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Over 1,700 entries

Written by a leading team of political scientists, this dictionary embraces the multi-disciplinary spectrum of political theory including political thinkers, history, institutions, theories, and schools of thought, as well as notable current affairs that have shaped attitudes to politics.

Fully updated for its fourth edition, it has had its coverage of international relations heavily revised and expanded, reflected in its title change, and it includes a wealth of new material in areas such as international institutions, peace building, human security, security studies, global governance, and open economy politics.

The dictionary is international in its coverage and will prove invaluable to students and academics studying politics and related disciplines, as well as politicians, journalists, and the general reader seeking clarification of political terms.

Over 350 entries

This new dictionary provides clear and authoritative definitions of terms within the fast-growing field of African Politics. It includes coverage of elections, parties, judiciaries, popular protest, gender relations, the politics of development, and Africa’s international relations as well as major events and figures within African Politics. Entries range from Afrocentrism and the Bandung Conference to ‘Rhodes must fall’ and Sino–African relations and include key terms of particular relevance to Africa such as neopatrimonialism, queue voting, and post-conflict power-sharing. The dictionary also showcases the remarkably vibrant and insightful political language used in Africa, including a range of vernacular terms that are essential for a deep understanding of local political realities.

Written by a world-leading expert on the political science of Africa, this dictionary is an essential guide for both undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as academics, journalists, and researchers working on African politics.

Over 430 entries

This new dictionary provides clear and accessible definitions of a range of terms from within the fast-developing field of Gender Studies. It covers terms which have emerged out of Gender Studies, such as cyber feminism, the double burden, and the male gaze, and gender-focused definitions of more general terms, such as housework, intersectionality, and trolling. It also covers major feminist figures, including Hélène Cixous, bell hooks, and Mary Wollstonecraft, as well as groups and movements from Votes for Women to Reclaim the Night. It is an invaluable reference resource for students taking Gender Studies courses at undergraduate or postgraduate level, and for those applying a gender perspective within other subject areas.

Over 870 entries

Compiled by an expert team of contributors, this dictionary covers all the major figures in world politics of the twentieth century. Authoritative and wide-ranging, it describes and assesses the lives of around 870 men and women who have shaped political events across the world.

Each entry includes an account of the background, career, and achievements of the individual concerned, balancing fact with critical appraisal.

This second online edition, commissioned especially for Oxford Reference, contains many new entries, and the whole text has been thoroughly revised and updated. The cross-references given in the entries are linked only to other entries within the Dictionary of Political Biography. For individuals for whom a cross-reference is not given, use the search facilities within Oxford Reference Online to find more information.

Over 230 entries

This new dictionary defines critical terms relating to China’s politics since 1949. It comprises succinct definitions covering core political structures, ideologies, and practices, as well as individuals, groups, and concerns that are essential to them.

Covering the full spectrum of Chinese politics, authoritative and up-to-date entries include charm offensive, cybersecurity, hukou system, Silk Road, and United Nations Peacekeeping Operations.

Complete with useful weblinks, this new addition to the Oxford Quick Reference series is an indispensable companion for students studying Asian and international politics, as well as for professionals whose interests relate to China’s expanding domestic and foreign politics.

Over 280 entries

This new dictionary covers India’s core political structures, ideologies, and practices, as well as individuals, groups, and concerns that are essential to them.

The entries cover a diverse range of subjects, from caste, the Gujral Doctrine, and the Indian diaspora to the Partition of India and the Shah Bano controversy. The dictionary captures the richness of India’s politics, as well as its foremost ideas and principles, explaining and interrogating important historical events and social concerns.

Complete with useful web links, this new addition to the Oxford Quick Reference series is an indispensable companion for students studying Asian and international politics, as well as for professionals whose interests relate to India’s expanding domestic and foreign politics.

Over 300 entries

This dictionary provides a useful overview of the wide array of political structures and systems that comprise the contemporary Middle East. From Turkey through Iraq and Iran, to the Arabian Peninsula and the states of North Africa, it includes up-to-date definitions of political organizations, key political figures, and important developments, as well as region-specific concepts such as Majlis, academic terms such as rentier state theory, and events such as the Arab Spring.

It is an essential reference resource for students taking courses or modules in politics in the Middle East or broader subject areas such as politics, history, economics, and international relations with a specific focus on Middle Eastern politics.

Over 450 entries

The International Studies Encyclopedia, published in association with the International Studies Association (ISA), is the most comprehensive reference work of its kind for the fields of international studies and international relations. It brings together specially commissioned, peer reviewed essays, written and edited by an international team of the world's best scholars and teachers.

Key features:

• Primarily organized around the different sections representing areas of specialization within the International Studies Association

• Over 400 specially commissioned, peer reviewed essays of up to 10,000 words focusing on the most important topics and issues

• Written and edited by an international team of the world’s best scholars and teachers and overseen by an editorial board comprising 28 past and present Presidents of ISA

Over 275 entries

This is the first reference work to provide detailed, in-depth coverage of all aspects of American politics. Top scholars have written entries that surpass all previous reference material on the subject and provide scholars and students with ready access to sophisticated, comprehensive material. Long entries form the core of the book, covering such topics as climate change, terrorism, welfare policies, nuclear proliferation, voting behavior, and think tanks. Each of these entries includes high-level scrutiny of the literature, history, and future of the topic.

The Companion also includes a number of entries from The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World (Joel Krieger, 2001), revised as necessary to bring coverage of such topics as foreign aid and nuclear weapons up to date. In the current context of political gridlock, international tension, economic underperformance and social division, students of American politics need to focus on more than the inner workings of their own political institutions, important as that focus is. They also need to approach their work with as wide an understanding of our contemporary international and domestic economic, social, and cultural conditions as it is possible for them quickly and easily to acquire. The Oxford Companion to American Politics has been designed precisely to meet the full range of those needs.

The Oxford Companion to Australian Politics is the first scholarly and comprehensive account of Australian political life and thought that gives attention to all aspects of national politics and to Australian politics in regional, international and global contexts. It also takes full account of the colonial origins of Australian politics and includes entries on indigenous politics, frontier politics and settler societies.

Over 400 specially commissioned entries cover such topics as biographies, key events, policy issues, colonial origins, indigenous politics, organisations and institutions, settler societies and frontier politics. Individual entries vary in length, from longer interpretive essays of 4,000 words commissioned from acknowledged experts in particular fields - of the kind used in The Oxford Companion to Politics of the World - to shorter, more factual entries. This Companion is an essential reference source for those teaching or studying Australian politics and culture, as well as the general reader with an interest in Australian and/or world affairs.