Bøger i Contributions to International Relations serien

This book adopts the rationalist research path to bring forward an innovative theory of foreign policy, and the central question is: How can we define the overall national interests of great powers appropriately and thus help states make consistent and rational grand strategies? The answer can't be found among existing Foreign Policy Analysis and other theoretical research. In this book, Positional Realism is proposed as a new theory to define the overall national interests from the power position and order position perspectives and specify the four kinds of positional interests of hegemonic states, contending states, potential contending states, and non-contending states. Different great powers have different positional power and order objectives. Based on these positional interests, Positional Realism brings different foreign policy hypotheses and suggestions. The book also examines the six great powers in the nineteenth century to verify these hypotheses and finds that Positional Realism can not only convincingly explain the success or failure of their acts, but also give useful and important directions for strategy making of great powers.

This book sheds light on the intricate relationship between geopolitics and business and the essential interdependence between corporations and geopolitics. Despite apparent animosity, practical solutions and theories proposed by geopolitics find resonance within the business world, and vice versa. Concepts like critical theory, disruption, hegemony, strategic rivalry, and cost-effectiveness hold common ground in both realms, even though they have historically been disregarded.Geopolitical authors have often overlooked the vital role played by businesses in shaping global affairs, while businesses themselves view geopolitics as a risk to be managed. These contrasting viewpoints have given rise to misunderstandings and misconceptions between the two spheres.The author sets out to bridge the gap between geopolitics and business, exploring how corporations perceive space, state, and power, while also analyzing the influence of classical, critical, and feminist geopoliticson business strategies. This comprehensive analysis reveals that businesses are not mere non-state agents among many, but indeed, the principal non-state agents in geopolitics. The book is an essential read for scholars, researchers, and professionals seeking a deeper understanding of the dynamic interplay between these critical forces.

Small States theory supports the argument that small international actors have a vital role in the international system. After 9/11, it emerged as a more focused attempt to show that 'small' can be 'attractive and functional' in an era of normative political and religious radicalism. This book argues that Small States Theory is not relevant to the perplexities of the post-multipolar international system and produces a new theory, the Smart States Theory. Based on structural and neoclassical realism, it attempts to identify the origins of 'state-smartness' in foreign policy, leadership, and domestic politics. The United Arab Emirates will be used as the case study of this novel theoretical approach. The impressive evolution of the Trucial States to a modern nation-state of high technology, dynamic foreign policy as the recent pandemic fully showed, unique leadership, and unparalleled tolerance towards other religions and cultures, make the UAE a brilliant example of a smart state of the 21st century. The reader of the book will be introduced to a new theory in International Relations as well as to the history, politics, society, and leadership of a state that plays a pivotal role not only in the Gulf region but in the broader framework of the Middle East too; the United Arab Emirates.

This book offers a model for understanding securitization in terms of hegemonic discourse formations. It re-thinks the very meaning of security as well as the relationship between the understanding of security in traditional and critical approaches in security studies to find a common denominator between them. Deduced firmly from realist political philosophy and its analytic categories, such as state-based sovereignty, security is presented as a function of discursive formations. Providing a sound discourse-theoretical foundation which includes both linguistic and non-linguistic practices as well as a focus on relationships of power, the book offers a basis for the integration of insights generated by the different approaches to securitisation, and enhances the analytical and explanatory depth of the concept. As part of its theoretical foundation, the book further presents a fundamentally new image of long-standing theoretical and conceptual challenges within speech-act inspired approaches, including the re-formulation of central analytical categories such as the speaker-audience-context nexus. By explaining securitisation as signifying the boundaries of the construction of meaning, it presents an original understanding of securitisation, which is deeply integrated into the structures of the social construction of meaning. On this basis, the book offers a new understanding of successful securitisation factors and insights into aspects that render specific objects more or less likely for securitisation. The book proceeds to discuss two central aspects of the securitisation debate: The constitution of power, as well as an exploration of the nature of the political and politicisation. An empirical case study on the development-security-nexus offers further insights into the applicability of the theoretical model.    This book will appeal to students, researchers, and scholars of political science and international relations (IR) interested in a better understanding of IR theory, realism, critical security studies, and discourse analysis.

This book explores both the history and current diplomatic and foreign policy challenges in Turkish-French relations. By critically analyzing Turkish and French government and archival documents, as well as other primary sources, it reviews the evolution of Turkish-French relations and offers a better understanding of various diplomatic issues, foreign policy decisions, and geopolitical questions. Furthermore, it sheds new light on the significance of domestic political demands for foreign policy decisions and the importance of mutual perceptions in shaping the two countries' relations.The book is divided into three parts, the first of which studies the history of Turkish-French relations, including the Ottoman Empire's trade relations with France, France's relations with the modern Republic of Turkey, and relations during the Cold War and its aftermath. The second part analyzes various dimensions, including diplomatic challenges, the two countries' foreign policy concepts, geopolitical aspects, economic and trade relations, and their cultural relationship. In turn, the third part presents case studies on more specific issues related to Franco-Turkish relations, including Turkey's EU accession process, the Armenian and Kurdish issues, and French and Turkish perspectives on the MENA region.

