Just a dusty fishing village in the 1950s, Dubai has grown faster than any other city in the world to become a glittering mecca for investors and pleasure-seekers, the repository of vast foreign investments, and a bellwether for the entire economy. In this compelling new book, Jim Krane charts the history of Dubai from its earliest days, considers the influence of the family who has ruled it since the nineteenth century, and looks at the effect of the global economic downturn on a place that many tout as a blueprint for a more stable Middle East.

* THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * 'Another masterpiece from one of my favorite authors . . . If you want a brief but thorough education in numeric thinking about many of the fundamental forces that shape human life, this is the book to read. It's a tour de force' BILL GATES __________ We have never had so much information at our fingertips and yet most of us don't know how the world really works. This book explains seven of the most fundamental realities governing our survival and prosperity. From energy and food production, through our material world and its globalization, to risks, our environment and its future, How the World Really Works offers a much-needed reality check - because before we can tackle problems effectively, we must understand the facts. In this ambitious and thought-provoking book we see, for example, that globalization isn't inevitable and that our societies have been steadily increasing their dependence on fossil fuels, making their complete and rapid elimination unlikely. Drawing on the latest science and tackling sources of misinformation head on - from Yuval Noah Harari to Noam Chomsky - ultimately Smil answers the most profound question of our age: are we irrevocably doomed or is a brighter utopia ahead? __________ 'Very informative and eye-opening in many ways' HA-JOON CHANG, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism 'If you are anxious about the future, and infuriated that we aren't doing enough about it, please read this book' PAUL COLLIER, author of The Future of Capitalism

This book addresses the politics of borders in the era of global art by exploring the identification of Chinese artists by location and exhibition. Focusing on performative, body-oriented video works by the post-1989 generation, it tests the premise of genealogical inscription and the ways in which cultural objects are attributed to the artist's residency, homeland or citizenship rather than cultural tradition, style or practice. Acknowledging historical definitions of Chineseness, including the orientalist assumptions of the past and the cultural-mixing of the present, the book's case studies address the paradoxes and contradictions of representation. An analysis of the historical matrix of global expositions reveals the structural connections among art, culture, capital and nation. -- .

This book explores Eurasia's growing embrace of its maritime geography from the Indian Ocean to Pacific Asia and the Arctic. In an age of climate change, the melting of the Arctic will transform Eurasia's importance, in addition to influencing the political, economic, and military dynamics across Eurasia's main maritime regions. These emerging shifts have already begun to alter maritime trade and investment patterns, and thus the global political economy. It also creates a rising threat to the current status quo of world order that has long been dominated by the Atlantic World. This edited volume showcases some of the world's leading experts and examines Eurasia from a saltwater perspective, analyzing its main maritime spaces in a threefold manner-as avenue, as arena, as source-to show the significance of this geostrategic change and why it matters for the future of the world's oceans.

Globalization is an irresistible force. Given the high stakes at hand - for stability, continued growth, and the future of our planet - it is more important than ever that China gain a deeper understanding of the rest of the world, and that the rest of the world also comes to a clearer understanding of China. This book focuses on globalization and China's evolving role in the world, offering unique perspectives on a remarkable period, which saw the global landscape reshaped by China's continued rise, intensifying great power competition, and a deadly pandemic. The essays center on three interconnected themes - China's remarkable development under the Reform and Opening-up policy, China's deepening integration into the global economy and rise in a multipolar world, and the quest to reinvigorate global governance and multilateralism to address the pressing global challenges of the 21st century. These insights are useful for academics, policymakers, students, and anyone trying to deepen their understanding of China's development and role in making globalization work for our multipolar world.

It is common to hear that we live in unique, turbulent and crisis-ridden times and this turbulence, transformation and crisis are said to be deeply significant - perhaps threatening - for the human sciences. Responding to such claims, this book provides an accessible engagement with pressing contemporary topics, such as violence, social movements, equality, identity and democracy. Foregrounding the imagination of possibilities (utopia), the mapping of the present (theory), and the transformation of the world-system (historical and global questions), the book surveys central issues and paradigms in contemproary political sociology, urging a recommitment to certain concepts and traditions for guidance in thinking and acting in the world.

