Political Science and International Studies (R0)

Why has global governance largely failed to effectively tackle some of the most pressing global environmental challenges of our time? What are the obstacles to effective global and planetary problem-solving? And which solutions and responses have global governance actors come up with to confront these challenges? This textbook teases out the tragic entanglements between dominant global governance dynamics and the global environmental challenges of the Anthropocene, showing how international and global cooperation mechanisms that evolved over the last two hundred years are deeply implicated in exacerbating many of today’s global environmental challenges. The book focuses on several global environmental challenges which are intrinsically interconnected, threatening to destabilise the entire Earth-system with serious consequences for human societies across the world. These global environmental challenges include infectious disease outbreaks, global food production processes, the pollution of freshwater resources, energy consumption patterns, deforestation and CO₂ emissions. At the same time, the book also presents several alternative governance examples based on more democratic, citizen-based and holistic approaches to the global climate crisis, which point the way towards a new understanding of global governance in the age of the Anthropocene. This textbook is for undergraduate and postgraduate students of global governance, environmental politics and international relations.

This edition of Canada Among Nations over the last year and projects forward into the year 2022. 2021 was a year of challenges for Canada and a watershed in its engagement with the global political economy. Beset by a pandemic, hemmed-in by an America-first administration in Washington and punitive recrimination from a Chinese government with global ambitions, the shrinking horizons of a foreign economic policy premised on liberal internationalism and multilateral institutionalism have sapped Canada’s global ambitions.

Will China–U.S. relations come back to the normal track? Does the confrontational approach work for China–US relations? This book argues that it is an unrealistic hope to bring China–US relations back to the so-called normal track because the great power competition will be a new normal of China–US relations and the USA will gain more from strategic competition than cooperation in the long run. This book shows that the strategy of “great power cooperation through competition” is more positive and constructive than the approaches of “peaceful coexist” and “maximum pressure.” This book does not intend to provide policy recommendations for governments to consider, but mainly to explain why the great power competition is inevitable and why it is necessary to continuously work with China in some areas through strategic competition. This book alarms the importance of understanding the nature of the Chinese Communist Party during the great power competition and aims to motivate both sides to revisit their foreign policy practice and come up with a better foreign policy strategy of handling China–US relations.

This book presents a comparative perspective on different government communication strategies to COVID-19 around the globe. Scholars from twenty parts of the world specialized in political and government communication analyze initiatives and methods of various governments' communicative responses to the pandemic. In their contributions to this volume, they examine a wide range of distinct attitudes and reactions facing the crisis.

Today’s omnidirectional contact allowed by social media, with its load of contradictory rumors and fake news, often obliterates the citizens' ability to comprehend reality. The book frames a broad canvas on how government communication may deal with that and manage similar crises — bound to happen as climate changes and war menaces are generating more and more worries about the future of humanity.

This makes this volume a must-read for scholars and students of political communication, health policies and communication, crisis marketing and communication. It will also be of utmost interest for practitioners and policy-makers from these fields willing to better understand government communication and its answer to global crises.

This book aims to explore and contextualize G20 rising powers’ increasing role in international development from a comprehensive and multidimensional perspective. This book will scrutinize the G20 rising powers’ evolving role as international development actors around three research questions: 1) How do we contextualize and locate G20 rising powers as emerging actors in international development? 2) What are the main contributions, trends and limits of G20 rising powers in South-South Cooperation? 3) Does G20 rising powers’ active involvement in international development support their foreign policy objectives and challenge the international development order? Based on these three, interrelated research questions, this cluster of chapters is structured as follows: The first part, elaborated under the first research question, focuses on the historical development and current dynamics of (G20) rising powers’ evolving actorness in international development to assess their main motivations, ambitions and instruments. The second part examines the main contributions, trends and limits of G20 rising powers in South-South Cooperation. The third part delves into an assessment of the linkage between G20 rising powers’ active involvement in international development and their foreign policies. 

The book features contributions on topics such as the status of political parties, the separation of powers and the rule of law, bureaucracy and meritocracy, equality, forms of democratic participation and governance, comparisons between historical and contemporary democratic practices, individual rights, propaganda, political engagement, and consent. Further, it discusses how global information flows and new technologies affect democratic processes, including topics such as cyber-activism and open-source software as a means of empowerment to ethnocentric and class-centric technological design, globalization and media neutrality, and the mechanization of public administration. Overall, the book demonstrates how historical, philosophical, technical, and institutional issues relate to contemporary democracy. It will appeal to political theorists, social scientists and everybody interested in contemporary democracy.

This book unpacks policy and politics for health, equity, and wellbeing. With a critical realist lens, the book provides a methodology for sophisticated health focussed policy analysis which situates public health within complex political processes and systems. The application of that lens is demonstrated with insights from a decade of research into urban and regional planning.

This book examines knowledge and policy transfer from the perspectives of Brazil and China. It assesses how these two nations have emerged as providers of ideas and models that contribute to the global offer of public policies. With a variety of case studies in areas such as health, food security and infrastructure, the volume offers new insights into the distinct levels through which knowledge and policy transfers take place, including the local, regional, national and supranational. It develops a multidimensional framework of analysis that considers the agents, objects, and mechanisms for knowledge and policy transfer, as well as the structures and timings within which they operate. Unlike previous studies on policy transfer – which largely focus on North-North and North-South learning processes – this book offers an innovative approach to this area of study. By reflecting on the experiences of these two rising powers, it provides fresh insights on the future of knowledge and policy transfer as global power dynamics shift. This interdisciplinary study will appeal to students and scholars of policy transfer, development studies, international relations and public policy.

This volume offers systematic research on regionalism in Africa and explores the role and impact of external partners on the dynamics, institutional design, and performance of regional integration projects. It acknowledges and elaborates the multilevel and multidimensional nature of regionalism, with its variety of cooperative institutions and policy areas, while closely considering uneven relationships to external actors in African regional organizations. The book’s two comprehensive mapping studies examine patterns of asymmetric inter-dependence between regionalism in Africa and external partners in Europe, with a focus on trade and donor funding, and highlight structural imbalances and (un)intended consequences. Five additional case studies provide in-depth analyses of a variety of African regional organizations, mainly with a focus on security regionalism, and elaborate how external partners influence and affect integration processes and projects. Although regionalism in Africabenefitted from external relations and partnerships with Europe, contributions in this volume question this positive impression, highlighting some of the major undermining factors and actors.

This book offers a systematic inquiry into how, why, and with what consequences media affects governments and the standing of prime ministers. It aims at an understanding of how media has caused institutional effects in government, as well as at advancing a unified theory of government communication. The author develops a logic of centralization and applies it to one case, Sweden. Government communication has been institutionalized, tightened and centralized with the prime minister and has changed irreversibly. Analysis of how the government communication system has evolved, mainly in its institutional structures, suggests that the shift to centralization arose more out of necessity than choice. For prime ministers most of this is about finding ways to ensure that the entire government respond to media uniformly. As governments face a set of functional demands from media, different kinds of media, uniformity has been a paramount objective. Nevertheless, thisdevelopment involves shifting dynamics of intra-executive relations and a shift of power away from ministries to the prime minister’s office; the apex of political power. The prime minister has been empowered at the expense of ministers through the concentration of power and resources to the executive centre. That is partly because of media, which reinforces political hierarchies. That and the centralized control of government news in turn raises further questions about democratic governance and the nature of modern-day governing. 

The space occupied by international law in shaping political action is subject to continuing debate and controversy. This book aims to answer the question of how and why international law impacts the behaviour of actors on the international stage in the absence of central authority and faced with asymmetric power. At a time when the role of normative restraints in international relations, and international law in particular, has come under renewed questioning, it advances an analytical framework for understanding the effect of norms on behaviour that is not contingent on material restraints or a given political constellation, while being informed by the practical realities and practice of international organisation. In doing so, this book draws on an interdisciplinary range of sources, including international law, political theory, cognitive psychology and behavioural economics to explore a communicative action-based approach of how norms and ideas persuade actors to engage in a course of action consonant with international law to achieve a particular outcome. In probing the role of norms on questions such as the use of force and accountability, and issues of equity and justice, it examines the challenges international law faces and what the way forward may look like.

Procurement is a critical government activity, yet very little scholarly attention is devoted to procurement fraud in public policy, public management, or public financial management research. While many publications focus on the stages of the procurement process and appropriate protocols to follow for successful procurements, the opportunities for exploitation of the process have not been as widely studied. Procurement fraud is similarly understudied in the white-collar crime literature, where attention has primarily been placed on corporate crime or political corruption. This book extends criminal justice and white-collar crime scholarship by using these literatures to frame public procurement fraud. Additionally, organizational behavior approaches are applied to public procurement fraud to explain possible motivations for this type of occupational crime. This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to provide insights into the characteristics of individuals who abuse the procurement process for personal gain, and it offers some strategies for detecting and preventing further abuse. Original research is also presented and compares the offender-based and offense-based characteristics of the perpetrators of public procurement fraud with those of street and white-collar criminals. The intention of this book is to elevate the issue of public procurement fraud and to align it with criminal justice and white-collar crime scholarship.

This book analyzes key popular culture artifacts linked with United States’ far-right extremism to illustrate how extremists use various narrative strategies to legitimate their interests and goals and to justify violent actions. Recognizing these narrative strategies and how they are used partly explains the back and forth moves between mainstream politics and the far-right of ideas and issues that used to remain within far-right circles. The main objective of this book is to utilize theoretical approaches that centralize processes of racialization to analyze and explain how far-right extremists utilize recognizable narratives to mainstream and communicate their ideas. The book will illustrate processes by which racialized subjects are produced and violence justified. In order to do so, the book concentrates on popular culture as sources of how the far-right constitutes their identities and goals. It first develops a methodological plan to study popular culture artifacts that is drawn from scholarship on race and discourse analysis in International Relations (IR). It then analyzes far-right use of key popular culture artifacts, such as magazines, memes, and manifestos, to note how extremist identities and interests are produced, publicly communicated, and mainstreamed. This will contribute to Security Studies and IR’s understanding of far-right extremism, especially how they utilize similar narrative strategies as used in mainstream contexts to justify their calls for violence.

