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Relentless Pursuit: The DSS And The Manhunt For The Bin Laden Terrorists
by Samuel M. KatzIt was on February 6, 1993, that the United States was first attacked on its own soil by foreign terrorists. A zealous band of Middle Easterners, holy warriors determined to punish the U.S. for its supposed transgressions against Islam, packed over a ton of home made explosives into the back of a rented van. They drove their bomb across the Hudson from New Jersey, maneuvered it through downtown traffic and parked it in the underground garage at the Vista Hotel, beneath the twin towers of the World Trade Center. They lit a long fuse, which allowed them time to get back to New Jersey to watch the results of the explosion on CNN. They hoped to topple one mammoth tower into the other and kill ten thousand people or more. Miraculously, only six people were killed. <p><p> Most of the group were captured within a week, but the mastermind behind the attack, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, had immediately gone to JFK airport to fly to Pakistan. Before leaving, he phoned the Associated Press and claimed responsibility for the bombing in the name of the Arab Liberation Army, a terrorist group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. <p> A succession of such brazen crimes has revealed complex connections among terrorist groups with an implacable hostility toward Western civilization. Outrages such as the assassination of the Jewish Defense League founder Meier Kahane, a huge plot in the Philippines to plant bombs on intercontinental airlines and to assassinate the Pope, the bombing of U.S. embassies, culminating in the African embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in 1999, and the devastating attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 have made it clear that a worldwide network of terrorists led by Osama bin Laden is making war on the United States. <p> On the front lines combating these terrorists in 150 countries around the world have been the 1,200 agents of the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service. A little-known but highly effective branch of the government, the DSS is the one arm of federal law enforcement with international powers of arrest. These agents maintain close ties to local police commanders in many countries and can entice informants with bounties of up to $4,000,000. After a challenging international search, it was DSS agents in Pakistan who captured Ramzi Yousef. DSS agents have been in the vanguard of the War on Terrorism long before it was declared. <p> In Relentless Pursuit, Samuel Katz review the escalating series of terrorist attacks on the U.S. during the last decade, including those in many foreign countries and finally in New York and Washington. In the process, he tells the gripping story of the DSS and its agents protecting us and our representatives here and abroad. Katz's detailed, personal, on-the-ground anecdotes bring home the contexts and linkages of the War on Terrorism that has been fought on our behalf by the DSS since the 1980s. Relentless Pursuit is a stirring tribute to an unsung group of brave Americans.
Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the Manhunt for the Al-Qaeda Terrorists
by Samuel M. KatzAl Queda's war on America did not start on September 11, 2001. Just ask the Diplomatic Security Service.It was on February 6, 1993, that the United States was first attacked on its own soil by foreign terrorists. A zealous band of Middle Easterners, holy warriors determined to punish the U.S. for its supposed transgressions against Islam, packed over a ton of home made explosives into the back of a rented van. They drove their bomb across the Hudson from New Jersey, maneuvered it through downtown traffic and parked it in the underground garage at the Vista Hotel, beneath the twin towers of the World Trade Center. They lit a long fuse, which allowed them time to get back to New Jersey to watch the results of the explosion on CNN. They hoped to topple one mammoth tower into the other and kill ten thousand people or more. Miraculously, only six people were killed.Most of the group were captured within a week, but the mastermind behind the attack, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, had immediately gone to JFK airport to fly to Pakistan. Before leaving, he phoned the Associated Press and claimed responsibility for the bombing in the name of the Arab Liberation Army, a terrorist group led by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.A succession of such brazen crimes has revealed complex connections among terrorist groups with an implacable hostility toward Western civilization. Outrages such as the assassination of the Jewish Defense League founder Meier Kahane, a huge plot in the Philippines to plant bombs on intercontinental airlines and to assassinate the Pope, the bombing of U.S. embassies, culminating in the African embassy bombings of 1998, the attack on the USS Cole in 1999, and the devastating attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 have made it clear that a worldwide network of terrorists led by Osama bin Laden is making war on the United States.On the front lines combating these terrorists in 150 countries around the world have been the 1,200 agents of the U.S. Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service. A little-known but highly effective branch of the government, the DSS is the one arm of federal law enforcement with international powers of arrest. These agents maintain close ties to local police commanders in many countries and can entice informants with bounties of up to $4,000,000. After a challenging international search, it was DSS agents in Pakistan who captured Ramzi Yousef. DSS agents have been in the vanguard of the War on Terrorism long before it was declared.In Relentless Pursuit, Samuel Katz review the escalating series of terrorist attacks on the U.S. during the last decade, including those in many foreign countries and finally in New York and Washington. In the process, he tells the gripping story of the DSS and its agents protecting us and our representatives here and abroad. Katz's detailed, personal, on-the-ground anecdotes bring home the contexts and linkages of the War on Terrorism that has been fought on our behalf by the DSS since the 1980s. Relentless Pursuit is a stirring tribute to an unsung group of brave Americans.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Relentless Reformer: Josephine Roche and Progressivism in Twentieth-Century America (Politics and Society in Modern America #108)
by Robyn MuncyJosephine Roche (1886–1976) was a progressive activist, New Deal policymaker, and businesswoman. As a pro-labor and feminist member of Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration, she shaped the founding legislation of the U.S. welfare state and generated the national conversation about health-care policy that Americans are still having today. In this gripping biography, Robyn Muncy offers Roche’s persistent progressivism as evidence for surprising continuities among the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society.Muncy explains that Roche became the second-highest-ranking woman in the New Deal government after running a Colorado coal company in partnership with coal miners themselves. Once in office, Roche developed a national health plan that was stymied by World War II but enacted piecemeal during the postwar period, culminating in Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. By then, Roche directed the United Mine Workers of America Welfare and Retirement Fund, an initiative aimed at bolstering the labor movement, advancing managed health care, and reorganizing medicine to facilitate national health insurance, one of Roche’s unrealized dreams.In Relentless Reformer, Muncy uses Roche’s dramatic life story—from her stint as Denver’s first policewoman in 1912 to her fight against a murderous labor union official in 1972—as a unique vantage point from which to examine the challenges that women have faced in public life and to reassess the meaning and trajectory of progressive reform.
Relentless Savage: A Peter Savage Novel (Peter Savage Ser. #2)
by Dave EdlundRelentless Savage launches the reader into a fast-paced, action-driven adventure confronting the greater questions of genocide, genetic manipulation, and the tipping point in the balance of world power.When Peter Savage's son Ethan is kidnapped by rebel forces in Sudan while on a service trip, Peter will stop at nothing to get his son home. Recruiting old friends and tapping into the expertise of commander James Nicolau, Peter puts together an unlikely rescue mission that will pit him against deadly forces. What Peter and his team find in the Sudan is a force far more sinister and dangerous than they could ever imagine. They are drawn into a much larger top-secret government mission, one that leads them to a hidden research site with an army of genetically-perfect soldiers.
Relevance and Marginalisation in Scandinavian and European Performing Arts 1770–1860: Questioning Canons
by Randi Margrete SelvikRelevance and Marginalisation in Scandinavian and European Performing Arts 1770–1860: Questioning Canons reveals how various cultural processes have influenced what has been included, and what has been marginalised from canons of European music, dance, and theatre around the turn of the nineteenth century and the following decades. This collection of essays includes discussion of the piano repertory for young ladies in England; canonisation of the French minuet; marginalisation of the popular German dramatist Kotzebue from the dramatic canon; dance repertory and social life in Christiania (Oslo); informal cultural activities in Trondheim; repertory of Norwegian musical clocks; female itinerant performers in the Nordic sphere; preconditions, dissemination, and popularity of equestrian drama; marginalisation and amateur staging of a Singspiel by the renowned Danish playwright Oehlenschläger, also with perspectives on the music and its composers; and the perceived relevance of Henrik Ibsen’s staged theatre repertory and early dramas. By questioning established notions about canon, marginalisation, and relevance within the performing arts in the period 1770–1860, this book asserts itself as an intriguing text both to the culturally interested public and to scholars and students of musicology, dance research, and theatre studies.
