Elgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary. This exciting Research Agenda offers a multi-disciplinary and historically informed programme for the further investigation of the global political economy of the corporate sector. It tackles the question, can and should the corporation be reformed? Christopher May develops a range of intersecting areas for research while also offering an account of the possibilities for the reform of the global corporation. Based on an understanding of the history of corporations, the author provides key insights into their management and political agency as well as the operation of the global corporate supply chain. Drawing links between a range of disciplines and perspectives on business enterprises, May calls for a more nuanced understanding of the global corporate sector in order to better comprehend the contours of the contemporary global capitalist system. This Research Agenda will be a valuable resource for students and academics of politics, economics, sociology and law, who are curious to explore the corporation in relation to their area of study.

This book examines the role of imagination in initiating, contesting, and changing the pathways of global cooperation. Building on carefully contextualized empirical cases from diverse policy fields, regions, and historical periods, it highlights the agency of a wide range of actors in reflecting on past and present experiences and imagining future ways of collective problem solving. Chapters analyse the mobilizing, identity, cognitive, emotional, and normative effects through which imaginations shape pathways for global cooperation. Expert contributors consider the ways in which actors combine multiple layers of meaning-making through practices of staging the past and present as well as in their circulation. Exploring the contingency and open-endedness of processes of global cooperation, the book challenges more systemic and output-oriented perspectives of global governance. Its synthesis of ways in which imaginations inform processes of creating, contesting, and changing pathways for global cooperation provides a novel conceptual approach to the study of global cooperation. Interdisciplinary in approach, this authoritative book offers new ways of thinking about global cooperation to scholars and students of international relations, development studies, law and politics, international theory, global sociology, and global history as well as practitioners and policy-makers across various policy fields.

Mass media sources everyday spread the information about events in the different regions of the world. And, most probably, there is no person, who by different level of interest, does not observe the news. On the information line, there are presented the meetings and negotiations, terrorist acts, conflicts and cooperation, wars, big financial and trade deals. How to understand and analyze all those factors? Which regularities act at the world political arena? In the modern world, internal and external events are interconnected with each other by close ties, which finds how the broadcasts are presented. All this, having been taken together, has the direct attitude to the World Politics. World politics is a new scientific discipline, which has been established only at the second half of the twentieth century, but which gained the rapid distribution in many countries. In the focus of its attention - political processes, which are going on in the modern world, but with the perspectives of their further development. In this regard, the world politics (in comparison for example from history) is oriented on the present and future periods and by this means has the closest ties with the political practice. One more significance of the world politics relates to the fact, that it cannot be understood without the knowledge of the relative fields - history, economics, law, social sciences, and psychology. Considering the above-mentioned realities, this book plays a very important role for the increasing public awareness on different processes within the world politics, which concerns the interests of each citizen of our planet. The target audience and potential users of this book will be representatives of the different target groups - Politicians, Diplomats, Scientists, University Professors, Journalists, NGO activists, employees of the various International Governmental and Intergovernmental Organizations, and Students interested in World Politics, Globalization, Democracy and Human Rights, Economics, Defense and Security, Conflict Resolution, Environment, Migration, and Cybersecurity issues.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian comes the first definitive history of the Western hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both continents.

The story of the United States’ unique sense of itself was forged facing south – no less than Latin America’s was indelibly stamped by the looming colossus to the north. In this stunningly original reinterpretation of the New World, Professor Greg Grandin reveals how the Americas emerged from constant, turbulent engagement with each other, shedding new light on well-known historical figures like Bartolomé de las Casas, Simón Bolívar and Woodrow Wilson, as well as lesser-known actors such as the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda, who almost lost his head in the French Revolution and conspired with Alexander Hamilton to free America from Spain.

America, América traverses half a millennium, from the Spanish Conquest – the greatest mortality event in human history – through the eighteenth-century wars for independence and the Monroe Doctrine, to the coups and revolutions of the twentieth century. This monumental work of scholarship fundamentally changes our understanding of slavery and racism, the rise of universal humanism, and the role of social democracy in staving off extremism. At once comprehensive and accessible, America, América shows how the United States and Latin America together shaped the laws, institutions, and ideals that govern the modern world. Drawing on a vast array of sources, and told with authority and flair, this is a genuinely new history of the New World.