While the CFSP depends on the contribution of EU member states, their role in shaping the CFSP towards China has not been researched yet, and this book fills the gap.

This book eulogises a personality that has constructed a formidable scholarly and personal legacy that future generations of legal practitioners and socio-legal scholars in Africa should look to for guidance and inspiration. Divided into three parts, the book deals with a longstanding legal practice and scholarship on the role of international law and institutions. Additionally, the book discussed roles of an African scholar and practitioner to advance socio-economic and cultural rights across the continent, through contextualised, progressive adjudication and from a gendered perspective. Finally, the book examined the importance of early-childhood education and legal education alike, the role of the courts in redressing these concerns and the need for greater inclusion of Afro and queer-sensitive pedagogies and perspectives. Contributors to the book address the role of schools in redressing systemic marginalisation—including stigmatisation based on disability—and efforts to translate their rights as prescribed in national constitutions and international legal instruments. The methodology encompasses a TWAIL approach and the call to revisit orthodox approaches to legal scholarship.

This book explores the resilience of constitutional government in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, connecting and comparing perspectives from ten countries in sub-Saharan Africa to global trends.

In emergency situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, a state has the right and duty under both international law and domestic constitutional law to take appropriate steps to protect the health and security of its population. Emergency regimes may allow for the suspension or limitation of normal constitutional government and even human rights. Those measures are not a license for authoritarian rule, but they must conform to legal standards of necessity, reasonableness, and proportionality that limit state action in ways appropriate to the maintenance of the rule of law in the context of a public health emergency. 

Bringing together established and emerging African scholars from ten countries, this book looks at the impact government emergency responses to the pandemic have on the functions of the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary, as well as the protection of human rights. It also considers whether and to what extent government emergency responses were consistent with international human rights law, in particular with the standards of legality, necessity, proportionality, and non-discrimination in the Siracusa Principles.

This book addresses the pertinent issues that will need to be considered by those interested in physical security problems of the future. Specifically, it examines how changes in the accessibility of technology – data, hardware, software – are likely to affect both threat and mitigation considerations for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Explosive (CBRE) scenarios and how social science can inform us of the human aspects of each. The trend towards an ever more socio-technical society and infrastructures – encapsulated by concepts such as 'smart cities' – is drawn out as a key motivation for adopting more holistic risk approaches to such security problems, than is currently the case.

Recent elections in Japan have been dramatic, and the 2021 general election was no exception. Worldwide turmoil caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as domestic uncertainty following the resignation of long-serving Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Prime Minister Abe Shinzō, left many voters and political observers wondering whether his successors were up to the task of leading the country through the crisis. In the end, the LDP and coalition partner Kōmeitō eked out an electoral victory—but one that masks important changes in the party system and nuanced changes in voter behavior and preferences. This fourth volume in the Japan Decides series features a comprehensive collection of analyses from leading experts, covering the legacy of Abe’s tenure in office, the state of the LDP and other parties, the impact of COVID-19 and the postponed 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, and many other important topics in contemporary party politics and domestic and foreignpolicy.

This open-access book presents cutting-edge research on securitization and democratic development in the OSCE Region. Gathering contributions by practitioners and researchers from various disciplines, it presents case studies and highlights recent activities of proactive engagement in democratic institution-building and responding to security threats from the Balkans to Central Asia. The volume is divided into three parts, the first of which focuses on security-related matters, armed conflicts, minorities, and women’s safety, as well as the roles that civil society, foreign governments, social media, and external donors play in this area. These contributions illustrate how the OSCE’s informal approach to peace, security, and securitization as norm entrepreneur is closely linked to the level of democracy among its member states. The second part presents a special section on the political implications of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), assessing the impact of this infrastructural program on the levels of democracy and/or autocracy in Eurasia. The third part consists of short chapters outlining future research and debates. The book will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, security studies, and the human rights-politics nexus. 

This is the 2022 instalment in a series of books released by the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. The OSCE works to promote Minority Protection, Security, Democratic Development and Human Rights, guided by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), and to enhance securitization and development policies in Eurasia, Europe, Central Asia and North America. Since being founded in 1993, the OSCE and its agencies and departments have attracted a wealth of academic research in various fields and disciplines, ranging from economic development and election monitoring to enhancing global principles of human rights and securitization.

This book comparatively assesses the China and India’s soft power strategy in Iran. By employing Joseph S. Nye’s “Soft Power” theory and forming the new concept of “Power of Bonding”, this book formulated China and India’s soft power narratives and applied it through the empirical analysis in Iran. Based on this theory, this book seeks explanations for the question of “How China and India respectively, strategically and comparatively use the soft power strategy in Iran?”. To reach the find-out, this book compares the understanding, resources, strategies, influences and uses of China and India’s soft power in Iran under three thematic areas, including “power of bonding through cultural attractions, and attributions”; “political and diplomatic engagement” and “economic partnerships”. By analysing China and India’s soft power strategy in Iran, this book seeks to contribute to the soft power literature through a theoretical replication based on non-Western soft power strategy, the concept and its empirical application in China and India.

Each year, the Supreme Court of the United States announces new rulings with deep consequences for our lives. This fifth volume in Palgrave’s SCOTUS series describes, explains, and contextualizes the landmark cases of the US Supreme Court in the term ending 2022. With a close look at cases involving key issues and debates in American politics and society, SCOTUS 2022 tackles the Court’s rulings on abortion, guns, religion, environmental regulation, pandemic controls, immigration and more. Written by notable scholars in political science and law, the chapters in SCOTUS 2022 present the details of each ruling, its meaning for constitutional debate, and its impact on public policy or partisan politics. Finally, SCOTUS 2022 offers an analysis of the current ideological and interpretive divisions on the Court, including an analysis of the unprecedented leak of the Dobbs draft ruling.

Rising inequality, the advance of far-right populism, ecological and climatic catastrophe and the scourge of global pandemic disease – these are among the defining crises of our time. Addressing the governing challenges posed by each requires a more expansive vision of the scope and possibilities of state action than political scientists and economists have furnished to date. In Statecraft and the Political Economy of Capitalism political economists Scott G. Nelson and Joel T. Shelton examine several key social and political dynamics of advanced capitalism for insights into the fate of equality, community and solidarity. In chapters addressing divergent problems and spanning several centuries, statecraft is presented as a conceptual lens through which the art and practice of public action is continually rearticulated in response to the shifting economic, social and political conditions of a given epoch. The authors examine several consequential moments in the long tradition of political economy in relation to the governing predicaments of the present day, highlighting those predicaments that bear upon the well-being of all people, especially society’s most vulnerable. The book thus reintroduces the creative and purposive aspects of governing to the study and practice of Political Economy, a field that has been too preoccupied with technical, institutional and procedural aspects of economic management. Framing problems of governing national and global economies in relation to the craft of the state means searching out continuities between capitalism's early promise and present peril.

This book compares the involvement of Kurdistan-Iraq and Palestine (Palestinian Territory of the West Bank and Gaza Strip) in international relations from the viewpoint of their practical performance. In particular, it provides an overview over the current Kurdish and Palestinian paradiplomatic activities and their practical performance in terms of their capabilities, capacities and practical achievements. The contributing authors analyze the evolution of paradiplomacy, the domestic legal and institutional framework, the goals, instruments, and capabilities of Kurdish and Palestinian paradiplomacy, and selected foreign relations. The book identifies the similarities and differences between the paradiplomacy of Kurdistan-Iraq and Palestine with regard to a set of guidelines: causes, legal foundations, institutionalization, predominant motives, practical implementation, and outcomes of paradiplomacy. It provides empirical explanations about how and why Kurdistan-Iraq and Palestine develop and practice paradiplomacy and contributes to a better understanding of Kurdistan-Iraq’s and Palestine’s involvement in international affairs and their activities.

Using Marxist and Polanyian frameworks, this book examines the structural and discursive transformation that can explain the polarization of migration debates and within the rise of nationalist anti-migrant discourses in Europe with a special attention to Eastern Europe and Hungary. It goes beyond the mainstream explanations of these phenomena that uses nationalist propaganda as causal factors and instead argues that the rise of anti-immigration currents cannot be understood without a dialectical and historical analysis of the material and discursive transformations, most importantly marketization and related reification. Drawing from thinkers such as Lukács, Polanyi, and Gramsci as well as diverse empirical sources including demographic studies, historical modelling, and discourse analyses, Migration Turn and Eastern Europe is a unique and rigorous study of one of the most pressing and puzzling political and sociological questions of ourtime.

This is an open access book.

This book offers an analysis of how the Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) regime has responded in the immediate aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Coronavirus has highlighted the need to better protect modern societies from natural, accidental and deliberate disease affecting humans, animals and plants. Within that context preventing the deliberate hostile use of biological and chemical agents will be of increasing importance. Dando asks to what extent there has been a significant strengthening to the CBW non-proliferation regime in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic using an analysis focused on two proposals to strengthen the Chemical Weapons Convention and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention which aim to constrain advances in science and technology developments that could be misused. On this basis he concludes that it would be hard to argue that to date there has been a significant strengthening of the CBW regime.