This book is a rarity in that it opens a genuinely creative new vista for understanding global politics as distinguished from international politics, enhancing the vision for understanding global subjects such as multilateral treaties and the Covid-19 virus. Six hundred multilateral treaties deposited in the UN are conceptualized as a bundle of quasi-social contracts by sovereign states. A state's participation in multilateral treaties is envisaged as digitized statecraft. Using a state's physical actions and treaties' attributes, 193 profiles of statecraft are analyzed with the implications for the future of global politics. This book demonstrates that multilateral treaties are both a vehicle and an agency in the globalization trend; thus, both state and international actors influence a state's joining multilateral treaties. The book represents a marriage of international law and applied information science. It provides a framework for empirical modeling based on artificial intelligence and analyzes this framework in terms of international law and international relations. This book thus creates a new understanding of global politics.

The town of Longyearbyen in the high Arctic is the world's northernmost settlement. Here, climate change is happening fast. It is clearly seen and sensed by the locals; with higher temperatures, more rain and permafrost thaw. At the same time, the town is shifting from state-controlled coal production to tourism, research and development, rapidly globalising, with numerous languages spoken, cruise ships sounding the horn in the harbour and planes landing and taking off. Zdenka Sokolí�ková lived here between 2019 and 2021, and her research in the community uncovered a story about the conflict between sustainability and the driving forces of politics and economy in the rich global North. A small town of 2,400 inhabitants at 78 degrees latitude north on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, Longyearbyen provided a unique view into the unmistakable relationship between global capitalism and climate change. The Paradox of Svalbard looks at both local and global trends to access a deep understanding of the effects of tourism, immigration, labour and many other elements on the trajectory of climate crisis, and whether anything can be done to reverse them.

Providing a timely analysis of China?'s engagement with Eurasia, R. James Ferguson focuses on the challenges obstructing China?'s path to becoming a sustainable global power. Engagement across Eurasia presents China, its leaders and policymakers with intensified contact with regional and national conflicts, posing environmental, developmental and strategic dilemmas. Including an up-to-date analysis of wider Central Asian and transnational interactions between China and the EU, Eastern Europe and Russia, Ferguson critically evaluates the present and prospective implications of Chinese initiatives in the region. Particular emphasis is paid to China?'s decision to create the Belt and Road Initiative and establish the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Divergent perspectives on multilateral international systems across Eurasia are also discussed, focusing on the contrast between Chinese and Russian approaches. Ferguson also explores the complexity of China-Russia relations with the ongoing formation of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping?'s legacies, linking their Eurasian and global agendas. Academics researching Eurasian politics and international relations ?- specifically Sino-Russian relations -? will find this book an excellent addition to the literature, advancing their understanding of China?'s role in global politics.

"Globalization and Regionalization in Post-Socialist Economies" explores the reconfiguration of economic spaces in the 'new Europe' with a focus on the post-socialist economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It is made up of an interdisciplinary collection of essays by leading scholars and brings together new perspectives on the economic transformations in post-socialist countries as they struggle with the development of market mechanisms.

This book enters into a detailed discussion with many theorists of totalitarianism, and demands a re-evaluation of approaches that speak of mass manipulation of people and ideological control mechanisms. Zarko Paic shows that totalitarianism cannot be only a political-ideological problem, but rather a problem of the relationship between the technosphere, political power, and the narcissistic culture of the spectacle, which offers postmodern revisionism and forgetfulness of history as opposed to brave civic participation in the public sphere of acting together. He investigates the transformations the political and cultural processes linked to the notion of 'totalitarianism' undergo in the contemporary world, and the transformations (and differences) that this notion expresses today in comparison to what was realized by fascism, Nazism, and Stalinism in the 20th century.

This book addresses a range of issues surrounding the search for scientific truths in the study of international conflict and international political economy. Unlike empirical studies in other disciplines, says Seung-Whan Choi, many political studies seem more competent at presenting theoretical conjecture and hypotheses than they are at performing rigorous empirical analyses. When we study global issues like democratic institutions, flows of foreign direct investment, international terrorism, civil wars, and international conflict, we often uncritically adopt established theoretical frameworks and research designs. The natural assumption is that well-known and widely cited studies, once ingrained within the tradition of the discipline, should not be challenged or refuted. However, do such noted research areas reflect scientific truth? Choi looks closely at ten widely cited empirical studies that represent well-known research programs in international relations. His discussions address such statistical and theoretical issues as endogeneity bias, model specification error, fixed effects, theoretical predictability, outliers, normality of regression residuals, and choice of estimation techniques. In addition, scientific progress made by remarkable discoveries usually results from finding a new way of thinking about long-held scientific truths, therefore Choi also demonstrates how one may search for novel ideas at minimal cost by developing new research designs with original data. Here is a valuable resource for students, scholars, and policy makers who want to quickly grasp the evolutionary pattern of scientific research on democracy, foreign investment, terrorism, and conflict; build their research designs and choose appropriate statistical techniques; and identify their own agendas for the production of cutting-edge research.

