Natan Sharansky, building on his personal experience as a dissident, argues that valueless cosmopolitanism, even in democracies, is dangerous. Better to have hostile identities framed by democracy than democrats indifferent to identity. In a vigorous insightful challenge to the left and right alike, Natan Sharansky, as he has proved repeatedly, is at the leading edge of the issues that frame our time.

Democracy Promotion in the EU’s Neighbourhood

Democracy Promotion in the EU’s Neighbourhood PDF Author: Sandra Lavenex
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135710767
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
EU external democracy promotion has traditionally been based on ‘linkage’, i.e. bottom-up support for democratic forces in third countries, and ‘leverage’, i.e. the top-down inducement of political elites towards democratic reforms through political conditionality. The advent of the European Neighbourhood Policy and new forms of association have introduced a new, third model of democracy promotion which rests in functional cooperation between administrations. This volume comparatively defines and assesses these three models of external democracy promotion in the EU’s relations with its eastern and southern neighbours. It argues that while ‘linkage’ has hitherto failed to produce tangible outcomes, and the success of ‘leverage’ has basically been tied to an EU membership perspective, the ‘governance’ model of democracy promotion bears greater potential beyond the circle of candidate countries. This third approach, while not tackling the core institutions of the political system as such, but rather promoting transparency, accountability, and participation at the level of state administration, may turn out to remain the EU’s most tangible form of democratic governance promotion in the future. This book was originally published as a special issue of Democratization.

Warriors or Peacekeepers?

Warriors or Peacekeepers? PDF Author: Kjetil Enstad
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030367665
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
As the past two decades of war in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Darfur and the Congo have revealed, war in the twenty-first century looks nothing like the traditional state-to-state conflicts of World Wars I and II which defined the previous century. Resolving today’s conflicts - typically based on complex ethnic, religious, economic and political dynamics - requires far more than mere military strength and technology. The military officer of today must simultaneously be a warrior and diplomat, combatant and humanitarian worker, soldier and peacekeeper. But how can today’s militaries prepare their leaders for such multifaceted roles? Warriors or Peacekeepers seeks to provide answers to this question, comparing and contrasting research on the successes and failures of military cultural education and training programs in seven different countries on three continents (U.S., Canada, Argentina Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands). This anthology consists of three main sections. The first addresses the theoretical issues of developing the warrior-peacekeeper: what constitutes cultural competence in the officer profession and the pedagogical challenges associated with developing such competence. The second compares teaching practices from various military educational institutions and provides insight into such issues as: how language training can build cultural awareness, helping officers navigate the ethical and moral challenges of dealing with gender in radically different cultures and the best didactic models to develop reflective skills in military leaders. The third section examines the structural and organizational conditions which historically have aided or impeded educational and organizational change in the military. This book will appeal to military academic communities, educational institutions, scholars in security studies, peacekeeping and conflict studies; and to decision-makers in governments and administration.

Strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces through Diversity and Inclusion

Strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces through Diversity and Inclusion PDF Author: Alistair Edgar
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
ISBN: 1487518226
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The Canadian Armed Forces has not always embraced diversity and inclusion, but its future depends on it. As the country’s demographic makeup changes, its military must adapt to a new multicultural reality and diminishing pools of people from which it can recruit. Canada’s population is increasingly urbanized, immigrant, and not necessarily Christian, white, or bilingual. To attract and retain CAF personnel, the military will have to embrace and champion diversity while demonstrating that it is inclusive. Using a number of cases to highlight both challenges and opportunities, Strengthening the Canadian Armed Forces through Diversity and Inclusion provides a timely look at an established Canadian institution in a rapidly changing world. The editors explore how Canadian Muslim youth, LGBTQ+ individuals, women, racialized minorities, Indigenous communities, and people of non-Christian faiths see their experiences in the CAF. While diversity is a reality, inclusion is still a work in progress for the Canadian Armed Forces, as it is for society at large.

American Government in Black and White

American Government in Black and White PDF Author: Paula Denice McClain
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780190298807
Category : Minorities
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


There Was Another Country

There Was Another Country PDF Author: W. Forje
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 995655264X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 680

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Book Description
In this comprehensive, well-reasoned, critical, richly documented and boldly argued account on the Anglophone/Southern Cameroons/Ambazonia crisis, John Forje, a foremost scholar of identity politics in Cameroon, offers insightful explorations and explanations of histories and cultures of telling truth to power that have come to be associated with the people of the English-speaking region of Cameroon. The book offers realistic perspectives for the reinstitution of justice, equality, and democratic governance in a country of plenty but lavishing in endemic underdevelopment. Forje argues, among other things, that the current Anglophone crisis is the exhibition of one reality: that more than half-a-century after independence and unification, most Cameroonians are grossly disillusioned with their leaders. The country has had only two presidents since independence - Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya, with the latter occupying the presidency for 40 years since 1982 and counting. If something concrete is not undertaken now, the cleavages of division would widen to a dangerous end. Dark clouds hang over the future of the country. Uncertainty about national unity and stability is hardly a solid foundation for a country aspiring to be an emerging polity by 2035. There is an urgent need for a broader dimension of political dispensation in Cameroon. The book calls for proper soul-searching, critical analysis, and a new, comprehensive and visionary mindset to build a new country out of the ashes of the existing crumbling or failed polity. The need to re-rail Cameroon on the democratic train and on the path of sustainable development cannot be overemphasized.

Freedom & creativity

Freedom & creativity PDF Author: UNESCO
Publisher: UNESCO Publishing
ISBN: 9231003798
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description