Suchergebnisse

In China glaubt man an Fortschritt und die Lösbarkeit aller gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen durch Wissenschaft und Technik. Die Kommunistische Partei kontrolliert alles und jeden, Xi Jingping hält auf absehbare Zeit alle Fäden in der Hand. Und außenpolitisch verfolgt die Volksrepublik mit der neuen Seidenstraßen-Initiative eine klare Strategie. (IP)

Armed Groups is the most comprehensive text to provide a framework for categorizing the key actors that pose a threat to today's security arena - terrorists, mercenaries, insurgents, militias, and transnational criminal organizations - and analyzing their characteristics to provide a thorough overview. Drawing on case studies, histories, and a rich, yet underexplored theoretical literature, this study presents students with the tools to methodically examine these often overlooked, but key drivers of violence in the international system. Additionally, globalization, the privatization of force, and the return of great power competition have altered the security landscape and enhanced armed group threats. These forces have also led to an increasing overlap between conflict and crime, and a growth in the state use of armed group proxies. Coming to terms with armed groups - their objectives, strategies, internal composition, and the environment that fosters them - remains a critical task for practitioners, scholars, and policy makers alike in understanding the changing nature of war. This second edition, updated throughout, includes new material on the importance of private military companies, the shift to sub-Saharan Africa as an important center of conflict, the return of great power politics, the increased use of social media and advanced technology, and the increasingly criminalized nature of armed groups.

This book discusses current challenges in Japan, focusing on the nation's rapidly aging population and low birth rate, along with persistent public bond issues with heavy interest payments, the potential collapse of social security systems, and income inequality, as well as the global picture. In turn, it examines the accessibility of global fossil fuels and feasibility of large-scale solar energy use. A new theory of money, interest, and capital is put forward, together with a proposal for an alternative system of international monetary cooperation, to promote a more sustainable and equitable world. Specific topics discussed include • the inverted population pyramid, due to the dramatic change in human life spans and declining birth rates; • the rapidly shrinking workforce, aging population, and declining GDP share sourced from industry; • disproportionate debt expansion due to public bond issues and coping with a persistent budget deficit; • the potential collapse of social security systems combined with income inequality; and • how to mitigate these bio-economic predicaments. Global Energy Sources offers an essential guide for policymakers, economists, researchers, and all those concerned with establishing a sustainable and equitable society from both energy and monetary perspectives. Further, it will be of interest to readers around the world, as the lessons learned from Japan are crucial to other developed societies that may eventually face the same types of challenge.

For decades, the reigning scholarly wisdom about nuclear weapons policy has been that the United States only needs the ability to absorb an enemy nuclear attack and still be able to respond with a devastating counterattack. So long as the US, or any other nation, retains such an assured retaliation capability, no sane leader would intentionally launch a nuclear attack against it, and nuclear deterrence will hold. According to this theory, possessing more weapons than necessary for a second-strike capability is illogical. This argument is reasonable, but, when compared to the empirical record, it raises an important puzzle. Empirically, we see that the United States has always maintained a nuclear posture that is much more robust than a mere second-strike capability. In The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy, Matthew Kroenig challenges the conventional wisdom and explains why a robust nuclear posture, above and beyond a mere second-strike capability, contributes to a state's national security goals. In fact, when a state has a robust nuclear weapons force, such a capability reduces its expected costs in a war, provides it with bargaining leverage, and ultimately enhances nuclear deterrence. This book provides the first coherent theoretical explanation for why military nuclear advantages translate into geopolitical advantages. In so doing, it resolves one of the most-intractable puzzles in international security studies.

Despite the liberation of Marawi, in the Philippines, from the siege of terrorist groups associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Philippines continues to confront the virulent threat of terrorism affecting international peace and security. To make sense of what transpired during the Marawi siege and the panoply of security challenges in its aftermath, this book brings together the scholarly analyses of various counter-terrorism experts who examine the siege from a number of perspectives, including the long history of Muslim rebellion in Mindanao and the persistence of the Abu Sayyaf Group, the rise of ISIS in the Philippines, the financing of terrorism, the trauma created by the siege, and the continuing problem of violent extremism in a country long beset by internal armed conflicts.Edited by the Philippines' top counter-terrorism scholar, the volume offers readers insightful studies on why and how the siege happened by describing the role of various armed groups in the Philippines that have pledged allegiance to ISIS. This is the first effort to examine in-depth the Marawi siege within the larger global terrorism landscape. It will be of interest to scholars, students, journalists, policy makers and laypersons who want to know more about the siege and the continuing threat of terrorism in the Philippines.

