Bøker utgitt av Pluto Press

In Kosovo, America claimed its war was a 'humanitarian intervention,' in Afghanistan, 'self-defense,' and in Iraq, it claimed the authority of the Security Council of the United Nations. Yet each of these wars was illegal according to established rules of international law. According to these rules, illegal wars fall within the category of 'supreme international crimes'. So how come the war crimes tribunals never manage to turn their sights on America and always wind up putting America's enemies - 'the usual suspects' - on trial?*BR**BR*This new book by renowned scholar Michael Mandel offers a critical account of America's illegal wars and a war crimes system that has granted America's leaders an unjust and dangerous impunity, effectively encouraging their illegal wars and the war crimes that always flow from them.

On February 15, 2003, over 6 million people around the world marched in protest against a threatened war on Iraq. In the light of these remarkable events, and the conflict that followed, it is now more important than ever to properly assess Iraq's role in world politics.*BR**BR*This book provides a history of Iraq, an assessment of its position in the broader political landscape, and a moving account of the day-to-day reality experienced by the Iraqi people. The authors look at Iraq's -- and Saddam Hussein's -- relations and influence in the region of the greater Middle East. They examine the role of the UN, sanctions and warfare, explaining the impact this has had on Iraq's civil population and related humanitarian questions. *BR**BR*They assess American policy towards Iraq and how this has changed since September 11, setting it within the broader context of America's involvement in the Middle East. Finally, they look at social policy within Iraq, explaining how the internal welfare system has collapsed since the Gulf War, and examining the continuing effects of depleted uranium.

Examines why the sanction regime failed, and explores the real motivations of the powers involved.

How has the government and the people of Cuba actively resisted neo-liberal globalisation? How is it that the Cuban Communist Party continues to exist? To what extent is Cuba affected by global trends and pressures?*BR**BR*Antonio Carmona Baez challenges those on the Left who romantically support the Cuban Revolution as well as those who claim that the free market is the ideal economic model for all states. Instead, he presents an intelligent account of the serious and contradictory consequences of Cuba's social, political and economic restructuring. *BR* *BR*The author revisits the history of the Cuban Revolution, and the crisis after the fall of Cuba's superpower ally, the Soviet Union, to provide answers to these questions.

Companion volume to 'Making the International'. An excellent students guide to international studies.

Breaking down the complexities of today's international political and economic systems

Breaking down the complexities of today's international political and economic systems

New edition of classic title on the morality of terrorism

This new edition of the successful handbook Employment Rights is fully updated and revised to include new material on all recent employment law. Employment Rights is a well-established text and reference point on all aspects of labour law - in particular those outside the legal profession. *BR**BR*Coverage is comprehensive and includes recruitment and selection; contracts (and changes to them); wages; discrimination; unfair dismissal and redundancy; health and safety; trade union rights; and work-related benefits.*BR**BR*This new edition has been expanded to include coverage of developments such as the Employment Act 2002, Tax Credits Act 2002, EC Employment, Social Policy, the European Convention of Human Rights; and reform of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Industrial Tribunals Act 1996.*BR*

The 1948 war ended in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes. Israeli settlers moved in to occupy their land and the Palestinian refugees found themselves expelled. Today there are nearly four million Palestinian refugees - and they want the right to go home.*BR**BR*Since 1948 Israeli refugee policy has become a classic case of denial: the denial that Zionist 'transfer committees' had operated between 1937 and 1948; denial of any wrong doing or any historical injustice; denial of the 'right of return'; denial of restitution of property and compensation; and indeed denial of any moral responsibility or culpability for the creation of the refugee problem.*BR**BR*This book analyses Israeli policies towards the Palestinian refugees as they evolved from the 1948 catastrophe (or nakba) to the present. It is the first volume to look in detail at Israeli law and policy surrounding the refugee question. Drawing on extensive primary sources and previously classified archive material, Masalha discusses the 1948 exodus; Israeli resettlement schemes since 1948; Israeli approaches to compensation and restitution of property; Israeli refugee policies towards the internally displaced ('present absentees'); and Israeli refugee policies during the Madrid and Oslo negotiations.

The expansion of space militarization forms a common thread with the explicit unilateral empire-building of the Bush administration. But just as Star Wars did not begin with the Missile Defense Agency, preventive war theory did not originate with Donald Rumsfeld. *BR**BR*Advocates of military space always were on the front line of those demanding global dominance. Loring Wirbel argues that the seeds for the current space supremacy doctrine were sown at the end of the Cold War, in the early days of the Clinton administration. Examining the evolution of space-based tools, Wirbel shows that missile defense strategy is part of a dangerous US move to wage endless preventive war and demand global supremacy over allies and adversaries alike.*BR**BR*Star Wars: US Tools of Space Supremacy provides a fresh look at the role of space as an enabler of the Bush administration's plans for endless preventive war. It debunks the benign notions of missile defence, and expands the definition of space supremacy to include the unilateral misuse of space-based intelligence, communications, and targeting technologies.

