Books published by C Hurst & Co Publishers Ltd

This volume explores the role of water in the Middle East's current economic, political and environmental transformations, which are set to continue in the near future. In addition to examining water conflict from within the domestic contexts of Iraq, Yemen and Syria-- all experiencing high levels of instability today--the contributors shed further light on how conflict over water resources has influenced political relations in the region. They interrogate how competition over water resources may precipitate or affect war in the Middle East, and assess whether or how resource vulnerability impacts fragile states and societies in the region and beyond. Water and Conflict in the Middle East is an essential contribution to our understanding of turbulence in this globally significant region.

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.

'Sectarianism' is one of the most over-discussed yet under-analysed concepts in debates about the Middle East. Despite the deluge of commentary, there is no agreement on what 'sectarianism' is. Is it a social issue, one of dogmatic incompatibility, a historic one or one purely related to modern power politics? Is it something innately felt or politically imposed? Is it a product of modernity or its antithesis? Is it a function of the nation-state or its negation? This book seeks to move the study of modern sectarian dynamics beyond these analytically paralysing dichotomies by shifting the focus away from the meaningless '-ism' towards the root: sectarian identity. How are Sunni and Shi'a identities imagined, experienced and negotiated and how do they relate to and interact with other identities? Looking at the modern history of the Arab world, Haddad seeks to understand sectarian identity not as a monochrome frame of identification but as a multi-layered concept that operates on several dimensions: religious, subnational, national and transnational. Far from a uniquely Middle Eastern, Arab, or Islamic phenomenon, a better understanding of sectarian identity reveals that the many facets of sectarian relations that are misleadingly labelled 'sectarianism' are echoed in inter- group relations worldwide.

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.

Are Europe's 'Christian values' under threat? Can religion be a pillar of identity and culture? What will be the fate of Christianity in Europe?In this short but bracing book, Olivier Roy traces the Church's long battle against a tide of secularization in Europe. Since the Enlightenment, religion has been losing ground as the source of moral norms. But while the question of truth was contested, Christian values continued to define law and social life in even the most secular and anti-clerical countries--until the 1960s. Ever since, the Church has been swept into a new war of values, reduced to struggling over abortion and same-sex marriage. Mired in scandal, the Church's authority is crumbling, while populist demands pave the way for the final secularization of religion as part of 'national culture'. From one of the most acute observers of our times, 'Is Europe Christian?' represents a persuasive and novel vision of religion's place today.

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.

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.

''Religion'' can be used to mean all kinds of things, but a substantive definitionΓÇôΓÇôbased on the premise of superhuman powersΓÇôΓÇôcan clarify much. It allows us to attempt to differentiate religion from culture, ethnicity, morality and politics. This definition of religion necessarily implies a perception of reality. Until recent centuries in the West, and in most cultures still, the ordinary, natural and immediate way of understanding and experiencing reality was in terms of otherworldly or spiritual forces. However, a cognitive shift has taken place through the rise of science and its subsequent technological application. This new consciousness has not disproved the existence of spiritual forces, but has led to the marginalisation of the other-worldly, which even Western churches seem to accept. They persist, but increasingly as pressure groups promoting humanist values. Claims of ''American exceptionalism'' in this regard are misleading. Obama''s religion, Evangelical support for Trump, and the mega-church message of success in the capitalist system can all be cultural and political phenomena. This eclipsing of the other-worldly constitutes a watershed in human history, with profound consequences not just for religious institutions but for our entire world order.

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.

''Human trafficking'' brings to mind gangsters forcing people, often women and girls, to engage in dangerous activities against their will, under threat of violence. However, human trafficking is not limited to the sex trade, and this picture is inadequate. It occurs in many different industries---domestic service, construction, factory labour, on farms and fishing boats---and targets people from all over the globe.Human trafficking is much more complicated and nuanced picture than its common representations. Victims move through multiple categories along their journey and at their destination, shifting from smuggled migrant to trafficking victim and back again several times. The emergence of a criminal pyramid scheme also makes many victims complicit in their own exploitation. Finally, the threat posed by the involvement of organised crime is little understood. The profit motives and violence that come with such crime make human trafficking more dangerous for its victims and difficult to detect or address.Drawing on field research in source, transit and destination countries, the authors analyse trafficking from four countries: Albania, Eritrea, Nigeria and Vietnam. What emerges is a business model that evolves in response to changes in legislation, governance and law enforcement capacities.

Are Europeans hard-wired for conflict? Given the enmities that wracked the Greek city-states, or the Valois, Bourbons and Habsburgs, it seems undeniable. The Holy Roman Empire promised peace, but collapsed before it could deliver it, while rival rulers counter-balanced its power by stressing their own sovereign independence. Yet, since Antiquity, there has also been a yearning for the rule of law, the Pax Romana. For seven centuries, Europe''s philosophers and diplomats have sought to build institutions of compromise between the unrestricted competition of nation-states and the universal monarchy of the old empires: a confederation whose representatives would meet to resolve differences. We have seen these ambitions at least partially realised in a progression of multilateral solutions: the Congress System, the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the European Union. But, with the United Kingdom''s vote to leave the EU, state sovereignty seems to be pushing back against two centuries of travel in the other direction. The Brexit result shows that distrust of a ''greater Europe'' and fierce insistence on state sovereignty remain live issues in today''s politics. To explain recent events, Beatrice Heuser charts the history and culture underpinning this age-old tension between two systems of international affairs.