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Series: Hot Spots in Global Politics 216 x 138mm | 272 pages | July 2018 HB | 978-1-5095-2240-8 £60.00 | $74.95 | €77.90 PB | 978-1-5095-2241-5 £14.99 | $19.95 | €19.90 ebook available

Syria Second Edition

SAMER N. ABBOUD

With more than 500,000 people killed and at least half the population displaced, Syria’s conflict is the deadliest of the twenty-first century. In this fully revised second edition of his acclaimed book, Samer Abboud provides an in-depth analysis of Syria’s descent into civil war, the subsequent stalemate, and the consequences of Russian military involvement after 2015. He unravels the complex and multi-layered drivers of the conflict and demonstrates how rebel fragmentation, sustained regime violence, international actors, and the emergence of competing centers of power tore Syria apart in wholly irreversible ways. Russian intervention may have brought an “authoritarian peace” but it contains the seeds of continued and future conflict in Syria. While the Assad regime has so far survived, the instability, violence, and insecurity that continue to shape daily life in Syria portend an uncertain future that will have repercussions on the wider Middle East for years to come. SAMER N. ABBOUD is Associate Professor of Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University.

Series: Polity Histories 173 x 115mm | 240 pages | September 2018 HB | 978-1-5095-2544-7 £45.00 | $59.95 | €57.90 PB | 978-1-5095-2545-4 £12.99 | $14.95 | €16.90 ebook available

Japan JEFF KINGSTON

Japan, anchored by its traditions, transformed by American post-war Occupation, and globally recognized for its technological innovations, manufacturing prowess and pop culture, faces powerful challenges from within and without. In this compact and lively book, the first in the new Polity Histories series, the leading Japanese scholar Jeff Kingston takes readers on a journey through this country’s contemporary history, exploring the key developments and forces, both at home and abroad, that are shaping Japan in the twenty-first century. With an ageing population, a struggling economy and an unsettling regional context, Japan stands at a crossroads. Whether Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s transformative agenda of “Abenomics” and “proactive pacifism” towards a rising China and a belligerent North Korea can set Japan on the path to greater prosperity and security remains to be seen. But with his supermajority recently renewed, Japan’s ongoing transformation is very much in Abe’s hands. JEFF KINGSTON has lived and taught in Japan since 1987 and is currently Professor of History and Director of Asian Studies at Temple University Japan.

16 GENERAL INTEREST