This book presents a comprehensive overview of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the long-running dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Armenian-majority region of Azerbaijan. It outlines the historical development of the dispute, explores the political and social aspects of the conflict, examines the wars over the territory including the war of 2020 which resulted in a significant Azerbaijani victory, and discusses the international dimensions.

This book offers a new perspective about the Gulf Arab states entering a post-oil era by looking at the political factors behind the green transformation. It discusses the recent 'environmental enthusiasm' in the oil- and gas-rich Gulf monarchies by asking how political power can be constituted through advocating environmental sustainability. While hydrocarbon-wealthy Gulf monarchies have been viewed as the globe's 'hydrocarbon powerhouse' with an immense ecological footprint, efforts towards sustainability and environmental protection measures are increasingly monitored. Climate Change, environmental, degradation and the global pressure towards a low-carbon development are threatening the very basis of economic and political power of the oil- and gas-exporting Gulf monarchies. So far, discussions about this fundamental transformation have barely elaborated how it affects and reorganizes political power games in the region. This book attempts to overcome the dominant focus of techno economic drivers of change and uncovers how environmental sustainability impacts state-society and state-elite relationships as well as shaping regional and even global geopolitics.

This volume explores the governance of the transforming Arctic from an international perspective. Leading and emerging scholars in Arctic research investigate the international causes and consequences of contemporary Arctic developments, and assess how both state and non-state actors respond to crucial problems for the global community. Long treated as a remote and isolated region, climate change and economic prospects have put the Arctic at the forefront of political agendas from the local to the global level, and this book tackles the variety of involved actors, institutional politics, relevant policy issues, as well as political imaginaries related to a globalizing Arctic. It covers new institutional forms of various stakeholder engagement on multiple levels, governance strategies to combat climate change that affect the Arctic region sooner and more strongly than other regions, the pros and cons of Arctic resource development for the region and beyond, and local and trans-boundary pollution concerns. Given the growing relevance of the Arctic to international environmental, energy and security politics, the volume helps to explain how the region is governed in times of global nexuses, multi-level politics and multi-stakeholderism.

Although philosophers debate the morality of open borders, few social scientists have explored what would happen if immigration were no longer limited. This book looks at three examples of temporarily unrestricted migration in Miami, Marseille, and Dublin and finds that the effects were much less catastrophic than opponents of immigration claim.

This book examines the development of bilateral energy relations between China and the two oil-rich countries, Kazakhstan and Russia. Challenging conventional assumptions about energy politics and China's global quest for oil, this book examines the interplay of politics and sociocultural contexts. It shows how energy resources become ideas and how these ideas are mobilized in the realm of international relations. China's relations with Kazakhstan and Russia are simultaneously enabled and constrained by the discursive politics of oil. It is argued that to build collaborative and constructive energy relations with China, its partners in Kazakhstan, Russia, and elsewhere must consider not only the material realities of China's energy industry and the institutional settings of China's energy policy but also the multiple symbolic meanings that energy resources and, particularly, oil acquire in China. China's Energy Security and Relations with Petrostates offers a nuanced understanding of China's bilateral energy relations with Kazakhstan and Russia, raising essential questions about the social logic of international energy politics. It will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, energy security, Chinese and post-Soviet studies, along with researchers working in the fields of energy policy and environmental sustainability.

This book is an ethical critique of existing approaches to sustainable development and international environmental cooperation, providing a detailed and structured account of the tensions, normative shifts and contradictions that currently characterize it. With specific focus on three environmental regimes, the volume explores the way various notions of justice feature both implicitly and explicitly in the design of global environmental policies. In so doing, the dominant conceptions of justice that underpin key global environmental policies are identified and criticised on the basis of their compatibility with the normative essence of global sustainable development. Global Justice and Neoliberal Environmental Governance demonstrates that whilst moral norms inflict far greater impact in regime development than is currently acknowledged by orthodox approaches to regime analysis, the core polices remain rooted in two neo-liberal interpretations of justice which undermine the ability to achieve sustainable development and international justice. It will appeal to students and scholars of politics, philosophy, international relations, geography and law.

