Essays on the security challenges faced by African states.

The central concern that shapes this edited volume is the nature of the African state. Contributors point to an interesting intersection of domestic and external issues that is framed as a glocalized security situation. Individual chapters shed new insights on conflict drivers through case studies on Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Mali, Nigeria, and Somalia, as well as broader issues on the nature of African states. Arguments pivot on three issues, which show the intersection of the domestic and external forces that render the African state as a glocal problem: (a) the colonial roots of the state, (b) problems of governance, and (c) international and regional security imperatives. By problematizing the African state and connecting the security challenges of African states to colonialism, patrimonial rule, and geopolitical security issues, African States brings forth a new way of examining African states through the notion of glocalized security.

From call-and-response chants to the noise of pots and pans, protests are often defined by their sounds. In this book, Justin Eckstein argues that this is not merely the result of catchy slogans; it is due to sound's ability to hold those in power accountable. Sound Tactics highlights how, in a world grappling with the uncertainty of emergent digital practices, social movements utilize the rhetorical power of sound.

Eckstein uses the waveform as a metaphor for the persuasive potential of sound. Examining the case studies of the March for Our Lives protest, Howard University's #HUResist movement, and the Casseroles protest in Montreal, Eckstein demonstrates how changes to the immediacy, intensity, and immersiveness of sound can affect the power of an argument. The collective use of sound in these case studies conveys the unity of the protesters in their demand for change and underlines the strength of their argument to those in power.

More than just the written word spoken aloud, sound has unique layers of added meaning-it can convey length of time, demand attention, and signal disapproval. Eckstein's study unpacks those layers for scholars and students as well as activists interested in deploying sound for change.

This book offers an overview and analysis of the presidency of Ronald Reagan and the history of conservatism in the United States from the 1960s to the 2020s.

Focusing on major events of the 1980s, this book addresses the neo-liberal turn in economics and governance; culture war conflict over religion, abortion, Supreme Court vacancies, civil rights, drugs, and AIDS; and the final decade of the Cold War. It pays close attention to Reagan's domestic and foreign policies, including US-Soviet relations and the Reagan Doctrine, and analyzes the gap between his conservative rhetoric and his often pragmatic, even bipartisan, approach to governing. Each chapter highlights the criticisms of Reagan's policies from moderates and conservatives alike, offering a distinctive exploration of the 1980s as a period of intraparty conflict among Republicans. The book also places Reagan in a broader context through the tumult of the long 1960s, the domestic and foreign policy crises of the 1970s, and the rise of the 'mythical Reagan' who shaped Republican and Democratic politics into the present day.

The Reagan Revolution is an accessible resource for undergraduate, postgraduate, and non-specialist readers who have an interest in modern US history and politics.

Original essays on Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutical aesthetics and philosophy of art, written by some of the most important authors in this field, disclosing the possibility of a renewed understanding of Gadamer's thinking in the context of current aesthetic debates.

Hans-Georg Gadamer was one of the greatest intellectual figures of the twentieth century. As a philosopher trained in phenomenology, he established philosophical hermeneutics as one of the leading traditions of contemporary philosophy and opened new paths for philosophical reflection. Within the many dimensions of Gadamer's vast, complex, and multifaceted thinking, a special role is played by the question concerning the relevance of the various arts and the centrality of aesthetic experience in human life. Despite being one of the most relevant voices of twentieth-century philosophy, Gadamer's hermeneutics has at times been overlooked in contemporary philosophical debates. The firm conviction at the basis of this volume is that Gadamer's thought is still relevant today, especially regarding aesthetic questions concerning the persistent meaning and truth of art in the age of what he called "the shadow of nihilism" and in the age of the so-called "end of art." In contrast to the claim that Gadamer's philosophy is "anti-modern," or allegedly "out of date" in comparison to other philosophical approaches to aesthetic questions, Gadamer on Art and Aesthetic Experience aims to show that a renewed and critical confrontation with Gadamer's aesthetic thinking can offer stimulating and penetrating insights to understand the role of art in contemporary society in all its transformations and its challenging manifestations.