"This book tells the story of how the fragile and still-uncertain machinery of global health security was cobbled together over a two-decade period, beginning in the early 1990s. It is neither a heroic account of visionary planning by enlightened health authorities, nor a sinister story of the securitization of disease by an ever-expansive governmental apparatus. Rather, it is a story of the assemblage of disparate elements - adapted from fields such as civil defense, emergency management and international public health - by well-meaning experts and officials, and of response failures that have typically led, in turn, to reforms that seek to strengthen or refocus the apparatus. The analysis centers on the ways that authorities - whether public health officials, national security experts, life scientists, or other privileged observers - conceptualize and act on an encroaching future of disease emergence. This uncertain future can be taken up and made into an object of present intervention according to multiple rationalities: as an object of probabilistic calculation, as a specter that must be avoided through precautionary intervention, or as a potential catastrophe that cannot be evaded but can only be prepared for. In the chapters that follow, we see how these various logics come into tension or combine in response to actual and anticipated disease emergencies."--Provided by publisher

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Table of Contents -- List of illustrations -- List of contributors -- Acknowledgements -- An introduction to African politics -- Part I The politics of the state -- 1 Nationalism, one-party states, and military rule -- 2 Federalism and decentralization -- 3 The rule of law and the courts -- 4 Security and the privatization of force and violence -- 5 Neopatrimonialism and political regimes -- 6 The informal practices of civil servants -- Part II The politics of identity -- 7 Class politics -- 8 The politics of ethnicity -- 9 Autochthony and the politics of belonging -- 10 Religion and politics -- 11 Muslim politics in West Africa -- 12 Women in politics -- Part III The politics of conflict -- 13 Civil war -- 14 Oil politics -- 15 Power-sharing -- 16 Post-conflict peacebuilding -- 17 Transitional justice after atrocity -- Part IV Democracy and electoral politics -- 18 Electoral authoritarianism and multi-party politics -- 19 The power of elections -- 20 Emerging legislatures -- 21 Political parties -- 22 Public opinion and democratic consolidation -- Part V Political economy and development -- 23 Aid, trade, investment, and dependency -- 24 Social policy -- 25 NGOs -- 26 The economy of affection -- 27 The politics of development -- Part VI International relations -- 28 Africa and the global economy -- 29 Pan-Africanism and regional integration -- 30 Terrorism, security, and the state -- 31 Democracy promotion -- 32 China and Africa -- Index

Intro -- Contents -- Introduction -- Part One - Born in a Crisis -- 1. The May Sixteenth Military Coup -- 2. Taming and Tamed by the United States -- 3. State Building: The Military Junta's Path to Modernity through Administrative Reforms -- Part Two - Politics -- 4. Modernization Strategy: Ideas and Influences -- 5. The Labyrinth of Solitude: Park and the Exercise of Presidential Power -- 6. The Armed Forces -- 7. The Leviathan: Economic Bureaucracy under Park -- 8. The Origins of the Yushin Regime: Machiavelli Unveiled -- Part Three - Economy and Society -- 9. The Chaebol -- 10. The Automobile Industry -- 11. Pohang Iron & Steel Company -- 13. The Chaeya -- 12. The Countryside -- Part Four - International Relations -- 14. The Vietnam War: South Korea's Search for National Security -- 15. Normalization of Relations with Japan: Toward a New Partnership -- 16. The Security, Political, and Human Rights Conundrum, 1974-1979 -- 17. The Search for Deterrence: Park's Nuclear Option -- Part Five - Comparative Perspective -- 18. Nation Rebuilders: Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Lee Kuan Yew, Deng Xiaoping, and Park Chung Hee -- 19. Reflections on a Reverse Image: South Korea under Park Chung Hee and the Philippines under Ferdinand Marcos -- 20. The Perfect Dictatorship? South Korea versus Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico -- 21. Industrial Policy in Key Developmental Sectors: South Korea versus Japan and Taiwan -- Conclusion: The Post-Park Era -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- List of Contributors -- Index of Persons.

Africa's small arms trade : an infection of guns and chaos -- Argentina : from economic miracle to political meltdown -- Australia's illegal migration : an Australian dilemma or worldwide problem? -- Bangladesh : the democratic election of 2001 -- Children exploited : combating the commercial sexual exploitation of children -- China and ASEAN agree to free trade area but why? -- Cloning debate : the future is burdened by its past -- Cybercrime : is the Internet outside the law? -- Enron : how did this happen? -- European Union : advancements and delays in European integration -- Gibraltar : a thorn in the side of the EU -- International Criminal Court : accountability at last? -- Jamaica : gun battles in Kingston -- Japan : history and the textbook controversy -- Pakistan : partner against terrorism -- Philippines Rebellion : freedom fighting, banditry, or terrorism? -- Portugal at the forefront : the decriminalization of drugs in Europe -- Russia-NATO relations in the post-cold war world : rethinking the future of collective security -- South Africa : a slow economy delays some post-apartheid goals -- Turkey : women are granted equal rights -- Ukraine-a president stands accused : murder and politics -- War correspondents today -- Water wars : myth or reality? -- Women, peace, and security : United Nations Resolution 1325 -- World Bank and the IMF in developing countries : globalization and the crisis of legitimacy -- World Trade Organization : the technical side of globalization -- Zionism : a perspective on the Jewish-Israeli experience in the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

