The Cairo School of an Islamic Civilizational Paradigm in International Relations: The Building Process traces the intellectual evolution of a multi-generational scholarly project developed at Cairo University's Faculty of Economics and Political Science over four decades. Rather than treating Islam as a cultural or political variable, the paradigm positions Islam as a standpoint shaping knowledge production in the discipline. It introduces a taw?idi (monotheism-based) epistemic framework that rethinks the claimed universality of International Relations' metatheoretical foundations while recognizing plural worldviews and their formative role in theory, methodology, and ontology.

Moving beyond traditional jurisprudential approaches, the paradigm advances a multidimensional civilizational approach to International Relations that integrates historical, ethical, cultural, and social dimensions into the analysis of global politics. This book explores the paradigm's origins, core assumptions, conceptual architecture, and cumulative development across generations. It situates the approach primarily in relation to positivist and post-positivist traditions while also engaging non-Western approaches and emphasizes its comparative method of theorization and concept formation.

Arguing for a more inclusive and epistemologically diverse understanding of global politics, The Cairo School of an Islamic Civilizational Paradigm in International Relations: The Building Process will appeal to advanced students and scholars of International Relations, catering to those with an inclusive and epistemologically diverse understanding of global politics.

This seminal volume offers a systematic analysis of the factors, rationales, and evolving forms of private philanthropic engagement in education from countries across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Providing a critical and nuanced examination into the dynamics of private philanthropy's role in education, the volume features a diverse range of case studies from Lebanon, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina, furthering debate at the intersection between philanthropy and education policy. Chapters showcase a variety of methodologies such as network analysis to explore philanthropic foundations such as the Lemann Foundation in Brazil, Grupo Luksic in Chile, and Fundacion Perez Companc in Argentina, as well as European philanthropic foundations active in sub-Saharan Africa, providing a novel, more regionally focused perspective on education and philanthropy. Other chapters employ a variety of research methods to explore how these non-state actors promote what are thought to be politically and economically expedient policies. Documentary analysis of archival sources, interviews, institutional theory, Resource Dependence Theory, Bourdieusian theoretical frameworks, and critical policy analysis also feature in the book.

Offering insights and direction for future research in the field, this volume will be of interest to scholars, researchers, and postgraduate students in international and comparative education and education policy. Policymakers as well as regional and international organizations, including NGOs and INGOs, that support educational interventions in the Global South will also find the volume of use.

How did the War on Terror impact Al-Qaida in the decade after 9/11?

This is the first book to analyse the inner workings of the group through the eyes of its mid-level leaders in Pakistan, who were, in practice, running al-Qaida's affairs when communications with Osama bin Laden were slow or absent.

The book relies on a large collection of little-known Arabic primary sources about al-Qaida, including the "Abbottabad documents" - the group's own, internal communications between 2002-2011. Al-Qaida's performance is assessed in three areas: the war in Afghanistan; the war in Iraq; and international terrorism. Chapters explain why the group's contributions to the Afghan war were modest, shows the reasons for Al-Qaida's inability to influence events in Iraq, and charts its fading ability to organize international terrorist attacks.

The Abbottabad documents reveal that Al-Qaida's demise after 9/11 was not simply the result of effective counterterrorism. Rather, the group's organizational weaknesses and the fallibilities of individual leaders played a vital role. The book gives us the first glimpse into the instances where bin Laden's lack of strategy meant al-Qaida's mid-level leadership had to grapple with the consequences. It also documents the detrimental impact of the relationship between al-Qaida and the Taliban.

This book analyses ethnic conflict, peace, and democracy in Afghanistan, with a particular focus on the Hazara peoples struggles during the 2001-2021 era.

