This book presents cutting-edge research and exploration of the role of nation-state when big tech firms present themselves as new participants in contemporary international relations that act on an equal footing with nation-states. The general research goal of this book is to identify the justifications that nation-states have adopted to regulate the big tech firms and the impacts of this process on international trade in the main economies in the world. With the massive instrumentation of data, big tech firms have become actors with the capacity to intervene not only in economies but also, above all, in the politics of different countries with different systems. The emergence of big tech firms has transformed the approach to the concepts of national security, information management and access to new technologies among nation-states. The principles and fundamentals of cyber sovereignty have become one of the bases of states in the contemporary system of international relations. Today, the influence of big tech firms in different societies in the contemporary world is one of the main forms of power. This book tries to collect and present the recent state of the art in studies on the relationship between big tech firms and nation-states in the literature. It also addresses how governments such as those of the US, China and the EU are changing their legislation, creating control and data security mechanisms, imposing entry restrictions on foreign companies, and regulating the actions beyond the cloud of big tech firms inside and outside their borders.

This title considers the role of the world's major religions in global issues such as peace, justice, war, and cooperation. It covers seven major faiths; shows the common ground among the faiths, as well as the differences; and, illustrates how better understanding between the faiths could lead to a more peaceful world. It is an important work at a time when religion plays a role in many major conflicts. Many authors have written on the effect that technology, economics, and politics have on globalisation, but few have addressed the potential impact of religion on the future direction of globalisation. This work is intended to fill this vacuum. It addresses the role the world's major religions will play in bringing either greater peace and justice or hatred and hostility into the global village. Will seven of the world's major religions, which exert the greatest amount of influence, be a force for good or ill in the emerging global village of the twenty-first century? this book offers insight into the commonalities, differences, and potential for coming together to create peace to be found among the major faiths. Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are covered and topics such as sexuality, ethics, violence, and the tension between secular and sacred arenas are discussed for each. The author argues that if the leaders and laity of these religions are able to find common ground for cooperation, then efforts toward peace and justice in the global village can be more effective and lasting. If they accentuate their differences, he suggests, then they will produce more hatred and hostility.

This book examines global change from a dialectical perspective. Looking at global change in terms of unipolarization in international security, globalization in the world economy, and democratization in global governance, this volume provides a refreshingly Japanese angle on addressing complex interplays between the social forces underlying these themes.

This edited collection brings together essays that share in a critical attention to visual culture as a means of representing, contributing to and/or intervening with discursive struggles and territorial conflicts currently taking place at and across the outward-facing and internal borders of the People's Republic of China. Elucidated by the essays collected here for the first time is a constellation of what might be described as visual culture wars comprising resistances on numerous fronts not only to the growing power and expansiveness of the Chinese state but also the residues of a once pervasively suppressive Western colonialism/imperialism. The present volume addresses visual culture related to struggles and conflicts at the borders of Hong Kong, the South China Sea and Taiwan as well within the PRC with regard the so-called "Great Firewall of China" and differences in discursive outlook between China and the West on the significances of art, technology, gender and sexuality. In doing so, it provides a vital index of twenty-first century China's diversely conflicted status as a contemporary nation-state and arguably nascent empire.

This volume explores the implications of student mobility on higher education across the Asia Pacific Region. Student Mobility has become a major feature of higher education throughout the world, and most particularly over the past two decades within the Asia Pacific Region. This system of mobility is entering a period of profound predicted change, created by the social and economic transformations being occasioned by the rapid increased uses of artificial intelligence (AI), a process that is being increasingly framed as the "Fourth Industrial Revolution" or Work 4.0, a process that is widely predicted to evoke fundamental changes in the ways that work is performed and who does it. This volume explores various dimensions of this process, examining various aspects of the process as they are affecting national and regional economies even as the phenomenon produces a wide variety of engagements with the global economy as a whole.

Combining global, media, and cultural studies, this book analyzes the success of Hallyu, or the "Korean Wave" in the West, both at a macro and micro level, as an alternative pop culture globalization. This research investigates the capitalist ecosystem (formed by producers, institutions and the state), the soft power of Hallyu, and the reception among young people, using France as a case study, and placing it within the broader framework of the 'consumption of difference.' Seen by French fans as a challenge to Western pop culture, Hallyu constitutes a material of choice for understanding the cosmopolitan apprenticeships linked to the consumption of cultural goods, and the use of these resources to build youth's biographical trajectories. The book will be relevant to researchers, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in sociology, cultural studies, global studies, consumption and youth studies.

