Nik Olsen's Books

Friend & Foe

By: Nik Olsen

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When two men find themselves incarcerated in a foetid prison in the Middle East, they spend their time agonising how they came to be there. Their lives have been steeped in conflict and they are suspicious of anyone around them, including the many other unfortunate inmates. They reluctantly begin to communicate and it becomes apparent that they are from completely different backgrounds; in other circumstances they would be enemies. Here though their enemy is the environment; maintaining sanity in the baking hot days and cold nights, with barely enough food and water to survive and nothing to interrupt the relentless boredom. They relive their tortuous escapades through flashbacks, and as mutual trust grows they reveal more of their lives to each other, where a disturbing pattern emerges. Were they destined to arrive in the hell they now found themselves? If so; who determined their fate and why? They determine to beat the system, but in order to do so they must submit to their unknown enemy. A common thread emerges through their cautious dialogue involving current affairs. Can they put their differences to one side; help each other to survive and eventually, escape? Will their relationship promote a new understanding between foes? Will they unravel the enigma that is their enemy? This is a tale of two strangers whose violent lives are entwined by tragic events, and irrevocably changed by circumstance: heralding the dawning of a new truth for them both. Action and intrigue is mixed with an all-too believable plot.

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Page Count

435

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Author House

Published Date

ISBN 10

1491876883

ISBN 13

9781491876886

Militarizing Artificial Intelligence

Theory, Technology, and Regulation

By: Nik Hynek,Anzhelika Solovyeva

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Militarizing Artificial Intelligence

Theory, Technology, and Regulation

By: Nik Hynek,Anzhelika Solovyeva

This book examines the military characteristics and potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the new global revolution in military affairs. Offering an original perspective on the utilization, imagination, and politics of AI in the context of military development and weapons regulation, the work provides a comprehensive response to the question of how we might reflect on the AI revolution in warfare and what can be said about the ways in which this has been handled. In the first part of the book, AI is accommodated, both theoretically and empirically, in the strategic context of the 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA). The book offers a novel understanding of autonomous weapons as multi-layered composite systems, pointing to a complex, non-linear interplay between evolutionary and revolutionary dynamics. In the second section, the book provides an impartial analysis of the related politics and operations of power, whereby increases in military budgets and R&D of the great powers are met and countered by advocacy networks and scientists campaigning for a ban on lethal autonomous weapons. As such, it moves beyond popular caricatures of ‘killer robots’ and points out some of the problems which result from over-reliance on such imagery. This book will be of much interest to students of strategic studies, critical security studies, arms control and disarmament, science and technology studies and general International Relations.

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Page Count

194

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1000609294

ISBN 13

9781000609295

The Golden Age of Disaster Cinema

A Guide to the Films, 1950-1979

By: Nik Havert

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The Golden Age of Disaster Cinema

A Guide to the Films, 1950-1979

By: Nik Havert

From the 1950s through the 1970s, disaster movies were a wildly popular genre. Audiences thrilled at the spectacle of these films, many of which were considered glamorous for their time. Derided by critics, they became box office hits and cult classics, inspiring filmmakers around the globe. Some of them launched the careers of producers, directors and actors who would go on to create some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. With more than 40 interviews with actors, actresses, producers, stuntmen, special effects artists and others, this book covers the Golden Age of sinking ships, burning buildings, massive earthquakes, viral pandemics and outbreaks of animal madness.

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Page Count

257

Publisher

McFarland

Published Date

ISBN 10

1476634807

ISBN 13

9781476634807

Judging European Democracy

The Role and Legitimacy of National Constitutional Courts in the EU

By: Nik de Boer

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Judging European Democracy

The Role and Legitimacy of National Constitutional Courts in the EU

By: Nik de Boer

In several EU Member States, constitutional courts have reviewed European law on its compatibility with national constitutional law. These judgments deal with issues of major importance such as EU democratic legitimacy, the protection of fundamental rights, and the status of national sovereignty within the EU. Yet should national courts decide such issues of key constitutional significance for the EU? Or is it more democratic to leave these matters to political institutions that represent Europe's citizens and are politically accountable to them? In Judging European Democracy, Nik de Boer argues that the national courts' review of European law can actually constrain democratic debate over the EU's constitutional underpinnings. Rather than opening up a space for discourse or addressing democratic problems with the EU's decision-making process, national courts risk taking sides in good faith political disagreements among elected legislators about constitutional questions relating to the EU, thus distorting, rather than protecting, the democratic decision-making process. Judging European Democracy uniquely combines constitutional and political theory with an in-depth case study of the German Constitutional Court, the EU's most authoritative constitutional court. Based on an extensive analysis of parliamentary debates, EU policy documents, and interviews with politicians, policymakers, and constitutional court judges, the case study shows how the German Constitutional Court has distorted political debate and democracy in the EU. Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers involved in political theory, political science, EU constitutional law, and European integration will find this book compelling.