Relevance of Duties in the Contemporary World: With Special Emphasis on Gandhian Thought
by Raman Mittal Kshitij Kumar SinghThis book reflects on the significance of duties in creating an egalitarian society by collating and contextualizing the relevant literature. It particularly focuses on an appreciation of Gandhi’s views on duty to showcase how they remain pertinent to create a cohesive, responsible and value-based society in the present right-dominated world. A viable solution to the current real world problems could be found in exploring the philosophy on duties and the book provides relevant literature in this regard. It undertakes jurisprudential analysis of duty in a rights-dominated world, identifying the gaps in realising the potential of duty to address the critical issues of the present times. It argues that enforcement of rights depends heavily on the observance of duties and proposes coherence in right-duty relationship. Gandhian thought on duty recognises duty as a precursor to rights and emphasises that the observance of duties guarantees the enforcement of rights. The relevance of duties and Gandhian thoughts on the same is not restricted to India but transcends borders with profound appeal. Gandhian thoughts have become even more relevant in the current times to examine the situation of COVID-19 pandemic, racial discrimination (BLM), environmental crises, digital divide, health care and medical care crises, refugee and migrant labour problems and it can offer promising solutions based on the nuances of social solidarity, self realisation of duties/responsibilities, local governance, compassion and humanity.
Relevance of European Studies in Asia
by Maria Stoicheva S. G. Sreejith Indranath GuptaThis book provides perspectives on the relevance of European Studies as a disciplinary category for the Asian region. That being the primary focus, the book serves a larger purpose. First, it provides insights on European society, polity and economy (including European Integration) as they are accounted in European Studies. The epistemological character of the knowledge thus conveyed has larger credibility and reliability such that they can become policy inputs and imaginations for strengthening Asian-European relationship. This approach helps overcome the trap of subjectively motivated discourses on Europe which may fail potential collaborations between the regions. Second, the design and discursivity of European Studies will be an instruction to the Asian region on the constitutive potential of regional studies in society-building. Third, the book works towards building the idea of “Europe” in terms of international law, in the minds of Asian students, researchers and decision-makers. This is extremely relevant for the future relationship and cultural engagement between the two regions. The book is of interest to policymakers, academics, embassies, state-level government offices, researchers and students.
Relevance Of Liberalism
by Irving Howe Giovanni Sartori Zbigniew Brzezinski Michael Mandelbaum Charles Frankel Edward Shils Sophia Sluzar Robert Bartley Seweryn Robert NurickThis volume is the product of a conference held at theResearch Institute on International Change on 21 January1976. The subject of the conference, the relevance of liberalism in the contemporary world, represents one aspect of the institute's research focus on changes in values and the impact of these changes on international affairs. This focus reflects the belief that we are living in a time when the sudden expansion in popular political consciousness is altering fundamentally the ways in which politics is perceived, in which political values are translated into political action, and in which political movements and moods transcend state boundaries and thus have worldwide repercussions. Together these changes may result in profound discontinuities in political behavior, in social institutions, and in the basic values around which institutions and procedures are shaped.
The Relevance of Regions in a Globalized World: Bridging the Social Sciences-Humanities Gap (The International Political Economy of New Regionalisms Series)
by Galia Press-Barnathan Ruth Fine Arie M. KacowiczThis volume provides a unique open inter-disciplinary dialogue across the Humanities and Social Sciences to further our understanding of the phenomenon of regions and regionalism in a globalized world both at the theoretical and empirical levels. What comprises a region? What are the different regional dynamic processes that take place? What is the relationship between the regional and the global? What role does identity building play? Bringing together scholars from various disciplines within and across the Social Sciences and the Humanities to reflect on these questions, the book explores how regions are imagined, constructed, understood, and explained in different academic disciplines. Each chapter addresses these common questions and uses its own disciplinary lenses to answer them. In addition, the volume offers interesting reflections on the academic borders constructed in the study of regions, thus demonstrating the importance of obtaining insights from both social scientists and humanities scholars in order to better understand the relevance of regions in a complex and globalized world. An important work for scholars and postgraduate students in many fields, including political science, international relations, sociology, economics, geography, history and literature, as well as for those interested in regionalism and area studies.
