The transformation from traditional war between nation-states to conflict between nation-states and nonstate actors requires decision makers, policy analysts, military commanders, intelligence officials, and legislators to answer the question: is there a strategy for an unwinnable conflict? This question takes on particular urgency given the extrao
The transformation from traditional war between nation-states to conflict between nation-states and nonstate actors requires decision makers, policy analysts, military commanders, intelligence officials, and legislators to answer the question: is there a strategy for an unwinnable conflict? This question takes on particular urgency given the extraordinary number of conflict points that define the current state of international relations. Modern Geopolitics and Security: Strategies for Unwinnable Conflicts draws on the author's extensive experience in counterterrorism, negotiation, and the implementation of the Oslo Peace Process with his more recent work in academia. The book uses an interdisciplinary case study model to illustrate valuable lessons learned and best practices in strategic analysis and decision making that are based on international relations, international law, and negotiation/intervention. The book defines sovereignty, intervention, geopolitics, security, and what they mean in a global landscape. It examines historical examples of global crises and security concerns as well as contemporary geopolitical issues, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, intervention in Libya, non-intervention in Syria, the Good Friday Agreement, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, and the Arab Spring. We are entering a new era, where disaffected individuals who are willing and able to act, have more power and potential influence than ever before. Conflicts like those occurring in Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, and elsewhere are all complex organisms—nuanced as never before. Add in increasing regional asymmetrical conflicts, increasing global economic strain, social media and the accelerating speed of communication, ideological and regional state versus nonstate conflicts—such as in the case of al-Qaeda and other such movements—and traditional "business as usual" geopolitics is being somewhat turned on its head. Modern Geopolitics and Security addresses topics that aren’t currently covered anywhere–establishing a new paradigm to rethink modern geopolitics, given new and emerging challenges to traditional schools of thought. View an article by Amos N. Guiora that recently appeared in the The New York Times..
In the early years of the new millennium, hurricanes lashed the Caribbean and flooded New Orleans as heat waves and floods seemed to alternate in Europe. Snows were disappearing on Mount Kilimanjaro while the ice caps on both poles retreated. The resulting disruption caused to many societies and the potential for destabilizing international migration has meant that the environment has become a political priority.The scale of environmental change caused by globalization is now so large that security has to be understood as an ecological process. A new geopolitics is long overdue. In this book Simon Dalby provides an accessible and engaging account of the challenges we face in responding to security and environmental change. He traces the historical roots of current thinking about security and climate change to show the roots of the contemporary concern and goes on to outline modern thinking about securitization which uses the politics of invoking threats as a central part of the analysis. He argues that to understand climate change and the dislocations of global ecology, it is necessary to look back at how ecological change is tied to the expansion of the world economic system over the last few centuries. As the global urban system changes on a local and global scale, the world’s population becomes vulnerable in new ways. In a clear and careful analysis, Dalby shows that theories of human security now require a much more nuanced geopolitical imagination if they are to grapple with these new vulnerabilities and influence how we build more resilient societies to cope with the coming disruptions. This book will appeal to level students and scholars of geography, environmental studies, security studies and international politics, as well as to anyone concerned with contemporary globalization and its transformation of the biosphere.
Nations stand on the precipice of a technological tidal wave in cyberspace that is fundamentally altering aquaspace, geospace, and space (CAGS). In its size, scale, strength, and scope, the technology-triggered transformation that is emerging from cyberspace is unlike anything ever experienced before in prior industrial revolutions. The speed of the current ideas, innovations, and breakthroughs emerging from cyberspace has no known historical precedent and is fundamentally disrupting almost every component of a nation. While there is no easy way to compute how the on-going cyberspace-triggered transformation will unfold, one thing is clear: the response to its security must be collective.As cyberspace fundamentally alters aquaspace, geospace, and space, there is a need to understand the security-centric evolutionary changes facing the human ecosystem. What is the knowledge revolution? Should we be concerned about the dual-use nature of digital technologies, the do-it-yourself movement, and the democratization of destruction? What are the implications of fake news and information warfare on global politics? Are we being surveilled? Is access to cyberspace a human right? Will we soon see digital walls? How will nations stay competitive? How do we govern cyberspace? Geopolitics of Cybersecurity works to answer these questions, amidst a backdrop of increasing global competition, mistrust, disorder, and conflict. Conversations about cyberspace and technology are now inextricably linked to broader conversations affecting each one of us across nations, from trade policy and digital autonomy to cyber warfare and the weaponization of artificial intelligence. Ultimately, how nations handle these issues and conflicts will determine the fate of both cyberspace and humanity.
