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      • Strange Days Books, Social Cooperative Enterprise

        Strange Days Books is a social cooperative publishing firm based in Crete, Greece. Since 2012 we have published almost 100 books. Every year we organize Sand Festival, an online Writers’ Workshop and - in cooperation with www.eyelands.gr literary magazine - the one and only international short story competition based in Greece, plus our International Book Awards. In 2019 SDB was the only publishing house in Greece to receive approval by the European Union’s Creative Europe translation funding program for its project "Strange Days in Europe”. Strange Days Books is an entirely independent publisher, primarily interested in showcasing the wealth of new writing voices in Greece. We work closely with our authors to create books that will appeal to booklovers, books about the present, books that strive to push the art of literature forward, books written with talent and passion, books that challenge the way we see the world, books bursting with new ideas and intriguing perspectives.

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      • Trusted Partner
        November 2021

        Joe Biden's America

        Introduction to a divided country

        by Roland Benedikter

        — "A precise, analytical insight into the phenomenon Trump." (Anton Pelinka, Central European University Budapest) — "An introduction to the contemporary US." (Heinrich Neisser, Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration, University of Innsbruck) — "Refreshingly different." (Herbert Dorfmann, Member of the European Parliament) Joe Biden's America is deeply divided. Donald Trump's term in office made many problems of modern US society visible, which Biden now has to solve. What do American politics look like under Joe Biden? What legacy did Donald Trump leave behind, and what kind of impact does it have? How can the deeper causes, factors and drivers of current US developments be put in a historical context? Roland Benedikter provides a thorough insight into a complex country. In a compact and comprehensible way, he explains the background, challenges and perspectives of the Biden era, while also providing an overview of the current state of US society and culture in general. His analysis is suitable for teaching, decision-makers and civil society as an introduction to today's USA.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2024

        US public diplomacy in socialist Yugoslavia, 1950–70

        Soft culture, cold partners

        by Carla Konta

        The first comprehensive account of the public and cultural diplomacy campaigns carried out by the US in Yugoslavia during the height of the Cold War, this book examines the political role of culture in US-Yugoslav bilateral relations and the fluid links between information and propaganda. Tito allowed the US Information Agency and the State Department's cultural programmes to enter Yugoslavia, liberated from Soviet control. The exchange of intellectual and political personnel helped foster the US-Yugoslav relationship, yet it posed severe ideological challenges for both sides. By providing new insights into porous borders between freedom and coercion in Tito's regime, this book shows how public diplomacy acted as an external input for Yugoslav liberalisation and dissident movements. Using extensive archival research and interviews, Konta analyses the links between information and propaganda, and the unintended effects of propaganda beyond the control of producers and receivers.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2020

        US politics today

        by Edward Ashbee, Bill Jones

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2024

        Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United States

        Power, identity and strategy in the Persian Gulf triangle

        by Luíza Cerioli

        This book offers a nuanced snapshot of the complex geopolitical dynamics in the Persian Gulf, underlining the interaction between Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the US. Examining their interwoven relations since the 1970s, Luíza Cerioli's framework reveals how changes in US-Saudi ties have ripple effects on Iran-US and Iran-Saudi relations and vice versa. Using a historical lens, she explores how enduring US-Saudi connections hinge on order expectations, delves into the cognitive factors shaping US-Iran enmity and traces the source of oscillation in the Saudi-Iran ties. Employing Neoclassical Realism, the book investigates status-seeking, national identities and leadership preferences, offering a deeper understanding of the region's multipolar system. By combining International Relations and Middle East Studies, Cerioli's work contributes to both fields, unravelling the intricate interplay between international structures, regional nuances and agency in shaping Persian Gulf geopolitics.

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      • Trusted Partner
        June 2025

        Proxy war in Afghanistan

        The politics of state-wrecking

        by Abbas Farasoo

        This book provides a compelling analysis of proxy warfare and its far-reaching implications for statehood, focusing on the conflict in Afghanistan. Introducing the innovative concept of "state-wrecking," it bridges theory and practice to unravel how external support for insurgent actors fuels violence, undermines territorial control and sovereignty, intensifies violence, and dismantles political legitimacy. The work shifts the discourse on proxy wars from the strategies of global powers to the procedural and structural impacts within target states. Grounded in rigorous empirical research, including interviews, archival data, and conflict analysis, the book critically examines the Pakistan-Taliban nexus and the limitations of US-led interventions. By blending a robust theoretical framework with in-depth case studies, it reveals how proxy dynamics shape conflicts, disrupt governance, and challenge international security. This is an essential resource for those seeking to understand the entanglements of modern warfare and the fragility of states under external influence.

      • Trusted Partner
        Teaching, Language & Reference
        May 2025

        US diplomacy and the Good Friday Agreement in post-conflict Northern Ireland

        by Richard Hargy

        Richard Haass and Mitchell Reiss, as autonomous diplomats in the George W. Bush State Department, were able to alter US intervention in Northern Ireland and play critical roles in the post-1998 peace process. Their contributions have not been fully appreciated or understood. The restoration of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government in 2007 was made possible by State Department-led intervention in the peace process. There are few references to Northern Ireland in work examining the foreign policy legacy of the George W. Bush presidency. Moreover, the ability to control US foreign policy towards the region brought one of George W. Bush's Northern Ireland special envoys into direct diplomatic conflict with the most senior actors inside the British government. This book will uncover the extent of this fall-out and provide original accounts on how diplomatic relations between these old allies became so fraught.