The Relevance of Religion
by John DanforthFormer United States senator and ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth offers a fascinating, thoughtful, and deeply personal look at the state of American politics today--and how religion can be a bridge over our bitter partisan divide. In an era of extreme partisanship, when running for office has become a zero-sum game in which candidates play exclusively to their ideological bases, Americans on both sides of the political aisle hunger for the return of a commitment to the common good. Too often, it seems, religion has been used as a wedge to divide us in these battles. But is it also the key to restoring our civic virtue? For more than a decade, John Danforth, who is also an ordained Episcopal priest, has written extensively on the negative use of religion as a divisive force in American politics. Now he turns to the positive, constructive impact faithful religious believers have and can have on our public life. The Relevance of Religion is the product of that period of reflection. In the calm and wise voice of the pastor he once aspired to be, Senator Danforth argues that our shared religious values can lead us out of the embittered, entrenched state of politics today. A lifelong Republican, he calls his own party to task for its part in creating a political system in which the loudest opinions and the most polarizing personalities hold sway. And he suggests that such a system is not only unsustainable but unfaithful to our essential nature. We are built to care about other people, and this inherent altruism--which science says we crave because of our neurobiological wiring, and the Bible says is part of our created nature--is a crucial aspect of good government. Our willingness to serve more than our self-interest is religion's gift to politics, John Danforth asserts. In an era when 75 percent of Americans say they cannot trust their elected leaders, The Relevance of Religion is a heartfelt plea for more compassionate government--and a rousing call to arms for those wishing to follow the better angels of our nature.Advance praise for The Relevance of Religion "In The Relevance of Religion, John Danforth does his country another service after many. His book is both a serious critique of politicized religion and a strong defense of religion's indispensable role in our common life. He talks of faith as an antidote to egotism, as a force for reconciliation, and as a source of public virtue. His case is illustrated through autobiography, in an honest, winsome, and sometimes self-critical tone. Danforth speaks for civility, collegiality, and useful compromise--and is compelling because he has demonstrated all those commitments himself over the decades. The Relevance of Religion summarizes the lessons of a life of service, and makes an urgent plea for the humane values that often come from faith. It is an admirable book rooted in an admirable life."--Michael Gerson, columnist, The Washington Post"In this wise and urgent book, John Danforth stands in the company of our great public theologians--Paul Tillich, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the brothers Niebuhr--as he envisions both religious and political practices that enable our better selves. Political participation, pursued well, cultivates generosity and patience, and is good for the soul. The Relevance of Religion will surely become a permanent fixture in my courses on religion and politics. What better remedy for mending our broken politics?"--Charles Marsh, Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies, University of VirginiaFrom the Hardcover edition.
The Relevant Market in International Economic Law
by Christian A. MelischekThis book provides what international trade law has hitherto lacked: a coherent analysis of 'product likeness' under Article III of the GATT. Christian A. Melischek develops an economic approach to the interpretation of 'like' products on the basis of a comparative analysis with antitrust theories on market definition. Not only does he propose a specific substantive economic test to render the notion of product likeness operational, but he also examines the institutional and procedural frameworks for expert economic evidence necessary to implement an economic approach to the interpretation of product likeness. On a methodological level, the book adds a new interdisciplinary dimension to the legal debate by exploring the use of quantitative and econometric methods for the implementation of the proposed economic test.