This thought-provoking and clearly argued text provides a critical geopolitical lens for understanding global environment politics. A subfield of political geography, environmental geopolitics examines how environmental themes are used to support geopolitical arguments and physical realities of power and place. Shannon O’Lear considers common, problematic traits of such familiar but widely misunderstood narratives about human-environment relationships. Mainstream themes about human-environment relationships include narratives about presumed connections between human population trends and resource scarcity; ways in which conflict and violence are linked to resource use or environmental degradation; climate security; and the application of science to solve environmental problems. O’Lear questions these narratives, arguing that the role or meaning of the environment is rarely specified, humans’ role in these situations tends to be considered selectively, and little attention is paid to spatial dimensions of human-environment relationships. She shows that how we tend to think about environmental concerns often obscure value judgments and constrain more dynamic approaches to human-environment relationships. Environmental geopolitics demonstrates how we can question familiar assumptions to generate more just and creative approaches to our many relationships with the environment.
Being located between the Black and Caspian seas, Azerbaijan has always been the juncture of Eurasia—with a traditional reputation as a crossroads between the north-south and east-west transport corridors—and the traditional ground for competition between numerous regional and global players, using both soft and hard power. With its vast hydrocarbon energy reserves, Azerbaijan is a country of particular importance in the South Caucasus. The region’s complex geopolitics have immensely influenced Azerbaijan’s foreign policy strategy. With the dissolution of the USSR, Azerbaijan, as a new state with fragile security, found itself in a complicated situation surrounded by regional powers like Iran, Russia, and Turkey. The book is built around several major foreign policy issues faced by the Republic of Azerbaijan since it regained its independence in 1991. These major issues include the conflict with Armenia and related matters, the relationship with the West, as well as the complexities arising from its relationship with Russia and its ties to Muslim countries, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.
From the oceans to continental heartlands, human activities have altered the physical characteristics of Earth's surface. With Earth's population projected to peak at 8 to 12 billion people by 2050 and the additional stress of climate change, it is more important than ever to understand how and where these changes are happening. Innovation in the geographical sciences has the potential to advance knowledge of place-based environmental change, sustainability, and the impacts of a rapidly changing economy and society. Understanding the Changing Planet outlines eleven strategic directions to focus research and leverage new technologies to harness the potential that the geographical sciences offer.
This book examines the legal and policy aspects of cyber-security. It takes a much needed look at cyber-security from a geopolitical perspective. Through this lens, it seeks to broaden the reader's understanding of the legal and political considerations of individuals, corporations, law enforcement and regulatory bodies and management of the complex relationships between them. In drawing on interviews conducted with experts from a wide range of fields, the book presents the reader with dilemmas and paradigms that confront law makers, corporate leaders, law enforcement, and national leaders. The book is structured in a novel format by employing a series of vignettes which have been created as exercises intended to confront the reader with the dilemmas involved in cyber-security. Through the use of vignettes, the work seeks to highlight the constant threat of cyber-security against various audiences, with the overall aim of facilitating discussion and reaction to actual probable events. In this sense, the book seeks to provide recommendations for best practices in response to the complex and numerous threats related to cyber-security. This book will be of interest to students of cyber-security, terrorism, international law, security studies and IR in general, as well as policy makers, professionals and law-enforcement officials.
