Agency-securities Books

Under the guise of "homeland security" the US government has made unprecedented legal attacks on the civil liberties and civil rights of the people of this country. From immgrants to librarians, from union activists to anyone who talks on the telephone, covert and overt attacks on the civil rights of Americans continue to grow. Their target is not "terrorists" but against the threat of working class resistance to the growing attacks on living conditions. They are afraid the entire working class will follow the example immigrants are setting by coming into direct action against them, rather than depending on the Republicans and Democrats who are in the pockets of the rich.

This book documents the historic victory the Socialist Workers Party won in its suit against the US government's illegal Cointelpro attacks on the SWP and on the trade union, Black liberation, women's right, and antiVietnam war movements the SWP was a part of. Read these documents, and you will see that the FBI and the other federal agencies have no concern for "law and order," or "terrorism." Their real concern is to do whatever they can get away with inside and outside the law to disrupt struggles in the interests of working people.

Read this book so you will know not only of these crimes of the FBI and the government in the past, but so you will know how to fight them now and in the future.

Comprehensive information about grants available. Since it covers many different topics, some subjects do not have too much information but still great source. After all this guide is designed to be a starting point for doing the work. It helps you find the right grants to research more in detail

The reformation of governmental agencies and the policies they operate under is a constant political theme whether on the municipal, county, state, federal, or international level. Written by Suzanne J. Piotrowski (Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Administration, Rutgers University), Governmental Transparency in the Path of Administrative Reform is a scholarly assessment of both the intended and unintended consequences of federal management reforms associated with the National Performance Review and the implementation of the Freedom of Information Act. Chapters cover the history and current state of the FOIA; the potential impact of customer service initiatives to improve governmental transparency and facilitate the release of documents; the many ways in which contractors are an essential part of the FOIA process, and much more. An index supplements this excellent, heavily researched, and thoroughly detailed examination of the efforts, successes, and missteps in the ongoing effort to guard against corruption through transparency. "The potential tension between democratic accountability and accountability for results was explained early on in this book. These two related, but at times competing, visions of governmental accountability can be visualized on a continuum. The objective is to find a point on that continuum that balances the need to have both types of accountability... The NPR, which supported accountability for results, did not focus on the FOIA, which embodies democratic accountability. However, the NPR did affect the FOIA... the management initiatives associated with the reform movement impacted FOIA policy. It is in the unintended consequences of NPR on the FOIA that the intersection of democratic accountability and accountability for results are seen."

If you have a realitive in law enforcement or you are just fasinated with it then this is the book for oyu. i discovered it in my college libary on a dusty shelf. it is really good anf informitive i would recomend this to any state police officer as a gift of some sort.

When Egypt's president revealed a drive for improving democracy a year ago, the deputy head of the country's top appeals court felt hope, but today, are Egypt's democratic reforms complete? Recently Pakistan has banned anti-cartoon rallies in Lahore after several demonstrations turned deadly, but can the same protests be totally controlled in other parts of the Islamic world? When thousands of demonstrators marched through Paris to protest racism after the killing of a Paris Jew, do you really think it just an incident? These are just some headlines from today's AP news. Coping with cultural diversity is one of the central challenges of the 21st century. Nowadays, while most people are concerned about the future of technological new frontiers such as artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and gene technology, I am more curious about the status quo of our human societies, cultures and its implications for forecasting the future. This can be best explained why I chose to read the book, Human Development Report 2004.
This book is about discussing human development from a global perspective. As this book alerts us, "a global clash of cultures" is now happening. Like all UNDP's Human Development Reports, this book is actually an independent study intended to encourage discussion about human rights, cultural diversity, globalization, cultural liberty, etc. From my point of view, those are basic issues and at least continue to be "hot" and even getting hotter in the rest of this century. In other words, when people forecast new trends and changes of technologies, it is unfair to assume that the human society will simultaneously develop as technologies do. The fact is just the opposite: people always overlook or neglect those issues when they are preoccupied by fascinating technologies. In addition, technologies degenerate human development by making masses of people lazy and indulging people with convenience and effortless lives.
One of the book's strengths is that it takes you through cultural issues around the world by which the authors make a case for respecting diversity and building more inclusive societies by adopting policies that explicitly recognize cultural differences-multicultural policies. Another powerful section was on building of multicultural democracies.
Among many issues mentioned in this book, cultural liberty is the one that fascinated me. According to the authors, cultural liberty is a vital part of human development because being able to choose one's identity-who one is-without losing the respect of others or being excluded from other choices is important in leading a full life. Because minority identity was my former research area eight years ago when I pursued my first MA in cultural anthropology, I can well understand today's conflicts from a perspective of cultural identity. In the future, war will involved more identity disputes, especially when you realize that most countries of our world share the same cultural diversity. For example, Malaysia, consists of 62% of its people Malays and other indigenous groups, 30% ethnic Chinese and 8% Indian. China has 56 nationalities and, even in a metropolitan city such as Shanghai, there are 34 nationalities recorded, not to mention the other minority autonomies in the remote regions of the country.
In sum, this book opens a door for us to better understand the future of the human society, and especially for those who are willing to forecast the future but without any background of human development.-by Chunfeng

International Human rights are a relatively recent invention, and there coming into international law can be attributed to the UN. "Human Rights at the UN: The Political History of Universal Justice" is a through and scholarly look at the development of human writes during the periods of shortly before its creation and immediately following it, and its expansion and development over the years following it all and everything since, as rights for all more and more often becomes the norm. "Human Rights at the UN: The Political History of Universal Justice" is highly recommended for community library international affairs shelves and for anyone who wants to be more appreciative of what we have now.

