Bishop recurrently returned to the topic of Cold War politics under the pressure of public events, her life experiences, and her reading in political theory. “View of the Capitol from the Library of Congress” initiated what might be termed her Cold War poetics, in which her poems both reflected and resisted the political discourse of containment culture. Bishop deployed her complexly entangled poetics in such later poems as “Brazil, January 1, 1502,” “The Armadillo,” “12 O’Clock News,” “A Baby Found in the Garbage,” “Pink Dog” and “Exchanging Hats.” Employing a rhetoric of irony, and at times of confession, she obliquely critiqued US foreign policy, patriarchy, militarism, racial and class hierarchy, gender containment, and sexual heteronormativity

This chapter discusses the ideological background and origin of the idea of ‘democracy promotion’ and different approaches to its study. It argues that the moral authority claimed for ‘democracy promotion’ features the same totalitarian character as Enlightenment thought and ultimately relies on the absence of context. In order to protect the imagined moral hierarchies upon which the idea of ‘democracy promotion’ so fundamentally depends, ‘democracy promotion’ is thus shown to operate via different processes of depoliticisation, technocratisation and decontextualisation. Followed by a discussion of the conceptual dominance of procedural democracy in both ‘democracy promotion’ research and practice, it discusses select policy-oriented and more critical studies of ‘democracy promotion’. The book’s approach is described as both practice-oriented and combining a focus on material and ideational factors. Finally, it provides a brief overview of select US and European ‘democracy promotion’ organisations active in Jordan, describes the book’s methodology and sources, and outlines the key arguments of the different chapters.

Bandmann’s engagement with the many localities on his circuit required a degree of political activity at a level which is termed here micropolitical. This term refers to personal connections and networks and how they function in a political context. For Bandmann, who attempted to build or manage theatres on his circuit, this meant forging political and business partnerships that demonstrate a much deeper engagement with locality than is normal for itinerant theatre. The micropolitics of locality are discussed in relation to the most important cities on his circuit, which were mostly entrepôts, port cities designed to facilitate colonial trade. The chapter provides detailed discussion of Bandmann’s activities in Malta, Cairo, Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, Hong Kong and the Dutch East Indies, as well as in connection with the Victoria Theatre in Singapore and Parsi theatre.