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.

Russian strategy today is often framed in terms of ‘hybridity’, an approach characterised by interference in domestic politics through cyber warfare and disinformation campaigns. Such asymmetric measures are seen as part of a shift away from armed violence towards political subversion and other non-military tools. Moving beyond the concept of hybridity, this book looks more broadly at Russian thinking about warfare. Drawing directly on Russian sources, it reflects on a series of questions that are generally overlooked in the existing Euro-Atlantic literature about Russia, notably: what is the military leadership’s distinctive idea of twenty-first-century blitzkrieg? How does it understand holistic territorial defence? And how does it manage the shifting balance between the offensive and defensive? Exploring key concepts and terms used in Russian military thinking and action, Blitzkrieg and the art of Russian war contributes to an active and lively debate about Russia’s resurgent role in international affairs and the challenge the country poses to the international order. -- .

Informed by international law, international relations and environment management scholarship, this interdisciplinary analysis of environmental regimes in Asian subregions proposes a new regime for the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau based on China's cooperation with its south Asian neighbors. After evaluating the nine existing environmental regimes across the subregions of southwest, central, southeast and northeast Asia, Simon Marsden proposes a tenth regime for the cross subregion in south and east Asia known as the Third Pole. The role of China in connection with each of the existing agreements-as lender, dialogue partner or Party-is a key aspect of the analysis, considering it in developmental, legal and political contexts. Conclusions recommend future research to progress efforts in developing such a regime and caution the need for context in any legal transplant. This book will have a strong appeal for international environmental law and environmental planning and management researchers. Meanwhile those in international relations or international politics will find valuable insights in the book's exploration of relationships between the states of each subregion and China, whilst coverage of the regulation of oil and gas, hydroelectricity and exploitation of other resources will be of great interest to energy law scholars and practitioners.

The globalized world has witnessed the development of a number of economic integration projects, including at least two Eurasian projects: the Eurasian Union and the Belt and Road Initiative. These initiatives blur the European Union Global Strategy adjusted in 2016 to be an attempt to reconsider and enhance the role and place of the European Union as the leader in the global arena. These initiatives must be studied and considered further to understand the numerous benefits, opportunities, and challenges they face. Regional Economic Integration and Global Competition in the Post-COVID-19 Era: European Union, Eurasian Economic Union, and the Belt and Road Initiative provides insight into the reasons and consequences of the discrepancy in the legal restrictions, institutional policies, and mutual skepticism on the economic integration progress. The text is also useful in defining and promoting a regional strategy of economic integration and the creation of mutual trust. Covering a range of topics such as international trade, environmental risk management, and globalization, this reference work is ideal for policymakers, government officials, strategic decision makers, practitioners, researchers, scholars, academicians, instructors, and students.

Memory studies is a well-established academic discipline, but the revised issue of ethnicity poses a new set of research questions, particularly in relation to the problem of the operational character of memory and ethnicity in the context of traumatized identity. Contemporary political processes in Europe, populism, and nationalism, in addition to ethnic challenges in the form of demographic shifts have created a situation in which new national identities have been developed simultaneously with emerging competitive historical memories. Memory, Identity, and Nationalism in European Regions is an essential scholarly resource that investigates the interactions between politics and managed historical memory and the discourse of ethnicity in European regions. Featuring topics such as anthropology, memory politics, and national identity, this book is ideally designed for scholars, practitioners, specialists, and politicians.

Global and transnational challenges figure ever more prominently on national and international policy agendas and are increasingly analysed as global public goods (GPGs). This timely collection, which includes contributions by eminent scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the theoretical and empirical research on this topic, and suggestions on where scholarship could go next. With an original introduction, this single volume will appeal to students, researchers, policymakers and experts, whether they are interested in a particular challenge like global climate change, cyber security, financial stability and health or in cross-cutting issues of public economics and finance, international relations and international law.

More individuals than ever are utilizing internet technologies to work from home, teach and learn, shop, interact with peers, review medical records, and more. While it is certainly convenient to conduct such tasks via the internet, this increased internet presence has also led to a rise in the search and availability of personal information, which in turn is resulting in more cyber-attacks, privacy breaches, and information leaks. Cyber criminals are using such opportunities to attack governments, organizations, and individuals, making it necessary to anticipate, assess, and mitigate privacy and security threats during this infodemic. The Handbook of Research on Technical, Privacy, and Security Challenges in a Modern World discusses the design and development of different machine learning systems, including next generation applications, in order to mitigate cyber-attacks and address security challenges in everyday technologies. It further explores select methods and algorithms of learning for implementing better security methods in fields such as business and healthcare. It recognizes the future of privacy and the importance of preserving data through recommended practice, feedback loops, and smart agents. Covering topics such as face mask detection, gesture recognition, and botnet attacks and detection, this major reference work is a dynamic resource for medical professionals, healthcare administrators, government officials, business executives and managers, IT managers, students and faculty of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

The historical development of Russia remains one of the most unique yet ambiguous timelines in the realm of political science and sociology. Understanding the state of culture as a single, dynamic, and interrelated phenomenon is a vital component regarding the memoirs of this prominent nation. Political, Economic, and Social Factors Affecting the Development of Russian Statehood: Emerging Research and Opportunities is a collection of innovative research on the historical aspects of the formation of the political system in Russia and proposes directions for the further development of modern Russian statehood. While highlighting topics including socio-politics, Soviet culture, and capitalization, this book is ideally designed for economists, government officials, policymakers, historians, diplomats, intelligence specialists, political analysts, professors, students, and professionals seeking current research on the history of public administration in Russia.

