On 23 March 2007 15 Royal Navy personnel from HMS Cornwall were captured by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard while conducting a boarding operation on a merchant vessel in shallow waters near the mouth of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, between Iraq and Iran. They were taken to Iran, paraded before the international media and detained until their release and return home on 5 April. On their return, the Royal Navy staged a press conference for some of the detainees: two of them subsequently sold their stories to the media. Lt General Sir Rob Fulton was appointed to inquire into the operational circumstances and factors leading to the capture of the Royal Navy personnel. His report was confidential and not published but the Defence Committee was allowed to see it to ensure Parliamentary scrutiny. The Committee reports that Fulton robustly identified serious weaknesses in intelligence, communications, doctrine and training. Whilst there were insufficient grounds for courts martial, formal administrative action has been taken against a number of Service personnel. The Government has made good progress towards implementing Fulton's recommendations. The Committee also considered the findings of the Hall report into media access to Service personnel (available at www.mod.uk). The decision to allow the Service personnel to sell their stories was a serious mistake and deeply damaging to the reputation of the Royal Navy. The Secretary of State for Defence has accepted responsibility and apologised. This should not absolve others from blame.

Why did a handful of Iranian students seize the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979? Why did most members of the US government initially believe that the incident would be over quickly? Why did the Carter administration then decide to launch a rescue mission, and why did it fail so spectacularly? US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis examines these puzzles and others, using an analogical reasoning approach to decision-making, a theoretical perspective which highlights the role played by historical analogies in the genesis of foreign policy decisions. Using interviews with key decision-makers on both sides, Houghton provides an analysis of one of the United States' greatest foreign policy disasters, the events of which continue to poison relations between the two states. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy analysis and international relations.

"The Security Council, the all-powerful UN body for maintaining world peace, remains mired in its World War II origins. The victors, the US, Russia, China, Britain, and France, continue to control it with their permanent membership and the veto. Their confrontations emasculated the Council during the Cold War and their cooperation spawned questionable military actions thereafter. The book traces the origins of international security cooperation and scrutinizes the moorings of the Security Council’s powers in international law. It critiques the permanent five’s manipulation of the Council to aggressively strengthen their global dominance and legitimise their exercise of power. Their doctrines and actions in countries like Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Libya have hindered the Council’s evolution as a responsible body which has the trust of a globalising world. This book is an essential read for practitioners and scholars to understand the Security Council and the failure to reform it. "

The work draws on wide-ranging area analysis to develop inductively new concepts and approaches for further use in explanation and application. Divided into two parts, it begins with analysis of revolution and socio-political unrest, followed by models of ethnic conflict and elite circulation in developing societies. It presents the cultural dialectic present in Islam. It then lays out the patterns of mediation and negotiation in managing and resolving conflict, culminating with an analysis of intractables. Part two on governance lays out the nature of world order, cooperation, and conciliation. It then turns to the challenges of identity, ideology, and interest, with some specific attention to the nature of borders and borderlands, and focuses on governance as conflict management and as negotiation. - This book encompasses a new analysis of a neglected part of International Relation, the prevention and management of conflict. - The book confronts sources and patterns of contentious politics with systems and methods of governance. - The book lays out a comprehensive conceptualization of the process of conflict management and negotiation, including questions of when as well as how.

This major new handbook provides the definitive and comprehensive analysis of the UN and will be an essential point of reference for all those working on or in the organization.

Focusing on the phenomenon of terrorism in the age of ISIS/ISIL, Terrorism and Counterterrorism investigates this form of political violence in an international and American context and in light of new and historical trends. In this comprehensive and highly readable text, renowned expert Brigitte Nacos clearly defines terrorism’s diverse causes, actors, and strategies; outlines anti- and counterterrorist responses; and highlights terrorism’s relationship with the public and media. Terrorism and Counterterrorism introduces students to the field’s main debates and helps them critically assess our understanding of, and our strategies for, addressing this complex and enduring issue. New to the Sixth Edition: Additions to terrorist developments since 2016, including the rise and decline of ISIS in Iraq and Syria. A significant expansion of the analysis of intelligence gathering and the growth of the U.S. intelligence community in the post-9/11 era. Discussion of increasing activities of extremist groups in the so-called alt-right and the ANTIFA movement in the U.S. and abroad. More explanations for the making of terrorists, including rational choice theory and new research revealing childhood trauma as a risk factor. An enlarged chapter on women and children in terrorism to include suicide missions as family projects. A new section on human rights violations in counterterrorism.

Examining the jurisdiction of international arbitral tribunals, International Arbitral Jurisdiction establishes general principles relating to such jurisdiction. The study refers to the principles of consent and its limitations, and also deals with such matters as interpretation of compromis and incidental jurisdiction.

This book looks at recent, high-profile anti-American terrorism crises: the Cuban skyjacking epidemic; the Tehran hostage-taking; the Beirut kidnappings; and Al Qaeda suicide bombing. It then explains how they come to an end using a framework of conflict resolution concepts: conflict ripeness and stalemate, turning points, negotiation readiness, and interest-based bargaining combined with shifts in decision-making strategies.

Exploring the recent increase in anti-American terrorism, this updated study argues that terrorist groups are now exploiting the link between the media and public opinion polls (particularly regarding the popularity of American presidents) in order to publ