This collection marks the 20th anniversary of the entry into force of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT). It focusses on one major component of a growing network of monitoring bodies, that is, the establishment of NPMs (National Preventive Mechanisms) in a European context. The contributors come from different parts of Europe and bring their unique expertise into the book. In their chapters they reflect on questions related to their countries' processes in ratifying OPCAT as well as the establishment and functioning of the NPMs. The book explores the variety of ways in which NPMs implement their mandate in practice, as well as the key opportunities and challenges they encounter in fulfilling their role.

This edited collection examines the political and social roles of war veterans in Eastern Europe throughout the long twentieth century. Given the ongoing relevance of ex-combatants in the region, the volume addresses key questions concerning the place of former soldiers in society from 1918 to the present. Its chapters offer national case studies from Central and Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. Particular attention is paid to the involvement of conflict survivors in the dissolution of communist federations and the formation of new polities. The collection traces the social and political activities of specific ex-combatant movements and organisations across Eastern Europe, highlighting both how former fighters influenced the regimes under which they lived and how those regimes, in turn, shaped veteran communities. Drawing on interdisciplinary analyses across comparative and entangled history, gender studies, political science, and radicalism studies, this timely collection deepens our understanding of war-related political change in Eastern Europe in the long twentieth century.

Contemporary Marketing Practices in Africa: Ethical and Sustainability Perspectives is the second volume in a series of two published to honor Professor Kofi Q. Dadzie's enduring contributions to African business and development scholarship and his leadership in advancing research capacity and elevating global visibility of African scholarship.

This second volume brings together leading scholars to examine through empirical, conceptual, and multidisciplinary perspectives the ethical and sustainability imperatives that increasingly shape customer value and define responsible marketing in Africa. Several issues are covered, including ethical compliance in market-oriented strategies, consumer perceptions of online behavioral advertising, responsible technology use, sustainable consumption, public information systems, sustainable material management, strategic sustainability marketing, crisis-driven business resilience, and transformative arts-based approaches to consumer inclusion. This volume complements and deepens the strategic and technological insights provided in Volume 1, providing readers with a holistic understanding of contemporary marketing in Africa.

This volume is designed for practitioners, policymakers, and scholars who seek actionable perspectives on ethical responsibility and environmental stewardship within African marketing contexts.

The book offers an extensive research work to examine the causes behind increasing rate of child marriage during COVID-19 in Northern Bangladesh.The authors have also scrutinized the existing policies to identify policy gaps and provides some policy recommendations from this insightful study. Apart from, conventional development research on child marriage, where poverty and social norms are influential factors, authors of this book has argued that instead of considering these factors separately, interaction among different economic and societal factors as well as intersectional identities are dominating behind rising child marriage. Again, COVID induced factors has pushed these cases to take a unique formation. This book is valuable for policy makers to address the social challenges which already exist and exacerbate due to COVID influence and has potential threat on human development as well as human rights like child marriage.

This book presents and discusses concepts of schizoanalysis that serve as theoretical tools for analyzing contemporary political processes and modes of subjectivation. Originally developed by the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the psychoanalyst and activist Felix Guattari, schizoanalysis is a critical political psychology that analyzes psychological phenomena in light of social, historical-cultural, aesthetic, and political issues. It provides an original analytical approach that expands the repertoires of psychology and the human sciences by apprehending phenomena in the resulting relationship between power, desiring investments, and the production of subjectivation - that is, in the articulation between politics, psychology, and subjectivity.

With accessible language, this volume introduces the reader to the dynamics of 'Deleuze-Guattarian' thought, as well as to the specific terminologies that express it, based on eight fundamental themes in the articulation between psychology and politics, which contribute to understanding the current scenario of social effervescence and crisis: power; subjectivity; institutions and codes; capitalism; psychopolitical practices and assemblages; microfascisms; the State and public policies; and social movements.

Due to its didactic nature, this book can be used as an introduction to schizoanalysis as an analytical tool that can be used by researchers to study contemporary political and subjective processes, as well as a didactic text in social psychology and political psychology courses.

This is a revised and updated English translation of a book originally published in Brazilian Portuguese. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence. A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content.