For nearly four decades, Australia's domestic and international economic policies were anchored by the promotion of open, transparent, and rules-based market exchange. This was considered the best way to increase both Australia's prosperity and its security, and that belief guided Canberra's approach to economic statecraft. However, emerging concerns about the vulnerabilities arising from economic interdependence, and the increasingly blurry line between economics and security amid great power rivalry between China and the United States, have placed Australian policy orthodoxy in a difficult position. In this paper, we investigate how these dynamics are shaping change and continuity in Australia's economic statecraft, and in doing so offer three contributions. First, to advance the emerging comparative economic statecraft research agenda, we propose a modified concept of economic statecraft that captures a wider range of activities undertaken by non-great powers and a distinction between state-based and market-based actions which allows for within- and cross-case comparisons. Second, empirically, we sketch the historical evolution of Australia's approach and examine three salient domains in which it has recently pursued new economic statecraft initiatives. Finally, in evaluating recent change and continuity, our third contribution is to identify new variables that may illuminate the conditions under which states adapt their prevailing approach to economic statecraft. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

South-Eastern European (SEE) countries are typically keen to maintain the status quo in their energy systems, generally characterized by underinvestment, high coal share and utility affordability needs. Their energy mixes have historically been determined by external factors, currently mainly related to decarbonization pressure. This article assesses how the EU's ongoing decarbonization-driven withdrawal from supporting natural gas projects shapes fuel choices in nine selected SEE countries and may have geopolitical consequences. It is based on more than 70 interviews with stakeholders from these countries, EU institutions, and international organizations. In exploring and theorizing the geopolitical ramifications of the energy transition in SEE, it applies a novel approach, which draws on theories of power and the concept of an assemblage, which we link to theories on entanglement and disentanglement. We find that the EU's climate policy significantly changes local infrastructural assemblages and the EU's disentanglement from natural gas goes against Russian and US efforts. By wielding its power to support such an energy transition, the EU has shifted the bipolar system 'EU/US vis-à-vis Russia' defined along a single geopolitical ruleset (supply security), to a tripolar disposition 'EU-Russia-USA' defined along two rulesets (supply security and climate policy). In addition, China has become involved. States will thus have to take crucial energy policy decisions in a new geopolitical context.

Feminism in international relations studies has brought new perspective with its focuses on women's empowerment and gender equality. The adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 is a starting point of the world's attention on women's active role in conflict and peace, encouraging UN member countries to participate in promoting Women, Peace, and Security (WPS). New Zealand, as the first self-governing country in the world to allow women suffrage in parliamentary elections, has been committed to promoting the WPS agenda, both in the region and globally. According to the Global Peace Index (GPI), New Zealand became the second most peaceful country in the world in the last few years. With no recent armed conflict and any external threats, New Zealand's National Action Plan (NAP) on the WPS agenda primarily focuses on external affairs. This article seeks to provide an analysis of how feminist values influence New Zealand's foreign policy on peacekeeping efforts and its implications on global peace. Data shows that during the NAP implementation period (2015-2019), New Zealand has continuous improvement of GPI score, which is a measure of a country's level of peace. New Zealand's efforts to maintain world peace through its aid program to conflict-affected countries also have a relatively positive effect on the level of peace in these countries, as happened in Timor Leste and Papua New Guinea.

At the beginning of the 21st century, Turkish-American relations attracted serious attention of the international community. Since the end of the Cold War, relations between the Turkish Republic and the United States have focused on security. The foreign policy of the two countries from time to time pursued common and sometimes very different goals. In parallel with this, periods of ups and downs were observed in economic relations. It was the goal of achieving security that determined the cooperation between these two countries. On the one hand, there was the leader of one of the two poles during the Cold War – the United States, and on the other – Turkey, a country with significant influence in the Middle East, but strongly dependent on the United States.
In the 2000s, disagreements between Turkey and the United States, two NATO members, were not in Georgia's interests. Turkey and the United States are Georgia's partner countries. The United States is Georgia's strategic partner and Turkey is one of its largest trading partners.
Despite tensions between Turkey and the United States, the latter is not expected to harm Georgia's bilateral relations. According to Washington, Georgia's rapprochement with Iran will be a more serious problem than the issue with Turkey, especially if Georgia violates sanctions against Iran.