This book highlights the geopolitical and economic consequences of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The author, a key architect of Polish economic reforms and the most frequently cited economist from post-Communist countries, shares new insights into the causes and mechanisms of the Second Cold War. Written in an unorthodox, bold and lucid style, the book raises provocative issues. It provides convincing answers to some of the most difficult questions, such as who the true beneficiaries and interest groups behind the war are, and what their motives and conflicting goals are.

The book also introduces readers to the greatest challenge of our time, climate change, and explores the long-term effects of the current arms race and rearmament spiral on global warming. This interdisciplinary book, which also addresses the challenges of inflation, mass migrations, and clashes between democracy and authoritarianism, will appeal to anyone interested in the contemporary geopolitical shifts triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the dynamics and directions of the evolution of the new Cold War.

The book provides an up to date and authoritative account of how the UN is re[1]thinking its obligations to protect civilians during conflicts. Based on hundreds of interviews with senior UN officials and humanitarian protection staff in headquarters and in the field and a review of the UN´s ´grey literature´. It also draws on the author´s own experience of working on human rights and protection in some of the world´s most violent conflicts. It is written not about what the UN ought to do – or how it could have behaved differently in an abstract or theoretically ideal world – but what the UN is actually doing to fulfil the fundamental purposes set forth in its Charter. 

This book offers a defense acquisition perspective that provides action orientations and decision making to increase the value-for-money (VFM) of public-private partnerships (PPPs) through public-private stewardship (PPS). The differing motives of the public and the private sector are not conducive to partnership that leads to optimal outcomes. PPS is offered to practitioners and academics as a solution to failures of PPPs by following the public stewardship tenets of fiduciary responsibility and advancing the public interest while factoring in the additional elements of the private sector. The public values of transparency, accountability, responsibility, responsiveness, efficiency, effectiveness, equity, diversity, inclusion, fairness, and security, among others, can be shared in success between the public and private partners. By establishing shared values aligning with each stakeholder’s measures for success, it is possible to devise value propositions for stakeholder decision making that supports inter-organizational strategy, operations, tactics, goals, and objectives. PPS practices can further ensue as the public-private steward utilizes tools of expertise and organizational capacity. The book provides seven portraits of practitioners in the practice of PPS to assist PPP stakeholders achieve VFM. PPS is illustrated using examples in the Department of Navy (DON) and Department of Defense (DOD).

This book considers the growing interest in transitional justice practices that take place against the backdrop of ongoing settler-colonialism in Palestine. By critiquing the role of common top-down and bottom-up interventions, namely truth recovery and international criminal justice, the book argues that transitional justice acts as an extension of a deeply flawed peacebuilding process that has been so destructive in Palestine and has a deflating effect when it comes to advancing calls for meaningful decolonisation. A ‘radicalisation’ of transitional justice that takes place in settler-colonial contexts, one that prioritises conversations around meaningful decolonisation, is therefore required. The book will appeal to those with an interest in peacebuilding, conflict transformation and transitional justice. 

Chapter 1 is the most important chapter in Capital, as well as the most difficult and the most controversial. An influential interpretation of Chapter 1 in recent decades has been the so-called “value-form interpretation” of Marx’s theory in general and Chapter 1 in particular. The most important proponent of the value-form interpretation today, both in Germany and in the English-speaking world, is Michael Heinrich, and Heinrich’s work has emphasized the first chapter. Heinrich’s latest book in English is a detailed commentary of the first seven chapters of Volume 1 of Capital. The publication of an English translation of Heinrich’s book is an important event in Marxian scholarship and it is important to critically engage with this important book in order to advance our understanding of this critical foundational chapter. This book emphasizes the quantitative issue of whether the magnitude of value and socially necessary labour-timeare determined in production or also depend on exchange and demand, which has been the main issue in the controversy over the value-form interpretation.

This open access book compares the experiences of large-scale military procurement in Canada and Australia. Focusing on the recent frigate and jet-fighter programmes, it demonstrates how delays suffered in delivering weapons systems and platforms in these countries have been caused by misalignments between the strategic requirements set out by the armed forces and government defence policies. By bringing the insights of public management and administration to those of defence studies, the book presents policy options that will help improve the nature of future large-project military procurement. It will appeal to scholars and students of public administration, public management, and defence studies, as well as practitioners and policymakers.

Spoilers and tactical blockages to peace have connected across local, national, regional and international scales, highlighting ideological divisions. Drawing on counter-revolutionary theory, the concept of counter-peace is used as a tool to critically interrogate a systemic array of blockages to peace. Distinct counter-peace patterns are now entangled in peace and reform processes, including  the stalemate pattern, the limited counter-peace, and the unmitigated counter-peace patterns. Across cases, once tactical blockages begin to form these patterns, they become systemic and ultimately enable conflict escalation. Consequently, the intimate entanglement of the existing international peace architecture with counter-peace processes points to ideological divisions in international order, as well as the growing gulf between diminished practices of peace and reform with critical scholarship on peace, justice, and sustainability.

Voter turnout in local elections is paradoxical. It is where government is closest to those governed and where many first become politically active; yet, it is also where political participation in the form of voting is the lowest. If high participation is an indicator of a healthy democracy, then what can be done to increase participation at the local level? Early voting has long been perceived to increase voter turnout, and there is evidence to suggest that early voting does have an impact on turnout. A majority of early voting scholarship, however, focuses on turnout at the national or state level. What is not clear is how early voting influences turnout at the local level. In the wake of partisan controversy surrounding early voting policies and the reduction of early voting periods in many states, it is important to understand the impact of such policies on all types of elections. Localities are the bedrock of American democracy. Understanding what factors could increase turnout at the local level—where it is devastatingly low—provides valuable insight on local participation, election administration, and early voting laws for scholars and decision-makers alike.

This edited volume critically examines the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a guiding norm in international politics. After NATO’s intervention in Libya, against the backdrop of civil wars in Syria and Yemen, and because of the cynical support for R2P by states such as Saudi Arabia, this norm is the subject of heavy criticism. It seems that the R2P is just political rhetoric, an instrument exploited by the powerful states. Hence, the R2P is being challenged. At the same time, however, institutional settings, normative discourses and contestation practices are making it more robust. New understandings of responsibility and the politics of protection are creating new normative spaces, patterns of legitimacy, and norm entrepreneurs, thereby reinforcing the R2P.

This book’s goals are to discuss the R2P’s roots, institutional framework, and evolution; to reveal its shortcomings and pitfalls; and to explore how it is exploited by certain states. Further, it elaborates on the R2P’s strength as a norm. Accordingly, the contributions presented here discuss various ways in which the R2P is being challenged or confirmed, or both at once. As the authors demonstrate, these developments concern not only diplomatic communication and political practices within international institutions, but also to normative discourses.

Furthermore, the book includes chapters that reevaluate the R2P from a normative standpoint, e.g. by proposing cosmopolitan standards as a guide for states’ external behavior. Other contributors reassess the historical evidence from U.N. negotiations on the R2P principle, and the productive or restrictive role of institutions. Discussing new issues relating to the R2P such as global and regional power shifts or foreign policy, as well as the phenomenon of authoritarian interventionism under the R2P umbrella, this book will appeal to all IR scholars and students interested in humanitarianism, norms, and power. By analyzing the status quo of the R2P, it enriches and broadens the debate on what the R2P currently is, and what it ought to be.

At a time when political mobilisation is a symptom of social dissatisfaction, young people’s participation in political decision-making, practice and ideological change, make foregrounding and investigating their political practices a necessity. The title of this book, Young People Shaping Democratic Politics: Interrogating Inclusion, Mobilising Education clearly announces its intention, subject, and mission. This collection has been inspired by topical youth mobilisations that aim to address injustices and inequalities which are rooted in poverty, austerity, violence, increased surveillance, climate change, dislocation, xenophobia, the rise of authoritarian regimes, and a global turn to the political right. Whereas young people are politicised in moments of conflict and become symbolic conduits for the future of their nation, they represent a category most often relegated to the apolitical sphere before and after such moments of crisis. This edited collection seeks to expand our engagement with inclusion beyond educational institutions by situating young people at the centre of our inquiry, as agents of political processes that promote, problematise and re-imagine inclusive societies. The chapters engage in contemporary case-studies, which are mapped across a wide range of countries from Europe (Serbia, Spain and United Kingdom), North Africa (Egypt), South Africa, North America (United States), South-Asia (Bangladesh), and West Asia (Lebanon). 

The Palgrave Handbook of New Directions in Kashmir Studies provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary and transregional perspective on the Kashmir dispute. Spanning South and Central Asia, Kashmir has been at the center of geopolitical conflicts and rivalries among India, Pakistan and China for decades, with members of heterogeneous local communities negotiating the complexities of regional state formations, national power assertions and geopolitical competitions. Taken together, the chapters in this handbook examine diverse people’s struggles to establish processes of democratic accountability in relation to the colonial-era state consolidations, postcolonial military occupations, interstate wars, intrastate armed conflicts and cold war and post-cold war politics that have shaped and transformed social and political identities in the region. Contributors chart out varied and bold new directions by attending to local constellations of situated knowledges and practices through which people living in different parts of the disputed region make sense of the conditions and contingencies of their political lives. The handbook further initiates a dialogue on the ways in which state power and border regimes have shaped scholarship and undermined the pursuit of shared intellectual and political projects across physical and epistemological boundaries.

This book shows that identity studies in the discipline of International Relations (IR) generally cohere around two discrete understandings of being, substantialism and correlationism, and that their analytical, theoretical, and epistemological orientations are split along those lines. This binary opposition makes it difficult for identity scholarship to meet the internal validity standard of coherence while unnecessarily narrowing the theoretical lenses of constructivism in IR. The author argues that the best way to step outside that binary is to re-ground identity in ontology of immanence. The book shows that immanent ontological thinking enables us to have a pluralist epistemology and methodology for the study of identity, including both positivist and interpretivist orientations, without yielding a logically inconsistent alignment.

