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This article argues that Singapore, courtesy of its strong state capacity and long-standing connections with China, has promoted effective polices and coordinated mutually reinforcing institutional mechanisms in engaging with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While some of these institutions predate the BRI, they have been continuously enhanced or modified to meaningfully foster Singapore-China cooperation. In certain cases, new institutions have been created to fulfill specific demands the existing institutions cannot adequately serve. These two types of institutions not only complement each other but also promote cooperation between the bureaucrats, politicians, transnational corporations, government-linked corporations, small-and medium-sized private firms and business associations. The article also illustrates the flexibility of the 'networked state' in formulating collaborative ties linking key international and domestic actors, demonstrating how a small state like Singapore can partner China effectively and deepen its strategic importance to the BRI to enhance its own strategic and economic interests. Lastly, the article highlights the two key conditions in BRI-related nations for their successful engagement: the existence of mutual interests between China and a counterpart nation bolstered by conducive perceptions and policies, and the institutionalization of competent mechanisms to materialize and operationalize these interests. ; Ministry of Education (MOE) ; Nanyang Technological University ; Published version ; Research for this article has been supported by the MOE Tier-2 AcRf "TransnationalKnowledge Transfer & Dynamic Governance in Comparative Perspective" (MOE2016-T2-2-087) and an SUG from Nanyang Technological University (Integrating through Mobility:Cross-border Migration and Transnational Networks between China, Japan and Singapore,M4081383). The authors are solely responsible for the views and any remaining errors inthis article.

Adaptation to climate change has steadily risen on global policy agendas and entered a new era with the 2015 Paris Agreement, which established a global goal on adaptation. While this goal responds to calls to strengthen global governance of adaptation, it has not yet been operationalized. Further, few studies take stock of current global adaptation governance to inform the implementation of the goal. Against this background this review asks: To what extent is there global governance of climate change adaptation? Can it be characterized as a strong domain of global governance? In what ways is it contested? Global adaptation governance is defined here as occurring when state and non-state actors in the global (including transnational) sphere authoritatively and intentionally shape the actions of constituents towards climate change adaptation as a public goal. Although empirical evidence is scant, it is proposed here that global adaptation governance is indeed emerging. Yet, its further strengthening appears contested. First, measurement of progress towards adaptation as a public goal at the global level is severely challenged by the ambiguity of adaptation and the lack of distinct metrics. Second, the lack of a clear global-level problem-framing, or recognition of adaptation as a global public good, has meant limited legitimacy of global governance initiatives. A consequence of contestation is that governance forms and functions used so far have not been authoritative in how they seek to shape actions. The review concludes by identifying research needs for advancing science and policy on adaptation. This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance amp;gt; Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance

The production of transnational knowledge that is widely recognized as legitimate is a major source of influence for international organizations. To reinforce their expert status, international organizations increasingly produce global benchmarks that measure national performance across a range of issue areas. This article illustrates how international organization benchmarking is a significant source of indirect power in world politics by examining two prominent cases in which international organizations seek to shape the world through comparative metrics: (1) the World Bank–International Finance Corporation Ease of Doing Business ranking; and (2) the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index. We argue that the legitimacy attached to these benchmarks because of the expertise of the international organizations that produce them is highly problematic for two reasons. First, both benchmarks oversimplify the evaluation of relative national performance, misrepresenting contested political values drawn from a specific transnational paradigm as empirical facts. Second, they entrench an arbitrary division in the international arena between 'ideal' and 'pathological' types of national performance, which (re)produces social hierarchies among states. We argue that the ways in which international organizations use benchmarking to orient how political actors understand best practices, advocate policy changes and attribute political responsibility thus constitutes 'bad science'. Extending research on processes of paradigm maintenance and the influence of international organizations as teachers of norms or judges of norm compliance, we show how the indirect power that international organizations exercise as evaluators of relative national performance through benchmarking can be highly consequential for the definition of states' policy priorities.

