Books published by C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

In 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar, launching an economic blockade by land, air and sea. The self-proclaimed 'Anti-Terror Quartet' offered maximalist demands: thirteen 'conditions' recalling Austria-Hungary's 1914 ultimatum to Serbia. They may even have intended military action. Well into its second year, the standoff in the Gulf has no realistic end in sight. With the Bahraini and Emirati criminalisation of expressing support for Qatar, and the Saudi labelling of detainees as 'traitors' for their alleged Qatari links, bitterness has been stoked between deeply interconnected peoples. The adviser to the Saudi crown prince advocating a moat to physically separate Qatar from the Arabian Peninsula illustrates the ongoing intensity‿and irrationality‿of the crisis. Most reporting and analysis of these developments has focused on questions of regional geopolitics, and framed the standoff in terms of its impact on (largely) Western interests. Lost in this thicket of commentary is consideration of how the Qatari leadership and population have responded to the blockade. As the 2022 FIFA World Cup draws closer, the ongoing Qatar crisis becomes increasingly important to understand. Ulrichsen offers an authoritative study of this international standoff, from both sides.

The go-to guide for those seeking an informed, balanced and up-to-date analysis of South African politics and society in the Ramaphosa era.

Conveys how one of the world's newest nations came into being and survived, against all odds.

A mini-history of a nation's life told in the stories of three protagonists

The war on drugs has failed, but consensus in the international drug policy debate on the way forward is missing. Amidst this moment of uncertainty, militarised lenses on the global illicit drug problem continue to neglect the complexity of the causes and consequences that this war is intended to defend or defeat. Challenging conventional thinking in defence and security sectors, Transforming the War on Drugs constitutes the first comprehensive and systematic effort to theoretically, conceptually, and empirically investigate the impacts of the war on drugs. The contributors trace the consequences of the war on drugs across vulnerable regions, including South America and Central America, West Africa, the Middle East and the Golden Crescent, the Golden Triangle, and Russia. It demonstrates that these consequences are 'glocal'. The war's local impacts on human rights, security, development, and public health are interdependent with transnational illicit flows. The book further reveals how these impacts have influenced the positions of governments across these regions, with significant ramifications for the international drug control regime. Crucially, it shows that, at a time when global order is in flux, critically evaluating the regime's securitisation through the war on drugs provides key insights into other global governance realms.

The first English biography of the notorious warlord, Afghan politician and anti-Soviet mujahid.

A smart take on the true meaning of the West, its recent decline, and our chance to save it.

A sharp condemnation of Trump's counterterrorism policy as a dangerous failure.

An urgent call to reform capitalism so that it stops failing women.

The 2014 European Parliament elections were hailed as a ''populist earthquake'', with parties like the French Front National, UKIP and the Danish PeopleΓÇÖs Party topping the polls in their respective countries. But what happened afterwards? Based on policy positions, voting data, and interviews conducted over three years with senior figures from fourteen radical right populist parties and their partners, this is the first major study to explain these parties'' actions and alliances in the European Parliament. International Populism answers three key questions: why have radical right populists, unlike other ideological party types, long been divided in the Parliament? Why, although divisions persist, are many of them now more united than ever? And how does all this inform our understanding of the European populist radical right today? Arguing that these parties have entered a new international and transnational phase, with some trying to be ''respectable radicals'' while others embrace their shared populism, McDonnell and Werner shed new light on the past, present and future of one of the most important political phenomena of twenty-first-century Europe.

''Mirrorlands'' is a journey through space and time to the meeting points of Russia and China, the worldΓÇÖs largest and most populous countries. Charting an unconventional course southeast through Siberia, Inner Mongolia, the Russian Far East and Manchuria, anthropologist and linguist Ed Pulford sketches a rich series of encounters with people and places unknown not only to outsiders, but also to most residents of the capital cities where his journey begins and ends.What Russia and China have in common goes much deeper than their status as authoritarian post-socialist states or perceived menaces to Western hegemony. Their shared history can only fully be appreciated from an intimately local, borderland perspective. Along remote roads, rivers and railways, in cosmopolitan cities and indigenous villages of the northeast Asian frontiers, Pulford maps the strikingly similar ways in which these two vast empires have ruled their Eurasian domains, before, during and after socialism.With great cultural nuance, ''Mirrorlands'' thoughtfully evokes the diverse daily interactions between residents of the RussiaΓÇôChina borderlands, and their resulting visions of ΓÇÿEuropeΓÇÖ and ΓÇÿAsiaΓÇÖ. It is a vivid portrait of centuries of cross-border encounter, mimicry and conflict, key to understanding the global place and identity of two leading world powers.

Sufism is a growing and global phenomenon, far from the declining relic it was once thought to be. This book brings together the work of fourteen leading experts to explore systematically the key themes of Sufism''s new global presence, from Yemen to Senegal via Chicago and Sweden. The contributors look at the global spread and stance of such major actors as the Ba ''Alawiyya, the ''Afropolitan'' Tijaniyya, and the Gülen Movement. They map global Sufi culture, from Rumi to rap, and ask how global Sufism accommodates different and contradictory gender practices. They examine the contested and shifting relationship between the Islamic and the universal: is Sufism the timeless and universal essence of all religions, the key to tolerance and co-existence between Muslims and non-Muslims? Or is it the purely Islamic heart of traditional and authentic practice and belief? Finally, the book turns to politics. States and political actors in the West and in the Muslim world are using the mantle and language of Sufism to promote their objectives, while Sufis are building alliances with them against common enemies. This raises the difficult question of whether Sufis are defending Islam against extremism, supporting despotism against democracy, or perhaps doing both.

Leprosy has tormented mankind since records began. For much of its long history it was without cureΓÇöa disfiguring disease that stigmatised those it affected, isolating them from society. Today there is an effective treatment, but the last mile to achieve a leprosy-free world is the hardest. Now approaching eighty years old, one Japanese philanthropic activist has played a key role in global efforts against leprosy, both as head of a private foundation and as the World Health Organization''s ''Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy Elimination''. In this book, he lays out his personal mission and philosophy, and explains how his father, the politician and philanthropist Ryoichi Sasakawa, influenced his decision to make leprosy elimination his life''s work. Yohei Sasakawa has visited more than 100 countries, motivating political leaders, raising awareness via the media, encouraging frontline health workers, and helping to empower persons affected by leprosy and their families to speak out for their rights. His book is a validation of the path taken by a father and son to change the course of leprosy history, and to transform the circumstances of those affected by the disease for the better.

With the seeming defeat of ISIS, has jihadism disappeared from world politics? In this startling new book, Stephen Chan uncovers the ideological foundations that allow ISIS and other jihadi groups to survive, as they propagate terror by sophisticated means online and continue thrusting their spear at the West. Far from presenting simple-minded, black-clad fighters, Chan describes an elaborate process of online recruitment, which is, in its own terrible way, meaningful and thoughtful. He examines the foundations of this thought and the step-by-step methods of jihadi indoctrination, exposing the lack of IT knowledge among Western world leaders and urging the ''moderate'' Islamic community in the West to challenge jihadi ideology with a courageous, non-violent ideology of its own. Without a counter-ideology, Chan argues, alienated Muslim youth are drawn not only to glamorised dreams of violence, but also to the pull of a totalising system of politics and theology. Spear to the West picks apart the fallacy of ''thoughtless'' jihadi carnage, arguing thatΓÇödangerous and gruesome as it might beΓÇöthere is more thought behind this phenomenon of destruction than meets the eye.