This book deals with the consequences of the inclusion of African states and communities in the global aluminium chain. The so-called "New Scramble for Africa" of the 2000s illustrated how seriously African living conditions are affected by continuous cycles of boom and bust, and how strongly the quality of life currently depends on the investment decisions and corporate social responsibility policies of transnational corporations. Taking the example of the global production network of bauxite and aluminium, the author focuses on the socio-political aspects of this dependency, which he achieves through the conducting of a series of interviews with various involved parties.

This book offers a theoretically informed study of recent Chinese initiatives to provide forms of regional economic governance; or as it is often termed in Chinese discourses, regional "public goods". It does so by considering the evolution of Chinese thinking on international relations and the global order, and by considering how the development of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Belt and Road Initiative, and the putative Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership reflect this change in thinking - and the change in both Chinese objectives and tactics.

This book departs from existing studies by focusing on the impact of international influences on the society, culture, and language of both North and South Korea. Since President Kim Young Sam's segyehwa drive of the mid-1990s, South Korea has become a model for successful globalization. In contrast, North Korea is commonly considered one of the least internationally integrated countries. This characterization fails to account for the reality of the two Koreas and their global engagements. The opening essay situates the chapters by highlighting some significant contrasts and commonalities between the experiences of North and South Korea's history of engagement with the world beyond the Peninsula. The chapters explore both the longer-term historical influence of Korea's international contacts as well as specific Korean cultural, linguistic, and social developments that have occurred since the 1990s demise of the global Cold War and greater international integration.

With unprecedented trends towards globalization, the repercussions of economic crises are more profound than ever before, particularly for developing countries. What Global Economic Crises? bridges the gap between theory and policy-making by examining the destabilizing effects of financial crises on economic growth, stability, and development. It also presents innovative ideas intended to inform the design of institutions able to foster more effective international policy coordination.

American Exception seeks to explain the breakdown of US democracy. In particular, how we can understand the uncanny continuity of American foreign policy, the breakdown of the rule of law, and the extreme concentration of wealth and power into an overworld of the corporate rich. To trace the evolution of the American state, the author takes a deep politics approach, shedding light on those political practices that are typically repressed in "mainstream" discourse. In its long history before World War II, the US had a deep political system--a system of governance in which decision-making and enforcement were carried out within--and outside of--public institutions. It was a system that always included some degree of secretive collusion and law-breaking. After World War II, US elites decided to pursue global dominance over the international capitalist system. Setting aside the liberal rhetoric, this project was pursued in a manner that was by and large imperialistic rather than progressive. To administer this covert empire, US elites created a massive national security state characterized by unprecedented levels of secrecy and lawlessness. The "Global Communist Conspiracy" provided a pretext for exceptionism--an endless "exception" to the rule of law. What gradually emerged after World War II was a tripartite state system of governance. The open democratic state and the authoritarian security state were both increasingly dominated by an American deep state. The term deep state was badly misappropriated during the Trump era. In the simplest sense, it herein refers to all those institutions that collectively exercise undemocratic power over state and society. To trace how we arrived at this point, American Exception explores various deep state institutions and history-making interventions. Key institutions involve the relationships between the overworld of the corporate rich, the underworld of organized crime, and the national security actors that mediate between them. History-making interventions include the toppling of foreign governments, the launching of aggressive wars, and the political assassinations of the 1960s. The book concludes by assessing the prospects for a revival of US democracy.

This book analyzes how increases in international trade, finance, and production have altered voter decisions, political party positions, and the types of public issues that parties focus on in postindustrial democracies. Although many studies interrogate whether internationalization matters in regard to policy outcomes and how globalization relates to mass protest, few examine globalization and mass politics more generally. This book argues that by reducing the room in which to maneuver in policy making, globalization reduces the importance of economic-based issues while increasing the electoral importance of non-economic issues. The argument is tested on original and existing data sources.

This handbook on relational sociology covers a rapidly growing approach in the social sciences-one which is connected to the interests of a large, diverse pool of researchers across a range of disciplines. Relational sociology has been one of the key foundations of the "relational turn" in human sciences since the 1980s, and it offers a unique opportunity to redefine the basic epistemological and ontological principles of sociology as we know it. The contributors collected here aim to elucidate the complexity and the scope of this growing approach by dealing with three central questions: Where does relational sociology come from and what are its principal concerns? What are the main theoretical and methodological currents within relational sociology? What have we studied in relational sociology and what are the results?