The purpose of this book is to analyse UN peacekeeping operations focusing particularly on human rights functions, and to seek to develop a better design for such functions in future operations: The book starts by reviewing the UN mechanism for international peace and security in Chapter 1. The role of the Security Council and the General Assembly in the mechanism will be discussed, and the origins of United Nations peace-keeping will be studied by means of four case-studies of observation missions and peacekeeping missions. Also, an examination will be made in Chapter 1 of the constitutional basis of United Nations peacekeeping operations, as well as the competence of the Security Council and of the General Assembly to create peacekeeping forces, and of the role of the Secretary-General in the area of international peace and security. The lastsection of Chapter 1 will deal with peacekeeping operations by regional arrangements or agencies in the context of Chapter VIII of the UN Charter.
Chapter 2 commences with a historical overview of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. An extensive review of varied definitions and theories of peacekeeping will follow which illustrates the evolution of United Nations peacekeeping operations. The review demonstrates that two features can be found in peacekeeping operations after the end of the Cold War, as described above. To clarify the concept of peacekeeping, the legal distinction between peacekeeping and enforcement action will be discussed. Chapter 2 concludes with a focus on non-military functions of peacekeeping, which in practice contains peacemaking and peace-building functions. Human rights are essential elements of such functions. The first two chapters thus explain how the Organisation reached the point of being largely involved in human rights work within the framework of peacekeeping.
The four chapters thereafter are devoted to case-studies. These chapters contain a detailed examination of the actual human rights activities per-formed in four different areas of the world by UN peacekeeping missions or a UN human rights field operation. The areas being examined are El Salvador, Cambodia, Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The operations in each area approached and challenged the human rights problems differently, which shows that there has been a consistent lack of effort by the Organisation to study and make use of the skills and experience gained in preceding operations.' Several points of analysis will be set up for examination in each case-study for the purpose of enabling a comparison of similar functions in different operations. One important factor for future peacekeeping operations when they undertake human rights functions will inevitably be institution-building, such as the reform of the judicial system or the restructuring and training of police forces. Peacekeeping, as a temporary measure to create the environment for sustainable peace, needs to assist in the establishment of domestic structures and mechanisms which
protect and promote human rights. As is manifest in the case of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), institution-building is becoming an integral part of peacekeeping.'
Chapter 7 considers the possibility of the use of force in protecting human rights. Given that the presence of UN peacekeepers did not succeed in protecting civilian lives either in Rwanda or Srebrenica (Bosnia-Herzegovina), we will examine the recent practice of the Security Council of contracting out enforcement operations to volunteering states. We will also consider the "humanitarian intervention", unilateral or multilateral intervention by one or more states without any authorisation from the UN Security Council. The problem represents a deviation from collective security as envisaged in the UN Charter. Seeking the possibility that peace-keeping forces can contribute in protecting human rights through non-military means, the potential role of peacekeepers as a "protecting power" will be studied. The potential of peacekeepers to carry out human rights functions will also be discussed.

Joining others in the 'Contemporary Military, Strategic, and Security Issues' series is the excellent Intelligence and National Security: A Reference Handbook, which provides college-level and military collections with an excellent survey and analysis of what intelligence is and how it functions under the umbrella of American national security. From the initial creation of intelligence services and divisions within the US to the ways information is gathered and analyzed, INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY packs in a blend of history and military and social analysis, making it an excellent starting point for any discussion on the topic.

'Richard Caplan's timely and excellent new book should be required reading for the Bush team, as well as other policy makers and analysts.' --The World Today

'Policy-makers in both capitals should read Caplan's excellent study before embarking on any new military adventures.' --International Affairs

Iraq has been on the United Nations Security Council's agenda for a quarter century. As noted UN expert David Malone shows, their tempestuous relationship has been a two-way street: just as the UN has changed Iraq, so Iraq has reshaped the UN.

In many ways, Iraq has been the organization's greatest challenge - dividing the UN's membership, overwhelming its staff, flaunting its covenants, manipulating its inspectors, and engulfing it in two bloody conflicts.

Malone traces the Security Council's evolution as it sought to manage this most vexing of global security challenges. He shows how the Council's role on Iraq evolved from a Cold War peacemaker to a policeman of the New World Order, to a weapons inspector and a sanctions enforcer. The shifting imperatives of the United States, the UK, France, and Russia are also explained and placed in historical context. Iraq forced the Council to reckon with unforseen problems of legality and legitimacy, and to find a way forward when its most powerful member insisted on taking action without its blessing.

Malone also examines the now-infamous Iraq Oil-for-Food Program. With an academic's rigor, he shows that despite its deep politicization and a scale that was well beyond the UN Secretariat's management capacity, Oil-for-Food was a largely successful humanitarian program. As with so many UN instruments, it was a flawed attempt to meet urgent human needs while balancing the interests of the permanent members of the Security Council.

Illuminated throughout are the Security Council's unique strengths as a multilateral arbiter of international relations, and its crippling institutional weaknesses as a fragile vessel for great power interests. Ultimately, Malone shows, Iraq spurred the Council to evolve from an ad hoc mediator of conflicts and crises to a regulator seeking to redefine the rules of the global game.

Anyone seeking a clear, balanced analysis of the evolving geopolitics that shape Security Council decisions will be well served by this excellent book.