Using a Role Theory lens, this book investigates Tamil diaspora mass movements and interest groups as marginalised forces of domestic foreign policy influence. Until now Role Theory has not considered diaspora mass movements as collective action actors, nor looked at how marginalised diasporas influence elite foreign policy decision-making. Matthew K. Godwin employs a comparative, micro-level decision-making narrative that looks incisively at decisions faced by the British and Canadian governments in 2009 and 2013 towards the Sri Lankan civil war and its aftermath. Through qualitative, elite-level interviews and content analysis of other primary source data, Godwin convincingly argues that when diaspora interest group elites are leveraging the power of mass movements in concert with credible partisan advocates, they can influence role contestation. However, international institutional constraints on role behaviour may stymie their preferred role performance, especially if states are indispensable to the institutions their behaviour may unravel. Ultimately, Godwin concludes that some states can't behave "badly," even when they want to. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of lnternational Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Comparative Politics, Migration Studies and to non-government organisations who seek to influence governments.

British foreign policy towards Vietnam illustrates the evolution of Britain's position within world geopolitics 1943-1950. It reflects the change of the Anglo-US relationship from equaltiy to dependence, and demonstrates Britain's changing association with its colonies and with the other European imperial spheres within southeast Asia. This book shows that Britain pursued a more involved policy towards Vietnam than has previously been stated, and clarifies Britain's role in the origins of the Vietnam War and the nature of subsequent US involvement.

This collection surveys the three South Caucasian states' economic, social and political evolution since their independence in 1991. It assesses their successes and failures in these areas, including their attempts to build new national identities and value systems to replace Soviet-era structures. It explains the interplay of domestic and international factors that have affected their performance and influenced the balance of their successes and shortcomings. It focuses on the policies pursued by key regional and international actors towards the region and assesses the effects of regional and international rivalries on these states' development, as well as on the prospects for regional cooperation and conflict resolution. Finally, it analyzes a number regional and international developments which could affect the future trajectory of these states' evolution.

This book analyzes the impact and relevance of the Syrian crisis on regional and international relations. Developing into a proxy war, the Syrian crisis has been a battleground for regional dominance. It has also created an opportunity for new states to emerge on the world affairs scene. Russia, for instance, had been keeping a low profile since the fall of the Soviet Union, but took a leading role in the Syrian crisis reasserting itself against the West regionally. The Syrian crisis has also been a catalyst in reshaping many interstate relations and allowing countries such as Russia, Iran, Turkey and China to play an increasingly important geopolitical role. There have been many international ramifications to the Syrian crisis. While the crisis led to an Iranian-Russian rapprochement, it was also a catalyst to more cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia; more importantly, it also forced states with opposing views about the crisis -- Turkey, Iran and Russia -- to forge an alliance. Further, the crisis created tensions between the US and Turkey with China on the one hand balancing its interests between the Gulf and Iran whilst focusing on its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative and trying on the other hand to contain Islamic militancy in Syria. The book looks at issues that are usually ignored when discussing Syria such as the strategic control over its hydrocarbon resources, as well as the power of propaganda in portraying realities. It features the use of non-state actors by regional competing powers and the role of local councils in stabilizing the country. The edited volume brings together contributions by authors with different backgrounds who present conflicting views reflecting the divergence between the various stakeholders about the Syrian crisis.

This book seeks to explain why weak states exist within the international system. Using the cases of Armenia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Lebanon, and Cambodia, the author argues that, if a state is weak and vulnerable, then it can practice an unexpected degree of relative autonomy unfettered by great powers.

This book attempts to provide a comprehensive understanding of the circumstances which have shaped India's approach towards its international borders and the framework it has developed to better manage its borders. The book argues that persistence of various cross-border threats and challenges and an absence of robust intra-regional trade among its neighbouring countries forced India to employ a security-centric and unilateral approach to border management with emphasis on hardening the borders to cross-border trade and travel and keeping the border areas underdeveloped to act as a buffer against external conventional threats. Besides discussing the threats and challenges that India faces along the borders, the book aims to develop an understanding of India's border management practices by analysing various programmes and initiatives such as the raising of border guarding forces; building of physical and electronic fences; the establishment of modern facilities for smoothening legitimate cross-border travel; the development of the border areas through special programmes; and increasing trade and connectivity as well as other cooperative bilateral mechanisms. Print edition not for sale in South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Bhutan).