The production of transnational knowledge that is widely recognized as legitimate is a major source of influence for international organizations. To reinforce their expert status, international organizations increasingly produce global benchmarks that measure national performance across a range of issue areas. This article illustrates how international organization benchmarking is a significant source of indirect power in world politics by examining two prominent cases in which international organizations seek to shape the world through comparative metrics: (1) the World Bank–International Finance Corporation Ease of Doing Business ranking; and (2) the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index. We argue that the legitimacy attached to these benchmarks because of the expertise of the international organizations that produce them is highly problematic for two reasons. First, both benchmarks oversimplify the evaluation of relative national performance, misrepresenting contested political values drawn from a specific transnational paradigm as empirical facts. Second, they entrench an arbitrary division in the international arena between 'ideal' and 'pathological' types of national performance, which (re)produces social hierarchies among states. We argue that the ways in which international organizations use benchmarking to orient how political actors understand best practices, advocate policy changes and attribute political responsibility thus constitutes 'bad science'. Extending research on processes of paradigm maintenance and the influence of international organizations as teachers of norms or judges of norm compliance, we show how the indirect power that international organizations exercise as evaluators of relative national performance through benchmarking can be highly consequential for the definition of states' policy priorities.

The production of transnational knowledge that is widely recognized as legitimate is a major source of influence for international organizations. To reinforce their expert status, international organizations increasingly produce global benchmarks that measure national performance across a range of issue areas. This article illustrates how international organization benchmarking is a significant source of indirect power in world politics by examining two prominent cases in which international organizations seek to shape the world through comparative metrics: (1) the World Bank–International Finance Corporation Ease of Doing Business ranking; and (2) the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development FDI Regulatory Restrictiveness Index. We argue that the legitimacy attached to these benchmarks because of the expertise of the international organizations that produce them is highly problematic for two reasons. First, both benchmarks oversimplify the evaluation of relative national performance, misrepresenting contested political values drawn from a specific transnational paradigm as empirical facts. Second, they entrench an arbitrary division in the international arena between 'ideal' and 'pathological' types of national performance, which (re)produces social hierarchies among states. We argue that the ways in which international organizations use benchmarking to orient how political actors understand best practices, advocate policy changes and attribute political responsibility thus constitutes 'bad science'. Extending research on processes of paradigm maintenance and the influence of international organizations as teachers of norms or judges of norm compliance, we show how the indirect power that international organizations exercise as evaluators of relative national performance through benchmarking can be highly consequential for the definition of states' policy priorities.

Dans ce monde en mutation, un terrorisme massif, mutant, asymétrique et islamisé a pris progressivement racine : la menace islamiste radicale, illustrée notamment par la nébuleuse Al-Qaida, figure de proue du Djihadisme est aujourd'hui concurrencée par des groupes africains de création récente à l'instar de Boko Haram (Pérouse de Montclos, 2012 ; Guibbaud 2014 ; Koungou, 2014 ; Saibou, 2014 ; Pommerolle, 2015). Ce phénomène transnational désormais au cœur de la vie socio-politique camerounaise et nigériane interpelle à plus d'un titre. Cette nouvelle dynamique belliciste, objet d'une action publique multi-niveaux analyse les déclinaisons d'un pan des assauts de cette secte islamiste. (Apard, 2015 : 135). Cette étude interroge tour à tour, l'imbrication d'acteurs multiples aux registres différents qui participent à la mise en œuvre de cette action publique spécifique et les instruments de cette dynamique multi-niveaux et asymétrique au Cameroun et au Nigéria. ; In this changing world, a massive, mutative, asymmetrical and Islamized terrorism has gradually been implanted: the radical Islamist threat, illustrated notably by the Al-Qaeda nebula, figurehead of Jihadism and today rivaled by African groups recently created such as Boko Haram (Pérouse de Montclos, 2012 ; Guibaud 2014 ; Kongou, 2014 ; Saibou, 2014 ; Pommerolle, 2015).This transnational phenomenon henceforth at the heart of socio-political life of Cameroon is challenging in many ways. Our analysis focuses on this new belligerent dynamics which is linked to the sovereignty of states and to the international political games. This will help us understand the variations of a flap of assaults perpetrated by this Islamic sect. Through an analysis of the actors and their instruments, this paper highlights the paradigm of international policy making.