Ethnicity shapes everything in Afghanistan, its state, its political structures and its social institutions. This book aims to evaluate how ethnicity shapes politics in Afghanistan and focuses on some of the aspects of the Hazara people's struggles to reach sustainable peace with justice in Afghanistan. It develops a new framework to better understand that ethnicity is not just a 'politically sensitive issue' but defines how politics is being conducted; in that sense, the 'how' of Afghanistan's politics along ethnic divisions is re-conceptualized, problematized, and contextualized. The book puts forward a nuanced argument by analytically distinguishing between and empirically testing political and social behaviours, perspectives, and practices in relation to ethnicity, which is increasingly gaining in salience and informing intercommunal relationships in Afghanistan. This approach provides significant new insights into non-traditional political contexts.

This book will be of much interest to students of ethnic conflict, Asian politics, critical security studies, and international relations.

This edited collection offers a comprehensive, multidisciplinary examination of how the EU has addressed violent radicalization as a key precursor to terrorism.

Set against the backdrop of the post-9/11 security landscape and the evolving threats of jihadist, far-right, online, and lone-actor extremism, the volume analyzes the gradual shift from state-centered counterterrorism to preventive and cooperative frameworks. The book combines international, legal, and policy analyses with local and individual-level perspectives. The first part explores EU-level policies, legal competences, and cooperation mechanisms developed to prevent violent radicalization, highlighting both achievements and structural limitations. Chapters examine the evolution of EU prevention strategies, the adequacy of EU law to address emerging trends, the development of the European Security Union, and the risks of counterproductive securitization through concepts such as the "extremism trap." The second part focuses on emerging threats and practical prevention experiences, emphasizing gaps in existing responses. It addresses underexplored phenomena, such as incel ideology, far-right digital activism, and lone-actor terrorism, as well as the role of mental health, education, and identity dynamics in radicalization processes. The chapters in this second part include empirical studies and program evaluations largely drawn from European and Spanish contexts.

This book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced students in the fields of terrorism and counterterrorism studies, radicalization, the prevention of violent extremism, international law, European politics, criminology, and security studies more broadly.

This unique volume brings together intergenerational survivors of genocide and mass atrocities, who are actively engaged in producing knowledge related to their lived and inherited experiences, to share their stories. Centering survivor positionality as a source of epistemic insight rather than bias, the book examines how intergenerational experiences shape scholarship, pedagogy, advocacy, healing, and atrocity prevention practice.

Contributors reflect on the benefits, risks, and ethical tensions of this focal positionality while offering concrete recommendations to reduce harm and strengthen support across academic, humanitarian, and policy domains. Organized thematically, the volume explores personal and communal ways of knowing atrocity, identity, and moral inheritance, and the structural conditions under which survivor-scholars work. The book is divided into three parts, including teachings about one's own lived experiences, narratives about positionality and identity, and navigating and improving conditions for intergenerational survivors in knowledge production.

Exploring how intergenerational experiences impact the production of knowledge on atrocity violence, this book will appeal to scholars and students of genocide and mass atrocity prevention, memory studies, transitional justice, peacebuilding, and related interdisciplinary fields.

Cities are at the centre of a contemporary civilisational crisis, marked by displacement, climate breakdown, armed conflict, authoritarianism, and widening inequality. These conditions are not external shocks to urban life but constitutive forces through which cities are made, governed, inhabited, and contested. It is from these uneven, conflictual, and lived terrains that Southern urbanism(s) is being enacted today. This Handbook traces key debates shaping contemporary urbanisation through Southern urbanism(s) as an epistemic orientation, engaging critically with how urban theory and practice are being reworked in contexts where crises are most intensely lived and negotiated. Rather than offering models or solutions, the volume examines how urban knowledge is produced through situated practices, struggles, and experiments.

The book is organised into six interconnected sections that address the ethics and politics of urban inquiry; the entanglements of theory and practice; the governance of contested cities; the Southern infrastructural turn; struggles over situated urban justice; and pluriversal urban future imaginaries. The Handbook argues that centring situated reflections from and about Southern urbanism(s) enables scholars and practitioners to learn from the front lines where urban challenges are confronted, contested, and re-imagined. The "South" is treated not as a fixed geography but as a relational and epistemic position shaped by power, positionality, and lived urban conditions. Engaging questions that scholars and practitioners grapple with in their everyday work, the volume explores how theory emerges through practice, how global agendas are negotiated or resisted, and how alternative imaginaries of justice and urban futures are mobilised for the global majority.