This volume offers a nuanced understanding of female agency in political violence by reviewing and analyzing the political construction of motherhood as a form of social agency against political violence committed by both state and non-state actors in different parts of the world. While the international relations discipline has traditionally viewed the relationship between women and violent actors as an exploitative one, this book demonstrates that taking maternal bodies seriously creates important intellectual space to examine the types and kinds of violence the discipline of IR takes seriously and the types and kinds of resistance practiced by mothers but often overlooked (at least by male/mainstream IR). Focusing on motherhood as an agency of change, this volume will appeal to scholars in the field of gender and international security, think tanks working on political and security affairs, social activists, policymakers, an interested public audience, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students undertaking study or research associated with gender and political violence.

This book explores the relationship between the ¿human constant¿ (Jen) of the four large-scale civilizational societies¿China, the USA, Japan, and Indiäand their international behavior, response patterns, and interaction with the international system. The book analyzes the characteristics and limitations of the current international system, as well as the way it is related to the Western type of ¿human constant¿. It also analyzes the challenges facing China in its integration into the international system. This book aims to explore international relations from the combined psychological and cultural perspective. The key concept of this book is ¿Jen¿, which contains a distinct Chinese cultural experience, into the theory of international relations. Unlike other IR books to treat state as the main political actor, the book analyzes both the political aspects of state as an ¿organizational entity¿ and its civilizational aspects as a ¿civilizational entity¿; hence, it proposes a new ontology of international relations. By integrating the concept of ¿Jen¿ based on the unique Chinese cultural experience into the theory of international relations, the book reveals the interactive nature of relationship between the international system and ¿human constant¿. The book explains the causal relationship between state¿s behavior and its ¿human constant¿, analyzes the cultural characteristics of state actors and the international system, and tries to provide a new theoretical framework for understanding culture and modernity.

This book examines the recent changes in strategic stability, caused by the collapse of the international security architecture. Against the background of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, international experts discuss topics and critical issues such as the revanchist strategy of Russia and the readiness of the United States (US) and Europe to give an adequate response; the influence of new technologies in the future of nuclear deterrence; and the crumbling of the arms control and nonproliferation system under the new challenges. The book explains how the combination of these factors lead to a crucial change of strategic stability and the international security landscape, the first such change since the end of the Cold War.Divided into three parts, the book presents timely analyses on (1) US, Russia: New Challenges and Strategic Stability in Europe; (2) Extended Deterrence and Arms Control in Europe; and (3) Regional Dimensions of Strategic Stability in Europe. It further offers perspectives from and case studies on different countries, such as Ukraine, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the USA, Turkey, Poland, and Romania.This book is a must-read for scholars for international relations, as well as policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the changing international security architecture, Russia's strategy, arms control, nonproliferation, and the future of nuclear deterrence.   

This edited volume discusses security policy and strategic policymaking in the Middle East region. Due to its unique geopolitical, geoeconomic and geostrategic features, the Middle East region has been confronted with challenging security issues. Combined with a lack of an efficient regional security regime this has led to the formation of a full-fledged arms race. This book draws together contributions from international experts to address the factors that have been contributing to the ongoing formation of an arms race in the Middle East as well as the impact of this phenomenon on the regional and global security environment. The book is organized in three sections. The first section outlines the contemporary dynamics of the arms race in the Middle East by focusing on its most recent dynamics and their implications for regional and international security. The second section conducts systematic analysis of case studies of country-specific drivers of the armsrace. The third and final section examines the role of external actors in the arms race, evaluating both the responses of regional actors to external interventions as well as the implications of the arms race for extra-regional countries.

This book discusses the emerging threats to European stability in different borderland regions, from the Greater Middle East to the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans and the Black Sea. It highlights the specific geopolitical risks that could, left unchecked, have global repercussions. The book shows how recent events have exasperated underlying problems that have been slowly destabilizing each of these regions for years. It also looks at the geopolitical constraints and objectives of the countries within these regions to build a basis for understanding their current and future security challenges. While doing so, the book discusses the European borderlands in a non-traditional way, proposing a specific framework to study them, going beyond historical analysis and employing a heuristic process and in-depth socio-economic analysis to understand regional power relations and trends. It develops the key concepts of "core borderland" and "geopolitical node" to understand the future challenges that Europe in particular and Eurasia, in general, will face, discussing specific features shaping current affairs and identifying the main drivers - countries and specific regional elements - for the future stability of the borderlands.This book will appeal to students and scholars of international relations, as well as policy-makers, practitioners, and international organizations interested in a better understanding of current and future challenges at Europe's borderlands and the security risks the European continent faces.

