Understanding the United Nations Security Council (UNSC): Coercion or Consent is a book written by Neil Fenton and published by Ashgate Publishing Limited in 2004. The target audiences for the book are the readers interested to grasp the workings of the UNSC. Fenton examines in particular the recent history of the decision making of the UNSC in the early 1990s regarding state sovereignty and the permissibility of the use of force. In order to understand the challenges of consent-based peacekeeping, humanitarian intervention and the debates on sovereignty and the shifts to UNSC actions in terms of its member’s responses as well as the fall-out of their actions for sovereignty, the author illustrates his arguments by studying the following cases: northern Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, Rwanda and Bosnia.
How South Africa Works
It is common knowledge that South Africa is in a critical point; some sort of crossroads where a misstep may determine a rapid recovery or a drawback from where it would take decades to recover. A number of factors have made the South African economy vulnerable. But not only is the economy in a bad shape. That is also the case of the political and social spheres. And even though How South Africa Works perfectly illustrates all these topics, it is especially concerned about the economic perspective. Because of that, I would also like to point out here another liberal analysis published recently tackling these issues. R.W. Johnson’s How long will South Africa survive? The looming crisis is a good complement for How South Africa Works, since it comes at the same issues from a political angle.
Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire
Is America ready to rule the world? Probably not. But the author argues that it has –or has had– better gear for the task. British historian Niall Ferguson states that the U.S. is an empire de facto. He is right to argue that, since its foundation through anti-colonial rebellion against British rule, the U.S. has been in denial of its imperialistic features, which seems logical having been forged in a war against imperial Britain. Nowadays, a vast majority of U.S. citizens are reluctant to accept this theory, refusing to see their country as something different that the standard-bearer of liberties and ultimate guarantor of freedom in the world. It is certainly uncomfortable to be linked to eighteenth century Britain or Ancient Rome, to name a few.