This book offers a fresh take on the dynamics of the 2021 Canadian federal election by focusing on elements pertinent to political marketing and branding rather than just the horse race and campaign dynamics. Chapters by leading and emerging political marketing academics from different disciplines, including communications, political science and political management, are included as well as contributions from practitioners in different fields related to political marketing such as pollsters. Some chapters are collaborations between leading academics and practitioners, which provide new insights into the dynamics of political marketing that enrich this edited volume. The book’s content takes our current understandings of Canadian political marketing in new directions.

This book provides an account of the reforms undertaken in German federalism throughout the 2000’s. It explores the consequences of the historic changes made to the German federal order through detailed analysis of a set of unique case study areas. It also evaluates the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic on German federalism, and the relationship between party politics and federalism in Germany. The authors investigate what happens when policy responsibility is decentralized. The reforms undertaken in Germany fundamentally altered the roles played by the federal and state-level governments in several policy fields, and the question as to what kind of impact this has for policy itself is a global one. In a world that sees an increasing trend towards the decentralization of political authority, this book offers insights and lessons that have a practical application on a global scale. It will find the interest of students and scholars in countries worldwide which are grappling with thenature of policy responsibility across levels of political authority. 

This book examines the history of disaster management in South Africa, showing how experts, professionals and policymakers have crafted and implemented disaster policies from the mid-twentieth century to the present day. It assesses the ways in which states become concerned with disasters, the extent to which disaster management contributes toward state formation, and who and what disaster management protects. It also considers the ways in which the politics of protection continuously shift as political regimes change. In telling the story of how policies surrounding disaster protection have evolved in South Africa, the book demonstrates how the security apparatus that shaped disaster management was re-oriented in the twenty-first century towards development, alongside bureaucratic reforms that aimed to democratize the state. By examining the wider context of the globalization of disaster management, it also highlights the often unrecognised role of experts from Africa, Latin America and Asia in shaping global disaster policies. The book will appeal to scholars and students of disaster governance, public policy, state formation, and African politics.

This book assesses the processes and outcomes of international urban networks in Europe from 2007 to the present day. Focusing on Greece in particular, it examines 162 municipalities involved in more than 240 European city networks to shed light on the various factors that affect cities’ capacities to act as international actors. The book demonstrates that the participation of Greek municipalities in European city networks has entailed changes to local political structures, policies and procedures, as well as the strengthening of a ‘European’ identity and the creation of long-term partnerships. At the same time, these changes have often clashed with bureaucratic traditions and unfavorable economic conditions, which have mitigated the reformatory potential of European city networking. Providing important insights into city diplomacy and Europeanization, the book will appeal to scholars and students of public administration, European integration and political science, as well as professionals and practitioners. 

This book is explicitly modernist at a time when many scholars have either forgotten the emancipatory promise of the Enlightenment or railed against it in the name of postmodernism. The book, broadly, adopts a hybrid epistemology that utilises the critical insights of Geisteswissenschaften Tradition (Weberian ‘Ideal-Type Analysis’) and the Habermas (1988) notions of the ‘public sphere’ and deliberative/dialogic democracy (‘ideal speech’) to advance a general proposition of democratic renewal by way of cyberdemocracy. Curiously, as democracy spreads across the world in the age of globalisation, it has also been accompanied by increased discontent with democratic systems. To that end, this book is not overly concerned with saving democracy beyond the liberal representative model, rather the focus is on how modern representative democracy has failed and how cyberdemocracy might function as a more effective model that truly represents the people by broadening participation and reflexivedeliberation.

This volume brings together a diverse set of scholars to address the long theoretical, conceptual and political debate on the interpretation of “actually existing” socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. While the major paradigms – totalitarianism, neo-totalitarianism, revisionism, post-revisionism, modernization, and the world-system analysis – are well known in the Western (English-language) literature, the concept of state socialism, which has strong theoretical roots in Hungary (going back to the works of György Lukács and István Mészáros) received less international attention. This book contributes to a productive discussion about viable alternatives to capitalism by introducing and theoretically elaborating on the concept and practice of state socialism, highlighting the historical significance of Hungary’s experiment with the “new economic mechanism” of 1968. It generates a common point of reference for various generations of anti-systemic thinkers, scholars, and activists to move beyond Cold War simplifications and ideological divides, and contributes to the discussion about anti-capitalist alternatives, which are relevant today for the global left.  

The chapter “Dance Around a ‘Sacred Cow’: Women’s Night Work and the Gender Politics of the Mass Worker in State-Socialist Hungary and Internationally” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

This book is the first detailed analysis of how the EU responded to Brexit. It is an important reference point for future studies of the Brexit negotiations. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with key institutional players in Brussels and in several member states to document how the EU handled the first-ever exit of one of its members. The Brexit shock came at a time when the EU had barely recovered from the Euro crisis and was struggling to manage an unprecedented inflow of refugees. The immediate fear was that Brexit might be the final straw that broke the camel ’s back.

Eurosceptics were jubilant, and Europhiles were distraught. In reality, the EU reacted to Brexit with resolve and a determination to protect the polity. The book argues that getting the process right was crucial. The EU mobilised its collective capacity to negotiate effectively and with one voice.

Italian politics has changed course yet again. Thanks to the outcome of the 2022 general election, a coalition dominated, for the first time, by a party of the far right has taken office under Giorgia Meloni, the first woman to serve as prime minister in Italy’s republican history. Italy has always been a kind of ‘political laboratory’ for Western democracies – one in which new political phenomena have developed with considerable potency. Consequently, the electoral analyses presented in this book make it possible for the reader to understand the challenges and related consequences that established democracies are currently facing, beyond Italy.

This book explores the origins and significance of the corporate climate action phenomenon, which has attracted increased attention in recent years. It examines how and why, during the 2010s, American, German, and Indian corporations spanning finance, technology, automotive, and energy-intensive industries adopted certain climate practices and converged around the idea that the private sector has a vital role to play in addressing climate change and advancing a low-carbon future. It also considers how policy developments that states widely understood as watersheds, including the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, simply confirmed what the private sector had long believed: that states lacked answers about how to achieve concerted, ambitious, and effective climate action. It was in this context, amid diminishing expectations for robust state climate action, that select corporations sought to fill a perceived leadership vacuum in an issue area poised to shape future global trends. Providing a novel assessment of the corporate sector as a climate actor, this book evaluates how the shift in the center of gravity in the climate change issue area away from national governments and toward other players may influence world order and impact an international security landscape increasingly defined by non-military challenges.   

This book is a timely examination of congressional oversight in the United States, serving as a definitive guide for scholars and political, legal, and media observers seeking to navigate contemporary conflicts between Congress and the White House. Author Daniel Epstein has spent his professional career as a lawyer serving all sides of the regulatory process: he ran investigations for Congress, defended the White House from congressional oversight, and represented individuals, nonprofit news organizations, and entrepreneurs in federal court to fight for regulatory transparency and fairness. Epstein uses historical and observational data to argue that the modern federal bureaucracy did not begin as a regulatory state but as an investigative state. The contemporary picture of Congress having empowered the bureaucracy to set policy through rules is a relatively recent development in the political development of administrative law.  The book’s novel econometric models and historical analyses force a shift in how legal scholars and judges understand delegation, congressional oversight, and agency investigations.

Unconfessed by definition, hypocrisy is one of the most used and abused polemical categories, even today, to denounce the "masked cynicism" of certain social actors, especially when they hold public office. But has hypocrisy always been just that? Should we really always be wary of it and challenge its every manifestation? What forms of hypocrisy can we distinguish? What kind of relationship exists between hypocrisy and the lack of self-critical attitude of those who are used to challenge the conduct of others? And above all: what relationship exists between this common vice, democratic politics and the institutional reproduction of different forms of oppression and domination? These are just some of the questions that inspire this philosophical journey back into the history of one of the most chameleonic concepts of Western culture. In Mazzone’s conception, democratic hypocrisy includes argumentative strategies used by institutional actors to refuse any kind of responsibility whentheir decisions, actions or roles are called into question by the protests of citizens in a democratic context. He reveals the relationship that exists between such “apologetic narratives” and the institutional reproduction of different forms of oppression and domination. Ultimately, the book urges civic vigilance against underhand wannabe authoritarians, who – as a group – are evolving to find new ways to trick people into opposing democracy.

Volume one of Electoral Politics in Zimbabwe pays special attention to the overarching view that the 2023 harmonized elections define the fate of the major presidential contenders and their parties as well as (re) shaping the political and economic trajectories of the nation. Cognizant of the complex nature of the Zimbabwean political realm and nuanced dynamics at play, the chapters in this volume cover three interrelated themes: the electoral environment in Zimbabwean politics; language, politics, and elections in Zimbabwe; and lastly, electoral institutions and human rights in Zimbabwean politics. The chapters foreground the ongoing tensions and politicking between the two main rivals, the ruling party, ZANU PF and the main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC). The contributors also highlight the impact of internal tensions and factionalism within the contending parties, the apparent voter apathy, disconcerting voices due to claims about lack of transparency and a toxic political space as factors impacting on the outcome of the 2023 presidential elections. The volume will appeal to academics and practitioners in politics, human rights, religion, gender, media, languages, linguistics, and development studies.