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 multidisciplinary volume examines the meaning of global conflict and cooperation by international actors that can be caused by dis- or misinformation to people and discusses how to build diplomacy for peace and regional cooperation. The book further identifies boundaries of the relationships among the various governments of the world, transatlantic alliances, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, transnational corporations, and the overall interdependence of nations in the making of the modern world. Topics discussed in this volume include diplomacy, international relations theory, Eurasia politics, European Union, Brexit, Taliban taking over of Kabul government, and the ongoing Afghanistan conflict, terrorism, ISIS and Al Qaeda, international law, international organizations, interstate and intrastate war, threats and challenges, global civil society, religion, and culture. The volume advances contemporary theories and concepts to explain these issues concerning peoples and cultures in the complex world we live in.The book is a must-read for students, researchers, and scholars of international relations, political science, political history, political geography, economics, and law in general, as well as diplomacy, political communication, and security studies in particular.

This book focuses on Chinäs foreign strategy and policy toward Central and Eastern Europe via the ¿China-CEEC¿ Cooperation Mechanism. It discusses the formation and evolution of the mechanism, concentrating on Chinäs leading role in this process, and covering a range of issues related to the mechanism¿s organizational development. This discussion includes the broad context of Chinäs foreign policy, a coherent framework analysis of institution and cooperation issues, the internal aspects of the heterogeneity, external aspects of its asymmetry interactions, and finally, its emphases on cooperation in the two primary dimensions of great powers engagement and localization.After the end of the Cold War and the sudden and shocking collapse of the Soviet Union, the geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe begins to undergo dramatic changes. Since then, an increase in public discussion in China about the transformation from the planned economy to market economy became very visible. Moreover, this part of the world perceives as the gate to Europe through almost forget Silk Road. Both factors have played a crucial role in shaping Chinäs interest in the region of Central and Eastern Europe. Following the points mentioned above, Chinäs interests in Central and Eastern Europe are due to several factors, including its frontier stability, national security, economic expansion, and search for new sources of energy and new markets for made in China products. Recognition of the importance of the region culminates in the recent Chinese grand strategy of ¿Belt and Road,¿ which highlights Central and Eastern Europe as the essential link in Chinäs plan New Silk Road strategy. In this regard, the ¿China-CEEC¿ Cooperation Mechanism has a crucial role in Chinäs ¿Go West¿ strategy.

This edited volume critically examines the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as a guiding norm in international politics. After NATO¿s intervention in Libya, against the backdrop of civil wars in Syria and Yemen, and because of the cynical support for R2P by states such as Saudi Arabia, this norm is the subject of heavy criticism. It seems that the R2P is just political rhetoric, an instrument exploited by the powerful states. Hence, the R2P is being challenged. At the same time, however, institutional settings, normative discourses and contestation practices are making it more robust. New understandings of responsibility and the politics of protection are creating new normative spaces, patterns of legitimacy, and norm entrepreneurs, thereby reinforcing the R2P. This book¿s goals are to discuss the R2P¿s roots, institutional framework, and evolution; to reveal its shortcomings and pitfalls; and to explore how it is exploited by certain states. Further, it elaborates on the R2P¿s strength as a norm. Accordingly, the contributions presented here discuss various ways in which the R2P is being challenged or confirmed, or both at once. As the authors demonstrate, these developments concern not only diplomatic communication and political practices within international institutions, but also to normative discourses. Furthermore, the book includes chapters that reevaluate the R2P from a normative standpoint, e.g. by proposing cosmopolitan standards as a guide for states¿ external behavior. Other contributors reassess the historical evidence from U.N. negotiations on the R2P principle, and the productive or restrictive role of institutions. Discussing new issues relating to the R2P such as global and regional power shifts or foreign policy, as well as the phenomenon of authoritarian interventionism under the R2P umbrella, this book will appeal to all IR scholars and students interested in humanitarianism, norms, and power. By analyzing the status quo of the R2P, it enriches and broadens the debate on what the R2P currently is, and what it ought to be.

This book focusses on the interaction between different kinds of violence and radicalization. Current research criticizes linear models of radicalization and assumes that individuals are involved in radical actions even without extremist preferences. In recent years, the research on radicalization and the use of violence has increasingly been focused on this phenomenon of individual radicalization. However, radicalization is a manifold phenomenon on various levels and exists in miscellaneous variations.The book provides an impetus for analysing social situations that contain the potential for the emergence of conflict. This is done through new outlooks on the role of emotions, the influence of narratives and representations, the connection between (non)violence and emancipation and, lastly, new approaches and perspectives on deradicalization.

