This book analyses America's alliances and strategic culture in the Indo-Pacific, from the Presidency of George W. Bush to Joe Biden. It advances the notion of the 'Pacific Dream', an American vision for Indo-Pacific integration. Its historical chapter covers the period from 1951 to 2001, presenting the reader with the evolution of Washington's most successful Indo-Pacific alliance network, the San Francisco System. The chapters that follow analyse every presidency from 2001 onward, focusing on defining the Pacific Dream and arguing that the San Francisco System is becoming outdated and slowly replaced by formats like the Quad, Quad Plus, or AUKUS. There is particular attention given to the growing importance American allies have in Washington's Pacific Dream and strategic culture. A case is made that American strategic culture is blending with concepts from allied strategic cultures, such as Japan, Australia, or South Korea.

This book seeks to show that the Anthropocene epoch of the earth system has converged with the global epoch of capitalist history. Planetary warming and climate change are, therefore, unfolding rapidly. This enveloping process is driven forward by the mutual ruptures of a deteriorating earth system and fossil based global capitalism, as a fraught socioecological totality. Overlapping crises of time are the net result. They involve, the recurring, myopic volatility of financialised capitalism, the ecological impossibility of sustaining capitalist growth, the spreading arrhythmias of biotic, animal, bird, insect and marine life and the irremediable psychological stresses of climate change anxiety. The time crises of global capitalism originate from certain disjunctures of time associated with carbon extractivism, carbon emission markets and official climate change projections. The book sets out the counter constructions of time necessary to energise the climate justice movement and advance ecosocialist principles.

This book explores how the United Nations (UN) attempts to stabilise and justify an ambivalent meaning of protection and its socio-political roles in the Protection of Civilians agenda. Negotiating between different notions of translation, the research takes the Community Liaison Assistants (CLAs) as an analytical prism to complexify the efforts to construct representations of protection. Created alongside the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the CLAs are local staff tasked with improving the mission's engagement with the local population, given their supposed linguistic-cultural skills. The CLAs are also part of the stabilisation turn in UN doctrine, adhering to counterinsurgency tactics and instrumentalising language and culture to obtain intelligence and support of the local population. Following a poststructuralist and postcolonial approach inspired mainly by the works of Jacques Derrida and Homi Bhabha, this book proposes deconstructing the representations applied to the CLAs by analysing the discourses presented in the UN reports and doctrinal documents.

The overarching aim of the book is to provide the first comprehensive account of Sweden's feminist foreign policy and its dissemination through digital diplomacy. In contrast to other scholarly studies of digital diplomacy that tend to view it as a technological and apolitical device for online diplomatic communication, this book examines the specific political dynamics of digital diplomacy. It posits that digital diplomacy is a highly political practice and form of communication. The book offers an in-depth examination of the interdependent relationship between digital diplomacy and feminist foreign policy, with an empirical focus on Sweden. Additionally, it introduces a novel theoretical framework to analyse the political characteristics of digital diplomacy, emphasising the oscillation between antagonism and agonism at the intersection of feminist foreign policy and digital diplomacy.

In sum, the book provides new theoretical and empirical knowledge of why, how, and in what ways power-political dynamics are produced, sustained, and transformed within the contexts of feminist foreign policy and digital diplomacy. While the focus centres on Sweden, the authors contend that their novel approach to examining the political dynamics of digital diplomacy and feminist foreign policy applies to other country case studies as well.

This is an open access book.

This book explores the news media's coverage of Indigenous-settler reconciliation following the conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC). Using a comparative case study research design, the book examines news coverage of three significant Indigenous rights issues and events during the post-TRC era. The findings presented demonstrate that in the post-TRC era, the Canadian news media continue to produce systemic patterns in coverage which reject, marginalize and erase the territorial rights and claims of Indigenous Peoples. The author concludes that rather than helping to move the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and settlers forward along a path of reconciliation, power-sharing, and the resurgence of land-based self-determination, the news media are continuing to construct discourses and representations that work against the political objectives of Indigenous Peoples and reinforce settler colonial power relationships in Canada.

