The polar regions (the Arctic and Antarctic) have enjoyed widespread public attention in recent years as issues of conservation, sustainability, resource speculation and geopolitical manoeuvring have all garnered considerable international media interest. This critical collection of new and original papers - the first of its kind - offers a comprehensive exploration of these and other topics, consolidating the emergent field of polar geopolitics. The expert international contributors to this volume offer a range of insightful comparative, interdisciplinary and global perspectives on polar issues. Key topics discussed include resource extraction, regime formation, knowledge construction, border issues, governance and treaties, and indigenous livelihoods. Contributions from scholars of history, geography, political science, anthropology and international law make this a truly comprehensive take on the current state and future prospects of both the polar regions and polar geopolitics as a distinct discipline. Students and professors of geopolitics, political science and geography - especially those with an interest in the polar regions - will find much of value in this book's concrete expression of a new and fascinating field.

For over three decades, mature European welfare states have been on their way into an austerity phase marked by greater needs and more insecure revenues. A number of reform pressures-including population ageing, unemployment, economic globalization, and increased migration-call into question the economic sustainability and normative underpinnings of transfer systems and public services. And while welfare states long seemed resilient to growing challenges, it now seems clear that they are changing. Election Campaigns and Welfare State Change examines how political leaders and the public respond to reform pressures at a pivotal moment in a mass democracy: the election campaign. Do campaigns facilitate debate and attention to welfare state challenges? Do political parties present citizens with distinct choices as to how challenges might be met? Do leaders prepare citizens for the idea that some solutions may be painful? Do their messages have adaptive consequences for how the public perceives the need for reform? Do citizens adjust their normative support for welfare policies in the process? The answers to these questions affect how we understand welfare state change and representative democracy in an era of mounting challenges.