This book analyzes two main trends of prevailing populism and nationalism in China and Southeast Asian nations and rising tensions in the South China Sea (SCS) by experts from China and Southeast Asia. The book involves the most recent developments and indicates future trends. This is the first book which goes deeply into the SCS dispute from the perspectives on populism and nationalism and thus highlighting their significance in Asian politics. The broad approach adopted in the book with focus on all important countries expands the scope of readership beyond specific academic community. The book interests academics, policy makers, journalists, general reader, and students of Asian politics. The main body of this book is divided into 8 parts, in which the first section briefly introduces the aims and scope of this book. The following 7 parts look at the new development of populism and nationalism in China and ASEAN claimant states and some important non-claimant states mainly including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Cambodia, and its multiple effects on the SCS dispute.

This book puts forward a new angle of understanding the society of states in the milieu of the contemporary world. The absence of a regulatory mechanism, i.e., anarchy, has been the fundamental issue of international relations. This book explains how the normative imperatives, information and communication technology (ICT) and nuclear deterrence generated ambiance have poised the states in a society where they are bound to follow certain normative imperatives that dilute the color and meaning of anarchy and obliges the states to act in a certain way. It develops a theoretical proposition with regard to state power defined in terms of the capability of determining the outcomes. The proposition first elaborates how international institutions foster normative imperatives; then, in line with this ontology, it narrows down the focus solely on the power of the states in the contemporary world. It explains how the power that can determine the outcome today is holistic in nature, comprising both materialistic and normative factors. In the next step, it tailors the proposition in a way so as to employ it for a specific empirical work. The book does not end just positing the theoretical proposition; the proposition is testified through some case studies with regard to climate negotiations under the UNFCCC.The empirical part not only serves to examine the plausibility of the theoretical proposition, but it also presents the logic of the major actors and the politics with respect to some of the major issues of climate change, i.e., mitigation, funding policy and mechanism and adaptation. The scholars in this arena, climate activists and climate-conscious people in general would find this book worth reading as it kindles a different angle to understand the issues in the context of the contemporary world and as it elaborates the logic, framing process, and mechanism of reaching outcomes through complex negotiation process. No other work has so far analyzed the issues covering the entire period of 21 apex UNFCCC negotiations that led to the Paris Agreement. Apart from university libraries, this book, thus, has the prospect to be sold in the markets targeting the academicians, climate change experts, bureaucrats, negotiators and the common readers.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of Ukraine's nuclear history, beginning from its experiences within the Russian Empire in the early 20th century, through the Soviet period, to the emergence of Ukraine as an independent state that inherited the world¿s third-largest nuclear arsenal.The book discusses the development of the nuclear infrastructure on Ukrainian soil and offers a rich and nuanced background of how Ukraine became an important and integrated part of the Soviet nuclear infrastructure. It further analyzes Ukraine's nuclear disarmament based on extensive primary source material and places the Ukrainian nuclear reversal process in a larger international political context where Russiäs, the United States, and other players¿ actions are interpreted in the light of the impact on the current nuclear non-proliferation regime. Finally, the book presents the nuclear-related development after the nuclear disarmament. It describes the integration of Ukraine into the international community and the role of nuclear power in the energy mix of the nation today. Concluding, Ukraine¿s adaptation to the new security situation after the Russian annexation of Crimea is described and discussed.This volume is a must-read for scholars, researchers, students, and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of Ukraine's nuclear history, the political background of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, as well as of security studies and international relations in general. The work on this book has been supported by the Swedish Radiation Authority (SSM) in the Nuclear History of Ukraine Project (2015-2019).

This book examines the interactions between trade policy and foreign and security policy in EU external action as a nexus of practices. Drawing on the rich empirical material of over 50 in-depth interviews with EU officials, members of the European Parliament and member state diplomats, the book reconstructs and analyses the distinctive institutional cultures of the Directorate-General for Trade and the European External Action Service, their policy practices and the effect on EU external action. It appeals to scholars of political science and international relations.

The book assesses U.S. foreign relations in the Indo-Pacific during the Trump Administration, with a particular focus on the regional powers¿ response to Trump's ¿America First¿ policy. The chapter authors draw on the theoretical insights from dominant International Relations theories ¿ (Neo)Realism, Liberal Institutionalism, and Constructivism ¿ to explain both continuities and discontinuities found in the regional powers¿ security and foreign economic policies before and during the Trump Administration. The book will be of interest to new and advanced students of International Relations, Asian Studies, and U.S. foreign policy. The multi-national perspectives of the regional experts offer penetrating analyses of the likely legacy (or lack thereof) of the range of political, security, and trade policy initiatives launched by the Trump Administration and its implications for the balance of power, regional institutions, and national identity-informed approaches to international relationsin the Indo-Pacific.