An examination of struggles for national sovereignty and social justice as seen through patriotic anthems and songs of resistance.

Anthems are songs of loyalty and devotion with religious or quasi-religious meanings, typically associated with nation-states. Singing patriotic songs together encourages a sense of shared identity and unified community among citizens. Anthems compares traditional American anthems, such as "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "America the Beautiful," with anthems of resistance from contemporary social movements, such as Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and Standing Rock. Although seldom fully recognized by political scientists, musical song plays a significant role in struggles for national unity and social justice. While America's national anthems celebrate a unitary (white) nation, these alternative anthems challenge the definition of sovereignty as property that characterizes modern Western democracies. They offer an alternative vision of a multicultural democracy still struggling to emerge. Written from an interdisciplinary perspective on culture, economics, and politics best described as critical theory, Anthems is intended for scholars, students, and, most important, citizens.

Offers an important and innovative contribution to environmental philosophy by investigating loss in times of anthropogenic climate change through the elements of water, fire, air, and earth.

Beyond Elemental Loss offers an important and innovative contribution to environmental philosophy by investigating loss in times of anthropogenic climate change through the elements of water, fire, air, and earth. Marjolein Oele argues that the current experience of loss prompts a reassessment of the conventional meaning and conceptualization of loss. She proposes that such loss is best understood through infinitesimal, diachronic shifts occurring in the elemental constellations that structure the world-water, fire, air, and earth-and humanity's incremental inability to cognitively and affectively make sense of this world increasingly transformed by anthropogenic forces. Through a generous yet critical reading of a broad range of interdisciplinary sources tracing changes in our relationship to the elemental over time, Oele's scholarship plumbs the history of philosophy as much as it pulls from Indigenous philosophies, continental thought, mythologies, anthropological and historical sources, science, and ecology. The book's argumentative arc ultimately directs our attention toward constructive transformations in our cognitive and affective habits, and it argues that trust can bring us beyond elemental loss.

An in-depth analysis of the primary conflicts animating the contemporary struggle over the regional order of the Middle East.

From the conflict between the United States and the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria to the recent Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, events in today's Middle East reflect the emergence of what has come to be known as an Iran-led "axis of resistance." A geopolitical network of state- and nonstate actors seeking to promote a new regional order, the "axis" primarily includes the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Yemen's Houthi rebels, Syria, and multiple Iran-supported Shiite militias in Iraq. Drawing on qualitative in-depth research in Hebrew and Arabic, and on exclusive interviews with senior Israeli officials, Axis of Resistance offers the first comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the "axis" and its application of a distinct strategic approach to asymmetrical conflicts-that of "resistance." Author Daniel Sobelman shows that the various "resistance" forces in the region have pursued an analogous asymmetrical deterrent strategy whose origins trace back to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in southern Lebanon, whereby the weaker actor attempts to subject the stronger state to limiting "rules of the game."

This edited volume provides a timely and critical analysis of Africa-EU Relations in the new Samoa Agreement phase of the long-standing 'Eurafrican' relationship.

Drawing on a range of critical perspectives and contributions it moves beyond Eurocentric visions of policy co-operation on development to highlight three core themes that frame the analysis within this volume: the new scramble for Africa, Europe's ontological security and the securitisation of development and African agency. In doing so, it assesses EU actors' engagement with African institutions in relation to key areas of policy collaboration, including trade, development, health, migration and security. In this context, it examines whether the 'partnership' offers African states and regional institutions a genuine pathway to 'development' or whether historical power asymmetries remain entrenched - and perhaps even exacerbated - through the new Africa-EU Agreement.

This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners involved in Development Studies, EU studies, Africa-EU Relations, African politics and International Relations and more broadly to International Political Economy and Comparative Regionalism.

