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"Domestic politics matters" has become a rallying cry for international relations scholars over the past decade, yet the question still remains: Just how does it matter? In this book, George Downs and David Rocke argue that an important part of the international impact of domestic politics springs from the institutional responses to its many uncertainties. This impact is due not so much to the errors in judgment these uncertainties can cause as to the strategic and institutional consequences of knowing that such errors are possible. The heart of the book is its formal analysis of how three kinds of domestic uncertainty have shaped international relations through their influence on three very different institutions. One chapter deals with the decision rules that citizens create to cope with uncertainty about the quality of their representation, and how these can lead to the paradoxical "gambling for resurrection" effect. Another chapter describes the extent to which the weak enforcement provisions of GATT can be understood as a mechanism to cope with uncertain but intermittent interest group demands for protection. The third chapter looks at the impact of uncertainty on the creation, survival, and membership of multilateral regulatory institutions, such as the Montreal Protocol and EU, when some states question the capacity of other states to meet their treaty obligations.
"Optimal Imperfection? is a wonderful book that makes a major contribution to establishing the scientific foundations for the study of international affairs. After reading Downs and Rocke, international relations scholars will have to take a long, deep breath."--Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Hoover Institution "In this highly creative book, Downs and Rocke in effect turn the study of international relations on its head. The authors, addressing for the first time in a formal and systematic manner the crucial and central role played by uncertainty and domestic politics in the foreign affairs of states, provide an innovative resolution to one of the most important issues in the study of international institutions and of international affairs in general."--Robert Gilpin, Princeton University
These perfectly imperfect dogs have gentle lessons for us all ... Meet special little Vegemite with the permanent wink; Bali Pip, the playful pup who lost her fur; Raul, who takes partial paralysis in his stride; and many more, all seen through the lens of award-winning photographer Alex Cearns.In this inspiring portrayal of difference, Alex captures the intrinsic beauty and spirit; the sweetness, resilience and strength of 60 perfectly imperfect dogs. They adapt to their unique bodies without complaint, they survive with determination and they live with joy. In the accompanying stories from their best friends, the bond between these endearing doggos and their humans shines through - and sometimes they even save each other. For anyone who's ever loved a dog ...
If you have read The House that Pinterest Built, Smart Spaces, The Alchemy of Things, or Elements of Style you're going to love Perfect Imperfect. Wabi-sabi and new creative interior design expressions: Perfect Imperfect is a stunning collection of homes and studios of creatives from all over the world, with thought-provoking text by Karen McCartney and stunning visuals by Sharyn Cairns and Glen Proebstel. Perfect Imperfect takes as its founding principle the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. Wabi-Sabi advocates the beauty to be found in imperfection, impermanence and the authentic. Importantly this is done without losing sight of the benefits of living in the 21st century; where designers are merging digital technology with the handmade, rethinking how to use space and accommodating the natural world. Creating a new interior design vocabulary: As the collaborative process for creating Perfect Imperfect involved working across continents, the authors created a list of words and phrases that define how to curate the work they include in their stunning book. Their new interior design and interior decorating vocabulary includes terms such as mutability, irregularity, unfinished and incomplete, void, the effects of accident, unpretentious, simplicity, contrasts, and Leonard Koren's idea that 'beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness'. The new words and phrases introduced by the authors define the book's visual sections: - Spirit of Nature - Strange Beauty - Mark of Hand - Deep Shadow - Weathering & Decay - And, Incomplete and Irregular A beautiful, inspirational decorative book: Perfect Imperfect is a celebration of accident, curation, collection, hesitation, collaboration, reuse, reimagining and true originality. It explores an established aesthetic in a new way and embraces current design objects alongside well-worn ones; featuring interior settings that mix comfort, design and an off-beat beauty.
Maxine escapes an abusive polygamous marriage to a man much older than her to make a new life in Harare, Zimbabwe. The story follows the five madams she works for. Through them, we see the struggles of women trying to hold down careers and relationships in a big city where tradition, patriarchy, domestic abuse and unhealthy societal behaviours form a backdrop. While Maxine bears The book explores women learning about and seeking the love they feel they deserve. Whether self-love or romantic love, each woman must find the courage to believe in and hold onto that love. Through Maxine?s narration, the intricacies of the relationship women share with their helpers are uncovered. These relationships reveal the truth that women can discover themselves via their friendships with other women.