This book examines the various ways in which policymakers and political actors across different governmental levels have responded to the recent European refugee 'crisis', and the effects of these responses. Whereas previous studies have often focused on the discourses and policies implemented by national and local governments, this book shifts the focus to knowledge-formation and decision-making processes. Drawing on evidence from Italy - a country that has been centrally affected by the refugee 'crisis' - the book examines policy processes regarding asylum-seeking migration at sub-national, national and EU level. It argues that policymakers at all levels of government can be influenced by perceptions of public attitudes towards immigration, and that these perceptions are often divorced from objective evidence. The book will appeal to all those interested in multilevel governance, migration studies, public policy, and European politics.

After the brief respite that followed the fall of the USSR, geopolitics and major wars are back, affecting everyone everywhere. In a world transitioning to multipolarity Great Powers jostle for supremacy, regional powers feel emboldened to act on their own ambitions, supply chains are disrupted and instability becomes the norm. America has an empire that it wants to keep, Russia lost an empire that it wants to recover and China doesn't have an empire and wants one - with India the wildcard. But there is more to it than Great Power rivalry. From Ukraine to the South China Sea, from the Middle East to Central Asia, from the Arctic to outer space Bongiovanni lays it bare in this fascinating journey across the geopolitics of our time with, in the background, de-globalization, the battle against the dollar and the new AI-driven age.

In this second edition of North Korea's New Diplomacy, author Virginie Grzelczyk shows how North Korea has managed to weather an uncertain political future and catastrophic economic system since the end of the Cold War. Emerging as a state that has successfully developed and tested missiles and nuclear weapons, North Korea has consolidated the Kim family dynasty through the appointment of Kim Jong Un as Pyongyang's latest strongman. The author provides an up-to-date, empirically rich account of new diplomatic recognitions, military partnerships, knowledge trade, coping mechanisms to offset international sanctions, import and export partners, foreign investment practices and engagement within the Global South.

With new and updated text throughout, the book gives a detailed picture of a state that constantly becoming a more complex and relevant actor in the 21st century diplomatic world.

The pursuit of energy security and climate action is inextricably linked to the intricate web of geopolitical dynamics. This book offers a fresh perspective, masterfully weaving together the threads of energy, geopolitics, and sustainability to create a powerful tapestry of insights and solutions. It delves into the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17, emphasizing the need for multi-stakeholder collaboration to revitalize global partnerships and align countries towards a shared vision for climate action. It introduces the innovative concept of Cooperative Sustainable Development (CSD), which synergizes energy security, climate action, and geopolitical dynamics.

Delving into the heart of the Indo-Pacific region, a crucible of power struggles and resource competition, the authors expertly navigate the complexities of this geostrategic chessboard. Through meticulous research and incisive analysis, they unveil the intricate interplay between energy insecurity, political tensions, and the urgent need for climate action. Utilizing a multi-dimensional approach, this book offers readers a comprehensive, one-stop resource for understanding the geopolitics of energy and the path towards a peaceful, stable, secure, and clean Indo-Pacific powered by renewable energy.

This book delves into the profound question of whether moral philosophy rests upon metaphysical foundations. Contrary to the assertions of moral relativists such as John Mackie and Bernard Williams, who contend that ethics is devoid of metaphysical grounding, this work challenges their claims. Designed for those who approach morality and view ethics as a subject firmly anchored in metaphysics, this book is an essential exploration. It delves into the metaphysical underpinnings of morality, examining the source of morality in the metaphysical self, the intricate relations between ethics, self and the world and the interplay between ethics and metaphysics. It tackles fundamental questions, such as why freedom is the foundational postulate of morality and why, akin to Kant, we must acknowledge the importance of moral law. Furthermore, the chapters explore the nature of values and their metaphysical standing, the practical application of morality in the real world, the essence of virtues as attributes of the human soul, the interconnectedness of morality with rationality and spirituality and the challenges ethics faces from relativism and naturalism. The book appeals to moral philosophy researchers and students interested in unraveling morality's metaphysical roots. It offers an investigative exploration of the intricacies surrounding the problems of morality.