Reliability and Alliance Interdependence: The United States and Its Allies in Asia, 1949–1969 (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs)
by Iain D. HenryIn Reliability and Alliance Interdependence, Iain D. Henry argues for a more sophisticated approach to alliance politics and ideas of interdependence. It is often assumed that if the United States failed to defend an ally, then this disloyalty would instantly and irrevocably damage US alliances across the globe. Henry proposes that such damage is by no means inevitable and that predictions of disaster are dangerously simplistic. If other allies fear the risks of military escalation more than the consequences of the United States abandoning an ally, then they will welcome, encourage, and even praise such an instance of disloyalty. It is also often assumed that alliance interdependence only constrains US policy options, but Henry shows how the United States can manipulate interdependence to set an example of what constitutes acceptable allied behavior. Using declassified documents, Henry explores five case studies involving US alliances with South Korea, Japan, the Republic of China, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. Reliability and Alliance Interdependence makes a substantial contribution to our understanding of how America's alliances in Asia function as an interdependent system.
Reliability and Risk: The Challenge of Managing Interconnected Infrastructures
by Paul Schulman Emery RoeThe safe and continued functioning of critical infrastructures--such as electricity, natural gas, transportation, and water--is a social imperative. Yet the complex connections between these systems renders them increasingly precarious. Furthermore, though we depend so heavily on interconnected infrastructures, we do not fully understand the risks involved in their failure. Emery Roe and Paul R. Schulman argue that designs, policies, and laws often overlook the knowledge and experiences of those who manage these systems on the ground--reliability professionals who have vital insights that would be invaluable to planning. To combat this major blind spot, the athors construct a new theoretical perspective that reveals how to make sense of complex interconnected networks and improve reliability through management, regulation, and political leadership. To illustrate their approach in action, they present a multi-year case study of one of the world's most important "infrastructure crossroads," the San Francisco Bay-Delta. Reliability and Risk advances our understanding of what it takes to ensure the dependability of the intricate--and sometimes hazardous--systems on which we rely every day.
Reliability and Validity of International Large-Scale Assessment: Understanding IEA’s Comparative Studies of Student Achievement (IEA Research for Education #10)
by Hans WagemakerThis open access book describes and reviews the development of the quality control mechanisms and methodologies associated with IEA’s extensive program of educational research. A group of renowned international researchers, directly involved in the design and execution of IEA’s international large-scale assessments (ILSAs), describe the operational and quality control procedures that are employed to address the challenges associated with providing high-quality, comparable data. Throughout the now considerable history of IEA’s international large-scale assessments, establishing the quality of the data has been paramount. Research in the complex multinational context in which IEA studies operate imposes significant burdens and challenges in terms of the methodologies and technologies that have been developed to achieve the stated study goals. The demands of the twin imperatives of validity and reliability must be satisfied in the context of multiple and diverse cultures, languages, orthographies, educational structures, educational histories, and traditions. Readers will learn about IEA’s approach to such challenges, and the methods used to ensure that the quality of the data provided to policymakers and researchers can be trusted. An often neglected area of investigation, namely the consequential validity of ILSAs, is also explored, examining issues related to reporting, dissemination, and impact, including discussion of the limits of interpretation. The final chapters address the question of the influence of ILSAs on policy and reform in education, including a case study from Singapore, a country known for its outstanding levels of achievement, but which nevertheless seeks the means of continual improvement, illustrating best practice use of ILSA data.
Reliance on Foreign Markets: Multinationality and Performance
by Makoto Nakano Bayanjargal PurevdorjThis study examines the relationship between multinationality and the performance of Japanese manufacturing companies during the period 1999-2008 by using geographic segment information. Despite the enormous interest in and importance given to multinationality from the academic and business worlds, prior findings about the multinationality-performance relationship are conflicting and inconsistent. The overall results of the present study show that multinationality has a positive impact both on accounting performance and on market-based performance. In additional tests, Japanese electric and electronic equipment companies' reliance on the Asian market was found to have a negative impact on profitability and no significant impact on firm value, whereas reliance on other foreign markets such as the Americas and the EU had a positive impact on profitability and firm value. The multinationality-performance relationship cannot be generalized and varies among geographic regions. This book contributes to both the multinationality-performance literature and the geographic segment reporting literature by offering empirical evidence about Japanese manufacturing companies and comparing them with prior findings about American companies.