The Handbook is an essential guide and reference not only for researchers engaged with southern (urban) theory and southern urbanism(s), but also for undergraduate and graduate teaching and for urban practitioners, policymakers, and activists.

After 1945, Britain wanted to be a new country.

The authority of state and church were giving way, the Empire was dismantled, and it was no longer clear who was leading whom in matters of morals. Individuals were left to reinvent their ethical lives anew.

The lives and works of the philosophers discussed in this book were caught up this sea-change. Bernard Williams, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Richard Wollheim, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre were all characters in search of a moral England, with a particular vision of the good society. From communitarianism to swinging Sixties' individualism, and radical theories of art - which understood questions of ambiguity, error and forgiveness more than the state ever could - this is the story of their sometimes convergent but often discrepant ideas on ethical life in the second half of the twentieth century.

Undoing the Moral Empire is a work of biography, social history and the history of ideas that masterfully reconstructs the shifting sentiments of the post-war era, reconfiguring enduringly relevant questions of freedom, virtue, and society.

With its authoritarian distortions, the Marxism of the 20th century sundered the connections between the practice of Communism, and its essentially democratic ethos.

This book reconstructs those vital threads by turning to the work of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci. In the wake of the rise of neoliberalism and the new global order that it ushered in, Gramsci and the Struggle for Democratic Communism asks: what form of political rule can facilitate the transition away from capitalism's increasingly apocalyptic end game?

To answer this question, Wayne puts Gramsci into dialogue with key thinkers from his own historical period, from Marx, Lenin and Trotsky through to John Dewey and Walter Lippmann. Wayne argues that Gramsci's contribution to Marxism helps clarify the political inheritance that class democracies bequeath a revolutionary transition. Wayne then puts Gramsci into a critical dialogue with contemporary thinkers such as Stuart Hall, Ernesto Laclau and Antonio Negri, analysing such crisis situations as Britain and Venezuela under neoliberalism. In the final chapter he develops the concept of 'elongated dual power' to explore how revolutionary change can be reconciled with democratic principles as the old choice between barbarism or revolutionary change looms once more on the horizon.

The Europa Directory of International Organizations 2026 is an essential guide to understanding the complex architecture of the international system.

Within a clear, unique framework the structure and recent activities of all major intergovernmental organizations and multilateral institutions are described in detail. With additional extensive background information this publication offers an insight into the role and evolving functions of these organizations in today's world.

The contact details, key personnel and activities of more than 2,000 international and regional entities have again been thoroughly researched and updated for this 26th edition.

Highlights in this edition include:

- the response of the international community to humanitarian emergencies, conflicts and climate crises throughout the world.

- specially-commissioned introductory essays, including on the role of international organizations in a changing global order.

- a fully revised Who's Who section with biographical details of the key players in the international system.

This book analyzes Israeli military actions in Gaza following the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023, offering a rigorous assessment through the lens of genocide studies. Drawing on established theoretical frameworks, the author demonstrates how these events align with recognized definitions of genocide, challenging readers to confront difficult questions about collective violence and responsibility. The analysis explores how Israeli actions are shaped by historical trauma, particularly the Holocaust, and fears that Palestinian control of the same area would threaten Jewish existence.

Through meticulous research, the book reveals the mechanisms enabling mass violence: identity polarization, dehumanization, and psychological denial that preserves moral self-image. In a parallel investigation, the author documents widespread attempts to suppress academic and public discourse on Israel-Palestine relations. Through carefully documented case studies involving academic censorship, professional retaliation, deportations, and institutional interference, the book makes a powerful case for protecting free inquiry as essential to understanding and addressing complex geopolitical conflicts.

This volume will appeal to scholars specializing in genocide and related forms of group violence, students learning about these topics, and anyone interested in academic freedom issues and current events associated with Gaza.