This book examines how presidents utilize their emergency powers, as well as factors that influence presidential rhetoric in U.S. foreign policy and declarations of national emergencies. Although scholars have examined presidential rhetoric and the influence it has on various policy arenas, this project is the first to take a text analytic approach to assess the nature of presidential rhetoric in the area of U.S. foreign policy and declarations of national emergencies. Broadly, Ouyang and Morgan seek to understand (1) how presidents exercise their authority to declare national emergencies and (2) how presidential rhetoric associated with each declaration of national emergencies changes over time. They begin by providing an overview of the development of presidential emergency powers. Then, they analyze the nature of presidential rhetoric in the context of U.S. foreign policy and national emergencies. Finally, they assess the strategic use of rhetoric in national emergency declarations and evaluate how this influences the implementation of economic sanctions stemming from these policies. In addressing these questions, this book helps to advance our understanding of U.S. foreign policy generally, national emergencies specifically, as well as the impact of presidential rhetoric on the policy selection and execution.

This book provides a conceptual and methodological approach for researchers evaluating governance and policy in the face of complexity, and demonstrates the application of this approach across different governance and policy contexts. It fills a significant gap in the literature on governance, and proposes a theoretical focus on coordination to enable the assessment of multi-tier, cross-sector governance institutions and policy. It also introduces a range of applications for the proposed approach, including two case studies of governance and policy for the built environment and health services. The book introduces, analyses and draws from a range of perspectives in political economy, political science, policy analysis and evaluation. It also engages with longstanding debates in political economy about states and markets, which are largely overlooked by political science analyses of coordination challenges in governance. The book will appeal to scholars and students of governance, public policy and political science.

This book investigates the parliamentary negotiation of executive secrecy. Parliaments depend on information to fulfil their roles as the people’s representatives, legislators and overseers of the executive. However, there are examples of executive secrecy across all policy fields. How, then, do parliamentary actors try to reconcile secrecy and the normative demands of an open, democratic society? This volume analyses parliamentary arguments, conflicts and patterns of agreement around this topic in the case of Germany. Based on two case studies – intelligence agencies secrecy and Public Private Partnership secrecy – it argues that substantive justifications of secrecy focusing on necessity are highly contested. By contrast, procedural legitimation of secrecy, namely deciding about it democratically, is crucial. Still, there are inherent limits to the legitimation of executive secrecy. The book therefore underlines the fragility of secrecy’s legitimation, and its need for constant actualisation.

This textbook offers an essential introduction to survey research and quantitative methods with clear instructions on how to conduct statistical tests with R. Building on the premise that we need to teach statistical methods in a holistic and practical format, the book guides students through the four main elements of survey research and quantitative analysis: (1) the importance of survey research, (2) preparing a survey, (3) conducting a survey and (4) analyzing a survey. In detail, students will learn how to create their own questionnaire on the basis of formulating hypotheses; sampling participants; disseminating their questionnaire; creating datasets; and analyzing their data. The data analytical sections of this revised and extended edition explain the theory, rationale and mathematical foundations of relevant bivariate and multi-variate statistical tests. These include the T-test, F-test, Chi-square test and correlation analyses, as well as bivariate and multivariate regression analyses. In addition, the book offers a brief introduction to statistical computing with R, which includes clear instructions on how to conduct these statistical tests in R. Given the breadth of its coverage, the textbook is suitable for introductory statistics, survey research and quantitative methods classes in the social sciences.

This timely book offers a comprehensive examination of the current state of nuclear stability postures worldwide, effectively highlighting their inherent limitations. Through their analysis, the authors illustrate how the seemingly contradictory perspectives of deterrence optimists, disarmament idealists, and warfighting pessimists can be reconfigured into a unified approach towards achieving regional and global peace. They suggest that these strategies can be reconciled as complementary, rather than substitute approaches, to achieve the common goal of nuclear stability.

To achieve this objective, the book employs a game-theoretical framework to analytically define the conditions for nuclear war. Drawing from extensive observations of significant crises, the model incorporates identifiable systemic regularities that influence the strategic decision-making process during severe crises and establish the prerequisites for different levels of nuclear confrontation. Additionally, by tracing the strategic-technological trajectories of nuclear powers, the authors present a novel analysis that explores the potential for stable coexistence to replace unstable confrontation between global powers, ultimately fostering nuclear peace.

The author's theoretical explorations lead to the policy conclusion that establishing a nuclear oligopolistic hierarchy, under the leadership of preponderant global powers committed to a no-first-use pledge, presents the most effective international system for enhancing both regional and global nuclear stability. This book aims to surpass the Cold War origins of current nuclear strategy and develop a comprehensive policy framework that guarantees enduring nuclear stability in the contemporary world.

This book is the first of a work in two parts addressing the relations between the transnational society and the state. It is dedicated to the analysis and conceptualisation of transnational societies. This work moves beyond the mere depiction of transborder socialities by shedding light on the fundamental structures underpinning them. It investigates the mechanics of their formation and evolution, their demise or transformation into diasporas. It theorises transmigrants as plural humans embedded and socialised in multiple settings, and whose activities are sustained and framed by three key social institutions: transnational families, businesses and associations. It sheds light on the construction of an intersubjective moral framework regulating the relations between migrants and non-migrants. Finally, it examines the space-time continuum of transnational societies.

This book identifies why presidents, prime ministers, and other leaders of countries often make blunders in foreign policy. Blunders have been recognized within the study of foreign policy, but no central methodology or theory has developed to provide a way to avoid future disasters. Options are often presented to leaders of countries by advisers who do not always assess which policies will best serve national interests. Presidents, prime ministers, and other leaders of countries then have their legacy judged accordingly.

Therefore, the book reviews existing efforts at developing theories of foreign policy to determine why they have failed. Instead of allowing a discipline with a lot of competing theories to continue to flounder, the book consolidates all approaches and develops a new professional format that will serve to professionalize foreign policy decision-making so that fewer key decisions are ever again considered blunders.

This book engages literature and opinions of politicians, opinion leaders, religious leaders, lawyers and researchers on national integration in Nigeria. In addition to rotational presidency, participants interviewed by the author also express views on other national integration measures in Nigeria. The monograph represents a critical work in the field, making a significant contribution to the so-far-lacking literature of fieldwork and scholarship on rotational presidency in Nigeria. The monograph will benefit scholars, researchers, peace and conflict experts, politicians, students and other stakeholders on how national integration can be cultivated and consolidated. Its focus on the Fourth Republic ensures its relevance to the management of political tussles inherent to rotating power in a developing and federal country such as Nigeria.

This book offers a comprehensive explanatory account of Trump's foreign policy by assessing its nature, determining the extent to which it broke with the policy of preceding presidencies, and explaining how this shift came about. We argue that Trump has succeeded in remaking America’s grand strategy by unmaking its long-standing strategy of what we call Open Door Globalism, a strategy of economic expansionism through the promotion of open markets across the globe and its institutionalization into a US-led liberal world order. Trump has broken with Open Door Globalism in probably lasting ways by adopting an outlook and strategy of neo-mercantilist economic nationalism based upon an ‘America First’ redefinition of US sovereignty and national interests. We explain this Trumpian shift in US foreign policy by focusing on the social sources of Trump’s foreign policy-making elite’s agency, analysing it both in terms of foreign policy-makers’ embeddedness in elite networks and within the changing global and domestic context. The latter, coupled with a crisis of established elite power, also indicates why Biden has not returned to Open Door Globalism but doubled down on some aspects of the Trumpian economic nationalist break.

This handbook provides an exploration of the field of International Political Theory (IPT), which in its broadest terms, examines the ways in which ideas about justice, sovereignty, and legitimacy shape international politics. It is a comprehensive resource for those interested in understanding the philosophical, political, and legal issues that arise from interactions between states, peoples, and global actors. The two volumes of the handbook cover a wide range of topics, from the foundations of international political thought to the latest debates in the field. They are designed to give readers a comprehensive overview of the key concepts and arguments within international political theory and provide an introduction to the main debates in the field.

Volume 1 takes us from the ancient world to the formation of the modern state system as we lay the groundwork for a critical understanding of changes in, and challenges to, core ideas such as sovereignty, international law andterritorial integrity. The contributions to this volume explore the European domination of the discipline providing insights into how it came to conceive the world in its own image. They also focus on non-Western perspectives and reactions to European hegemony.

The book establishes a linkage between perceptions and foreign policy by exploring, how China’s behavior towards Japan is driven by mental shortcuts. The study is focused on the aspect of historical memories and how it factors in China’s Japan Policy. It explores the linkage between perceptions born from the past, their interpretations in the present and thereby, the shaping of policy behavior of China towards Japan. The author delves beyond the realist and liberal interpretations of international politics, which assume that states’ interests and material capabilities are a ‘given’ in the international system- thus, offering a conceptual understanding of Sino-Japanese relations in the twenty-first century.

This handbook provides a broad overview of left-wing extremism and its associated key issues and themes. It breaks new ground by assembling in a single volume a comparative analysis of the phenomenon that is both multidimensional and multidisciplinary. Gathering a wide range of influential scholars who have worked at length in the field of extremism studies from different perspectives, backgrounds, and geographical settings, the Palgrave Handbook of Left-Wing Extremism presents an array of thought-provoking and innovative as well as informative analyses and discussions – both historical and contemporary - about the phenomenon of left-wing extremism and of how researchers conceive of and approach it in their study. The Handbook is designed to be, for the foreseeable future, the reference work for all students, researchers, and general readers interested in achieving a comprehensive understanding of left-wing extremism in all its manifestations, subtleties, and dynamics, and bothits current and its potential directions.

Chapter “Radical Left Movements in Scandinavia, 1980–2020: Straddling Militant Counterculture and Popular Movements” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via SpringerLink.

