Abstract: Current power transitions in the context of China's rise and US retrenchment have significantly conditioned the forms and effects of regional leadership across different world regions. Against this empirical background, this Special Issue gathers innovative conceptual and theoretical perspectives to study the links between regional leadership and multipolarity in Europe, the Middle East, post-Soviet Eurasia, South America and South Asia. The introductory article provides a conceptual base for defining and explaing regional leadership and discusses the key arguments and findings of the individual articles
This book explores power in international relations, in a world characterized by the growing competition of major powers for smaller nations. Focusing on the major powers and smaller countries of Eurasia, it argues that power in international relations is different from coercion and is rather a social contract between a leader state and follower states where reciprocity is key and where leadership relationships cannot be adequately explained by focusing solely on the leader. It challenges the perception that genuine regional leadership is quite common, contending instead that it is rare; that much more often major powers make claims for leadership; and that regional leadership does not indicate the status of a particular state, but rather the social role of the leader, which is recognized by its followers, a role which is always relative and based on communication and constant interaction with followers. The book highlights the important role followers play in recognizing regional power, the importance for a state's regional leadership strategy in creating and holding a valuable position attractive for followers and delivering greater value to followers compared to other potential leaders.
This book investigates the determinants of leadership in East Asia, emphasizing the significance of followership in the success and failure of leadership projects proposed by China, Japan, and the United States. While doing so, it answers a central question in the field of international relations: Why do potential leader countries succeed in obtaining potential followers in some instances, but fail to do so in other instances? Employing an inclusive leadership and societal approach, the book investigates how the leading countries motivate followership in East Asian economic and security dynamics. It analyzes how Chinese, Japanese and American leadership obtained acceptance from potential followers, focusing on the significance of domestic politics of potential follower countries in shaping their governmental preferences and generating followership. The book features empirical evidence in six case studies, covering topics such as the successful Chinese endeavor of South Korea joining the Chinese initiative for the Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB), the failed US attempt to prevent South Korea from doing so, the US's success to convince Japan to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the failed Japanese strive for winning South Korea's support for Japan’s bid for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council (UNSC), the Chinese failure at obtaining the Philippines’ backing of the Chinese aspirations in the South China Sea (SCS) during the Aquino Presidency, and, finally, the Chinese success one the same effort during the Duterte presidency. The book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of international relations interested in a better understanding of leadership determinants in East Asia, Global Power Shift, foreign policy, as well as East Asian economic and security dynamics.
This book develops the idea that since decolonisation, regional patterns of security have become more prominent in international politics. The authors combine an operational theory of regional security with an empirical application across the whole of the international system. Individual chapters cover Africa, the Balkans, CIS Europe, East Asia, EU Europe, the Middle East, North America, South America, and South Asia. The main focus is on the post-Cold War period, but the history of each regional security complex is traced back to its beginnings. By relating the regional dynamics of security to current debates about the global power structure, the authors unfold a distinctive interpretation of post-Cold War international security, avoiding both the extreme oversimplifications of the unipolar view, and the extreme deterritorialisations of many globalist visions of a new world disorder. Their framework brings out the radical diversity of security dynamics in different parts of the world.
First James Lovelock, and recently Prince William and David Attenborough believe that we have reached a tipping point in the process of climate change. Whether they are right or not, it is certainly true that the impact of humankind upon the ecology of the earth has reached a point where real changes in human behaviour are required. If managers are to be enablers of planetary survival then we need to develop a new approach to risk, which explicitly includes ecological limits upon economic behaviour. This implies a fundamental reorientation of their role in allocating resources to minimise risk and maximise reward. This book brings together some of the brightest contemporary thinkers on leadership, complexity and sustainability to consider the big ideas that we will need to make the changes required, and to outline the major themes that can inform a new approach to constructing a green world. It looks at how to ensure that local models of sustainability are able to flourish in the context of global networks and presents specific case studies of markets and organisations that offer insights into the development integrated solutions and the leadership lessons we can learn. Combining both theory and practice, this book serves to guide business managers and provides deeper insight and critical perspectives on some of the key issues facing leaders moving towards the green economy. It also provides useful supplementary reading for students in business and environmental studies.
The study of international relations, has traditionally been dominated by Western ideas and practices, and marginalized the voice and experiences of the non-Western states and societies. As the world moves to a "post-Western" era, it is imperative that the field of IR acquires a more global meaning and relevance. Drawing together the work of renowned scholar Amitav Acharya and framed by a new introduction and conclusion written for the volume, this book exposes the narrow meaning currently attached to some of the key concepts and ideas in IR, and calls for alternative and broader understandings of them. The need for recasting the discipline has motivated and undergirded Acharya's own scholarship since his entry into the field over three decades ago. This book reflects his own engagement, quarrels and compromise and concludes with suggestions for new pathways to a Global IR- a forward-looking and inclusive enterprise that is reflective of the multiple and global heritage of IR in an changing and interconnected world. It is essential reading for anyone who is concerned about the history, development and future of international relations and international relations theory.
Rethinking and revising the established knowledge and practice of conflict resolution and management, this innovative book brings together complementary perspectives to consider what novel approaches to conflict need to be invented after the collapse of the World Order.
This text is a major intervention into a central debate in international relations: how has globalization transformed world politics? In this scholarship, the state lies at the centre; it is what politics is all about.
While there has been a spate of books concerned with race and ethnicity in Europe more specifically, this timely volume offers a broader perspective and positions issues of identity, ethnicity, multiculturalism, xenophobia, regionalism and ethnonationalism within the wider contexts of trans- and supranationalism. With the weakening of welfare states and the homogenizing influences of globalization, nations within both Eastern and Western Europe are discovering that the battlefield of political action is being redefined, and as a result emotional alliances threaten to bypass the democratic systems of the past. Offering fresh insights that are both empirically and theoretically informed, this book illuminates the processes and consequences of these new developments. In particular, it reviews Marx's, Durkheim's and Simmel's theories on nationalism and national identity, and presents case studies of Belgium, Italy's Northern League, right-wing intellectual production in Russia, and much more.