This book sheds light on a particularly complex aspect of post-conflict security reform: the transformation of the Kosovo Liberation Army into the Kosovo Security Force, a unique political and legal process. The authors demonstrate how different international and domestic actors played a role in this process and navigated a complex web of international law, political interests and the requirements to maintain peace and security in Kosovo and the region. It makes a special contribution to ongoing discussions on state development and peacebuilding, while acting as a case study for upcoming post-conflict scenarios.

This book argues that just as the ideas of Pan-Africanism birthed by Henry Sylvester-Williams and others in the late 1800s and Negritude ushered by Aime Cesaire and others in the early 1900s emboldened many major Black thinkers to push for independence across Africa, so will these early thinkers' ideas help in the building of a new Africa. The various chapters explore the proposition that the thoughts of early great Diaspora Black thinkers are still wellsprings of tenets that can be used to build a new Africa. The chapters examine how these thinkers conceptualized Africa in their works, with the main objective of delineating their conceptualizations to generate suggestions on how to build a new Africa.

This volume explains the behavior of the European Union (EU) towards Central Asia. In so doing, the responses of regional actors which impact the EU's regional conduct, and the effects of competing external governance providers (particularly Russia and China), are considered. The current literature - often from an interdisciplinary, descriptive area studies angle - reveals some research gaps. Scholars chiefly explore the impacts of the EU on Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, while action of the EU itself with its decision-making, preferences, and underlying drivers, remains underspecified. Focusing more explicitly on the EU, chapters in the book are systematically organized along a set of shared, overarching questions. Ultimately, the authors depict and explain EU action and assess how successful the organization has been in achieving its stated regional objectives in a number of policy fields: Economic Development and Trade; Security; Democratizationand Human Rights; Water; and Education.

This book proposes a new historical framework for the analysis of the relationship between communist Poland and neutral Austria during the final decade of the Cold War. The tragic Polish crisis of 1980-1982 is examined within the context of Poland's relationship with the wealthy, neutral country of Austria. By exploring the political meetings and negotiations that took place around the introduction of martial law in Poland, this book sheds light on Polish-Austrian bilaterial relations as seen from the perspective of Polish diplomatic documents. Divided into three parts, the book begins by illustrating Austria's attitude to reforms in Poland in the early 1980s. The second part focuses specifically on the imposition of martial law in Poland, and the third part explores the cooperation between the two countries through the form of investments and environment protection. Particular emphasis is placed on Polish attempts to recruit Austrian politicians in order to overcome the political isolation in which Warsaw found itself after December 13, 1981. The author analyses the political boundaries that Austria could, and wanted to, cross, in order to help the Polish regime, offering insights into Austria's fears of financial loss as a result of the collapse of the regime.

This book provides an updated analysis of political developments in a sample of overseas territories of France, the United States, China, Denmark, the Netherlands, Russia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and New Zealand. Ranging from Guam, Diego Garcia or New Caledonia/Kanaky to Greenland/Kalaallit Nunaat, Sakhalin, Kuril or Puerto Rico and other territories located all over the globe, these subnational island jurisdictions deserve attention because they lie at the intersection of many evolving issues such as decolonisation, self-determination, post-colonialism, globalisation, climate change, patterns of innovative governance. Moreover, they offer occasional "hotspots" for analysing international rivalries, conflicts related to illegal migration, disputes pertaining to the delimitation of exclusive economic zones (EEZ) and clashes between mainlands and islands. In addition, they provide fascinating case-studies to grasp the interplay of subnational, national and international politics, particularly in the age of the strategic shift towards the Indo-Pacific. Fred Constant reveals the extent to which these invisible dots on the map may matter in contemporary world affairs.