This book offers a geneaological understanding of the condition of our time by reconstructing the complex story of the transition from the "cyclical time" of the classic era to the "linear and infuturant time" of the modern world. Time is therefore understood not as a simple vector, but as a trans-political form par excellence, which involves the fundamental philosophical and political categories of the modern constellation: beginning with the concepts of progress, revolution, liberation, and alternative.

Arguing that the process of secularization (in its broadest sense) is dependent on the modern notion of cumulative and irreversible time-together with the temporalization of history-Power and Secularization constitutes a conceptual history that will appeal to scholars of social and political theory and philosophy with interests in intellectual history and the genealogical method.

Public Sector Ethics: Compliance, Integrity, and Comparison presents a comprehensive treatment of the subject of ethics in the public sector. What structural elements are necessary and how to create organizations that make ethics their priority are the questions that this edited book addresses. It focuses on ethics management in public organizations and includes national case studies from select low- to middle-income countries.

Taken together, the chapters in this book cover the mechanisms, activities, and approaches that public organizations employ in ethics management. These are of utmost importance because the actions of public organizations affect citizens' lives, liberties, and property, and their ethical character affects citizens' faith in government. Numerous factors are at play in each instance of ethics management in public organizations, and controlling ethical behavior is difficult. This book suggests that effective ethics management requires a comprehensive approach. Traditional approaches such as ethics codes, policies and legislation, training, incentives, sanctions, monitoring, and compliance reviews are tools to achieve ethical conformity. Yet, they are effective only if leadership, values, and cultural transformation support them. This edited volume is a cohesive treatment of the subject, covering traditional approaches to ethics management, such as monitoring and compliance, and more contemporary approaches, like integrity building through ethical leadership and organizational values, as well as how to skillfully and effectively combine them to change organizational ethical contexts.

This book exposes readers to new approaches and emerging issues in public sector ethics, aids in understanding the challenges of creating ethical organizations, and helps to develop a deeper understanding of ethics management in government organizations. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and advanced students in the fields of business ethics, public administration and management, leadership, and organizational studies.

Ang describes the development of the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA), an important security regional arrangement, from its inception to the present from the perspectives of the five FPDA allies.

The book recounts the establishment of the FPDA in 1971 from the Anglo-Malaysian Defence Agreement and its development in the first 20 years to the end of the Cold War in 1990. Based on declassified archival documents and secondary literature, it explores how the FDPA has evolved and adapted to provide different benefits to each of its partners after the Cold War. Ang contextualises the FPDA within existing scholarship and offers a glimpse into possible future trajectories.

A valuable resource for scholars, students, researchers, and professionals interested in international history, defence, and security.

This edited volume focuses on contemporary terrorism challenges that remain serious in the Indo-Pacific region long after the seminal terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001.

Since then, the emergence of the new terrorism has been epitomised by rise of radical Islamist terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. Through the use of new terrorism techniques and strategies, such movements have been able to transform themselves into worldwide, global jihadist movements. While both Al Qaeda and the Islamic State have suffered greatly from vigorous and sustained global counter-terrorism operations led by the United States, their local affiliates in the Indo-Pacific, as well as other local radical Islamist and non-Islamist groups, have continued to pose serious terrorist challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. While the threat has somewhat abated in recent times in Southeast Asia, the terrorist threat remains very serious in South Asia. The chapters in this book assess the key threats and counter-terrorism responses of South and Southeast Asia to these on-going challenges.

This book will be indispensable to students, scholars and policy makers working on Asian Security, Politics, International Relations and the security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific region. The chapters in this issue were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Policing, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism.