Written by one of the world's leading academics in the field of the law of international organizations, this book provides what it claims to offer. It is an introduction as it gives in a nutshell an easy-to-read general overview. It is advanced in the sense that it is written on the basis of profound knowledge of the field, and it has an excellent bibliography for those who want more. Like Rembrandt in his later works, Jan Klabbers is painting with broad strokes, in his own style, providing those who are not experts in the field a modern framework for better understanding international organizations and their law.' - Niels Blokker, Leiden University, the Netherlands'International organizations are a major factor in world affairs and in all areas of human collaboration. This book is a valuable resource next to existing textbooks and treatises on international institutional law. It offers a concise and engaging account of the role of international organisations and, in clear language, sets out what is the legal framework for their manifold activities and political operations. Great reading, and the essential introduction to international organisations as political and legal actors in the world today.' - Catherine Broelmann, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands 'This book offers far more than an introduction - even an advanced one. It is an essential tool for the understanding of, and further research on, international organizations. It is full of insight and original analysis.' - Marc Weller, University of Cambridge and Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, UK 'This book provides an excellent introduction to the law of international organizations, with a succinct and up-to-date analysis of the law. It is a very welcome addition to the literature on the subject and is by an established author in the field. It places the law in a wider political context, making it an interesting book for readers interested in both international law and international relations. The content and the style of presentation make the book accessible for readers at both introductory and advanced level.' - Surya Subedi, University of Leeds, UK and the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Cambodia Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This highly readable introduction gives a nuanced overview of the legal mechanisms behind the operation of international organizations such as the UN, the EU and the World Bank. It offers perceptive insights by placing the law of international organizations in a political context and presents a systematic discussion of a variety of relevant legal notions, ranging from the powers of international organizations to mechanisms of accountability. Written by a leading authority on the topic, it provides a concise and accessible examination of this developing facet of international law. Key features include: - Well-written and clearly organized arguments - Up-to-date with the latest developments - A focus on the bigger picture, rather than any one detail - Discusses law in a global context.

'This very timely volume brings together distinguished scholars and analysts to provide fresh insights into the most important question of our time: Is the United States' Asia-Pacific policy under the Trump Administration characterized by continuity or disruptive change? A collection of thoughtful, well-researched and engagingly written chapters that make an invaluable contribution to our understanding of the complexities of the United States' exercise of power in an age of power-shifts and interdependence. A required reading for policy makers, media persons, academics and students of international affairs.' - Mohan Malik, Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, Hawaii 'If you want to understand how the US can maintain its position and influence in Asia's rapidly changing strategic landscape you won't find a better analysis than the chapters in this well written, and accessible, edited book which brings together a range of prominent experts and practitioners.' - Alan Dupont, University of New South Wales, and CEO of the Cognoscenti Group, Australia The centre of gravity in today's global economy arguably now resides in Asia. As a result of this, the maintenance of geopolitical and economic security in Asia has become pivotal to global stability. This indispensable Handbook examines the crucial and multi-faceted role of the United States as a force in the region that has been, and continues to be, necessary for the continuation of Asian prosperity. The Handbook on the United States in Asia moves the academic discussion away from the fixation on America's influence in terms of the China threat. It provides readers with comprehensive and informed coverage from expert international contributors on the engagement of the United States with a wide array of Asian countries. The Handbook examines America's relationship with key allies as well as its multi-faceted role and presence in the region. It also explores ways in which this is changing under Donald Trump's presidency. The policy-orientated focus of this Handbook ensures that academic and governmental policy analysts will greatly benefit from the timely and comprehensive assessment of the book. Undergraduate and postgraduate international relations students, as well as Asian studies scholars, will also find it to be an excellent tool for study. Contributors include: M. Beeson, A. Benvenuti, A. Berkofsky, A. Bloomfield, K. Brown, J. Galliott, Y.-K. Heng, M. Iverson, V. Jackson, S.R.J. Long, D.W. Lovell, A. O'Neil, H. Pant, B. Schreer, P.J. Smith, S.K. Starrs, D. Stuart, R.G. Sutter, A.T.H. Tan, J.D. Wilson, P. Yeophantong, J. Yuan