This book uncovers the rich heritage of borderlands. At the border, people exist in-between, whether they live their lives at the near boundaries, or whether they are just passing through, as travelers or tourists.

The heritage of these spaces is a vast collection of remnants and reminiscences, defined by memory, preservation, and geopolitics at the margins. It is at once a heritage of borders, and the bordering of heritage. This book defines border heritage as a realization, valuation, and manifestation of this being and belonging in-between: a form of heritage bordered by the politics of inclusion and exclusion of the various authorities of states, heritage organizations, communities, and tourism agencies. Richly illustrated with case studies and examples drawn from around the world, the book considers post-colonial border heritage, the growing pursuit of border heritage tourism, a new agenda for border wall studies, the continuing politics of legacy, the temporal cycles and rhythms in border heritage, and the heritage of border culture endurance, recurrence, and revival.

Bringing together a wide range of spatial and temporal approaches to border heritage, this book will be perfect for researchers and students of border and heritage studies, as well as professionals specializing in heritage management or tourism.

This book discusses the interregional relationship between Africa and Europe.

It examines various issues and dynamics in the relationship including trade, migration, regional integration and organisations, conflict, peace and security, culture, education, technology and innovation, as well as partnerships between African academic institutions and EU member states or state agencies, and with civil society organisations. Explicitly reflecting African views, the book presents unique analyses of data that generate new insights on Africa and its relationship with Europe and the EU, and provides theoretical and conceptual explanations of this, and, by extension, interregionalism. It positively argues that Africa, the African Union and its member states should introspect, reform and make the most of the opportunities that exist in initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), and exploit engagement in Africa's interest to transform the continent and promote development. Ultimately, the book challenges and simultaneously adds to, mostly, Eurocentric debates, literature and examinations of the Africa-EU relationship.

This book will be of key interest to researchers and scholars of African Studies, Regionalism, Regional Integration, Development Studies, Human Geography, and, more broadly, to International Relations, Political Economy and Political Science.

Cross-Cultural Musicology from Asia-Pacific Perspectives brings together thirteen scholars to consider what it means to teach, research, write, and talk about music history in the context of globalization. The book is divided into essays with a more critical and theoretical emphasis (Part 1) and more practically oriented chapters (Part 2), with case studies and a discussion of methods. Bringing together scholars in historical musicology, historical performance practice, and cultural studies from across four continents, this book models diverse ways of carrying out cross-cultural musicology. Cross-Cultural Musicology from Asia-Pacific Perspectives will be of interest to scholars and teachers of ethnomusicology and music history, as well as those concerned with the particular context and history of the Asia-Pacific region.

This book is a comprehensive guide for foreign policy practitioners navigating the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on diplomacy and statecraft.

It begins by simplifying AI technologies for nontechnical readers and tracing historical parallels of how these transformative technologies have reshaped diplomacy. Organized into three themes-Progress, Power, and Peace-the book explores AI as a frontier reshaping international affairs. The Progress and Power sections examine AI's role in geopolitical competition, economic security, and the rise of Big Tech as quasi-sovereign actors, alongside security threats like lethal autonomous systems and AI-driven cyber warfare. The Peace section offers practical insights, showcasing real-world AI applications in diplomacy, peacebuilding, and crisis management. This book also addresses ethical and governance challenges, such as algorithmic bias, the erosion of human control, and the race to regulate AI's rapid evolution. Concluding with aspirations rather than predictions, it envisions how nations can navigate AI rivalry, seize opportunities, and redirect technologies toward peace. Designed for flexibility, each chapter stands alone, enriched with quotes, case studies, and reflections to inspire readers to explore AI's implications for global diplomacy.

This is not a book about tomorrow; it's about preparing for tomorrow by understanding the choices made today. Whether you're a diplomat seeking to understand these tools, a technologist grasping the geopolitical implications of your work, a student preparing for international relations, or a citizen navigating a changing world, this book offers a vital resource, grounded in real-world examples, to guide future work in becoming more informed and responsible.