This is the first book to study the establishment and evolution of an Irish Peacekeeping Policy.  The author uses declassified primary source materials released by the Irish National Archives and relies on the notes and discussions of Government and legislative debates to demonstrate how the Irish governmental system operated to make the crucial decisions to dispatch contingents to UN peacekeeping operations. Analysed are: declassified discussion, debate, draft and final memos, and cables between the UN and Irish Government as well as internal to the Irish Government.  The author considers the three step process of the political discussions between Ireland and  the UN: the coordination between Ireland and other states; the discussions among members of the Irish Government; and the debate within the Irish legislature. Through this the author aims to promote an understanding of the mechanics behind Ireland’s rise in reputation as a major backer and contributor to UN peacekeeping.  At the same time, it presents an examination of a unique codified state process related to agreeing to the dispatch of personnel in support of UN peacekeeping.

In today's evolving democratic landscape, "The Perils of Populism: The End of the American Century" offers an extensive investigation into the phenomenon of populism and its potential threats to U.S. democracy. Esteemed contributors and long-time populism observers provide historical and analytical insights, delving into the personalization of political conflicts, the cultivation of populist politics, and the propensity for insults and violence within the realm of American politics.

This thought-provoking volume presents a comprehensive analysis of the American system of government and presidency, shedding light on the influence of tribalism, cronyism, nepotism, and the utilization of masculinist identity politics. Through illuminating examples and incisive narratives, the book explores key principles, highlights the complexities of the American political landscape, and offers constructive recommendations to address the challenges posed by plutocratic or authoritarian populism.

The book serves as an invaluable resource for researchers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide, transcending geographical boundaries. It uncovers the interplay between populist forces and anti-democratic tendencies, providing a deeper understanding of the current state of democracy and the urgent need for political reforms. In an era marked by deep divisions and racial tensions, this book provides an essential framework for comprehending the complex dynamics at play within the American political sphere.

This book challenges the perceived underlying causes and culprits of the ongoing challenges in Canadian defence procurement, arguing that although headlines often put the blame on the political leadership, the defence procurement bureaucracy, ongoing pressures in the defence industry and continuous demands placed on Canada though its alliances also carry a large part of the responsibility. Focusing on four main case studies: the Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Plane, the Joint Support Ships, the Medium Support Vehicle System and the Halifax Class Modernization, the author offers a comparative analysis of how these ongoing procurement efforts were dealt with by different administrations, from Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin to Stephen Harper. 

This book examines Canada’s foreign policy in terms of China, pointing to the flaws and attitudes relating to the impracticality and lack of its pragmatic design. We examine the historical and contemporary problem which these states face in terms of their economic, political, and social differentials to see what they have in common, what separates them, and how and why they can overcome these political and social divisions.  Our aim is to provide solution-based strategies to the very substantial, diplomatic, and foreign policy dilemmas which exist between these two countries. We begin with an overview and analysis of the fraught diplomatic and economic relations between Canada and China, particularly exacerbated during the global pandemic. Secondly, we look at these problems and how they might be resolved through developing a human security lens, in particular the idea of what we call a ‘human security diplomacy’ framework which we believe can advocate and support Canadianvalues while offering a strategic tool for strengthening national interests in the short and long term.  Finally, we look to the future of Canada-Chinese relations emphasizing an optimistic outlook while offering recommendations on how the relationship can be reimagined.    

This distinctive book deconstructs the foundational elements of Russian foreign policy from a Russian perspective and with references to Russian sources, rather than the typical Western perspective. The author Olga Raluca Chiriac situates her work at the intersection of strategic studies and cognitive psychology, offering an analysis that goes deep into the roots of Russian strategic behavior, especially socio-cultural elements such as attitudes towards the West, language, culture. She highlights Russia’s unique decision-making process, sometimes overt and other times covert. The book aims to present a mechanism for analysis in both strategic choices and foreign policy, but it also points out that countries and nations are complicated entities, all having a particular historical experience, generational trauma, culture and traditions.

This book is a pioneering multi-disciplinary analytical study of Caribbean political corruption grounded in Caribbean epistemology, challenging universalist perceptions generated outside the region which take no account of historical and cultural elativity. In tracing the history and development of Caribbean political systems and corruption, it collates and synthesizes existing data, indispensable to current and future research. Rigorous analysis of international corruption measurement tools demonstrates deficiencies and limited validity for small island states in the Caribbean and worldwide. Highly detailed case studies and fieldwork research investigating perceptions of corruption and democratic capacity present invaluable new empirical data and offer insights into remodelling corruption analysis. With its wide cross-disciplinary appeal, this book makes significant and timely contributions to decolonial studies and an emerging decolonization discourse in the Caribbean.

This book delves into Trinidad and Tobago's development with a fresh lens. It stands as the inaugural empirical exploration of the country's unique attributes, including its diversity, ex-British colony status, small-state categorization by population size, and its dependence on hydrocarbons.

Through meticulous empirical analysis, this book scrutinizes the nation's economic, social, and political outcomes within the context of these four distinctive parameters, offering fresh insights into the country's development trajectory.

What sets this book apart is its unwavering commitment to a data-driven approach. Drawing upon a vast array of databases from both international and national sources, it provides a thorough examination of development indicators, household welfare metrics, firm-level performance, and individual perspectives on a wide range of political, economic, and social issues.

For scholars, policymakers, and anyone with an interest in understanding how unique contextual factors shape a Trinidad and Tobago's development, this book offers an enlightening and data-rich perspective on the nation's journey towards progress and prosperity.

The book focuses on different practices of associated labor in Brazil and Argentina, in the case of the workers’ recuperated factories, over the past 40 years. Novaes analyses labor practices from a critical Marxist perspective as a reaction to the misery of neoliberalism. Deindustrialization, austerity programs, increasing commodification and international competitiveness have severely deteriorated the living and working conditions of the majority of Latin Americans. However, alternative labor, production and educational practices have developed in this increasingly ruthless neoliberal capitalism. Although they are still small, they indicate a potential way out of the capitalist mode of production. Novaes directs his special attention to the “education beyond capital,” which has accompanied these alternative labor and production practices (from alternative job training in recuperated companies and the movement of landless rural workers MST).

This textbook offers an up-to-date and incisive overview of contemporary Russia. Systematically covering the country’s history, geography, society, politics, economy and culture, it analyses current developments —the headlines and the more everyday— and situates its analysis in the wider historical context to help readers make sense of one of the world’s most important regions. Building on the success of its previous editions and analysing complex questions in the light of expertise gathered over decades, this remains the leading text for a wide-ranging account of Russia today.

The internet has become a battleground for global power struggles, with nations and even terrorist organizations wielding cyber-attacks to exert control. As the absence of binding international laws and norms leaves cyberspace largely unchecked, countries are seeking to establish their Sovereign Cyber Domains (SCD) - tightly controlled cyberspaces. In this illuminating monograph, the author explores how Russia, China, Iran, and others perceive the internet as a means for the United States and its allies to maintain global dominance and influence foreign audiences, driving their pursuit of strict regulations over domestic cyber affairs and mass communication. Yet, even the United States is now susceptible to foreign cyber operations, mainly foreign influence that undermines its domestic affairs.

Even International Blocs like the European Union had expressed concerns about foreign influence and privacy rights abuses, leading to regulatory initiatives like the General Data Protection Regulation, Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. As nations prioritize cybersecurity and sovereignty over free speech and convenience, the book predicts a future of increased regulation across all layers of the cyber domain, mirroring the historical emergence of the concept of sovereignty.

Drawing on a combination of political science, international relations, and cyber domain practices, this monograph offers valuable insights for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and students. By analyzing existing cyber sovereignty processes and predicting future trends, the book contributes to international relations theories, sheds light on the challenges of an unregulated cyber domain, and provides guidance for a secure and controlled digital future.

Polarization in the United States has been on the rise for several decades. In this context, few observers expect politics today to stop “at the water’s edge,” as the old cliché goes. But key questions about the relationship between polarization and US foreign policy remain to be fully answered. To what extent are American ideas about foreign policy now polarized along partisan lines? How is polarization changing the foreign policy behavior of the US Congress and President? And how is polarization altering the effectiveness of US foreign policy and influencing America’s role in the world? This edited volume explores these questions and more, bringing together existing knowledge as well as considering how the political dynamics and execution of US foreign policy may evolve in the years ahead.

This volume sheds light on the world of organizational politics, political leadership, and the pivotal roles played by employees and political leaders in managing diverse groups. It picks up where influential scholars like Edgar Schein, Harry Triandis, Bernard Bass, Robert House, Shalom Schwartz, and Geert Hofstede left off, providing a timely and transparent exploration of these crucial topics.

In a rapidly evolving landscape, characterized by renewed interest in political skill, people management, leadership and management, diversity training, organizational culture, workplace incivility, ambivalence alliance, and career development, the book emerges as an invaluable resource, assembling a group of renowned contributors in the field, who have conducted extensive social research. It offers a comprehensive view of contemporary organizational politics, psychology at work, DEI, political skill/will, HRM, leadership effectiveness, organizational behavior and culture, relationships in the workplace and emotions in politics, favoritism, workplace incivility, ambivalent alliance, people analytics, and office politics, and competition.

The book discusses the ongoing struggle between knowledge-driven scholarship and dogmatic ideology in the workplace and beyond. As organizations grapple with the challenges of today's business environment, the book therefore is an indispensable guide for scholars, consultants, and leaders committed to driving continuous improvement and navigating the complex intersection of politics and leadership in the modern workplace.

The book explores the development of the American eugenics movement and how it still plays a role in American life. Building on a brief overview of the concept of eugenics, Shannon Bow O’Brien charts the foundations of the ideas, significant influences, and influencers of the movement in the last 19th and early 20th centuries. She discusses how these ideals and social life shaped American culture and encouraged attitudes toward racial and ethnic biases, including immigration policies in that period.

