The Egyptological literature usually belittles or ignores the political and intellectual initiative and success of the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty in the reunification of Egypt, while students of Nubian history frequently ignore or misunderstand the impact of Egyptian ideas on the cultural developments in pre- and post-Twenty-Fifth-Dynasty Nubia. This book re-assesses the textual and archaeological evidence concerning the interaction between Egypt and the polities emerging in Upper Nubia between the Late Neolithic period and 500 AD. The investigation is carried out, however, from the special viewpoint of the political, social, economic, religious and cultural history of the frontier region between Egypt and Nubia and not from the traditional viewpoint of the direct interaction between Egypt and the successive Nubian kingdoms of Kerma, Napata and Meroe. The result is a new picture of the bipolar acculturation processes occurring in the frontier region of Lower Nubia in particular and in the Upper Nubian centres, in general. The much-debated issue of social and cultural "Egyptianization" is also re-assessed. "...this is a valuable and up-to-date presentation of a huge body of the author’s work, interweaving more general synthesis and compilation of scholarship." David N. Edwards, University of Leicester "This book is a masterpiece! A well of wisdom and information! It is fluently written, analyzing every aspect of Nubia's relations with Egypt and much more. This book should be in every library focused on Ancient Nubia." Dan'el Kahn, University of Haifa, Israel

This book offers a state-of-the-art examination of peacemaking, looking at its theoretical assumptions, empirical applications and its consequences. Despite the wealth of research on external interventions and practices of Western peacebuilding, many scholars tend to rely on findings in the so-called 'post-agreement' phase of interventions. As a result, most mainstream peacebuilding literature pays limited or no attention to the linkages that exist between mediation practices in the negotiation phase and processes in the post-peace agreement phase of intervention. By linking the motives and practices of interveners during negotiation and implementation phases into a more integrated theoretical framework, this book makes a unique contribution to the on-going debate on the so-called Western ‘liberal’ models of peacebuilding. Drawing upon in-depth case-studies from various different regions of the world including Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Sierra Leone, this innovative volume examines a variety of political motives behind third party interventions, thus challenging the very founding concept of mediation literature. This book will of much interest to students of peacebuilding, statebuilding, peacemaking, war and conflict studies, security studies and IR in general.