This book examines evolving trends in India's non-traditional statecraft approaches. It analyzes cultural and diasporic diplomacy through sports, dance, and immigration histories, alongside strategic foreign policy and political leadership dynamics. Contributors explore innovative diplomatic tools such as artificial intelligence and big data applications in diplomatic practice, and also includes:

• Comprehensive examination of India's evolving diplomatic strategies beyond traditional statecraft approaches
• Analysis of cultural and diasporic diplomacy including sports, dance, and immigration histories
• Assessment of strategic foreign policy and political leadership in contemporary global context
• Exploration of innovative diplomatic tools including artificial intelligence and big data applications
• Expert perspectives on India's soft power projection across Asia and global diaspora engagement

This title has been co-published with Knowledge World Publishers. T&F does not sell or distribute the print versions in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri lanka.

This book examines how states adapt to the modern information environment and why some do so more effectively than others.

Drawing on theories of military innovation and strategic culture, this book analyzes how the information environment has altered the character of war by blurring traditional boundaries between military operations, political authority, and society. It compares how four major powers-the United States, China, Russia, and the United Kingdom-have understood and integrated information as a form of national power. Using a comparative case study methodology, this book assesses how different political systems, civil-military relationships, and cultural traditions influence whether information capabilities are treated as a supporting tool or as a central instrument of strategy. Well-known and timely cases-such as Russian information warfare, China's military-civil fusion and Digital Silk Road, and Western democratic constraints on information operations-are used to illustrate broader patterns. This book advances both theory and policy by providing practical recommendations for Western militaries seeking to modernize their cognitive and strategic influence capabilities.

This book will be of interest to students of strategic and military studies, defense studies, and international relations, as well as to military practitioners.

This important volume uses securitisation theory to critically evaluate India's climate change policy, scrutinising the normative and non-normative features of the theory and suggesting the introduction of open impartiality as a corrective lens to address the theory's ethical deficits.

The book demonstrates India's understanding of climate change as a threat to the economic development of the country (in addition to the threats posed by the environmental policies of developed countries). In doing so, the book contends that India's political leaders have successfully employed these twin threats to successfully securitise the economic development of India. The book uses India as a compelling case study to novelly integrate open impartiality within securitisation theory; chapters map out the normative rationale of India in securitising economic development within its climate discourse, and applies discourse analysis to speeches, negotiation statements and policy documents from Indian leaders and institutions.

Ultimately exploring how best to integrate justice issues within security studies-and more specifically climate justice in climate security discourses-the book will therefore be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of international relations, security studies, and environmental politics. Those specifically studying India's national security discourses will also benefit from the book.

This book provides a comprehensive overview of Russia's Arctic policies since the 2022 war with Ukraine began. Covering geopolitical transformations, domestic evolutions and the role of climate change, it traces how, for around two decades, Russia has renewed its strategic interest in the Arctic region. It reflects on how, with more than half of the circumpolar territories, Russia's Arctic regions generate between 10 and 15% of Russia's GDP and a quarter of its exports, with the yet-to-be-explored reserves of the Arctic continental shelf also offering immense potential.

Russia's Arctic analyses the growth of hydrocarbon deposits in the far north of Siberia and nearby offshore areas and how this has contributed to the rapid development of the Northern Sea Route. Marlene Laruelle and Jean Radvanyi examine the tremendous long-term importance of the region for Russia, regardless of internal political developments and the state of relations with the West. Long a place for science diplomacy and transborder dialogue, the region has once again become a hotspot for geostrategic tensions and a new interface between an expanded NATO and Russia. While the West is imposing increasingly broad sanctions specifically targeting Arctic hydrocarbon development projects, the Russian government is striving to circumvent or mitigate their effects with countermeasures by relying on their allies, most of whom are Asian.

Laruelle and Radvanyi convincingly contend that Russian Arctic development policy must take into account the economic needs of the Russian budget and the geopolitical realities of decoupling from the West and pivoting towards the so-called 'Global South'. Additionally, it must consider the heavy legacies of the past in terms of population, infrastructure, and pollution, as well as future projections regarding the impact of climate change.