This book uses feminist and postcolonial approaches to archival research and interviews to interrogate the persistence of colonial logics in contemporary counterterrorism practice, exposing how forms of state violence are normalised and legitimised. The book investigates the historical development of preventive tools through the discursive imagery of vulnerability, morality and extremism that characterise contemporary counterterrorism and counter-violent extremism in Britain and Egypt. In so doing the book argues that counterterror tools are based upon a colonial hierarchy of humanity that legitimises more violent treatment for racialised, classed and gendered subjects. This volume will appeal to scholars and students of critical terrorism studies, socio-legal studies and criminology. It will also fit within sociology and critical theory courses on postcolonialism and gender studies as well as courses on colonialism, feminist histories and critical legal history, international politics, international relations, and Middle Eastern politics.

The Military Metaverse explores the impact that the Metaverse is having today on how the world's militaries procure, maintain, train, plan, and fight, and how the Metaverse presents new challenges and opportunities for future conflict.

The military were early adopters of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies and wider simulation systems. Before 2010 they were one of the few sectors that could afford the technology, and millions of military R&D dollars went into developing and understanding these technologies. However, as the democratisation of Metaverse technologies has happened over the past decade, there is a danger that militaries have been overtaken and caught short, encumbered with often costly legacy systems, sold and maintained by prime contractors, while the gaming and consumer market has cheaper and more innovative and agile systems. This book provides a history of the use of Metaverse technologies in the military, particularly in the areas of design, maintenance, training, planning, and operations. It then examines the current state of the art in these areas and the opportunities that are available from the current generation of consumer-driven approaches. The drivers for, challenges to, and paths towards an enterprise approach to the Military Metaverse are then presented. The book explores the military use of social virtual worlds, of early work done by defence and security organisations in worlds such as Second Life, and how such environments could become important for intelligence as well as influence operations in the future. Finally, the book will consider what war in the Metaverse might look like, in terms of both in-world activities and the impact of cyber-war on the Metaverse itself.

This book should be of interest to all militaries across the world, the industries that support them, and those in academia and the wider public with an interest in the military and defence.

This book examines the debate over private security contractors, using historical and contemporary cases, including several non-Western examples.

Since the end of the Cold War, security privatization has grown in its geographical outreach, breadth, and scope. This pervasive expansion of the private military and security market warrants a systematic investigation of commercial actors' involvement in the variety of tasks associated with the provision of violence, ranging from combat to vessel protection and cybersecurity. Combining theoretical and empirical approaches, the essays in this volume provide a historical investigation into private force that extends beyond Europe and the United States.

By focusing on recent developments, such as the extensive involvement of Russian mercenaries in Ukraine, new evidence from the Global South, and the added historical depth given to the study of commercial providers of warfare, this volume questions the endurance of norms like the mercenary taboo and the state monopoly of violence. In doing so, it sheds new light on the past, present, and future of private security.

This book will be of much interest to students of private security studies, military studies, security studies, and international relations.

Elena Atanassova-Cornelis, Yoichiro Sato, Tom Sauer, and their contributors examine the implications of the shifts in power for the regional security order, as the longterm relative decline of the US standing in the global hierarchy of power is more pronounced than ever due to the challenges it faces from the rising China in Asia and the reviving Russia in Europe.

The world is in disarray, and the balance of power is shifting, which results in enhanced tensions and wars, including on the territory of Europe. The complexity of the international order that prevails today possibly misleads us toward viewing everything in terms of a bipolar competition, as predicted by systemic-level realism. While membership of the multilateral NATO Alliance expands in Europe in light of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, China's assertive behavior in Asia has produced numerous strategic alignments that are short of a formal alliance involving Asian states, the US, and European countries. 'Hedging' strategies are commonly found in Asian states' approaches to security, working against the bifurcation of powers. Contrarily, European entries into alignments in the 'Indo-Pacific' have demonstrated the inseparability of security in Asia from security in Europe through the shared thread of 'engaging the US'. Whether China defines its challenge against the US in regional or global terms also has differing implications for the evolution of the international system. This book, with contributions by Asian, European, and North American experts, provides an overview of the two regions' differing alignment paths in comparative and inter-regional perspectives.

The book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers, practitioners, and policy analysts interested in European and Asia-Pacific security, as well as international and regional security issues.