The rise of emerging or new powers has recently become one of the most researched areas in International Relations. While most studies focus on relations between traditional and emerging powers, this edited collection turns the focus 180 degrees and asks how countries outside these two power sets have reacted to the emerging new world order. Are emerging powers creating a united front in a struggle to change the global order, or are they more concerned with national interests? Are we seeing major changes in the global order, or simply an adjustment by the traditional powers to the emergence of new contenders? In order to the answer these questions, the authors take a broad thematic approach in analyzing recent trends in the interplay between states, markets and societies, concentrating in particular on Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe, and on the three major emerging powers: China, India and Brazil.

The rise of China has had a transformative impact on almost all areas of global political, economic and social life, and raises some very important questions: Will the rise of China lead to the sinicisation of the international regime and the liberal order through the process of its historical transformation from being in a semi-periphery position to becoming part of the core of the capitalist world system? Will China be a cooperative actor or a disruptive one? A force for continuity or a force for change? Is China displaying an alternative development model to all other developing countries? Does China's ascent represent a new "beginning of history" rather than "end of history"? Will the rise of China lead to the peripherisation of existing semi-periphery countries, and to the altering of the traditional pattern of relationships between the exiting West-based world order and the developing world? This book provides a framework to understand China's re-emergence in the nexus of historical, economic, political and world-systems perspectives. It examines the multifaceted facts and explores the triple impact of China's rise to core, semi-periphery and periphery countries, with a focus on developing nations. China's rise has brought developing countries opportunities and challenges, as well as constraints. If developing countries can respond adequately, China's ascent represents new promises and new prospects.

Latin American responses to neoliberalism and globalization have been varied and development strategies have changed over the past decades. The responses to policies have often been social and political struggles. This volume seeks to present diverse perspectives on these issues from a variety of perspectives both theoretically and methodologically. The volume is divided into two sections each treating different topics under a common headline. In the first section the analyses have their point of departure in Development Strategies, State and Civil Society Actors. The second section deals with rights, identity formation and social movements struggles as responses to the consequences of neo-liberal policies. The authors contributing to this volume come from different academic backgrounds and from both Denmark and Latin America. The chapters deal with examples from Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Bolivia and Uruguay.