The collapse of the totalitarian system and the disintegration of the Soviet Union took the West by complete surprise. For many years Western co-operation and West European integration proceeded on the assumption that the division of Europe and Germany would be there to stay.

Summarizes the key judgments & recommendations of a Nat. Defense University book entitled ¿The U.S. & the Persian Gulf: Redesigning U.S. Forces for the Post-Containment Era.¿ Written in 2002, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it notes that with or without regime change in Iraq, the U.S. military posture toward the Persian Gulf will require significant adjustments over the next decade. The future of Iraq -- & the outcome of U.S. efforts to effect regime change & Baghdad¿s compliance with U.N. Security Council resolutions -- will be the key driver of the size & character of these changes. The U.S. will need to diversify its dependence on regional basing & forward presence, as well as reduce the visibility & predictability of its forward-deployed forces.

The collapse of the totalitarian system and the disintegration of the Soviet Union took the West by complete surprise. For many years Western cooperation and West European integration proceeded on the assumption that the division of Europe and Germany would be there to stay. As a consequence, the Western states are now having great difficulties in adapting their cooperative arrangements to the challenges of a new European environment, and in coping with the political problems that had been swept under the carpet for the sake of preserving `bipolar stability'. In his new book, Alting von Geusau offers a fresh and timely analysis of Western cooperation from a post-totalitarian perspective. He reminds the reader of America's involvement and the tragic consequences of the two world wars. He explains why `the order of Yalta' was a myth and how the Soviet designs for Europe were ultimately defeated by civil resistance. Post-war American leadership created the free space for the remarkable growth of Western organisations and the dynamics of European integration. American and French policies of containment are reexamined for the same post-totalitarian perspective... and found in need to adapt to the new realities. In two final chapters, the author carefully reviews the agreements reached in the principal Western and European organizations between November 1989 and January 1992 with a view to adapting their tasks to the new Europe. He also underlines the emerging importance of a new partnership between the United States and united Germany. Combining historical, legal and political analysis, this new title is an important source of reference and a highly useful textbook for advanced students in European organization and Western cooperation. In addition it will be especially useful to training programmes for scholars, students and diplomats from East and Central Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union.

Every 3rd issue is a quarterly cumulation.

With the European Union ́s upcoming eastern enlargement, Europe is confronted with the necessity of creating security and stability beyond the EU borders in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. This task includes not only numerous risks but also opportunities to face the challenges of the 21st century. This volume provides policy-oriented recommendations and differentiated insider knowledge about the regional situation in Russia, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. Authors from the region analyze policies by state and by key issues such as energy, transportation, the future of Kaliningrad or the regional hot spot in Trandniestria. A concept for a "Multi-Layered Europe" is developed for the strategic dilemmas concerning the current debate on "WIder Europe." The unique alliance between analytical output and strategic thinking makes the book valuable for the academic community and for persons responsible for Europe ́s future.

Conflict resolution theory has become relevant to the various challenges faced by the United Nations peacekeeping forces as efforts are made to learn from the traumatic and devastating impact of the many civil wars that have erupted in the 1990s. This work analyzes the theory.

Sarah B. Pralle takes an in-depth look at why some environmental conflicts expand to attract a lot of attention and participation, while others generate little interest or action. Branching Out, Digging In examines the expansion and containment of political conflict around forest policies in the United States and Canada. Late in 1993 citizens from around the world mobilized on behalf of saving old-growth forests in Clayoquot Sound. Yet, at the same time only a very few took note of an even larger reserve of public land at risk in northern California. Both cases, the Clayoquot Sound controversy in British Columbia and the Quincy Library Group case in the Sierra Nevada mountains of northern California, centered around conflicts between environmentalists seeking to preserve old-growth forests and timber companies fighting to preserve their logging privileges. Both marked important episodes in the history of forest politics in their respective countries but with dramatically different results. The Clayoquot Sound controversy spawned the largest civil disobedience in Canadian history; international demonstrations in Japan, England, Germany, Austria, and the United States; and the most significant changes in British Columbia's forest policy in decades. On the other hand, the California case, with four times as many acres at stake, became the poster child for the "collaborative conservation" approach, using stakeholder collaboration and negotiation to achieve a compromise that ultimately broke down and ended up in the courts. Pralle analyzes how the various political actors—local and national environmental organizations, local residents, timber companies, and different levels of government—defined the issues in both words and images, created and reconfigured alliances, and drew in different governmental institutions to attempt to achieve their goals. She develops a dynamic new model of conflict management by advocacy groups that puts a premium on nimble timing, flexibility, targeting, and tactics to gain the advantage and shows that how political actors go about exploiting these opportunities and overcoming constraints is a critical part of the policy process.