Is the world en route to becoming a linguistic colony of the United States? Or is this dramatic view an exaggeration, and there is no danger to linguistic diversity at all? The German language is at the center of an intensive debate on this issue. Its position in the world is under increasing pressure due to the growing importance of (American) English as the language of globalization. The articles in this volume deal with the national and international position of German in relation to English, language policies, the future of German as a language of science, German in the USA, and the intellectual and aesthetic dimensions of encountering a foreign language. They present critical assessments addressing the dangers for the future of languages other than English, as well as positions which perceive the growing importance of English as a challenge and resource rather than as a threat. Key features: reknown editors famous contributors, among them Wolfgang Thierse (president of the German Bundestag), Peter Eisenberg (involved in the German spelling reform), David Crystal (famous linguist), representatives of the Goethe institute current and politically controversial topic: how does globalization influence the diversity of languages

For courses in international economics, international finance, and international trade. A balanced, global approach to economic theory and policy applications International Economics: Theory and Policy provides engaging, balanced coverage of the key concepts and practical applications of theory and policy around the world. Divided into two halves, with the first devoted to trade and the second to monetary questions, the text provides an intuitive introduction to theory and events as well as detailed coverage of the actual policies put into place as a response. In the 12th Edition, important economic developments are highlighted, with many lessons drawn from the recent COVID-19 pandemic experience. Using examples like these, the text equips students with the intellectual tools for understanding the changing world economy and economic implications of global interdependence.

This key resource for anyone interested in the United Nations, global issues, or world politics provides accessible and comprehensive coverage of the history, growth, and development of ideas and institutions governing the globe. The United Nations has been an essential actor in world politics for 75 years. Its entities have eliminated smallpox, protected the ozone layer, promoted arms control, and helped to save the lives of over 90 million children. Yet, it is frequently criticized as ineffective and antiquated. This book provides a balanced and systematic overview of the UN's contributions and challenges, highlighting areas where it plays an essential role in global governance as well as areas of redundancy and needed reform. This book provides readers with a clear, well-organized reference resource to the entire UN system-its principal organs, specialized agencies, programs and funds, and key issues of engagement. Through individual entries, it examines the history of UN engagement, ranging from peace and security to migration and climate change. It moves beyond a simple description of UN entities as it assesses the development of ideas (such as that of sustainable development), as well as responses to changes in world politics. Finally, it presents both the significant successes of UN work and continued challenges. Meticulously researched, accessible entries written by two prominent UN scholars Entries on both successes and continued challenges of the UN system Primary source documents key to the founding of the UN

This book explores the role of capital and labor migration in the expansion of the capitalist world-system. It presents comprehensive case studies on various historical periods of hegemony recognized by world-system theory: the Dutch hegemony (1625-1675), British hegemony (1815-1873), and US hegemony (1945-1970). Moreover, the book identifies an earlier period of economic dominance in Western Europe when merchant-bankers from Florence dominated the regional wool trade in the early thirteenth century. In these four intervals of dominance, i.e., from the medieval period to the late twentieth century, capital and labor migration formed the basis of capitalist development in the hegemonic core states as well as in peripheral regions under their economic and political influence. In turn, the book analyzes the migration patterns associated with the rise of hegemony from the perspectives of class relations between employers and workers, technological advances at the workplace, economic cycles, and state policies on labor migration. It concludes with a projection that heightened migration will continue to characterize the capitalist world system, especially as many poor and displaced populations in peripheral regions resort to migration for survival. Accordingly, it appeals to scholars in the fields of politics, sociology, history, anthropology, and economics who are interested in globalization and world-system analysis.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. Ambassadors are a kind of vehicle and bellwether for globalization. These diplomatic envoys serve as pivotal contact points between nations across a wide range of fields, from economics and culture to health and the environment. The special group of ambassadors in this book - those based in Beijing - are at the forefront of what for many countries is one of their most important bilateral relationships, as well one of the most striking and consequential aspects of global affairs in the 21st century: the rise of China on the world stage. This book aims to present an overview of China and the world from diverse angles. It brings together essays by ambassadors to China on a range of bilateral and multilateral issues, including trade and investment, regional economic cooperation, sustainable development, technology and innovation, and entrepreneurship. Given their familiarity with China and extensive international experience, the insights of these ambassadors are useful for policymakers, academics, entrepreneurs, students, and anyone trying to make sense of our rapidly changing world.