O’Brien examines how the founding of the United States of America was built on unwanted individuals from the United Kingdom; transported felons and indentured servants were many of the original colonists. As the population forged its new nation, many of these individuals were the focus of restrictive immigration policies that sought to amend the identity of the American citizen and sought to define acceptable roles for Black persons within American society. Faithful slave monuments provided physical models to help engrain these roles within American life.  O’Brien traces the development of the Mammy statue movement and its intersectionality with the restrictive immigration laws.

Finally, she turns to the rhetoric of Donald Trump and contextualizes his speech in the ideology of the superiority of White Nordic nativism within American life. 

The book draws from regulation theory to explain urban planning policies and outcomes in Southeast Asia as a function of governance structures and processes. A considerable portion of the book is spent re-tracing the historical roots of planning dispositives, including the totality of
institutional entities, which together constitute an apparatus of government in South-East Asian polities. Therefore, of essence in the book are the institutional structures and administrative principles, that were introduced by colonial authorities and inherited by their post-colonial successors in South-East Asia. The book seeks to demonstrate the role of the policies and commensurate implementation institutional frameworks in accounting for important dynamics in the contemporary urban domain in the region. In analyzing the institutional framework for urban planning and governance, the book is doing due diligence to a hitherto neglected subject, namely governmentality, in the discourse on the political economy of urban management in Southeast Asia. Thus, the book is intended to acknowledge the importance of institutions in determining the success of urban development policies. The notion of institutions or governmentality as will be used in the book includes, de facto governance structures, government and parastatal agencies and the formal rules and regulations they are charged with implementing. The book is based on the premise that knowledge of institutions and their functions is critical in explaining phenomena in economic geography. This is particularly true in Southeast Asian countries because of the dominant and overarching role of the state or government agencies in the economy.   

This book analyses the EU rule of law instruments from the perspective of the academic, inter- and intra-institutional dissensus at the EU level. The angle of analysis proposed by this book allows to detect the sources of dissensus inherent in the design of the EU rule of law toolbox and in their enforcement. The proliferation of the instruments, without any major efforts of systematization, seems to be part of the problem, with a series of overlaps. At the same time, especially in the post-pandemic context, the procedures implementing the various EU rule of law tools have become more and more intertwined, so that it becomes difficult to disentangle one from the other in terms of effects. The book thus feed the debate on the strengths and deficiencies of the EU rule of law toolbox ten years after the first ad hoc measures were adopted, also offering some recommendations on how to turn dissensus into constructive mechanisms to improve the management of the rule of law in the EU.

Since Edward Said’s publication of Orientalism in 1978, so-called Western social theory and its claim to universal analytical validity has been exposed to severe criticism. Scholars from the field of postcolonial studies were most vocal in criticizing the Eurocentric nature of the conceptual apparatus of the social sciences. Indeed, contemporary social theory almost exclusively refers to the historical experiences of Western Europe and North America. Yet what is the alternative to these Eurocentric frameworks? Many postcolonial critics use very few non-English sources and tend to focus on the deconstruction of European and American theories.

The chapters of this volume provide a turn of perspective. The authors critically reflect upon the concepts of so-called Western social theory by engaging with social science literature and social theory in Arabic. Questions addressed include: What are the concepts, themes, and historical narratives in contemporary Arabic social theory? In which ways do Arab social theorists provide us with alternatives to the conceptual apparatuses employed by so-called Western social theory? To what extent are Arab and Western social theories entangled with each other?

This edited volume provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the failure of democratic state building in Afghanistan. Encompassing insights from diverse perspectives and different theoretical viewpoints—most importantly, those of Afghan nationals—the chapters address complex issues, including the extent of global hegemonic power, the efficacy of nation-building strategies, the clash between modernization and cultural legacies, and the intricate task of establishing enduring institutions amid pervasive clientelist networks. The volume is divided into sections addressing a key aspect of the situation: state institutions and society; insecurity and corruption; social and economic development; women’s rights. Drawing crucial lessons from a turbulent past to inform and guide future endeavors towards a stable, prosperous Afghanistan, this volume will be of interest to researchers and students of Middle East politics, peace and conflict studies, security studies, development, history, and sociology.

"Urban Climate Change Adaptation" is a timely and informative book that delves into the complex challenges posed by climate change and explores the pathways to achieving environmental sustainability.

The book begins by examining the scientific consensus on climate change, detailing the causes and consequences of rising global temperatures, changing weather patterns, and the resulting impacts on ecosystems and human societies.

Readers are further introduced to a range of innovative and nature-based solutions that promote environmental sustainability. These solutions encompass a diverse array of approaches, including renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, conservation of biodiversity, and the restoration of ecosystems.

The book serves as an indispensable resource for anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of complex issues on climate change and the pursuit of environmental sustainability. It also offers practical solutions for individuals, communities, and policymakers.

The book aims at outlining key political, functional, administrative and financial features of Germany’s local government system and at placing them in a (European) comparative perspective. In pursuing an “institutionalist” approach it focuses on discussing whether, how and why the position and activities of local government in the intergovernmental (“multi-level”) setting have changed vis-à-vis multiple challenges and crises. Among the latter tasks such as coping with the energy crisis, the influx of asylum seekers and refugees, the digitization of local administration and the Covid19 pandemic loom large.

Ranking among the functionally and politically strongest among European countries Germany’s local government plays an important role in the German federal system and beyond in the European Union. Over the years it has proved a remarkable problem solving and innovative capacity. Hence, the German case may attract the attention of a European and international audience interested in local government and governance and practices.

This book examines the challenges and opportunities of administrative and territorial reconstruction in Africa from independence until the present time. In light of the rise of separatist movements in various African states and the ethnic, linguistic, and religious heterogeneity of many African societies, the book sheds new light on the fragmentation and decentralization of the African continent. The authors analyze the mechanisms, forms, and models of decentralization practiced today in Africa, taking into account both federalist and unitary experiences of decentralization, and discuss the potential of federalism to resolve conflicts within the continent. The generalizations made in the course of such an analysis can significantly enrich the current vision of the development of the African continent and its future prospects. The book will appeal to scholars and students of political science and African studies.

This open access volume addresses major challenges in research policy and provides advice on how to approach them. With chapters designed as accessible policy briefs, the book serves as an essential resource for new actors in research policy. It offers evidence-based recommendations on approaching research governance, funding, and evaluation challenges by covering these topics:

• Identifying and facilitating high quality research
• Evaluating transdisciplinary research quality
• Evaluating societal impact
• The dilemmas of grant peer review
• How citations relate to research quality
• Reforming research assessment
• The use of metrics in academic recruitment
• Quality criteria and concentration of research funding
• Balancing basic and external research funding
• Designing performance-based research funding systems
• Strategic steering of research at universities
• The consequences of paying to publish

Each chapter combines research with practical advice and provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in research on the specific topic, as well as references for further reading.

This edited compilation was written in the latter part of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020, a watershed event in world history that illustrated wide-ranging systems and structural vulnerabilities worldwide. The book provides a framework for thinking about the environmental context of unconventional political conflict and intrinsic issues of continuity and change; it highlights significant potential terror threats, trajectories, and potential inflection points for consideration by policymakers, security experts, and counterterrorism practitioners.

The book focuses on unfolding threats that will affect our security worldwide, including the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the continuously evolving condition of environmental degradation and global warming, the probability of increased “enhanced terrorism” use, future technologies like gene editing and “Crisper,” and more. The book frames empirical links between the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, terrorism, and other international system factors within the context of our contemporary globalized world, to scope out basic uncertainties, and the subtleties and nuances of complexity that pose challenges and opportunities for policymakers. It discusses looming challenges to decisionmakers who must attempt to counter terror and crime and their expected convergence in the coming era. The use of novel foresight tools in the context of anticipatory defense, science communication methodologies, knowledge sharing, its dissemination, and management to overcome threat potential is presented.

As one of the first books to delve into post-coronavirus consequences and to examine the linkages between these wide-ranging impacts, Issues of Terrorism in the Post-Coronavirus Era provides essential food for thought for decision-makers, policymakers, academics, global business leaders, students, and lay readers who are concerned about the future of humankind.

This short book discusses some of the urgent critical debates regarding intercultural education on displacement during turbulent times of contentious border politics and ramped-up anti-migrant discourse. Drawing on original research and teaching insights from a team of co-authors from Pakistan, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Italy, India, Canada, the UK and beyond who are involved in teaching students from more than two dozen countries, it focuses on experiences of teaching in the midst of controversial refugee detention and deportation schemes – just some of many developments in the United Kingdom condemned strongly by several United Nations agencies. The authors’ analysis engages reflections, from diverse backgrounds and positionalities, on approaches to education that seek to deepen understandings of displacement experiences in an interconnected world as well as geopolitical responses, methodologies and representational practices.

Changes in the global environment, the complexity of decision-making, and the new role of social media have challenged the operating models and practices of traditional crisis preparedness and security of supply. In a knowledge society context, securing the continuous flow of information and communication on different platforms is a huge challenge, and the role of information resilience is more crucial than ever. Bringing together leading specialists from many fields on information resilience, this book examines how to ensure the undisturbed flow of information, the functionality of information and communications networks, and reliable and secure information content in all circumstances, both from an individual and societal viewpoint. The book address issues around information resilience from the standpoint of management, national security, misinformation, social media, and commercial actors. It will appeal to scholars and students of public policy, disaster management, security studies and governance, as well as practitioners.

Chapters 1 and 12 are licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). For further details see license information in the chapter

Canada Among Nations has been published by faculty from Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs for several decades. This year’s edition focuses on national security in the 21st Century.  Bringing together emerging and senior scholars, and serving and recently retired practitioners, the volume examines great power competition, the Indo-Pacific, Canada’s alliances, the Canada-United States relationship, national defence, and intelligence. The book further explores  broader national security concerns, including Arctic security, natural disasters and emergencies, pandemics and public health, right-wing violent extremism, hostile activities of state actors, cyber security, migration, and organized crime.