This book examines everyday borders in the UK and Calais as sites of ethical political struggle between segregation and solidarity. In an age of mobility, borders appear to be everywhere. Encountered more and more in our everyday lives, borders locally enact global divisions and inequalities of power, wealth, and identity. Critically examining everyday borders in the UK and Calais, Tyerman shows them to be sites of ethical political struggle. From the Calais 'jungle' to the UK's 'hostile environment', it shows how borders are carried out through practices of everyday segregation that make life for some but not others unliveable. At the same time, it reveals the practices of everyday solidarity with which people on the move confront these segregating borders. This book sheds light on the complex ways borders entrench themselves in our lives, the complicity of ordinary people in their enactment, and the seductive power they continue to assert over our political imaginations. Of general interest to scholars and students working on issues of migration, borders, citizenship, and security in international politics, sociology, and philosophy this book will also appeal to practitioners in areas of migrant rights, asylum advocacy, anti-detention or deportation campaigning, human rights, direct democracy, and community organising.

This book examines India's foreign intelligence culture and strategic surprises in the 20th century. The work looks at whether there is a distinct way in which India 'thinks about' and 'does' intelligence, and, by extension, whether this affects the prospects of it being surprised. Drawing on a combination of archival data, secondary source information and interviews with members of the Indian security and intelligence community, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of Indian intelligence culture from the ancient period to colonial times and, subsequently, the post-colonial era. This evolutionary culture has played a significant role in explaining the India's foreign intelligence failure during the occurrences of strategic surprises, such as the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1999 Kargil War, while it successfully prepared for surprise attacks like Operation Chenghiz Khan by Pakistan in 1971. The result is that the book argues that the strategic culture of a nation and its interplay with intelligence organisations and operations is important to understanding the conditions for intelligence failures and strategic surprises. This book will be of much interest to students of intelligence studies, strategic studies, Asian politics and International Relations.

Partition-the physical division of territory along ethno-religious lines into separate nation-states-is often presented as a successful political "solution" to ethnic conflict. In the twentieth century, at least three new political entities-the Irish Free State, the Dominions (later Republics) of India and Pakistan, and the State of Israel-emerged as results of partition. This volume offers the first collective history of the concept of partition, tracing its emergence in the aftermath of the First World War and locating its genealogy in the politics of twentieth-century empire and decolonization. Making use of the transnational framework of the British Empire, which presided over the three major partitions of the twentieth century, contributors draw out concrete connections among the cases of Ireland, Pakistan, and Israel-the mutual influences, shared personnel, economic justifications, and material interests that propelled the idea of partition forward and resulted in the violent creation of new post-colonial political spaces. In so doing, the volume seeks to move beyond the nationalist frameworks that served in the first instance to promote partition as a natural phenomenon.

Terrorism kills far fewer Americans annually than automobile accidents, firearms, or even lightning strikes. Given this minimal risk, why does the U.S. continue expending lives and treasure to fight the global war on terror? In Monsters to Destroy, Navin A. Bapat argues that the war on terror provides the U.S. a cover for its efforts to expand and preserve American control over global energy markets. To gain dominance over these markets, the U.S. offered protection to states critical in the extraction, sale, and transportation of energy from their "terrorist" internal and external enemies. However, since the U.S. was willing to protect these states in perpetuity, the leaders of these regimes had no incentive to disarm their terrorists. This inaction allowed terrorists to transition into more powerful and virulent insurgencies, leading the protected states to chart their own courses and ultimately break with U.S. foreign policy objectives. Bapat provides a sweeping look at show how the loss of influence over these states has accelerated the decline of U.S. economic and military power, locking it into a permanent war for its own economic security.

Facing the current growing global archipelago of encampments, this book project intends to develop a geographical reflection on 'the camp', as a modern institution and as a spatial bio-political technology. This book focuses on past and present camp geographies and on the dispositifs that make them an ever-present spatial formation in the management of unwanted populations characterizing many authoritarian regimes as well as many contemporary democracies. It also offers and investigates possible ways to resist the present-day proliferating manifestations of camps and 'camp thinking', by calling for the incorporation of 'camp studies' into the broader field of political geography and to consider the geographies of the camp as constitutive of much broader modern geo-political economies. By linking spatial theory to the geopolitical and biopolitical workings and practices of contemporary camps, the contributions in this collection argue that the camps seem to be here-to-stay, like a permanent/temporary presence giving shape to improvised, semi-structured and hyper-orderly structured spatialities in our cities and our countryside. Camps are also a specific response, for example, to the changing conditions of European borders due to the 'refugee crisis' and the rise of nationalism in many countries affected by such crisis.

