Mission (Un)Popular


Book Description

Margot Button has a resolution for seventh grade: Be more normal. Easier said than done, but if Margot can learn to control her big mouth (and hair), there is hope. The new girl, Em, from New York, needs a friend too, now that the popular girls have decided she's "weird." More accurately, Em is "intimidating." She dresses like a rock star and has a flexible relationship with the truth, and her secret campaign to turn the tables on the popular girls may involve bending some laws. But after years of enduring popular girl Sarah J.'s bullying, Margot finds the plan hard to resist. Her approval rating is finally up -- and, it really couldn't hurt to take Sarah down a few notches...could it? Endearingly imperfect and utterly charming, Margot Button is irresistible in this heartwarming novel about friendship, bullies and the travails of middle school.




An Insider's Guide to the Un


Book Description

Thoroughly revised and updated, a new edition of the most popular guide to the UN for students and interested readers Prominent NPR journalist Linda Fasulo's guide to the United Nations has established a reputation as the most lively, authoritative, and insightful book on its subject. The fourth edition comes at a time when nuclear proliferation has moved to the top of the Security Council's agenda, followed closely by the Syrian crisis, the effects of climate change, and international terrorism. Thoroughly revised and updated, with many new profiles and interviews with the organization's current diplomats, this edition remains an indispensable resource for anyone wishing to understand the role and structure of the UN.




Unpopular Sovereignty


Book Description

Charles Redd Center Phi Alpha Theta Book Award for the Best Book on the American West 2018 Francis Armstrong Madsen Best Book Award from the Utah State Historical Society 2018 Best First Book Award from the Mormon History Association Newly created territories in antebellum America were designed to be extensions of national sovereignty and jurisdiction. Utah Territory, however, was a deeply contested space in which a cohesive settler group—the Mormons—sought to establish their own “popular sovereignty,” raising the question of who possessed and could exercise governing, legal, social, and even cultural power in a newly acquired territory. In Unpopular Sovereignty, Brent M. Rogers invokes the case of popular sovereignty in Utah as an important contrast to the better-known slavery question in Kansas. Rogers examines the complex relationship between sovereignty and territory along three main lines of inquiry: the implementation of a republican form of government, the administration of Indian policy and Native American affairs, and gender and familial relations—all of which played an important role in the national perception of the Mormons’ ability to self-govern. Utah’s status as a federal territory drew it into larger conversations about popular sovereignty and the expansion of federal power in the West. Ultimately, Rogers argues, managing sovereignty in Utah proved to have explosive and far-reaching consequences for the nation as a whole as it teetered on the brink of disunion and civil war.




Dubious Mandate


Book Description

A senior UN official's account of the war in Bosnia as he experienced it on duty in Sarajevo.




Mission to America


Book Description

Mason LaVerle is a young man on a mission–a mission to save his people’s way of life. Mason was raised in a tiny, isolated Montanan sect, the church of the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles. But the Apostles face a dwindling membership, so Mason is sent on an outreach operation to bring back converts–specifically brides. As he discovers shopping malls, fast food, and faster women, the forces of faith and the forces of America collide, leading Mason to the brink of missionary madness.




Reinvigorating the United Nations


Book Description

This book examines pathways for how to reinvigorate the United Nations, in light of recent crises. The United Nations requires reinvigoration. The organisation’s supply of global governance falls short of global demand in areas ranging from health to environment, while intra-state armed conflicts are on the rise again, and fullblown inter-state war has returned to the agenda. At the same time, decision-making mechanisms are deadlocked, and their legitimacy is increasingly questioned. But what pathways are there for reinvigorating the United Nations? This book argues for consolidating key principles pertaining to inter-state relations and human rights, for elaborating on the UN system in order to avoid fragmentation and make it possible for it to keep pace with a changing world, and for revisiting UN decision-making structures so that it can become more inclusive and rebuild trust among stakeholders. The volume embraces a comprehensive approach to studying the organisation, and the authors analyse the institutions comprising the UN system, as well as the social context within which actors put these institutions to use. The book contributes to scholarly debates about the United Nations and about how it is embedded in a broader international order currently beset by crises and, ultimately, aims to show what concrete steps for strengthening the organisation might look like. This book will be of much interest to students of international organisations, diplomacy studies, global governance, and International Relations in general. The Introduction, Chapter 5, Chapter 10 and the Conclusion of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License. Chapter 7 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access from the individual product page at www.routledge.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.