Accountant slash bartender Reg will show rock star Jeremy how to have fun...and possibly fall in love. Hollywood royalty Jeremy Jameson has lived a sheltered life with music as his sole focus and only friend. Before embarking on yet another international concert tour, he wanders into a bar in what he considers the middle-of-nowhere and meets a man who wins him over with his friendly smile and easy-going nature. Accountant slash bartender slash adventure-seeker Reg Moore has fun talking and drinking with The Jeremy Jameson and can't say no when the supposedly straight rock star makes him a once in a lifetime offer: keep him company on his tour by playing the part of his boyfriend. Listening to music, traveling the world, and jumping off cliffs is fun. Falling in love is even better. But to stay with Jeremy after the stage lights dim, Reg will need to help him realize there's nothing pretend about their relationship.
Prescriptive Bayesian decision making has reached a high level of maturity and is well-supported algorithmically. However, experimental data shows that real decision makers choose such Bayes-optimal decisions surprisingly infrequently, often making decisions that are badly sub-optimal. So prevalent is such imperfect decision-making that it should be accepted as an inherent feature of real decision makers living within interacting societies. To date such societies have been investigated from an economic and gametheoretic perspective, and even to a degree from a physics perspective. However, little research has been done from the perspective of computer science and associated disciplines like machine learning, information theory and neuroscience. This book is a major contribution to such research. Some of the particular topics addressed include: How should we formalise rational decision making of a single imperfect decision maker? Does the answer change for a system of imperfect decision makers? Can we extend existing prescriptive theories for perfect decision makers to make them useful for imperfect ones? How can we exploit the relation of these problems to the control under varying and uncertain resources constraints as well as to the problem of the computational decision making? What can we learn from natural, engineered, and social systems to help us address these issues?
A nationally known couples therapist reveals the single root cause of all relationship problems—and offers revolutionary advice on what to do about it While most of us have moments of loving freely and openly, it is often hard to sustain this where it matters most—in our intimate relationships. If love is so great and powerful, why are human relationships so challenging and difficult? If love is the source of happiness and joy, why is it so hard to open to it fully and let it govern our lives? In this book, John Welwood addresses these questions and shows us how to overcome the most fundamental obstacle that keeps us from experiencing love's full flowering in our lives. Perfect Love, Imperfect Relationships begins by showing how all our relational problems arise out of a universal ‘wound of the heart’ that affects not only our personal relationships but the quality of life in our world as a whole. This core wound shows up as a pervasive mood of unlove—a deep sense that we are not intrinsically lovable just as we are. It shuts down our capacity to trust, so that even though we may hunger for love, we have difficulty opening to it and letting it circulate freely through us. This book takes the reader on a powerful journey of healing and transformation that involves learning to embrace these imperfections—within ourselves and within our relationships—as trail-markers along the path to great love. It sets forth a process for releasing deep-seated grievances we hold against others for not loving us better and against ourselves for not being better loved. And it shows how our longing to be loved can magnetize the great love that will free us from looking to others to find ourselves. Written with penetrating realism and a fresh, lyrical style that honors the subtlety and richness of our relationship to love itself, this revolutionary book offers profound and practical guidance for healing our lives as well as our embattled world.
Mika rents a cottage on the rugged shores of British Columbia. Cain, her mysterious landlord, conjures romantic images in her heart. Slowly, they become friends, but beneath her clothes is a secret she can't share and a reality that destroys her dreams. The fantasy Cain sells to women has made him a wealthy but empty man. Within a short time, he's lured by Mika's beguiling spirit. He teaches her passion, but to keep her he'll have to convince her that beauty is more than skin deep. Dedicated to the millions of people who are unique, not flawed by Psoriasis.
A brilliant and courageous doctor reveals, in gripping accounts of true cases, the power and limits of modern medicine. Sometimes in medicine the only way to know what is truly going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. This book is exploratory surgery on medicine itself, laying bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is -- complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human. Atul Gawande offers an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is limited, the stakes are high, yet decisions must be made. In dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors, he explores how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad. He also shows us what happens when medicine comes up against the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; a television newscaster whose blushing is so severe that she cannot do her job. Gawande offers a richly detailed portrait of the people and the science, even as he tackles the paradoxes and imperfections inherent in caring for human lives. At once tough-minded and humane, Complications is a new kind of medical writing, nuanced and lucid, unafraid to confront the conflicts and uncertainties that lie at the heart of modern medicine, yet always alive to the possibilities of wisdom in this extraordinary endeavor. Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.