'This elegantly written, erudite book is essential reading for all of us, whatever our identifications' - Lynne Segal Antisemitism is one of the most controversial topics of our time. The public, academics, journalists, activists and Jewish people themselves are divided over its meaning. Antony Lerman shows that this is a result of a 30-year process of redefinition of the phenomenon, casting Israel, problematically defined as the 'persecuted collective Jew', as one of its main targets. This political project has taken the notion of the 'new antisemitism' and codified it in the flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's 'working definition' of antisemitism. This text is the glue holding together an international network comprising the Israeli government, pro-Israel advocacy groups, Zionist organisations, Jewish communal defence bodies and sympathetic governments fighting a war against those who would criticise Israel. The consequences of this redefinition have been alarming, supressing free speech on Palestine/Israel, legitimising Islamophobic right-wing forces, and politicising principled opposition to antisemitism.

A spy story like no other. Private spies are the invisible force that shapes our modern world: they influence our elections, effect government policies and shape the fortunes of companies. More deviously, they are also peering into our personal lives as never before, using off-the shelf technology to listen to our phone calls, monitor our emails and decide what we see on social media. Spooked takes us on a journey into a secret billion-dollar industry in which information is currency and loyalties are for sale. An industry so tentacular it reaches from Saddam Hussein to an 80s-era Trump, from the Steele dossier written by a British ex-spy to Russian oligarchs sitting pretty in Mayfair mansions, from the devious tactics of Harvey Weinstein to the growing role of corporate spies in politics and the threat to future elections. Spooked reads like the best kind of spy story: a gripping tale packed with twists and turns, uncovering a secret side of our modern world.

Our national and global affairs are in perilous disarray, to the point where extremely sober observers are saying that we have brought imminent catastrophe upon ourselves and that it is just too late to escape.

While candidly admitting the difficulty and the danger, Of Thee I Sing nonetheless insists that something enormously significant and wonderful is actually coming to pass on this planet--that like a chick (out of food and space) pecking its way out of the egg into a whole new world, we are awakening of necessity to a vastly expanded understanding of what we are, where we come from, where we're going, and what's going on.

We are not headed for doom but for glory, and the United States of America has a vital role to play in that destiny--a role in which each of us claims a share as we choose to awaken.

"I love this book. America needs this book. Here are the answers to the horrified questions we keep asking ourselves: 'How did this happen?' 'Who stole our country?' Peter Childs has chosen every word with lucidity and precision, as he tells exactly how we got here, what we must do to save the great 'American Experiment, ' and why it matters to the whole world. Read it...we need it "--Suzy Bookstore

In recent years, political leaders in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, collectively known as the BRICS, have worked to reformulate international discussions and policies on issues ranging from fair and free trade to human rights. When it comes to health epidemics, however, the BRICS have differed greatly in terms of how-and when-they respond, highlighting important differences in their political commitment to meeting healthcare needs. In Geopolitics in Health, Eduardo J. Gomez takes a critical look at how the emerging BRICS economies dealt with the obesity, AIDS, and tuberculosis epidemics. Despite the countries having similar international political and economic ambitions, Gomez finds that domestic policy responses were driven mainly by international, as opposed to domestic, pressures and interests. Using a theoretical framework called geopolitical positioning, Gomez explores how nations respond to international pressures and policy criticisms, as well as their willingness to receive financial and technical assistance, to use domestic policy innovations, and, ultimately, to engage in global health diplomacy in order to bolster their international reputation. Gomez draws on extensive data and case studies and argues that leaders aspiring to build their reputations among elite nations have a ready way to demonstrate their status through quick and effective public health responses, whereas those who scorn the international community tend to react slowly and ineffectively to the same type of crises. The first book of its kind to conduct an in-depth comparative historical analysis of how the BRICS deal with public health threats, Geopolitics in Health demonstrates the value of positive geopolitical positioning and strong partnerships with other governments, nongovernmental organizations, and social health movements.