The Relic
by Evelyn AnthonyWhen Yuri Varienski, a Ukranian emigré, dies in Jersey, he leaves his daughter Lucy an object--and a great responsibility. Lucy must take the gold filigree cross she is bequeathed to Geneva, and deliver it into the hands of exiled former dissident leader, Volkov. Lucy innocently accepts her father's charge. But Volkov, broken by imprisonment, is not the man he used to be. And there are other people who wish to possess the cross too. For the object Lucy carries is the legendary relic, St. Vladimir's Cross, and it has the power to unite or divide the volatile Soviet Union. Lucy soon realizes that she will have to make sacrifices--of her home, her heart, and maybe even her life--if she is going to fulfill her father's last wish.
Relic: How Our Constitution Undermines Effective Government--and Why We Need a More Powerful Presidency
by William G. Howell Terry M. MoeOur government is failing us. From health care to immigration, from the deficit to climate change, our political institutions have long shown that they are incapable of meeting the challenges of modern society. Why the dysfunction? In Relic, William Howell and Terry Moe point to the Constitution as the main culprit. The framers designed a government for a simple, agrarian society-and that government is unsuited to a huge, complex, post-industrial nation the founders did not even remotely foresee. Howell and Moe argue that we need a second Progressive movement to bring reform to American government, above all by strengthening the power of the president. Relic challenges us to reconsider the very foundation of our political system, shedding new light on what is wrong with our government and what can be done about it.
Relics of the Reich: The Buildings the Nazis Left Behind
by Colin PhilpottRelics of the Reich is the story of what happened to the buildings the Nazis left behind. Hitlers Reich may have been defeated in 1945 but many buildings, military installations and other sites remained. At the end of the War, some were obliterated by the victorious Allies but others survived.For almost fifty years, these were left crumbling and ignored with postwar and divided Germany unsure what to do with them, often fearful that they might become shrines for neo-Nazis. Since the early 1990s, Germans have come to terms with these iconic sites and their uncomfortable part. Some sites are even listed buildings.Relics of the Reich visits many of the buildings and structures built or adapted by the Nazis and looks at what has happened since 1945 to try to discover what it tells us about Germanys attitude to Nazism now.It also acts as a commemoration of mankinds deliverance from a dark decade and serves as renewal of our commitment to ensure history does not repeat itself.
Religicide: Confronting the Roots of Anti-Religious Violence
by Georgette F. Bennett Jerry WhiteA brave and timely proposal to name, investigate, and ultimately stop a new crime–the mass murder of millions of people for their faith.eligion-related violence is the fastest spreading type of violence worldwide. Attacks on religious minorities follow a clear pattern and are preceded with early warning signs. Until now, such violence had no name, let alone a set of policies designed to identify and prevent it. A unique attempt to create a new moral and legal category alongside other forms of persecution and mass murder, Religicide explores the roots of atrocities such as the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, the Bosnian war, and other human rights catastrophes. The authors tap into their decades of activism, interreligious engagement, and people-to-people diplomacy to delve into a gripping examination of contemporary religicides: the Yazidis in Iraq, the Rohingya in Myanmar, Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists in China, and the centuries-long efforts to wipe out Indigenous Americans. Yet, even in the face of these horrific atrocities, the authors resist despair. They amplify the voices of survivors and offer a blueprint for action, calling on government, business, civil society, and religious leaders to join in a global campaign to protect religious minorities.
Religio-Political Narratives in the United States
by Angela D. Sims F. Douglas Powe Jr. Johnny Bernard HillThe authors select sermons by Martin Luther King Jr. and Jeremiah Wright to as a framework to examine the meaning of God in America as part of the formational religio-political narrative of the country.