In this changing world, a massive, mutative, asymmetrical and Islamized terrorism has gradually been implanted: the radical Islamist threat, illustrated notably by the Al-Qaeda nebula, figurehead of Jihadism and today rivaled by African groups recently created such as Boko Haram (Pérouse de Montclos, 2012 ; Guibaud 2014 ; Kongou, 2014 ; Saibou, 2014 ; Pommerolle, 2015).This transnational phenomenon henceforth at the heart of socio-political life of Cameroon is challenging in many ways. Our analysis focuses on this new belligerent dynamics which is linked to the sovereignty of states and to the international political games. This will help us understand the variations of a flap of assaults perpetrated by this Islamic sect. Through an analysis of the actors and their instruments, this paper highlights the paradigm of international policy making. ; Dans ce monde en mutation, un terrorisme massif, mutant, asymétrique et islamisé a pris progressivement racine : la menace islamiste radicale, illustrée notamment par la nébuleuse Al-Qaida, figure de proue du Djihadisme est aujourd'hui concurrencée par des groupes africains de création récente à l'instar de Boko Haram (Pérouse de Montclos, 2012 ; Guibbaud 2014 ; Koungou, 2014 ; Saibou, 2014 ; Pommerolle, 2015). Ce phénomène transnational désormais au cœur de la vie socio-politique camerounaise et nigériane interpelle à plus d'un titre. Cette nouvelle dynamique belliciste, objet d'une action publique multi-niveaux analyse les déclinaisons d'un pan des assauts de cette secte islamiste. (Apard, 2015 : 135). Cette étude interroge tour à tour, l'imbrication d'acteurs multiples aux registres différents qui participent à la mise en œuvre de cette action publique spécifique et les instruments de cette dynamique multi-niveaux et asymétrique au Cameroun et au Nigéria.

Stuck in Traffic: Sexual Politics and Criminal Injustice in Social Movements Against Human TraffickingThis dissertation analyzes the sexual politics of transnational movements against human trafficking. I track the periodic securitization of women's migration and commercial sexual exploitation in international affairs from the Victorian-era movement against "White Slavery" to the contemporary campaign against "modern day slavery" and sex trafficking, using the case of Thailand to investigate the role of women's advocates in the transformation of governance strategies to address the issue.Drawing on a year of field research in Thailand, I analyze the development of collaborative, inter-agency organizations that partner non-governmental organization ("NGO") advocates with criminal justice and social welfare officials to implement "rights-based" measures to prevent trafficking, protect victims, and prosecute offenders. I examine the rise of the anti-trafficking movement in Thailand to explore the complex interplay between the state, civil society organizations, and transnational advocacy networks, as well as movement organizations' strategic mobilization of domestic and international law to pressure states for policy reform.The following chapters demonstrate the complex ways different social movement organizations and state agents engage women's rights to frame interventions, attract media and financial resources, and secure political influence to advance diverse goals in both local and international forums. I explore the tension between rights-based and crime control approaches to trafficking and labor exploitation by analyzing the divergent incentives of different actors in the processing of trafficking cases. The dissertation reveals how efforts to advance women's rights through criminal justice interventions often operate to create collateral consequences for the very groups they intend to assist and empower.

