The Economic Roots of Conflict and Cooperation in Africa explores how the development strategies of African nations shape the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. The overview chapter assesses development doctrines, patterns of development, and levels and nature of violence in both North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa. Focusing on eleven countries, the case-study contributions explore… Read More »

Development Strategies, Identities, and Conflict in Asia explores the links between Asian governments’ development strategies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. The overview chapters comprehensively assess the development doctrines, patterns of development, and levels and nature of violence in all Asian subregions, while case-study contributions focusing on eight countries explore the often surprising… Read More »

Economic Development Strategies and the Evolution of Violence in Latin America explores the links between Latin American governments’ economic policies and the nature and dynamics of inter-group violence. Based on the patterns of ten countries, the contributions to this volume trace the remarkable transformation from open ideological conflict to the explosion of social (seemingly apolitical)… Read More »

Physical Infrastructure Development addresses the key challenges of balancing economic growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection in the development of major physical infrastructure, ranging from transport to energy. The contributions, reflecting the perspectives of economics, engineering, planning, political science, and urban design,  examine the impact of alternative financing and pricing arrangements on the sharing of… Read More »

Cultural Change and Persistence addresses the complex challenge of pursuing development while safeguarding cherished aspects of deeply-rooted cultural practices and beliefs. Through cases from multiple world regions, the authors tackle the thorny problem of how to define and identify cultural aspects worthy of persistence. They document how leaders and activists use culture to shape development… Read More »

During the George W. Bush administration, politics and ideology routinely trumped scientific knowledge in making environmental policy. Data were falsified, reports were edited selectively, and scientists were censored. The Obama administration has pledged to restore science to the policy making process. And yet, as the authors of Knowledge and Environmental Policy point out, the problems… Read More »

  Humans are plagued by shortsighted thinking, preferring to put off work on complex, deep-seated, or difficult problems in favor of quick-fix solutions to immediate needs. When short-term thinking is applied to economic development, especially in fragile nations, the results—corruption, waste, and faulty planning—are often disastrous. In Bringing in the Future, William Ascher draws on… Read More »

The goal of this book is to recapture the diminished roles of affect, psychological needs, and the psychodynamic mechanisms that are crucial for understanding political behavior by explaining and extending the contributions of Harold D. Lasswell, the dominant figure in political psychology in the mid-twentieth-century. Although Lasswell was best known for applying psychodynamic theories to politics,… Read More »

The Guide to Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy is a comprehensive presentation of definitions, philosophies, policies, models, and analyses of global environmental and developmental issues. With a wealth of comparative, multidisciplinary, and geographically varied perspectives on environmental governance, it also provides detailed and balanced discussions about specific environmental issues. The guide combines formal, objective entries… Read More »

The Caspian Sea region is profoundly important to global and regional environmental security. New geopolitical and economic conditions have created a mix of competition, reluctant collaboration, and legal, political, economic and ideological wrangling. There is intense debate on how the Caspian Sea and its resources should be divided between the littoral states and how the… Read More »

  In this groundbreaking book, William Ascher discovers the complex political and programmatic reasons why government officials in Third World countries often willfully adopt wasteful natural resource policies. Drawing on sixteen case studies from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, Ascher goes beyond the trite answers of greed and incompetence to document how clashes among government… Read More »

Drawing on case studies developed over a two-year period, 1987–1989, by Fellows in the Program in International Development Policy at Duke University, including experienced representatives from developing countries, the World Bank, and scholars, the authors integrate the growing interest in environmental protection and resource conservation into the existing body of knowledge about the political economy… Read More »

The 1980s were one of the most turbulent decades in Central America’s history, a history that has been marked by more than its share of strife and upheaval. The wars, economic hardship, and political unrest and instability that have dominated news of the region have been years in the making, the products of flawed and… Read More »

  Scheming for the Poor is the first comparative analysis of redistributive policymaking in Latin America. Ascher examines the success or failure of progressive policies launched by nine governments grouped into three regime types–populist, reformist, and radical over the course of the postwar history of Argentina, Chile, and Peru. His findings challenge the conventional views… Read More »

The first systematic treatment of political forecasting and risk assessment as critical elements in the strategic planning process. Evaluates alternative methods of political forecasting based on case studies and general performance appraisals. Offers practical–at times controversial–insights on organizing the forecasting effort, selecting appropriate methods, integrating non-political socio-economic projections, and presenting results. Emphasizes the importance of… Read More »

Energy needs… oil supplies… inflation rates… the demand for new homes… in concerns like these, forecasting plays a crucial role. Forecasts not only determine how billions of dollars will be spent but also commit national policies far into the future; yet, no one really knows how to judge the reliability of forecasts. In this innovative… Read More »