The Dynamics and Contradictions of Evangelisation in Africa


Book Description

This book critically discusses missionary Christianity and colonization in Africa as twin enterprises with a common ambition. While the colonialist set out to invest capital and reap profit, the missionary desire was to tend and turn African souls from damnation. It was this desire that drove the missionaries into the interior, propelled by the belief that no land was too remote to escape their attention and vigilance. It equally kept missionary zeal buoyant. The clarification of the concept of salvation within the Roman Catholic Church during the Vatican II Council set in motion the current lethargy that has in some places crippled the mission itself. In retrospect, one can begin to wonder why Africans became Christians. What reasons motivated the early adherents to cling to this foreign religion? Were there some internal deficiencies in African traditional religions, which the Africans hoped to remedy by joining the new religion? Or was it just part of the wholesale flirting with whatever was foreign and perceived to be modern? What baits were used by the missionaries to entice Africans? Christianity posed a danger to many of the time-honoured answers to African problems. These were the 'values' Africans converting to Christianity were expected to abandon. Why have Christians continually returned to their abandoned roots in time of crisis? This moving, well argued, richly documented and empirically substantiated study concludes by cautioning against the stubborn drive at radical conversion to Christianity with scant regard to the imperatives of enculturation.




Unpopular Culture


Book Description

Money is the key to happiness. Work hard, play hard. Look out for number one. Popular culture is full of phrases like these, telling us the best way to live, the right things to buy, the right body shape to have, the right people to hang out with. These messages are everywhere we look, 24 hours a day. But what if there was another way to live? What if we chose to live differently: to stand against injustice, to live life for more than just ourselves, to dare to be unpopular? Guvna B is rebelling against the status quo, and he's calling you to join him. It's time to flip the script, to demonstrate another way to live, to find freedom in going against the grain. It's time for unpopular culture to take the stage.




Finding Soldiers of Peace


Book Description

The United Nations, which lacks its own peacekeeping force, faces three dilemmas when organizing a peacekeeping mission: convincing member states to contribute troops, persuading states to deploy troops quickly, and securing a troop commitment long enough to achieve success. The key to overcoming these challenges, Gary Uzonyi argues, is emphasizing the connection between peacekeeping and slowing the flow of refugees across borders. Finding Soldiers of Peace makes the case for this approach, which balances states’ self-interests with the United Nations’ goal of civilian protection. Through an analysis of post–Cold War UN peacekeeping missions, particularly interventions in Mali and Sudan, Uzonyi shows how member states often tie civilian protection rhetoric to efforts to keep conflict-driven refugees from crossing into their territory. Conventional wisdom holds that member states primarily engage in peacekeeping for payment or humanitarian reasons. Uzonyi proves otherwise, helping scholars and practitioners more accurately predict which member states are most likely to send support, where states may send assistance, when they might become involved, the size of their contribution, and their timetable for leaving. His research promotes practical strategies for the organization and execution of future missions that ensure member states stay invested in the outcome. A data-rich exploration of the UN response to humanitarian crises, Finding Soldiers of Peace shows how policymakers and practitioners can better strategize the execution of UN peacekeeping missions among diverse, and even contentious, stakeholders.




Modern Genocide


Book Description

An indispensable resource for those interested in the scourge of mass murder and genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries, this book analyzes modern and contemporary controversies and issues to help readers to understand genocide in all its complexity. This vital reference work looks at current areas of debate in genocide studies to provide insights into what a genocide is, why genocides occur, and what the consequences are once a genocide is recognized as such. It also illuminates how and why rational people can view the same set of circumstances as genocide or not, and how it might be possible in the future to alleviate or even prevent genocide. Dozens of accomplished scholars provide perceptive insights into the controversies and issues that dominate genocide discussions. The book is organized into five parts. The first considers how genocide is defined, while the second covers the pre-1945 period as it includes such controversial topics as the American Indian Wars, Australian Aborigines, Irish Potato Famine, Armenian Genocide, Ukrainian Starvation, and Holocaust. A Cold War section examines genocidal violence in Cambodia, East Timor, and Guatemala and against the Kurds; a post-Cold War period section covers Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, and the Rohingya in Myanmar. The final part concerns such issues as genocide prevention, humanitarian intervention, and the role of military personnel as perpetrators of genocide.