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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2008

        National Missile Defence and the politics of US identity

        A poststructural critique

        by Natalie Bormann

        Why adopt a poststructural lens for the reading of the military strategy of national missile defence (NMD)? No doubt, when contemplating an attack on US territory by intercontinental ballistic missiles, consulting Michel Foucault and critical international relations theory scholars may not seem the obvious route to take. The answer to this lies in another question: why has there been so much interest and continuous investment in NMD deployment when there is such ambiguity surrounding the status of threat to which it responds, controversy over its technological feasibility and concern about its cost? Posed in this manner, the question cannot be answered on its own terms - the terms given in official accounts of NMD that justify the system's significance on the basis of strategic feasibility studies and conventional threat predictions guided by worst-case scenarios. Instead, this book argues that the preferences leading to NMD deployment must be understood as satisfying requirements beyond strategic approaches and issues. In turning towards the interpretative modes of inquiry provided by critical social theory and poststructuralism, this book contests the conventional wisdom about NMD and suggests reading the strategy in terms of US identity. Presented as an analysis of discourses on threats to national security, around which the need for NMD deployment is predominantly framed, this book is an effort to let the two fields of critical international relations theory and US foreign policy speak directly to each other. It seeks to do so by showing how the concept of identity can be harnessed to an analysis of a contemporary military-strategic practice. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        June 2025

        Southern interregnum

        Remaking hegemony in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa

        by Alf Gunvald Nilsen, Karl von Holdt, Ruy Braga, Ching Kwan Lee, Fabio Luis Barbosa dos Santos

        How do governing elites in the global South attempt to remake hegemony in a conjuncture of durable crisis? This is the question at the core of Southern interregnum, a comparative conjunctural analysis of hegemonic projects in Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. Working with a Gramscian notion of crisis, centred on the interregnum as an enduring period of instability and uncertainty, in which hegemonic authority erodes and competing projects for crisis resolution emerge, the book proposes a novel critical reading of the convulsions that are currently reshaping the political economy of the global South and the world-system. Mapping the variegated trajectories of elite projects to reconcile accumulation and legitimation - and probing the limits of these projects - the book breaks new ground in the study of the contemporary global South.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2009

        Managing EU-US relations

        Actors, institutions and the new translatlantic agenda

        by Rebecca Steffenson

        This book examines developments in EU-US political and economic relations in the 1990s. It contributes to the existing literature by combining knowledge about actors and institutions to outline the transatlantic decision-making process. It focuses not only on how states co-operate but how they effectively govern the transatlantic marketplace and the international political order through transatlantic institutions. Studying transatlantic governance enables us to understand not only how domestic, or EU level, decision-making structures affect transatlantic decisions but also how transatlantic decisions affect domestic institutions. In short, employing decision-making structures as an analytical approach helps us identify who governs and how, and who or what determines policy outcomes. This book is the result of a comprehensive research project and it includes detailed case studies on EU-US efforts to fight people-trafficking, EU-US regulatory co-operation in the form of Mutual Recognition Agreements and the transatlantic trade dispute over bananas. The book is aimed at anyone with an interest in what transatlantic relations entail outside the confines of NATO security. ;

      • Trusted Partner

        Does Movement Really Make Us Smart?

        by Petra Jansen, Stefanie Richter

        Media reports often praise movement as a cure-all. But apart from its undisputed positive effect on health, does movement really make us smarter? Consider a national football team, for example – are these excessively sports-driven players automatically the smartest people? Should we simply replace all school subjects with sports? The authors provide a detailed summary of the latest scientific findings on the influence of movement on cognitive ability. They describe the effects of movement, on old age, embodiment, emotion, school as well as other factors that influence cognition. Target Group: teachers, lecturers, psychologists, psychiatrists, neurologists, psychotherapists, movement therapists.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2023

        The sea in Russian strategy

        by Andrew Monaghan, Richard Connolly

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      • Trusted Partner
        Business, Economics & Law
        September 2010

        The US Economy Today

        by Edward Ashbee, Bill Jones

        The US Economy Today provides an invaluable introduction to American economic history since 1929. Its coverage includes the New Deal, the post-war boom, "stagflation" in the 1970s, "Reaganomics", the Clinton and Bush years, the 2008 - 2009 economic crisis and President Obama's first hundred days. In addition, this volume considers core contemporary economic policy debates and draws conclusions about the strengths and weaknesses of the US economic "model". It looks at the causes and consequences of inequality, the extent to which there is economic mobility, and the impact of globalization and foreign trade. This book will be essential reading for those studying or teaching American economics, economic history or politics and all those looking for a thorough and comprehensive introduction to this area. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2023

        Encountering early America

        by Rachel Winchcombe

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2020

        The United States in the Indo-Pacific

        by Oliver Turner, Inderjeet Parmar

      • Trusted Partner

        Till Stress Do Us Part

        Resilience in Relationships

        by Guy Bodenmann

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