This book offers a historical review of globalization, an in-depth analysis of its current crises, along with predictions and practical prescriptions for its future development. Drawing on comparative studies of political and financial systems, economic models, intellectual cultures and ideologies, scientific and technological development, and crises management (pandemic, environment, etc.,), it argues that it's necessary to build a new form of globalization which is more conducive to global peace and prosperity. Also this book discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic is a watershed event that will have a significant impact on the future course of globalization. The strict lockdown policies implemented across the world highlight the threat that pandemics can pose to globalization, and have amplified the voices advocating Sino-American decoupling. However, the author is confident that it will lead to an alternative form of globalization instead by highlighting the need for greater international cooperation when facing health crises on a global scale.

Modernity, proposes Christophe Bouton, is not about the acceleration of time, but about living in multiple temporalities-polychrony.

Like a speeding locomotive that has lost its driver, the history of Western society since the mid-nineteenth century has been characterized as an exponential, out-of-control acceleration. Simultaneously, in recent decades, the destructive impact of human activity on the planet has increased at a spectacular rate, giving rise to what has been called the Great Acceleration. But a kind of reversal seems to be taking place: nature, once seen as a realm of repetition, has become historicized and even rushed toward an end, while history, the very site of change itself, appears strangely stagnant. In the wake of Reinhart Koselleck, Bouton offers readers a history of the idea of acceleration from the Enlightenment to the Anthropocene and invites us to undertake a critical assessment of this narrative of the "acceleration of history." Challenging the theories of Hartmut Rosa and Francois Hartog, he emphasizes the plurality of temporal experiences that characterize our present-the polychrony of modernity. Ultimately, the book's aim is not to deny the relevance of the categories of acceleration and presentism for understanding modernity, but rather to show that alternative rhythms and relationships to both past and future also exist.

This handbook provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of how artificial intelligence is transforming diplomacy, governance and the wider structures of society. Bringing together an international group of leading scholars, it maps the strategic, institutional, cultural, educational, economic and security implications of AI, offering an integrated framework for understanding technological change in the emerging technopolar world.

The volume's scope extends across both international and domestic spheres, revealing how AI redistributes global power, reshapes international order, alters diplomatic practice, and redefines major domains of social life including education, employment, media ecosystems, public discourse, cultural identity and national resilience. These themes are increasingly significant because AI now functions as a structuring force in world politics and societal transformation, influencing everything from international law and economic statecraft to learning systems, public opinion formation, crisis diplomacy and collective security.

Although scholarship on AI has expanded rapidly, there remains no single handbook that synthesizes these diverse developments within a coherent, diplomacy and society centred analytical framework. The core problem this handbook addresses is the lack of an authoritative reference that captures AI's simultaneous impact on global governance, diplomatic agency and societal evolution. Existing studies tend to illuminate individual sectors or policy challenges, yet a consolidated resource that brings together these intersecting transformations has been missing.

This handbook fills that gap by providing conceptual foundations, comparative perspectives and policy-oriented insights that connect technological innovation with social change and international relations. The volume is designed for an international readership of scholars, graduate students, diplomats, policymakers, educators and professionals seeking a rigorous, interdisciplinary reference on how artificial intelligence is reshaping diplomacy and society.

This book analyzes the roles of Europe and Japan in the Taiwan Strait, both under the current situation in which China's strategy is to isolate Taiwan as well as during various scenarios of a Chinese military attack against Taiwan. Coupled with this analysis, the book also seeks to explore the expectations on European and Japanese actions regarding the conflict between China and Taiwan. Filled with insights, precise analysis, and forecasts, this book interest scholars, politicians, and journalists.

This book critically explores the intersection of corporate activities, regulatory frameworks, and environmental social governance (ESG) issues across key industries, primarily in the Global South.

With an emphasis on both environmental and social justice, the book examines how corporate actions impact local communities, ecosystems, and labor standards, and it assesses the effectiveness of ESG principles in mitigating these impacts. Through a series of in-depth case studies spanning Brazil, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco, Mexico, Kenya, Thailand, and Latin America it seeks to contribute a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted challenges of implementing and enforcing ESG standards in contexts often marked by regulatory gaps, economic pressures, and socio-political complexities. Focusing on these countries is imperative because they represent diverse regulatory environments and high-impact industries where ESG issues are particularly urgent.