This book examines India-Japan bilateral ties in historical context and contemporary significance during Modi and Abe administrations. The study analyzes less explored issues such as Indian diaspora in Japan and bilateral cooperation in Northeast India development, complementarity of interests in security and economic aspects with assessment of shared Asian values and also includes:

• Comprehensive evaluation of India-Japan bilateral ties in historical context and contemporary significance during Modi and Abe administrations
• Analysis of less explored issues including Indian diaspora in Japan and bilateral cooperation in developing Northeast India region
• Assessment of complementarity and convergence of interests between India and Japan in security and economic aspects
• Investigation of shared Asian values and mutual understanding as foundation for deeper cooperation on regional and global issues
• Policy recommendations for future directions of India-Japan relationship based on micro-analysis of overlooked bilateral issues

This title has been co-published with Knowledge World Publishers. T&F does not sell or distribute the print versions in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri lanka.

This volume of The Cairo School of an Islamic Civilizational Paradigm in International Relations advances the paradigm from intellectual formation to methodological application. It turns to the analytical tools, research approaches, and units of analysis of the Islamic Civilizational Paradigm-demonstrating how a taw?idi episteme informs the actual study of global politics.

Structured in three parts, this volume elaborates core methodological approaches, including maqa?id and sunnan, and illustrates how they generate explanatory, evaluative, and policy-relevant insights. It further develops distinctive analytical contributions of the paradigm, such as its understanding of hegemony and its incorporation of the Ummah as a level of analysis that transcends methodological nationalism. Through sustained comparison with positivist and critical traditions, this volume clarifies both points of convergence and enduring epistemological differences. This volume concludes with reflections by leading International Relations scholars who assess the paradigm's strengths, challenges, and future prospects within an evolving global discipline.

Essential reading for scholars and students of International Relations, this volume presents the Islamic Civilizational Paradigm not as a closed doctrine, but as a cumulative and dialogical project contributing to a more genuinely plural and globally inclusive field of International Relations.

This book examines the transformation of Asian regional order through expert analysis of major power dynamics and institutional frameworks. Contributors assess US, Chinese, Indian, and Russian strategic visions while analyzing evolving architectures including RCEP, BRICS, SCO, and Quad and also includes:

• Comprehensive analysis of Asia's transition from unipolarity to multipolarity by leading regional experts
• Examination of major powers' strategic visions including US, China, India, Russia, and regional actors
• In-depth coverage of evolving regional architectures including RCEP, SCO, BRICS, and Quad framework
• Analysis of Indo-Pacific security dynamics and maritime order transformation
• Expert perspectives on territorial disputes, border questions, and conflict management mechanisms

This title has been co-published with Knowledge World Publishers. T&F does not sell or distribute the print versions in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri lanka.

Recognizing the significance of cross-cultural exchange across newly established frontiers, this edited volume explores the purpose and relevance of non-Japanese individuals who operated with or within the samurai class and their role in constructing and communicating identity in early modern Japan.

The volume proposes a largely unexplored methodological lens through which to examine Japanese engagement with foreign others: the samurai class. These chapters locate instances of cross-cultural influence, by non-Japanese who conformed to Japanese society or by Japanese people who adopted foreign practices, and identify those individuals responsible for creating such fusion - and, at times, confusion - of values, loyalties, and traditions. This project serves as an examination of foreigners within the warrior class, gathering such studies in a singular volume, to yield vital and timely insight into power dynamics, the performance of identity, and the transmission and translation of cultural ideologies in the early modern world. Topics explored include samurai and the Japanese military class; Portuguese, Dutch, and English merchants in eastern Asia; Jesuit activity in Japan; Japan's invasions of Korea; the reopening of Japan to western contact; European travel accounts; artistic and textual representation of Japan; and the Boshin War.

This volume appeals to a range of scholars, both those from European and eastern Asian studies and of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. The collection is well suited for graduate students of Japanese history, identity in the early modern period, and global exploration and commercial enterprise.