Religion after Deliberative Democracy (Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics)
by Timothy StanleyReligion after Deliberative Democracy responds to gaps exposed by the case of religion in deliberative democratic theory. Religion's persistent visibility in political life has called for new solutions for healing deeply divided societies. In response, the author begins with Jeffrey Stout’s pragmatist vision of democracy before providing a series of supplements in subsequent chapters. Past legacies are refigured in a rapprochement with Jürgen Habermas’s work which is differentiated from the distinctive relevance of Hannah Arendt’s Vita Activa. New developments in comparative political theology are complemented by recent systems theory approaches to institutional interactions. Peaceful protest movements are reframed in light of the trust-building capacities of minipublics. The result is reason for renewed confidence in democratic practices attuned to fostering political plurality and capable of responding to persistent religious partisanship. This book fills a crucial space in the literature on religion and democracy and will be of interest to students and scholars of philosophy of religion, theology, pragmatism, and political theory.
Religion and Aesthetic Experience in Joyce and Yeats
by Tudor BalinisteanuThis monograph is based on archival research and close readings of James Joyce's and W. B. Yeats's poetics and political aesthetics. Georges Sorel's theory of social myth is used as a starting point for exploring the ways in which the experience of art, like that of social myth, can be seen as a form of religious experience. The theorisation of the experience of art as a form of religious experience illuminates the role of art in engendering social attitudes in opposition to economic materialism and capitalism. Based on these analyses, the arguments explore the ways in which a theory that defines the experience of art as a form of religious experience can help us to answer three questions of pressing interest for the contemporary moment: How can we read cultural texts to imagine forms of social belonging through which to challenge the isolation of economic materialism? How can we imagine cultural texts to create the collective relations necessary for social change in global capitalism? How can we define an ethics of satisfaction that does not relate to this capital modernity?
Religion and AIDS Treatment in Africa: Saving Souls, Prolonging Lives
by Hansjörg Dilger Thera RasingThis book critically interrogates emerging interconnections between religion and biomedicine in Africa in the era of antiretroviral treatment for AIDS. Highlighting the complex relationships between religious ideologies, practices and organizations on the one hand, and biomedical treatment programmes and the scientific languages and public health institutions that sustain them on the other, this anthology charts largely uncovered terrain in the social science study of the Aids epidemic. Spanning different regions of Africa, the authors offer unique access to issues at the interface of religion and medical humanitarianism and the manifold therapeutic traditions, religious practices and moralities as they co-evolve in situations of AIDS treatment. This book also sheds new light on how religious spaces are formed in response to the dilemmas people face with the introduction of life-prolonging treatment programmes.
Religion and Authoritarianism
by Karrie J. KoeselThis book provides a rare window into the micropolitics of contemporary authoritarian rule through a comparison of religious-state relations in Russia and China - two countries with long histories of religious repression, and even longer experiences with authoritarian politics. Drawing on extensive fieldwork in multiple sites in these countries, this book explores what religious and political authority want from one another, how they negotiate the terms of their relationship, and how cooperative or conflicting their interactions are. This comparison reveals that while tensions exist between the two sides, there is also ample room for mutually beneficial interaction. Religious communities and their authoritarian overseers are cooperating around the core issue of politics - namely, the struggle for money, power, and prestige - and becoming unexpected allies in the process.
Religion and Biopolitics
by Mirjam Weiberg-Salzmann Ulrich WillemsGiven the profound moral-ethical controversies regarding the use of new biotechnologies in medical research and treatment, such as embryonic research and cloning, this book sheds new light on the role of religious organizations and actors in influencing the bio-political debates and decision-making processes. Further, it analyzes the ways in which religious traditions and actors formulate their bio-ethical positions and which rationales they use to validate their positions. The book offers a range of case studies on fourteen Western democracies, highlighting the bio-ethical and political debates over human stem cell research, therapeutic and reproductive cloning, and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis. The contributing authors illustrate the ways in which national political landscapes and actors from diverse and often fragmented moral communities with widely varying moral stances, premises and commitments formulate their bio-ethical positions and seek to influence political decisions.