This contribution explores the role of international standards in the rules governing the internationalisation of the service economy. It analyses on a cross-institutional basis patterns of authority in the institutional setting of service standards in the European and Amercian context. The entry into force of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in 1995 gave international standards a major role in harmonising the technical specifications of goods and services traded on the global market Despite the careful wording of the WTO, a whole range of international bodies still have the capacity to define generic as well as detailed technical specifications affecting how swelling offshore services are expected to be traded on worldwide basis. The analysis relies on global political economy approaches to identify constitutive patterns of authority mediating between the political and the economic spheres on a transnational space. It extends to the area of service standards the assumption that the process of globalisation is not opposing states and markets, but a joint expression of both of them including new patterns and agents of structural change through formal and informal power and regulatory practices. The paper argues that service standards reflect the significant development of a form of transnational hybrid authority, that blurs the distinction between private and public actors, whose scope spread all along from physical measures to societal values, and which reinforces the deterritorialisation of regulatory practices in contemporary capitalism. It provides evidence of this argument by analysing the current European strategy regarding service standardization in response to several programming mandate of the European Commission and the American views on the future development of service standards.

Este documento de trabajo explora por qué una situación particular de violación de los derechos humanos en el México contemporáneo –la desaparición y el asesinato sistemático de mujeres en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua– ha generado niveles excepcionalmente altos de presión "ideacional" sobre el gobierno del país de parte de distintos actores internacionales. Siguiendo la literatura de Relaciones Internacionales sobre el activismo transnacional de derechos humanos, el documento argumenta que la situación de Ciudad Juárez ha generado niveles significativamente altos de presión "ideacional" transnacional porque ha presentado una mezcla única de elementos: la situación ha sido adoptada por una red de cabildeo e influencia de derechos humanos particularmente densa; ha posibilitado la recolección de evidencia suficiente; ha implicado el daño corporal extremo de individuos vulnerables, y ha resonado clara y contundentemente con normas internacionales existentes. ; This working paper explores why a particular situation of violation of human rights in contemporary Mexico –the systematic disappearances and killings of women in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua– has generated exceptionally high levels of ideational pressure over the country's government by all sorts of international actors. Following the International Relations literature on the transnational advocacy of human rights, the paper argues that the Ciudad Juárez situation has generated significantly high levels of transnational ideational pressure because it has presented a unique mix of elements –the situation has been adopted by a particularly dense network of advocates, it has been amenable to the collection of sufficient reliable evidence, it has implied extreme bodily harm to vulnerable individuals and it has clearly and soundly resonated with existent international norms.

Der Formwandel internationaler Politik verändert das institutionelle Design internationaler Beziehungen (IB) von der klassischen intergouvernementalen konsensorientierten Steuerung hin zu supra- und transnationalen Institutionen, die verstärkt auch auf nationale Politiken einwirken. Aber auch auf dem Level von Gesellschaften selbst scheint die bislang primär nationalstaatlich gerahmte Agglomerationslogik einen Teil ihres Charmes zu verlieren. "Über"-nationale Kontexte spielen auch für das, des Kosmopolitismus ansonsten eher unverdächtige, Durchschnittsmitglied von Industriegesellschaften zunehmend eine Rolle – sei es durch den multinationalen Arbeitgeber, den mittlerweile auch für Einzelpersonen problemlos abzuwickelnden Fernhandel übers Internet oder den ebenfalls hier zu findenden grenzenlosen Kommunikationsraum (entsprechende Sprachkenntnisse vorausgesetzt). In diesem Aufsatz werde ich mich auf zwei Spielarten der makrosoziologischen Bearbeitung von IB-Themen konzentrieren: Forschungen zur Weltgesellschaft und Modernisierungstheorie werden an einigen Beispielen auf ihren Mehrwert in IB überprüft. Gleichzeitig werde ich diskutieren, ob sie in Verbindung mit Themen und Ansprüchen des Fachs IB selbst "globalisierungstauglich" werden und stelle im letzten Abschnitt ein vorläufiges Modell für die Konzeptualisierung der Dynamik des Formwandels des Systems internationaler Beziehungen vor. ; The institutional arrangement of international relations evolved from intergovernmental and consensus-oriented settings into a system that is increasingly characterized by supraand transnational governing. Thus international politics are gaining greater influence at the national level; simultaneously, the nationally framed horizons of the average citizens in OECD member countries gradually incorporate ever greater international content. Multinational employers, the possibility of international trading via internet and the almost unlimited space of communication are features of everyday life – at least for John Q. Citizen in the industrialized world. This paper argues for the application of macro-sociological theory in the analysis of the dynamics of change in the international system. The "world society" approach and modernization theory are discussed as possible framings for the understanding of the current form of the system of international relations and the pluralization of actors on the international level. The final section introduces a slender model for the evolution of elaborated and self-referential modes of cooperation in the realm of the international.