Why do conflict-generated diasporas mobilize in contentious and non-contentious ways or use mixed strategies? This book develops a theory of socio-spatial positionality and its implications for the individual agency of diaspora entrepreneurs. A novel typology features four types of diaspora entrepreneurs-Broker, Local, Distant, and Reserved-depending on the relative strength of their socio-spatial linkages to host-land, original homeland, and other global locations. A two-level typological theory captures nine causal pathways unravelling how diaspora entrepreneurs operate in transnational social fields and interact with host-land foreign policies, homeland governments, parties, non-state actors, critical events, and limited global influences. Non-contention often occurs when diaspora entrepreneurs act autonomously and when host-state foreign policies converge with their goals. Dual-pronged contention is common under the influence of homeland governments, non-state actors, and political parties. The most contention occurs in response to violent events in the original homeland or adjacent to it fragile states. The book is informed by 300 interviews among the Albanian, Armenian, and Palestinian diasporas connected to de facto states, Kosovo, Nagorno-Karabakh, and Palestine respectively. Interviews were conducted in the UK, Germany, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Brussels in Belgium, as well as Kosovo and Armenia in the European neighbourhood.

Founded in 1929, the Jewish Agency played a central role in the founding of the State of Israel. Throughout the 1920s, 30s and 40s, many secret meetings took place between the JA and Arab leaders and elites. The dominant narrative claims that Syrian leaders and elites were not involved in any such meetings. However, this book reveals for the first time that a multitude of secret meetings and negotiations took place including with the Syrian National Block - the official Syrian leadership at the time - and the Shahbandari opposition and leaders of Jabal al-Druze. Based mainly on primary sources from Israeli archives, including documentation of discussions, reports and decisions taken by the JA leadership, the book tells a new story of a critical period of history, the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 in Palestine. Mahmoud Muhareb argues that the main historic objective of the JA was to reach agreements with Arab leaders and Arab states, behind the back of the Palestinians and at their expense, and to normalize its relations with the Arab states while it continued to deny the national rights of the Palestinians. The book challenges Israeli and Syrian official narratives and substantiates the Palestinian narrative, as well as some Israeli new historians who asserted Israel refusal to recognize the national rights of the Palestinians and affirmed its attempts to reach a comprehensive settlement with the Arab states at the expense of the Palestinians. The book includes Arabic and Hebrew sources translated into English for readers.

China's growth as a major international superpower means that it is now more important than ever to understand how its politics work. Rejecting familiar discussions of China cast in terms of traditional culture, contemporary economic power or shifting official ideologies, this forward thinking work instead analyses the historically contingent mix of agents, ideas and institutions that make up the country's political life. This approach allows Sabrina Ching Yuen Luk and Peter W. Preston to pragmatically unpack the logic of contemporary politics in China. They trace the construction of the party-state system, note some of its major re-orientations and consider its present condition. The book also covers a range of hot policy topics including: internet sovereignty; the One Belt, One Road initiative; the South China Sea issue and the problems of the elderly empty nesters and left-behind children. Offering a detailed yet concise treatment of key social policy areas and other complex issues, this book will serve a broad audience of students, researchers and professionals, irrespective of discipline, along with all those with an interest in China or Chinese politics.

In post-Cold War international relations, strategic partnerships are an emerging and distinct analytical and political category critical in understanding the dynamics of contemporary strategic cooperation between states and International Organizations. However, the idea of strategic partnerships has remained under-theorized and overshadowed by the alliance theory. Addressing this clear-cut gap in the International Relations/Foreign Policy Analysis literature, this book originally endeavors to theorize and empirically test the analytical model of strategic partnerships as a new form of sustainable international cooperation in times of globalized interdependence and turbulence. Framed by the mixed-methods research strategy as well as essentially drawing on software-supported content analysis and statistical hypothesis testing, this book empirically explores fourteen of the most-diverse case studies of strategic partnerships forged by the European Union, NATO, ASEAN and the Andean Community. It challenges and tests a number of advanced scholarly propositions on the notion of these partnerships and succeeds in confirming the allegedly most salient assumptions -strategic partnerships are innately goal-driven and trust-based frameworks of sustainable bilateral alignment and structured international engagement in twenty-first century world politics. This edited volume addresses topical issues for both theory and practice of international relations, for it will enjoy a broad appeal among three major audiences and markets: academics and policy analysts, policy professionals and graduate and postgraduate students. 'An outstanding comparative tour de force on strategic partnerships across the world. It differs from previous research due to a thorough, well thought out, innovative theoretical framework used consistently throughout the 14 case studies. It includes well-documented studies on the major countries of the world and their relationships with the European Union, Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Andean Community (CAN) and the North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO). The innovative, quantitative and qualitative methodology used is extensively explained and based on a database on strategic partnerships. An indispensable tool and deserving a special place in any library.' - Jose M. Magone, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Germany