By linking legal analysis with socio-environmental case studies, the book bridges the gap between policy intentions and on-the-ground realities, offering actionable insights for policymakers, academics, and practitioners involved in ESG, environmental law, and sustainable development. In doing so, it contributes to a growing dialogue on equitable governance and sustainable corporate practices, aiming to inspire collaborative, cross-sectoral solutions that enhance justice and sustainability in the Global South.

The Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party engaged in a counterinsurgency war for nearly four decades. Over this period, Diyarbakir, the de facto capital of Greater Kurdistan, was a site of sieges and ceasefires, welfare and humanitarian relief, NGO interventions and decolonial resistance - the complementary, intertwined processes of low-intensity war. War turned urban slums into high-security frontiers and transactional hubs for policy design, and settled deep into embodied knowledges and environments.

Through committed and engaged ethnography, Umut Yildirim reveals how destruction and displacement became structures of extraction, by which the Turkish state subjugated the Kurdish population into an object to be intervened in, traded, and contained. She also tracks Kurdish efforts to reassert their own stories of war through fact-building, welfare and compensation, women's wellbeing, acts of solidarity, and environmental politics. What we see is a constant dance between war and peace, movement building and its containment, forced displacement and its rehabilitation, memory and its transmutations, environmental damage and its reconstruction. Extractive States offers compelling example of how low-intensity war transforms everyday needs, embodied knowledges, and uprooted populations into securitized knowledge - and how everyday sites of perseverance can reveal such extraction, and thus help conceive of novel modes of resistance.

This volume brings together original contributions in algebraic logic, semantics, and a broad range of topics in non-classical logics. It offers a pluralistic perspective on contemporary logical research, encompassing developments in modal and higher-order frameworks, as well as paraconsistent, intuitionistic, and multivalued logics. The contributions place particular emphasis on semantic methods and algebraic structures, while also engaging with proof-theoretical and model-theoretical approaches, including a variety of consequence relations. Covering topics such as novel semantic frameworks, algebraic characterizations, and formal systems, the volume reflects the diversity and ongoing development of research in non-classical logics.
By gathering both established and emerging scholars, it provides a snapshot of current work at the intersection of algebra, semantics, and logical theory, and will be of interest to researchers and advanced students seeking a deeper understanding of contemporary developments across a wide spectrum of logical systems and methodologies.

While global urban discourse remains dominated by the spectacular, high-rise gentrification of central city areas, this book aims to deepen our understanding of the quiet, mundane redevelopments that transform the inner-city neighborhoods of the Global East. Exploring this "shadow of gentrification," it provides a rich empirical analysis of Osaka, Japan-a primary example of emerging neoliberalism playing out across an inner-city shaped by the developmental state. Despite departing from conventional gentrification, the analysis focuses on social change and capital reinvestment. Through evidence from extensive field research and interviews, it traces three distinct trajectories of neighborhood change: retro renovation driven by small businesses in Nakazaki; art-led renovation facilitated by a local landlord in Kitakagaya; and welfare-led renovation triggered by livelihood protection amendments in Northwest Nishinari. The analysis reveals a nascent "precarious city," in which the working class is replaced by populations marked by precarity and fragmentation, standing outside the societal project of the developmental state. Ultimately, this book argues for embracing the trajectories of neighborhood change in the Global East, while treating gentrification as a conceptual vanishing point to guide analyses that sometimes lead into the spotlight, and sometimes into the shadow of gentrification.

The President and the Bomb: The Making of American Nuclear Policy, 1939 -1974, at once an original and compelling reconsideration of the role of human agency in international affairs, fills an important gap in the relationship between nuclear weapons policy and presidential decision-making, particularly when examined beyond the context of individual chief executives. On this score alone, Siracusa and Spiller's study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature. The outcome is a tour de force of high-level historical analysis translated into a comprehensive survey of changing presidential nuclear thinking over the first four critical decades of the bomb.