"Metapolitics, Algorithms and Violence argues that we need a more fine-grained approach to understand contemporary far-right violence - an approach that takes language and cultural production in a digital economy seriously. The book underlines the importance of socio-political, economic, historical and technological context in understanding the rise of the new right. More concretely, based on a digital ethnographic approach, it argues that we should understand this violence and the contemporary rise of new far-right practices and actors in relation to the theoretical renewal of 'La Nouvelle Droite' in the 20th century; the 'democratization' of New Right metapolitics in the 21st century as a result of the rise of digital media; and the development of a layered, transnational and polycentric New Right cultural niche in which far-right activists and terrorists produce identity, discourse, digital cultures and practices. This work will be an engaging and necessary read for researchers interested in social media, digital culture, far-right politics, extremism and terrorism"--

"Metapolitics, Algorithms and Violence argues that we need a more fine-grained approach to understand contemporary far-right violence - an approach that takes language and cultural production in a digital economy seriously. The book underlines the importance of socio-political, economic, historical and technological context in understanding the rise of the new right. More concretely, based on a digital ethnographic approach, it argues that we should understand this violence and the contemporary rise of new far-right practices and actors in relation to the theoretical renewal of 'La Nouvelle Droite' in the 20th century; the 'democratization' of New Right metapolitics in the 21st century as a result of the rise of digital media; and the development of a layered, transnational and polycentric New Right cultural niche in which far-right activists and terrorists produce identity, discourse, digital cultures and practices. This work will be an engaging and necessary read for researchers interested in social media, digital culture, far-right politics, extremism and terrorism"--

"This book examines contemporary issues and debates of terrorism in Bangladesh, including national and transnational terrorist outfits operating within the country, their narratives and counternarratives, ideologues, women and the youth, media representation, counterterrorism laws, and challenges. Bangladesh is a fascinating and often paradoxical case study for terrorism studies. The book examines major terrorist groups in contemporary Bangladesh, their international connections, narratives, and a case study of an influential ideologue who encouraged some Bangladeshis to engage in violence. The chapters discuss how women and youth play a role in Bangladeshi terrorism, how the Internet is used for recruiting terrorists, the discourses of the media and state regarding terrorism, as well as the politics of law and counterterrorism initiatives, including critically evaluating non-state actors and government responses. In addition to providing an up-to-date analysis of terrorism and counterterrorism in Bangladesh, this book offers a balanced and unbiased perspective on this subject. It will appeal to academics and international policymakers who are researching violence and extremism in South Asia"--

"This book examines contemporary issues and debates of terrorism in Bangladesh, including national and transnational terrorist outfits operating within the country, their narratives and counternarratives, ideologues, women and the youth, media representation, counterterrorism laws, and challenges. Bangladesh is a fascinating and often paradoxical case study for terrorism studies. The book examines major terrorist groups in contemporary Bangladesh, their international connections, narratives, and a case study of an influential ideologue who encouraged some Bangladeshis to engage in violence. The chapters discuss how women and youth play a role in Bangladeshi terrorism, how the Internet is used for recruiting terrorists, the discourses of the media and state regarding terrorism, as well as the politics of law and counterterrorism initiatives, including critically evaluating non-state actors and government responses. In addition to providing an up-to-date analysis of terrorism and counterterrorism in Bangladesh, this book offers a balanced and unbiased perspective on this subject. It will appeal to academics and international policymakers who are researching violence and extremism in South Asia"--