The beginnings of globalisation are usually dated to the last third of the twentieth century, alongside the rise of supranational companies, the financial economy and the information technology revolution. However, from the time the Earth was “anthropocized” during the Palaeolithic era, globalisation has not ceased, though it has seen a number of fluctuations, including the era of WWI and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Globalisation and COVID-19 examines how the simultaneous immobilisation of billions created a temporary hold on the mobility which constitutes the very irrigation of globalisation. In this 31st volume of the book series Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, world-renowned contributors explore the pandemic through the lens of globalisation, analysing its implications for the globalised world and its development over time. Through innovative tools and methodologies of emerging social sciences like Regional Science, Peace Science, and particularly of Management Science which includes artificial intelligence and quantum mechanics, Globalisation and COVID-19 brings together researchers and practitioners to create a transversal and systemic approach necessary to interrogating essential questions of pandemic-era globality.

International migration afflicts nearly every corner of the globe, from the Americas, Europe and North Africa, and adjoining countries in South Asia. This migration links the socio-economic statuses of migrants’ home countries and those into which they are migrating. This phenomenon has a profound impact upon ethnic conflict, resource availability, famines and other natural and manmade disasters, as well as financial, political, social and environmental implications for some of the world’s most seemingly unsolvable crises, such as world peace. These vast complexities have been further exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which, as analysed through an environmental and migratory lens, is the focus of this 32nd volume of the book series Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development. With contributions from world-renowned scholars, International Migration, COVID-19, and Environmental Sustainability tackles recent universal subject matter and ties it to key contemporary issues, including globalisation and sustainability, that are related to international migration and its impacts.