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Page Count

385

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0192845233

ISBN 13

9780192845238

The Logic of Humanitarian Arms Control and Disarmament

A Power-Analytical Approach

By: Nik Hynek,Anzhelika Solovyeva

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The Logic of Humanitarian Arms Control and Disarmament

A Power-Analytical Approach

By: Nik Hynek,Anzhelika Solovyeva

This novel and original book examines and disaggregates, theoretically and empirically, operations of power in international security regimes. These regimes, varying in degree from regulatory to prohibitory, are understood as sets of normative discourses, political structures and dependencies (anarchies, hierarchies, and heterarchies), and agencies through which power operates within a given security issue area with a regulatory effect. In International Relations, regime analysis has been dominated by several generations of regime theory/theorization. As this book makes clear, not only has the IR Regime Theory been of limited utility for security domain due to its heavy focus on economic and environmental regimes, but it, too, heuristically suffered from its rigid pegging to general IR Theory. It is not surprising then that the evolution of IR Regime Theory has largely been mirroring the evolution of IR Theory in general: from the neo-realist/neo-liberal institutionalist convergence regime theory; through cognitivism; to constructivist regime theory. The commitment of this book is to remedy this situation by bringing together robust power analysis and international security regimes. It provides the reader with a theoretically and empirically uncompromising and comprehensive analysis of the selected international security regimes, which goes beyond one or another school of IR Regime Theory. In doing so, it completely abandons existing, and piecemeal, analysis of regimes within the intellectual field of IR based on conventional grand/mid-range theorization.

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Page Count

229

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

178661166X

ISBN 13

9781786611666

Contested Futures

A Sociology of Prospective Techno-Science

By: Nik Brown,Brian Rappert

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Contested Futures

A Sociology of Prospective Techno-Science

By: Nik Brown,Brian Rappert

In a unique volume, Contested Futures brings together a group of scholars to examine the relationships between social action and the future. Rather than speculating upon what the future might bring, the volume interrogates the metaphors and practices through which the future is mobilized as an object of present day action and agency. The book shifts the analytical gaze from looking into the future to looking at the future as a sociological phenomenon in its own right. Futures are thus contested in as much as they register differences of interest, time frame or organizational and political form. Contestation is also evident in the ascendancy of certain discourses, languages and metaphors which foreclose some futures whilst facilitating others. But futures are far from being simply linguistic abstractions, and in fact can often be seen to harden into material entrenchment as expectations become scripted into 'path dependency' and 'lock in'. Contested Futures is an invaluable analysis for both academics and policy actors seeking a better understanding of the ubiquity of futures-discourse in the context of today’s uncertainties.

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Page Count

390

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1351949004

ISBN 13

9781351949002

Jobs, Technology and People

By: Nik Chmiel

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Jobs, Technology and People

By: Nik Chmiel

This book focuses on psychological issues related to technology and work. Topics are set within areas of occupational psychology that include job and task design, training, selection, assessment and motivation, workload analysis, environmental and personal influences on mental processing, safety at work, and working in teams. Nik Chmiel introduces important topics to those without previous knowledge of them, and illustrates the relevance of psychological knowledge to the analysis of jobs and use of technology. It will be useful to students of psychology, business studies and organizational behaviour, and to professionals in human resource management and human factors consultancies.

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Page Count

175

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134726856

ISBN 13

9781134726851

Book's by Nik Olsen

Friend & Foe

Friend & Foe

Militarizing Artificial Intelligence

Militarizing Artificial Intelligence

The Golden Age of Disaster Cinema

The Golden Age of Disaster Cinema

Judging European Democracy

Judging European Democracy

The Logic of Humanitarian Arms Control and Disarmament

The Logic of Humanitarian Arms Control and Disarmament

Contested Futures

Contested Futures

Jobs, Technology and People

Jobs, Technology and People

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