As the EU's relations with Russia remain at an all-time low and continue to be in a state of paralysis, marked by de-institutionalisation, inertia and estrangement, the EU's policy towards Russia seems up for review. By taking stock of the implementation of the EU's Global Strategy and the five principles that are guiding EU-Russia relations, this volume provides a forward-looking angle and contributes to a better understanding of the current EU-Russia relationship and the prospects for overcoming the existing deadlock. By bringing together European and Russian scholars and adopting an interdisciplinary perspective that combines insights from EU studies, international relations, and European and international law, the book provides a comprehensive and holistic view on the state of affairs in EU-Russia relations.

European Perceptions of China and Perspectives on the Belt and Road Initiative is a collection of fourteen essays on the way China is perceived in Europe today. These perceptions - and they are multiple - are particularly important to the People's Republic of China as the country grapples with its increasingly prominent role on the international stage, and equally important to Europe as it attempts to come to terms with the technological, social and economic advances of the Belt and Road Initiative. The authors are, on the whole, senior academics specializing in such topics as International Relations and Security, Public Diplomacy, Media and Cultural Studies, and Philosophy and Religion from more than a dozen different European countries and are involved in various international projects focussed on Europe-China relations.

State making has long been regarded as a European development, both historically and geographically. In this innovative book, the authors add fresh insights into the nature and causes of state making by de-centering this Eurocentric viewpoint through simultaneous changes of conceptual, theoretical and empirical focus. De-Centering State Making combines knowledge from comparative politics and international relations, creating a more holistic perspective that moves away from the widespread idea that state making and war are intrinsically linked. The book uses both qualitative and quantitative methods to examine historical and contemporary cases of state making as well as non-European ones, providing an in-depth analysis of the nature and causes of state making, historically as well as in a modern, global environment. This timely book is an invaluable read for international relations and comparative politics scholars. It will also greatly benefit those teaching advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on state making as it provides a fresh take on the art of state making in a modern world. Contributors include: J. Bartelson, A. Bjoerkdahl, C. Butcher, A. Goenaga, R. Griffiths, J. Grzybowski, M. Hall, J.K. Hanson, A. Learoyd, E. Ravndal, T. Svensson, J. Teorell, A. von Hagen-Jamar

Cell phone apps share location information; software companies store user data in the cloud; biometric scanners read fingerprints; employees of some businesses have microchips implanted in their hands. In each of these instances we trade a share of privacy or an aspect of identity for greater convenience or improved security. What Robert M. Pallitto asks in Bargaining with the Machine is whether we are truly making such bargains freely - whether, in fact, such a transaction can be conducted freely or advisedly in our ever more technologically sophisticated world. Pallitto uses the social theory of bargaining to look at the daily compromises we make with technology. Specifically, he explores whether resisting these 'bargains' is still possible when the technologies in question are backed by persuasive, even coercive, corporate and state power. Who, he asks, is proposing the bargain? What is the balance of bargaining power? What is surrendered and what is gained? And are the perceived and the actual gains and losses the same - that is, what is hidden? At the center of Pallitto's work is the paradox of bargaining in a world of limited agency. Assurances that we are in control are abundant whether we are consumers, voters, or party to the social contract. But when purchasing goods from a technological behemoth like Amazon, or when choosing a candidate whose image is crafted and shaped by campaign strategists and media outlets, how truly free, let alone informed, are our choices? The tension between claims of agency and awareness of its limits is the site where we experience our social lives - and nowhere is this tension more pronounced than in the surveillance society. This book offers a cogent analysis of how that complex, contested, and even paradoxical experience arises as well as an unusually clear and troubling view of the consequential compromises we may be making.