This book studies the dramatic changes in consumption patterns in Vietnam over the past decades, combining a focus on everyday practices and societal transformations. Zooming in on the new urban middle classes, and through in-depth case studies in the realms of mobility, food and energy, the book brings new insights to some of the most urgent global sustainability challenges. Based on a decade of research in Vietnam, the book aims to contribute to better understanding one of the most fascinating 'development success stories' in the world. It introduces the term 'consumer socialism' to analyse some of the contradictions embedded in the socialist market economy. Simultaneously, the book aims to contribute to strengthening consumption research in and on emerging economies, and for this purpose develops a theoretical approach focusing on social practices and the political economy of consumption.

This open access book brings together leading international scholars and policy-makers to explore the challenges and dilemmas of globalization and governance in an era increasingly defined by economic crises, widespread populism, retreating internationalism, and a looming cold war between the United States and China. It provides the diversity of views on those widely concerned topics such as global governance, climate change, global health, migration, S&T revolution, financial market, and sustainable development. It is a truly unique book. Never before has such an authoritative group of essayists come together to develop deep new thinking about global governance that is relevant to current shared global challenges. They express deep concerns about the historically unprecedented upheavals in the world. They describe the unparalleled turbulence that mankind is facing in the form of multiple crises, any one of which has the potential to bring civilization to its knees. The most obvious of these is the threat posed by climate change. They spell out why these perils pose a stark choice for the human race. They stress how any path that leads to conflict increases the risk of catastrophe. In this context, the common thread is that a consensus must be reached about the future of our world. They have put forward many ideas and potential new policies, reflecting their vision of what this consensus should be and how it is the only way forward for the human race.

The book provides an analytic framework for grand strategy and applies the framework to illuminate the grand strategies of the Great Powers of the twenty-first century: India, China, Russia, and the United States. The book also uses Coca-Cola as a case study to illustrate the potential influence of grand strategy on business strategy. The analysis is rigorous, logical, fact-based, historically rooted, and well-sourced with abundant endnotes to encourage further exploration by readers.

In a time of great gloom and doom internationally and of major global problems, this book offers an invaluable contribution to our understanding of alternative societies that could be better for humans and the environment. Bringing together a wide range of approaches and new strands of economic and social thinking from across the US, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa, Luke Martell critically assesses contemporary alternatives and shows the ways forward with a convincing argument of pluralist socialism. Presenting a much-needed introduction to the debate on alternatives to capitalism, this ambitious book is not about how things are, but how they can be!

The book reviews globalisation by identifying causes behind the discontent it has produced in recent years. It variously engages in economics, political economy, development and policy discourses to study experiences of countries and institutions in managing and adjusting to globalisation. Extending the analysis to latest global developments, including the remarkable advance of technology and digitalisation, and political and economic upheavals caused by COVID19, the book collects varied academic perspectives and reflects on the present as well as future. Comprising chapters written by distinguished academics and policy experts, the book is a rare collection of cross-disciplinary objective evaluations of globalisation.

This book summarizes how globalizing capitalism-the economic system now presumed to dominate the global economy-can be understood from a geographical perspective. This is in contrast to mainstream economic analysis, which theorizes globalizing capitalism as a system that is capable of enabling everyone to prosper and every place to achieve economic development. From this perspective, the globalizing capitalism perspective has the capacity to reduce poverty. Poverty's persistence is explained in terms of the dysfunctional attributes of poor people and places. A geographical perspective has two principal aspects: Taking seriously how the spatial organization of capitalism is altered by economic processes and the reciprocal effects of that spatial arrangement on economic development, and examining how economic processes co-evolve with cultural, political, and biophysical processes. From this, globalizing capitalism tends to reproduce social and spatial inequality; poverty's persistence is due to the ways in which wealth creation in some places results in impoverishment elsewhere.