First English-language guide to the new form of democractic government pioneered in Porto Alegre, Brazil

First English-language guide to the new form of democractic government pioneered in Porto Alegre, Brazil

The Cold War is often presented as an international power struggle between the Soviet Union and the US. Richard Saull challenges this assumption. He broadens our understanding of the defining political conflict of the twentieth-century by stressing the social and ideological differences of the superpowers and how these differences conditioned their international behaviour.*BR**BR*Saull argues that US-Soviet antagonism was part of a wider conflict between capitalism and communism involving states and social forces other than the superpowers. The US was committed to containing revolutionary and communist movements that emerged out of uneven capitalist development.*BR**BR*In highlighting the socio-economic and ideological dimensions of the Cold War, Saull not only provides a richer history of the Cold War than mainstream approaches, but is also able to explain why revolutionary domestic transformations caused international crises. Tracing the origins of new resistance to American global power, Saull's book provides an ideal alternative perspective on the Cold War and its end.

A manifesto for change in agriculture produced by the radical French farmers' union, Confederation Paysanne

Like many buzzwords, 'global governance' is as poorly understood as it is popular. In contrast to most mainstream accounts, this book examines global economic governance as an integral moment of contemporary capitalism, presenting a critical insight into its real nature and the interests that it serves. *BR**BR*This book begins by asking what has not been discussed in the mainstream debates and why. Drawing on a Marxist perspective, Susanne Soederberg explores neglected issues including transnational debt and the increasingly coercive nature of US aid to so-called 'failed states'. *BR**BR*She argues that mainstream understandings fail to engage with the wider contradictions that characterise global capitalism. In consequence, there is no explanation of the changing nature of American empire and capitalist power in the world.

'This unique portrait of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation is composed of personal emails emanating from Palestine during Operation Defensive Shield.' The Bookseller

Leading anthropologists discuss globalisation

Leading anthropologists discuss globalisation

A reassessment of Scottish politics and society in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century

What are the boundaries of postcolonial theory?

Examines how political transformations affect people's memories and identities.

Examines how political transformations affect people's memories and identities.

A critique of modern African 'democracies'

A practical guide to the growing influence of women on parliamentary legislation across the Commonwealth

The US has major interests in the Balkans, the Greater Middle East and the Eurasian zone, which determine its political and military strategies in the region. What are these interests, and what strategies are used to ensure that they are maintained? Examining the balance of power between the US, the EU and key EU states, Vassilis Fouskas offers a critique of US foreign policy and its underlying motivations. *BR**BR*Fouskas argues that the major US objectives include control over gas and oil producing zones; safe transportation of energy to Western markets at stable prices; and the elimination, but not destruction, of America's Eurasian competitors. He asserts that US foreign policy is therefore driven by the desire to maintain a strategic partnership with key EU states, while preventing the emergence of an alternative coalition in Eurasia capable of challenging US supremacy. *BR**BR*How does the US manage its interests in Eurasia and what are the particular strategies the EU has elaborated so far to deal with America's supremacy? Has US foreign policy undergone a dramatic U-turn after the end of the Cold War or, for that matter, after September 11th? What are the roles of Germany, France, Britain and Turkey, and how do EU-Cyprus relations affect the balance of power? This book tackles these questions and argues that the emergence of a social democratic administration in Eurasia is a feasible alternative to American unilateralism.

The feminist press movement transformed the publishing industry, literary culture and educational curricula during the last quarter of the 20th century. This book is both a survey of the movement internationally and a detailed critique of its long-term impact. *BR**BR*Feminist presses are described as 'mixed media', always attempting to balance politics with profit-making. Using a series of detailed case studies, Simone Murray highlights the specific debates through which this dilemma plays out: the nature of independence; the politics of race; feminist publishing and the academy; radical writing and publishing practice; and feminism's interface with mainstream publishing.

This book seeks to demystify North Korea by cutting through the propaganda to unearth the complex and contradictory realities of this unique country. The North is not a 'workers' paradise' but neither is it a threat to its neighbours and the world. The once vigorous economy was devastated by the collapse of the Soviet Union and now its main foreign policy objective, and the key to its economic rehabilitation, is normalisation of relations with the United States. But not normalisation at the expense of independence. *BR**BR*Tim Beal reveals a country overburdened by military spending that sees itself under constant threat. However, he also reveals how North Korea has opened to the world in recent years, establishing diplomatic relations with the West and trying to break free of foreign aid. Exploring a broad range of subjects including the historical and political framework of North Korea, the development of the nuclear crisis, human rights issues, drug trading, as well as its shifting relationship with South Korea, this is an ideal book for anyone who wants a thorough introduction to the remarkable challenges this country faces.

This book explores the role of governments and financial institutions in managing the markets in the developing world.*BR**BR*These 'Great Predators' are trapping the populations of the Global South in a permanent cycle of austerity. Through a framework of political economy, Money and Power shows how pseudo-public 'development' institutions retain complete economic control over developing markets, while the international system remains unregulated. *BR**BR*Operating in the interests of North America and the European Union, these Great Predators have a political purpose, and yet serve to cloud the brute power relations between states.