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This volume seeks to examine the evolving contours of Asian multilateralism through emerging China and how it is likely to impact on the growth trajectories of Asian countries. From this perspective, it explores the prospects for ‘partnership’ in Asia, especially in terms of China’s engagement with its principal Asian neighbours, especially India. A substantial part of the volume is devoted to debating China–India relations, highlighting their mutual stakes through their economic and security cooperation as well as their engagement with other countries and regional forums. The book furthers the understanding of the rise of China from an Indian perspective while simultaneously locating China’s rise in the economic dynamics of an emerging Asia. The volume offers illuminating viewpoints, analyses and insights from multiple perspectives, mixed with academic rigour and up-to-date information. It will be of interest to those engaged in economics, politics, trade relations, Indo-China relations, foreign policy, area studies, public policy, and strategic studies.
This book asks if it is time to “reboot” the fundamental institutions of global international society. The volume revisits Hedley Bull’s seminal contribution The Anarchical Society by exploring the interconnected nature of change, contestation and resilience for maintaining order in today’s uncertain and complex environment. The volume adds to Bull’s theorizing by recognizing that order demands change, that contestation should be welcomed, and that resilience is anchored in local and agent-led forms of ordering. The contributors to Part One of the book focus on theoretical and conceptual issues related to order in the global international society, whilst the contributors to Part Two of the book focus on the primary institutions as listed by Hedley Bull with the addition of a chapter on the market adding a distinctive commentary on new and important dynamics of change, contestation and resilience of the existing institutions.
The world is becoming more complex, fraught with increasing possibilities for conflict over national rivalries, economic competition, and cultural and ideological fault lines. This clear-eyed text offers a structured and theoretically grounded way to think about the forces that animate change and the alternative futures they may create. Donald Kelley views both contemporary reality and the future we face through the perspective of four different paradigms that shape our way of thinking about the world: The nation-state paradigm, built on the assumption that the traditional Westphalian nation-state remains the key building block of the present and the future, which leads us to predict the future in terms of the nature and alignment of nation-states The economic paradigm, built on the assumption that economic factors are increasingly important, which leads us to see the future in terms of factors such as interdependence, globalization, and trade as well as the growing opposition to these developments and the prioritization of national economic needs The identity and culture paradigm, built on the distinct identities and cultures of nations and regions, which leads us to view the future in terms of conflicting culture-based communities transcending formal national or economic interests The ideology paradigm, based on a post-cold war reemergence of ideological conflict within and among nations, which leads us to view a world based on ideology-based conflict From these paradigms and their interactions, Kelley builds a series of possible alternative futures of the international system. His framework provides a unique way of looking at how and why the world is changing and the many different “futures”—some peaceful and productive, some warlike and destructive, and others simply dysfunctional—in which we might live.
Without resolute counteraction, climate change will overstretch many societies' adaptive capacities within the coming decades. This could result in destabilization and violence, jeopardizing national and international security to a new degree. However, climate change could also unite the international community. This is provided that we recognize climate change as a threat to humankind and so set the course for adopting a dynamic and globally coordinated climate policy. If we fail to do so, climate change will draw ever-deeper lines of division and conflict in international relations, triggering numerous conflicts between and within countries over the distribution of resources - especially water and land, and over the management of migration, or over compensation payments between the countries mainly responsible for climate change and those countries most affected by its destructive effects. With Climate Change as a Security Risk, WBGU has compiled a flagship report on an issue that quite rightly is rising rapidly up the international political agenda. The authors pull no punches on the likelihood of increasing tensions and conflicts in a climatically constrained world and spotlight places where possible conflicts may flare up in the 21st century unless climate change is checked. The report makes it clear that climate policy is preventative security policy.
Kashmir has been in geopolitical limbo since the partition of the British Raj in 1947. A region of stunning natural beauty and diverse ethnicities and cultures, its people have experienced military tension, violence, state oppression, and terrorism, for decades. This book provides an introduction to Kashmir and explores the reasons for the tensions within the region itself as well as the wider-reaching implications of those tensions. The international relations between India, Pakistan and China, are crucial to understanding this conflict, as are the relationships between those nations and the wider world. The changing nature of global politics continues to affect Kashmir and this book highlights the many reasons that peace in the region needs to be seen as a priority by global leaders. In exploring the practice of transitional justice in Timor-Leste (formerly East Timor) and in South Africa, Schuurmans presents potential routes to peace in Kashmir, and azaadi for its people.
International Development in a Changing World introduces key issues, debates and ideas about development in the 21st century. Uniquely interweaving international relations and development studies, the authorial team examines the contested concepts of poverty, inequality and livelihood, and the emergence of 'new powers' that will affect the architecture of international development. Themes of power and agency, history and scale integrate the many stories of development covered in the book, highlighting development as a complex process of change and interaction between people as well as between people and institutions, including governments and non-governmental organizations. Interdisciplinary in character, the book incorporates theories and tools from across the social sciences to provide a more holistic understanding of the social, economic and political transformations involved than most textbooks in the field can offer. Chapters are designed to inform policy and practice, moving from the theoretical to look closely, using a series of case studies, at the deliberate actions of people to improve their livelihoods, communities and societies. International Development in a Changing World is the first of two books in The Open University's International Development series. Whether used as a stand-alone text, or alongside its companion text: New Perspectives in International Development, this is an ideal introduction to the field for students of International Development, International Relations, Global Politics and Global Social Policy.