What might COVID-19 mean for, and reveal about, China's place in the world? The coronavirus pandemic started in Wuhan, home to the leading lab studying the SARS virus and bats. Was that pure coincidence? This book explores what we know, and still don't know, about the origins of COVID-19, and how it was handled in China. We may never get all the answers, but much is already clear: China's record as the origin of earlier pandemics, and its struggle to bring contagious diseases under control; its history as both a victim of biological warfare and a developer of deadly bioweapons. When Covid broke out, Wuhan was building science parks to realise Beijing's ambitions in biotech research. Whoever achieves global leadership of the gene-editing industry stands to harvest great power and wealth. China has already challenged Western technological supremacy with 5G and in other industries. Yet this tiny, invisible virus has cruelly exposed a critical flaw in the Chinese political system: obsessive secrecy. The West wanted to trust the PRC, hoping that, as it prospered, it would become an open society. Made in China reveals how Beijing's leaders have betrayed that trust.

Do we have moral duties to people in distant parts of the world? If so, how demanding are these duties? And how can they be reconciled with our obligations to fellow citizens? Every year, millions of people die from poverty-related causes while countless others are forced to flee their homes to escape from war and oppression. At the same time, many of us live comfortably in safe and prosperous democracies. Yet our lives are bound up with those of the poor and dispossessed in multiple ways: our clothes are manufactured in Asian sweatshops; the oil that fuels our cars is purchased from African and Middle Eastern dictators; and our consumer lifestyles generate environmental changes that threaten Bangladeshi peasants with drought and famine. These facts force us to re-evaluate our conduct and to ask whether we must do more for those who have less. Helping students to grapple with big questions surrounding justice, human rights, and equality, this comprehensive yet accessible textbook features chapters on a variety of pressing issues such as immigration, international trade, war, and climate change. Suitable for undergraduate and graduate students alike, the book also serves as a philosophical primer for politicians, activists, and anyone else who cares about justice.

This edited volume critically examines the changing dynamics of multidimensional relations between China, Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and Asia in an emerging 'multiplex world'. It challenges both extremes of 'Sinophobia' and 'Sinophilia' by studying the real 'pragmatist' China. This book, in a foreword, introduction and thirteen chapters, problematises what MENA and Asia means to China in the age of neoliberalism, explores what are the real or perceived pillars of Sino-MENA-Asia relations, and sheds light on how MENA can benefit from its relations with China while keeping a clear distance from the harms of neoliberal authoritarianism. Contributors are Mojtaba Mahdavi, Tugrul Keskin, Manochehr Dorraj, Sari Hanafi, Habibul Haque Khondker, Dara Conduit, Rigas Arvanitis, Saeed Shafqat, Jordi Quero Arias, Mahesh Ranjan Debata, Andrea Ghiselli, Mher Sahakyan, Michael McCall, Yossra M. Taha and Xiaoyue Li.

A better understanding of regime changes, and their drivers, is vital to understanding the root causes of conflict and instability. In doing so, national and international actors can develop appropriate strategies to address, curb and prevent escalations of violence when these transitions occur. This innovative book explores the motivations and impacts of regime change and political transition in the contemporary era. Systematically examining the drivers, formats and long term impacts of transitions, the contributors seek to identify patterns, commonalities, and disjunctures between them. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners with longstanding relationships to the conflicts they have covered, this book provides systematic cross-case examinations of regime change. It examines the structural and immediate triggers of transitions both external and internal, as well as shedding light on the ways in which everyday life is changed by them --? for better or worse. Providing a framework for typological and comparative analysis, this book provides ontological and epistemological perspectives on 14 case studies of regime change following civil wars, secessionist conflicts, popular revolutions, military rule and foreign intervention. This book is a vital tool for academics and students of political science, development, history, regional, peace and conflict studies. Reflecting on regime change processes spanning different regions and types of transition, The Elgar Companion to Post Conflict Transition is an accessible way to cover key debates. Contributors include: A.-G. Abdulai, B. Austin, R.K. Bhandari, E. Blakaj, U. Bozkurt, G. Crawford, G. Culaj, N. Dzuverovic, C. Emery, B. Engels, G. Gabusi, H.J. Giessmann, F. Kuhn, R. Mac Ginty, A. Mazrreku, S. Pogodda, R. Read, S. Robins, S. Ruzza, C. Seifert, G. Tepsic, M. van Leeuwen, A. Weber