In light of recent global trends and crises, including the hasty withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, this book sheds new light on global power shifts in multiple areas of international relations between industrialized countries and emerging powers. This book argues that "the global age" is rapidly supplanting "the modern age", and that modernity is paving the way for globality. The events that are taking place in the 21st century can no longer be effectively described, understood or explained by the concept of modernity which originated more than 500 years ago. Further, this book challenges the academic and societal tendency to view international power-related phenomena on the basis of a dichotomy between hard and soft power. It assumes that another power source, independent of hard and soft power, does exist. Invisible, structure-manipulating, and effectively leveraged, it is precisely this "third power" that drives and shapes power phenomena in the "global age" more intensively than either hard or soft power. This book seeks to verify its core hypotheses by applying them to a set of selected global phenomena, particularly from the domains of geopolitics (Belt & Road Initiative, Iran conflict, war in Afghanistan, and competition for a new world order) and technology (Global Navigation Satellite Systems, 5G infrastructure, race for international standards, and ICT rivalry). Rather than systematically examining each of these issues, it focuses on extracting theoretical meanings from these cases to demonstrate the logic of globality and structural power, partly from global-horizontal perspectives, partly through a structural-vertical lens.

This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers in order to examine how and to what extent the challenge of language revitalisation should be reassessed and reconceptualised to take account of our fast-changing social context. The period of four decades between 1980 and 2020 that straddled the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first is widely regarded as one that witnessed a series of fundamental social, economic and political transformations. Many societies have become increasingly individualistic, mobile and diverse in terms of ethnicity and identity; their economies have become increasingly interconnected; and their governance structures have become increasingly complex, incorporating a growing number of different levels and actors. In addition, rapid advancements with regard to automated, digital and communication technology have had a far-reaching impact on how people interact with each other and participate in society. The chapters in this book aim to advance an agenda of key questions that should concern those working in the field of language revitalisation over the coming years, and the volume will be of interest to students, scholars and policy-makers in related areas including sociolinguistics, education, sociology, geography, political science, law, economics, Celtic studies, and communication technology.

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.

Combining theory with compelling case studies, this book examines the globalizing world of democracy. Noted critical scholars Stephen J. Rosow and Jim George argue that democracy must be understood not as a unified concept but as a diversity of political responses to specific conditions and political struggles. Doing so reveals how democracy is taking multiple forms around the world in response to neoliberal globalism and the increasing pace and complexity of everyday life. The authors show how the current phase of globalization is destabilizing the dominance of Western democracy promotion as resisters challenge common understandings and forms of democracy. Explaining the theory behind neoliberal globalization and democracy promotion, they consider its impact and struggles against it in South Africa, post-Soviet Russia, India, and Venezuela and other "pink tide" states in Latin America. Rosow and George also examine how digital communications networks, the centralization of security, and the fluid movements of people and ideas are destabilizing traditional democratic theories. At the same time, they give rise to concepts of democracy that focus on new forms of citizenship and democratic participation, a cosmopolitan democratic constitutionalism, cross-boundary political activism, and local and community-based economic and democratic practices.

This work contains an Introduction by Harry F. Dahms. It includes contents such as: Periodizing Globalization: From Cold War Modernization to the Bush Doctrine Robert J. Antonio and Alessandro Bonanno; Recognizing Empire: Alienation, Authority, and Delusions of Grandeur David Norman Smith; Corporate Warriors: Changing Forms of Private Armed Force in America Harry W. Isaac and Daniel M. Harrison; From Exceptionalism to Imperialism: Culture, Character and American Foreign Policy Lauren Langman and Meghan Burke; 9.11.01 and Its Global Aftermath: Empire Strikes Back? Timothy Luke. It also includes commentaries - Globalization and Social Justice: Working the Tensions of the Dialectics of National Character Karen Monkman; Neoliberalism and its Discontents: Comments on Three Views of the American Empire Barney Warf. It includes five chapters and two commentaries from some of the most respected personalities in the field. It takes a broad and diverse look at the development of globalization.

This book seeks to overcome the tension between 'western' and 'non-western' categories and tools in the study of global history, showing how most western approaches to the social sciences and history have developed through transnational and colonial interactions. Offering a transnational and global history of the main tools we have to understand the word and its transformations over the last three centuries, Tensions of Social History explores the construction of archives and historical memory, the making of statistics and their use in politics, the identification of social actors, and the emergence of key social theories. Providing key insights into how to write history and develop social sciences in the global era while avoiding eurocentrism and cultural exceptionalism, this ambitious book shows how global history is made of encounters rather than confrontations between civilizations.

"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.