This book focuses on the scope, potential and future of the India-Japan-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) trilateral. Through this book, contributors examine the strategic and global partnership between India and Japan and the collaboration with ASEAN. Analysing contemporary strategic issues in the Indo-Pacific, the book takes up the complex link between security and economics. It offers a thorough understanding on how the major Asian powers, India and Japan, cooperate and coordinate with the ASEAN. It delves into few critical questions: Is there a scope for India-Japan-ASEAN triangularity in the Indo-Pacific? Can a formal or institutional cooperation be forged between these three actors? What specific cooperation could India and Japan forge with ASEAN as an institution? To what extent can each ASEAN member independently become a partner with India and Japan? A novel assessment of the post-pandemic economic and political balancing and restructuring, this book will be of interest to Asian politics, international relations, strategic studies, regional organizations in Asia and think tanks specializing in foreign policy, security studies, international trade and economics.

This volume traces the African ramifications of Europe's southern border. While the Mediterranean Sea has become the main stage for the current play and tragedy between European borders and African migrants, Europe's southern border has also been "offshored" to Africa, mainly through cooperation agreements with countries of transit and origin. By bringing into conversation case studies from different countries and disciplines, this volume seeks to open a window on the backstage of this externalization of borders. It casts light on the sites - from consulates to open seas and deserts - in which Europe's southern border is made and unmade as an African reality, yielding what the editors call "EurAfrican borders." It further describes the multiple actors - state agents, migrants, smugglers, activists, etc. - that variously imagine, construct, cross or contest these borders, and situates their encounters within the history of uneven exchanges between Africa and Europe.

This collection seeks to illustrate the state of the art in territoriological research, both empirical and theoretical. The volume gathers together a series of original, previously unpublished essays exploring the newly emerging territorial formations in culture, politics and society. While the globalisation debate of the 1990s largely pivoted around a 'general deterritorialisation' hypothesis, since the 2000s it has become apparent that, rather than effacing territories, global connections are added to them, and represent a further factor in the increase of territorial complexity. Key questions follow, such as: How can we further the knowledge around territorial complexities and the ways in which different processes of territorialisation co-exist and interact, integrating scientific advances from a plurality of disciplines? Where and what forms does territorial complexity assume, and how do complex territories operate in specific instances? Which technological, political and cultural facets of territories should be tackled to make sense of the life of territories? How and by what different or combined methods can we describe territories, and do justice to their articulations and meanings? How can the territoriological vocabulary relate to contemporary social theory advancements such as ANT, the ontological turn, the mobilities paradigm, sensory urbanism, and atmospheres research? How can territorial phenomena be studied across disciplinary boundaries? Territories, Environments, Politics casts a fresh perspective onto a number of key contemporary socio-spatial phenomena. Refraining from the attempt to ossify territoriology into some disciplinary straightjacket, the collection aims to illustrate the scope of current territoriological research, its domain, its promises, its theoretical advancements, and its methodological reflection in the making. Scholars interested in social research will find in this collection a rich and imaginative theoretical-methodological toolkit. Students in human geography, anthropology and sociology, socio-legal studies, architecture and urban planning will find Territories, Environments, Politics of interest.

This book introduces an innovative critical analysis of borders in contemporary political discourse, using examples from the Trump presidency and early stages of the Biden presidency to explore how borders are used as mechanisms of power to invoke different notions of national identity. // The volume considers border as discursive construct, reflecting on their importance in the construction and expression of national identity across different forms of modern political discourse. Employing a framework informed by Ruth Wodak's Discourse-Historical Approach, Demata examines how analyzing discourse from the Trump and Biden presidencies can reveal unique insights into how politicaians and other stakeholders use borders to recontextualize historical discourses of national identity and employ discursive strategies of inclusion and exclusion in promoting the idea of "the nation." In adopting an approach which situates these discourses within their historical and socio-cultural contexts, the volume helps to further bridge the gap between different disciplines toward offering a multi-faceted understanding of notions of borders and national identity in contemporary political language. // This book will be of interest to students and scholars in discourse analysis, language and power, language and politics, political science, and border studies.