This book scrutinizes the changing dynamics of the global security order, in an era highlighting the constant tension between a rules-based liberal international order and a world order characterized by economic and military power contests.
"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.
During the past decade, the nature of world affairs has undergone significant changes unparalleled since the end of World War II. The 1990s have witnessed neither a new «World Order» nor the «End of History.» The new world could rather be characterized as one in which we can find a juxtaposition of order and disorder. It is against this backdrop that this book addresses the future of strategic studies, considering the following four areas: the analysis of the possibilities and opportunities of enlarging the Western zone of co-operatively organized international affairs by including others; the analysis of regional security problems and dynamics; the research into new challenges to security; and an analysis of future instruments and dimensions of security policy. The book contains contributions by young and promising scholars who are working mostly in the fields of security studies and international relations. Taken together, these contributions provide a good overview of contemporary issues and challenges in the field of security and defense issues and they give excellent examples of where strategic studies should aim.
This original and detailed collection explores how regional actors deal with uncertainties that are inherent to the current geopolitical situation in East Asia. The contributors collectively demonstrate that strategic uncertainty has become a major factor in the shaping of the security order in East Asia.
The topic of this book deals with a highly relevant empirical issue: East asian security and the dynamics of the respective governance structure or architecture are not only of regional but of global concern. Since the pivot of the American pivot to East Asia and other external actor ́s responses to it the security architecture has changed in form, size and function. In order to analyze and explain these changes, hypotheses derived from IR middle range theories (i.e. soft and hard balancing) will be applied to cases of bilateral and multilateral security governance in East Asia.
The end of the Cold War era has not brought greater security to the world community. Although the likelihood of a global strategic nuclear war has been reduced significantly, we have already witnessed the impact of other challenges to international peace. As the Gulf War of 1991 demonstrated, regional conflicts can expand, adopting the methods and means of the earlier superpower confrontation. Recent events in the Horn of Africa, the Balkans, and Southeast Asia have revealed the continuing power of historic ethnic, religious, and national rivalries and the seeming inability of the international community to find effective solutions. At the same time, modern weapons and communications technologies, demographic changes and environmental degradation, vast disparities in wealth, and the globalization of both economic activity and Western culture pose enormous challenges. Are the international institutions with which we have lived since the end of the Second World War equipped to handle these problems? Written by international authorities in a wide range of disciplines, the essays in this text examine what is known, what must be determined, and what might be done with respect to these profound and urgent issues.
This second edition of Global Security in the Twenty-first Century offers a thoroughly updated and balanced introduction to contemporary security studies. Sean Kay examines the relationship between globalization and international security and places traditional quests for power and national security in the context of the ongoing search for peace. Sean Kay explores a range of security challenges, including fresh analysis of the implications of the global economic crisis and current flashpoints for international security trends. Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.
This volume studies the links among the concepts of globalization, security, and the authority of the nation state, drawing attention to why and how these three concepts are interrelated and why they should be studied together. Contributors explore the connections between security and global transformations, and the corresponding or resulting changes in state structures that emerge. Probing and extending existing paradigms, the book offers three regional cases studies: the periphery states of the Middle East and North Africa, the second world states of the Russian Federation, and the core states of the European Union. It concludes with three chapters that synthesize the above themes to identify corresponding changes in the patterns of international politics.