This book explores bell hooks' trajectory of work and cohesiveness of thought about the meaning and meaningfulness of black womanhood in terms of a Black Marxist feminism, which uniquely confronts the dimensions of feminism and womanism; the relations between the secular and the religious; the problems of gender and sexism; and the structural and systemic issues of oppression, domination, white supremacy, and capitalism. In making sense of black womanhood in its philosophical, social, cultural, institutional, and historical complexities, hooks' Black Marxist feminism constructs an intersectional theory about what hooks describes as white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. In this sense, hooks' Black Marxist feminism conceptualizes the ways and means by which white supremacist capitalist patriarchy imposes intersectional predicaments upon black womanhood, drawing foundationally on Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, working within the purview of a host of Marxisms in Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Karl Kautsky, Nikolai Bukharin, and Georgi Plekhanov, and speaking to the Marxist proclivities of Cedric Robinson, Cornel West, Charles W. Mills, James H. Cone, Stuart Hall, and Angela Y. Davis.

This book comprehensively explores the foundational principles of power, influence, and organizational politics, presenting actionable approaches for both employees and management to skillfully navigate these intricacies without succumbing to undue incivility, stress, or burnout. Power, as an imperceptible yet influential entity within organizations, steers the trajectory of decisions, behaviors, and the dynamic interplay between leaders and their teams.

This book examines leadership theory and practice, offering a unique perspective on leadership styles, behaviors, and traits. In today's dynamic landscape, leadership capability and skill are important across sectors, influencing organizational health, political landscapes, and societal development. The book presents the challenges modern leaders face and how leadership theory can enrich workplace dynamics and beyond. 

Bridging the gap between academic research and practice, this volume offers guidance for aspiring and experienced leaders alike. From political skill to organizational culture, this book examines leadership from a multidisciplinary perspective. Scholars, students, and researchers of political science, business, management, economics, international relations, and psychology, as well as consultants, policymakers, and leaders interested in a better understanding of effective leadership concepts and the latest research in politics, policy, and participation in any setting, will find this resource invaluable.

This book examines the development of internet policymaking over the last forty years. Drawing on evidence from France and elsewhere, it adopts a sociohistorical perspective to offer insights into the ways democratic states regulate the internet and digital transformation more generally. Adopting a chronological approach and utilising both policy analysis and interviews with key actors, it retells the changing role of the state in internet regulation since the inception of the internet to the present day. It also explores the complex relationships between public administrations and internet organizations, and considers whether states are really capable of governing the digital space. It will appeal to all those interested in public policy, digital studies, sociology and communication studies.

Local Governance in Japan is the first comprehensive exploration of local government in Japan, examining the sustainability of local governments operating with limited policy resources. This interdisciplinary study integrates insights from public administration, political science, economics, sociology, and business management. Japan has faced significant challenges in ensuring sustainability from rapid economic growth in the mid-20th century to the bubble's burst in the 1990s, and the population decline since 2008, along with large-scale natural disasters. Amid systemic changes—including a 46% reduction in local governments—local administrations have been developing effective cooperative relationships between local governments and exploring the significance of cooperation with citizens, NPOs, and the private sector. Characterized by extensive public facilities and infrastructure, Japan’s local governments provide a model for addressing future governance challenges. This book is essential for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners seeking innovative strategies to maintain public services and navigate the complexities of governance in a resource-constrained world.

Using the example of Werner Faymann, Dalia Grybauskaité, Angela Merkel, Viktor Orbán and Mark Rutte, the book examines the impact that the European Council’s environment has on leadership styles and the impact of leaders on the institution’s decision-making during the financial and debt crisis, the Ukraine crisis, and the migration crisis (2010-2016). It presents domestic factors affecting the choice of leadership style nationally, finding cooperative styles are best suited to the European Council, as its structure relies on negotiated consensus. The European Council’s environment has three effects on leadership styles and decision-making: socialisation towards cooperation, compromise making, and Europeanisation. The book provides an in-depth insight into how leaders behave among their peers behind closed doors.

This book is one of three volumes that provide a systematic overview of public administration, public management and public governance in Italy. This first volume examines the broad societal, institutional and political context of public administration in the country. It provides an overview of the trajectory of administrative reforms since the establishment of Italy as a unitary state in 1861 to the present, and analyses key components of the functioning of the administrative system, including strategic planning, financial management, expenditure management, spending reviews, transparency and performance management. It also considers trajectories of reform of public services in key policy sectors, such as healthcare, social care, and higher education. Chapters are written by some of the leading experts of public administration in Italy, including economists, historians, lawyers, political scientists and public management scholars, some of whom have also served in positions of direct administrative responsibility in the Italian public sector. The book will appeal to students and scholars of public administration, public management and public governance, as well as practitioners with an interest in Italy.

This book asserts that there exists a causal relationship between identity, interest, and the exercise of power. The work defines power as the ability to satisfy oneself, which makes power contingent upon belief. It also dissects the concepts of identity, interest, and power to reveal how each works and relate to the others. This analysis creates a new theory of power using constructivism informed by critical theory, departing from neorealist and neoliberal perspectives. The work uses the United States to test the theory by examining US national identity, interest, and exercises of power. A deconstruction of American Exceptionalism proceeds three case studies and runs as a theme to connect each, unifying the work. A military operation in 2016 against the Islamic State in Libya, the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, and the whiplash caused by US participation in the 2015 Paris Agreement serve as the three case studies for analyzing US identity, interest, and power through the theory. This work proposes a new way of understanding power based on constructivism and informed by critical theory that applies to interpersonal and international relationships. Every relation is a power relation and power is the ability to satisfy oneself. This book provides insight into the underlying causes and machinations that transpire within every kind of social relation. This is a significant shift in how power is understood and applied in politics, the military, business, and interpersonal relationships. This book seeks to provide the reader with greater and clearer understanding of themselves, the world in which they live, and why it exists as such.

International organizations are central actors on the global stage, yet their very existence is deeply shaped by their organizational nature. As entities with histories and environments, they navigate complex networks of members and stakeholders—often pursuing conflicting objectives. These organizations must operate, decide, and act amidst unforeseen events and challenges.

Far from being abstract entities, international organizations embody all the complexities of organizations in the fullest sense. To survive, they must contend with anarchy: not only within the international system but also within their own structures and decision-making processes. Bridging the gap between Organization Theory and International Relations offers a promising avenue for building the concepts and case studies necessary to understand how organizational anarchy contributes to the creation of international order.

The author enjoyed the exorbitant privilege of serving three times as Ambassador of Spain to China over a period of 25 years,between 1987 and 2013. He wondered about the US decisive role in empowering China,This book is the result of his review.

        The book starts with an in-depth analysis of China´s exponential economic development since 1978, adding a reflection on economic power as the crucial underpinning of military and geopolitical might.

        It underlines that when Nixon first visited China, in February 1972, he and Kissinger already understood that China would become a great power in a few decades and the ensuing risk "to be confronted, if our relations turn sour, with the most formidable enemy that has ever existed". The anticipated risk was taken to achieve short term benefits. Assessing the wisdom of this decision is the thrust of the book. Eight reasons are listed which might have given Nixon and Kissinger second thoughts when they decided to engage China.

        The contributions of the different US Presidents to the engagement and later containment of China are analyzed. A chapter is devoted to "Unfulfilled prophecies": China and democracy, and the elusive collapse of the Chinese economy.

        A European epilogue deals with the triangular relationship Europe - US - China. Will Europe be able to reach  political union, engineering a renaissance from the ashes of 1945 and becoming again a great power? It is the existential question: to be or not to be.

“The book also features a foreword by Javier Solana, former Secretary General of NATO and High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union.”

“Allies in Arms: Turkish-American Defense Relations” offers an examination of the strategic evolution of military cooperation between the United States and Turkey, with a particular focus on the aerospace and defense industry. The book serves as an introductory resource for readers interested in the changing contours of the US-Turkey bilateral relationship. It outlines the early cooperation, moments of strain, and Turkey’s drive for greater defense self-sufficiency. It illustrates how US military assistance advanced Turkey’s defense capabilities while creating strategic dependence and vulnerability. The book traces this dynamic through key events, including the 1960s Cyprus crisis, the 1970s US arms embargo, Turkey’s F-16 industrial partnership, its involvement in the F-35 program, and the acquisition of the Russian S-400 system. It moves beyond historical narrative to assess the current and future international defense ties. In proposing solutions, it calls for a revised bilateral framework that reflects Turkey’s growing influence.

This edited book (volume 1) focuses on exploring the global security issues associated with transnational unconventional organized crime. The book is divided into 2 sections:

Part 1: Unconventional Organized Crime Landscape Part 2: Cyber space and organised crime

Transnational unconventional organized crime pose a significant and growing threat to national and global security affecting public safety, human security, public health, economic and governmental stability. Not to mention the contributions transnational organized crime makes to terrorist financing. The adaptive nature of transnational organized crime group as well as terrorist and insurgent organizations makes them capable of innovating in real-time to exploit natural disasters, social crisis and global pandemics.  Currently with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, transnational organized crime has flourished taking advantage of the unprecedented opportunities for illicit activities. For example as reported in TRACIT (2020) : Worldwide reports indicate a surge in the availability and type of fraudulent medical products intended to exploit the fears of consumers, which includes illicit offerings of falsified versions of treatments such as Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin that will harm or kill already vulnerable patients. Joint operations by the World Customs Organization, Europol and Interpol have resulted in a significant increase in seizures of counterfeit and unauthorized face masks and hand sanitizers.