Ludwig Wittgenstein left an indelible footprint on contemporary philosophy. His influence has been rich and wide-ranging. However, the interpretation or understanding of Wittgenstein's views - both his early views and his late views - is exceedingly fraught and contentious. How was Wittgenstein's thought received by his contemporaries, such as Frank Ramsey, Bertrand Russell, Gilbert Ryle, and Elizabeth Anscombe? How did it shape the philosophical outlook of later philosophers, such as Michael Dummett, Willard
Quine, Hilary Putnam, and Richard Rorty? And how does it continue to influence contemporary philosophers such as Crispin Wright, Simon Blackburn, Penelope Maddy, and Charles Travis?

The Routledge Handbook of Wittgenstein and Other Philosophers: Part 1 examines the impact and influence of Wittgenstein's thought on some of the most significant philosophers of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Comprising forty chapters by a
stellar line-up of contributors, Part 1 considers Wittgenstein's impact on the forementioned figures as well as many more, with chapters for example on Wilfrid Sellars, Noam Chomsky, Thomas Nagel, Cora Diamond, Saul Kripke, Robert Brandom, and John McDowell.

China's foreign policy is one of the most significant forces shaping global politics today. This book examines the evolving logic, instruments, and contradictions of China's approach in an era of intensified great power competition. It explores China's reshaped relations with the United States and Europe, its deepening yet uneasy alignment with Russia, its evolving security and economic strategies along its periphery, and its expanding influence in the Global South. Rather than portraying China as pursuing a singular, coherent grand strategy, the chapters reveal a complex picture of ambition and constraint, cooperation and competition, confidence and insecurity.

This edited volume brings together a collection of previously published articles from the Journal of Contemporary China, offering a cohesive and insightful analysis of these themes. At its core is a compelling idea: China's foreign policy combines hard-nosed concerns about power, security, and rivalry with a strategic reliance on institutions, economic ties, and global governance. This duality explains why China alternates between challenging the existing international order and working within it.

Written in clear, accessible language, this book is essential reading for students, policymakers, and general readers in the fields of international relations, political science, Asian studies, and global governance. It offers valuable insights into China's growing global role and its profound implications for the future of international relations.

This edited volume examines how political violence and coercion are central to state capture.

Departing from accounts that largely emphasize economic influence, corruption, and institutional weakness, this volume demonstrates how armed force, intimidation, and repression can be decisive in enabling elites and armed actors to control state institutions. The book examines how, across different political and institutional settings, political and economic elites can work in alliance with armed actors-including militias, paramilitaries, and organized crime networks-to shape policy, extract resources, and undermine accountability. Through comparative case studies spanning the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, and southern Europe, the chapters show how, in fragile and vulnerable states, violence and corruption can become embedded in everyday governance. By systematically integrating political violence into the study of state capture, the book offers a timely framework that bridges political economy, security studies, and state-building debates.

This book will be of great interest to students of political violence, corruption, state fragility, governance in contested spaces, and international relations.

This book examines the political dynamics and complexities of the European Council at a time of seemingly chronic crisis and rapid political change. Providing insight into the everyday workings of this critically important EU institution, it covers: why the European Council matters; its roles and responsibilities; its impact on the EU over time, including in response to the Russian War and the COVID-19 pandemic; and the role that the European Council might play in the EU's uncertain future. Including pedagogical features such as boxes, tables and graphics to help study and revision, the book also covers under-researched areas such as:

- The relationship and rivalry of the European Council President and the European Commission President
- The role of European political parties in summits and debates
- Communication around the European council, including the use of social media, doorstops, and press briefings
- The background of members of the European Council
- How national coalition government affects leaders' participation in the European Council
- The involvement of the European Council in the EU policy cycle
- The changing nature and political significance of European Council meetings and conclusions

Designed for students of the EU, comparative European politics and international relations, this book is a concise introduction to the EU's collective leadership body, its key office holders, and its relation to member states.