This volume illustrates and analyses the stereotypes and prejudices underlying the social representation of violence against women as it is narrated and described in Italy by the press and by court judgements. After a theoretical reflection on the role of culture and socialisation in reproducing the conditions underlying gender-based violence and its normalisation, and after reconstructing the historical evolution of gender roles and the stages of women's condition, the book presents the results of a sociological and of a socio-linguistic analysis on a vast corpus of 16,715 newspaper articles published by fifteen Italian newspapers on gender crimes (specifically: femicide; sexual violence; domestic violence; women trafficking) . The chapters analyze how national, macro-regional and local Italian press narrates violence against women but they also analyze a repertoire of 283 judicial sentences. The results show a clear tendency to redistribute the responsibilities of these crimes between the perpetrator and the victim, leading not only to secondary victimization but also to tertiary victimization, affecting the quality of Italian institutions as well as the democratic fiber of the nation.

The volume finally includes a compendium of the best and the worst practices found in the corpuses of sentences and newspapers' articles and a set of recommendations addressed to the institutional actors and journalists for a correct representation of gender-based violence, free from those stereotypes and prejudices that violate the dignity of male violence' victims and prevent them from accessing justice.

This book applies insights into the nature and impact of hope from medical studies and political philosophy to contemporary international politics. It shows how the promotion of hope was central to the rise of the West, focusing on the case of statebuilding in Kosovo - widely regarded as one of the most iconic Western initiatives in the unipolar era. The book explores the effects of hope on both the internationals charged with governing Kosovo and local residents, and how two related pathologies of hope - "wilful" and "wishful" - have aligned to slow Kosovo's progress since 1999.

The author argues that Kosovo's current plight is indicative of both the West's decline and the dark side of hope, vividly illustrating the perils of "bad hope". Yet the book explains why "dashed hope" need not lead to despair or violence, and why local initiatives in Kosovo demonstrate groups' and individuals' agency in forging progressive movements based on the principles and strategies of "good hope".

This book traces the origins and success of Ibrahim Rugova's policy of nonviolence in Kosovo between 1989-1999 and how it laid the framework for the creation of Kosovo's cultural and political identity as an independent state.

Ibrahim Rugova has long been neglected in understanding how Kosovo became an independent state, with most observers concentrating on the Kosovo Liberation Army and the armed conflict of 1999 in which NATO was involved. Jakup Azemi seeks to remedy this, arguing that despite the events of 1998/99, local actors and their political organisation mattered much more than is widely recognised. Rugova's movement represented a novelty not only for the Albanians but for the whole Balkan region. He developed a vision that integrated Albanians' cultural and historical experiences into the non-violent movement and presented the Kosovan conflict to the world with a different political and cultural lens.

This is a key text for scholars interested in the history of the Kosovar liberation movement, the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia; and those looking at current issues in the Western Balkans, and the Albanian-Kosovar relationship.

This timely text charts the metamorphosis of Russian media and culture in the 21st century. It considers how, when Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000, Russia's media and culture industry had enjoyed nearly a decade of almost unrestricted freedom and yet, by the time he launched his illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia's independent media was crushed, while the few viable opposition figures were either imprisoned, exiled, or dead under mysterious circumstances.

Eliot Borenstein looks at the manufactured cult of Putin, the competing models of Russianness put forth in the media, the obsession with nostalgia and the limits on imagining the future, the rise of aggressive patriotism and the myth of ancient Russian 'traditional' values, the significance of the fight against 'gay propaganda', and the absurdist strategies used by the opposition in the face of increasing restrictions on free speech. Though the book's title invokes Putin, Russian Culture under Putin does not cast the Russian leader as an all-knowing genius pursuing a master plan. The culture of the past twenty years, both official and independent, has been largely improvisational. 21st-century Russia, as Borenstein demonstrates so masterfully, has not been frog-marched into unfreedom, but has in fact lurched back and forth on a dimly-lit path.