This book assesses the conceptual and practical contributions of the normativist and well-being approaches to health. A particular emphasis is placed on the holistic theory of Lennart Nordenfelt. The contributions of this theory are synthesized and discussed, and their relevance is put to the test, particularly with regard to mental health, which is particularly original and innovative in the field. Particular attention is paid to Nordenfelt's notions of ability and compulsion, assessing their relevance to the definition of the pathological character of depression and addiction. In addition, the book includes discussions of the notions of function and harm, for which it proposes redefinitions that take account of the most recent developments in the philosophy of medicine. Finally, the book extends this reflection on the central notions emerging from normativism in the definition of health: well-being by providing a critical analysis of the relationship between those two concepts. Several chapters discuss the relevance of a notion of well-being in the definition of health, mobilizing the philosophy of well-being as well as medical ethics.

This book is the first major analysis of British foreign policy in Colombia after the Second World War, demonstrating how the tools and technologies of British imperial control were commodified and exported to Latin America amid the growth of US hegemony in the region. It draws on newly declassified archival material and oral history interviews to show how the modern Anglo-Colombian relationship was constructed and maintained through security collaboration, which involved covert operations by MI6, the Information Research Department, and the Special Air Service (SAS). The goal was to improve the Colombian state's capacity to deal with common enemies such as guerrilla insurgencies and drugs traffickers and promote Britain's wider objectives of improving the climate for foreign investment, preserving capitalist stability, and maintaining a foothold in Latin America. This book therefore integrates Latin America into the history of Britain's post-colonial security operations, revealing how Britain's relations with Colombia were far more important than previously known and disrupting prevailing narratives surrounding US domination of the region.

This book provides valuable insights into the ways in which economics and management science contribute to sustainable development, organizational innovation, and social well-being. Featuring peer-reviewed contributions presented at the World Conference on Economics and Management (WorldCEM 25) held in Aveiro, Portugal, this book showcases how advanced research methodologies, innovative models, and empirical studies can inform better decision-making across sectors and regions. Featuring interdisciplinary approaches and real-world applications to offer a bridge between theory and practice, this book provides academics, scholars, researchers, and professionals with advanced scholarship in economics and management while also inspiring future research in responsible leadership, evidence-based policymaking, and inclusive growth in a rapidly changing world.

This Open Access book examines how Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have adjusted their security strategies in response to increasing geopolitical threats. Moving beyond traditional deterrence, these states have adopted a Total Defence approach as an inclusive strategy that unites the military and civilian sectors to bolster national resilience.

Drawing on insights from scholars and military leaders, the book examines how Total Defence is understood, communicated and implemented across the region. Through detailed case studies, it reveals the shared objectives and distinct national models that influence defence policy.

The book shows how cross-border cooperation and community-based defence efforts are creating a unified operational space in the Greater Baltic Region. Offering valuable lessons for countries facing similar security challenges, it also contributes to broader discussions on NATO's evolving role in regional defence.

This book offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary exploration of the complex relationship between innovation, law, and security in the context of dual use technologies in space. As space activities expand rapidly, technologies developed for civilian purposes increasingly carry potential military or strategic applications, creating both opportunities and significant governance challenges. This volume examines these dynamics, providing a holistic understanding of the risks and benefits associated with dual use in space exploration and utilization.

At its core, the book brings together perspectives from legal scholarship, engineering, international relations, and ethics to unpack the multifaceted nature of dual use technologies. It traces the evolution of international space law and regulatory frameworks, while also addressing technological advancements such as dual use satellites and innovations for space debris mitigation. In parallel, it explores the geopolitical implications of these technologies, highlighting how they influence global power structures, cooperation, and competition in outer space.

The volume also engages with critical ethical questions surrounding dual use applications, including issues of responsibility, transparency, and the societal impact of emerging space technologies. Through a combination of case studies, historical analysis, and forward-looking insights, it provides a nuanced perspective on how innovation in space can be governed responsibly.

By bridging disciplinary boundaries, this book aims to support informed decision-making and foster dialogue among policymakers, legal practitioners, engineers, and academics. It ultimately contributes to the development of robust frameworks for managing dual use technologies, ensuring that space innovation advances in a manner that is secure, ethical, and aligned with global interests.