This work is a contribution to the theoretical and empirical analysis of globalization and political globalization in particular. Developing an analytical approach to political globalization centered on the uneven globalization of statehood in a societal perspective, Morten Ougaard employs this approach in empirical analysis of the global polity. Central themes are the emerging state function of persistence towards the increasingly integrated world society, relations of power between states and social forces and the prospects and realities of transnational class formation.

From Chinese factories making cheap toys for export, to sweatshops in Bangladesh where name-brand garments are sewn - studies on the impact of globalization on workers have tended to focus on the worst jobs and the worst conditions. But in When Good Jobs Go Bad, Jeffrey Rothstein looks at the impact of globalization on a major industry - the North American auto industry - to reveal that globalization has had a deleterious effect on even the most valued of blue-collar jobs. Rothstein argues that the consolidation of the Mexican and U.S.-Canadian auto industries, the expanding number of foreign automakers in North America, and the spread of lean production have all undermined organized labor and harmed workers. Focusing on three General Motors plants assembling SUVs - an older plant in Janesville, Wisconsin; a newer and more viable plant in Arlington, Texas; and a ""greenfield site"" (a brand-new, state-of-the-art facility) in Silao, Mexico - When Good Jobs Go Bad shows how global competition has made nonstop, monotonous, standardized routines crucial for the survival of a plant, and it explains why workers and their local unions struggle to resist. For instance, in the United States, General Motors forced workers to accept intensified labor by threatening to close plants, which led local unions to adopt ""keep the plant open"" as their main goal. At its new factory in Silao, GM had hand-picked the union - one opposed to strikes and committed to labor-management cooperation - before it hired the first worker. Rothstein's engaging comparative analysis, which incorporates the viewpoints of workers, union officials, and management, sheds new light on labor's loss of bargaining power in recent decades, and highlights the negative impact of globalization on all jobs, both good and bad, from the sweatshop to the assembly line.

Globalization is often described as Darwinism on steroids and is a force to be reckoned with. Its goal to improve the economic status of underdeveloped areas of the world is noble enough, but left unchecked, globalization is not always fair and equitable in its practices and outcomes. This widens the gap between rich and poor nations. Samli argues that Third World countries must learn to take advantage of globalization and learn to protect themselves against its darker forces.

This book presents what Samli calls countermarginalization, a process that includes such strategies and tactics as partnering, networking, and entrepreneurship. Samli explains how emerging countries of the world can develop their own means of growth to counter the risk of marginalization, arguing that entrepreneurship is essential and needs to be nurtured. This book provides a thoughtful source of discussion and learning, offering a new perspective on the big questions that won't just go away, despite certain efforts to ignore them.

After World War II, states transformed into 'collective fortresses' in order to protect competing ideological systems. The debate on post-modern statehood heavily built on ideological disputes between liberalism and communism, over the nature of the economic and social system, and the state and government that could sustain such a system. What is an 'ideologically acceptable' state-concept; which tasks and fu- tions should the state fulfil, and how to legitimate not only democratic, but also authoritarian and even totalitarian regimes? These questions were at the very centre of state theory. However, after the fall of communism in Europe and the former Soviet Union, the discourse of state and government scholarship radically changed. The need for a profound shift in the state paradigm was emerging. The time after 1989 seemed to proclaim that the nation-state had lost its raison d'etre as an island of undisputed and unlimited sovereignty. A globalised world order broke open the 'fortress state' that developed within the tradition of European constitutionalism. Given the simultaneous structural changes to the nation-state's foundations, socio-economic and political reforms going hand in hand with new constitutional designs, the 'state in transition' started paving the way towards a new state paradigm, and not only with regard to the states in the process of de- cratic transformation from socialist into liberal constitutional democracies."

This book provides a comprehensive and thorough interpretation of Beck's theory of the (world) risk society, from its original formulation up to his sudden death on New Year's Day 2015. Beck's entire body of work is divided into four interrelated phases, which are successively presented and discussed, namely: the original theory of risk society (from 1986 onwards); the theory of the world risk society (from 1996 onwards); the theory of cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitanization (from 1996 onwards); and the theory of 'metamorphosis', 'emancipatory catastrophism and 'global imagined risk communities' (2013-16). The book thus demonstrates how Beck's concept of the (world) risk society has given us a new language or a special lens that enables us to better understand contemporary society's complexity and its myriad of human-made uncertainties in terms of climate change, terrorist threats, global pandemics, economic crises, and migration crises.