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This article draws on feminist security studies (FSS) to construct a more inclusive cybersecurity. We ask: What can a gendered lens do for cybersecurity? Methodologically, this exploratory piece brings FSS insights to bear on studies in cybersecurity (both traditional and critical) to better conceptualize the risks and benefits embedded in the cybersphere, as well as the role of gender in cyberspace. We propose incorporating a gendered lens (an intersectional approach) to shed light on violence and insecurity online. Without recognizing gendering in the cyber realm, including how gender intersects with other systems of oppression, cybersecurity scholars and policy-makers cannot fully understand what we term the crisis of cyber(in)security. Additionally, we challenge simplistic solutions that rely solely on human rights protections in cyberspace. Such approaches often reinforce existing gender and power hierarchies through protectionist discourse. Our FSS-based understanding of cybersecurity has important policy implications. It calls for increased access and diverse participation in cybersecurity policy-making and diplomacy, and promotes a more thoughtful approach to human rights protection to address a broader range of cyber-based insecurities and forms of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like most global sports, professional tennis is eager to claim that politics has no place on its playing field. On closer investigation, however, this 'myth of autonomy' soon cracks. In addition to adding tennis as a much-needed case to the study of sport and international affairs, this article develops the concept of 'the circuit' to approach phenomena that criss-cross traditional levels of analysis in international relations. In its first part, the article zooms in on the practice of writing celebratory messages onto the lenses of TV cameras as an example of the power relations that exist in and around professional tennis courts today. In its second part, it zooms out to map the themes and questions that have framed tennis as a political activity around the world and over time. The analysis identifies and characterizes the global tennis circuit as a site within which many of the most pressing political questions of our time are contained, focusing on the prestigious tournaments which make up the Grand Slam, and the elite athletes that participate in them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses three books that challenge the dominant narratives surrounding China's foreign policy and its role in the international order. The first book, "The authoritarian century" by Chris Ogden, argues that while China's economic power is increasing, it is not leading a new illiberal world order. The second book, "A hierarchical vision of order" by Antoine Roth, explores China's historical and cultural influences on its international relations, suggesting that China's behavior is not simply a reaction to the West. The third book, "China's asymmetric statecraft" by Yuxing Huang, examines China's regional relations and argues that China's strategies are context-dependent and not driven by a monolithic grand strategy. Overall, these books challenge the binary narratives and offer nuanced perspectives on China's global outreach. [Extracted from the article]

This article provides a review of the historical trends that are shaping global competition for standard setting in emerging technologies. Specifically, it explores how the traditional rule-makers of international standardization, namely the United States and Europe, are responding to the rise of China in standard-setting. The article argues that three polities are adapting their standard-setting strategies to shifting power dynamics in the international technology order. To preserve its competitive advantage, the US is becoming more interventionist and proactive in setting technology standards. China has developed a long-term standardization strategy to bolster its domestic industrial development, increase its influence and reap greater profits from the process of rule-making. Finally, the EU is seeking a third way that strikes a balance between competition and cooperation to preserve values like interoperability, which have historically benefited its single market and the global economy at large. Our historical review shows that, while the three polities have different priorities and face distinct challenges, they all seem to converge towards a greater role for governments in standard-setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores India's historical pursuit of major power status in international relations, from the Nehru era to the Modi government. It discusses the challenges India faces in achieving this recognition, including human development issues, military weaknesses, and the need for democratic governance. The author, T.V. Paul, compares India's status-seeking efforts with China's and argues that India must address its shortcomings to gain the respect it seeks in the global arena. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Wealth, power, and authoritarian institutions" by Michaela Collord compares the dominant parties and parliaments in Tanzania and Uganda, focusing on their institutional trajectories and the impact of ruling elites' wealth accumulation strategies. Collord highlights how Tanzania's party-building led to centralized resource accumulation and reduced legislative autonomy, while Uganda's decentralized wealth accumulation resulted in fragmented elite enrichment and challenges in instilling party discipline. The author also discusses authoritarian discontinuities in Tanzania post-1985 and the skepticism regarding the correlation between legislative strengthening and democratization in both countries. [Extracted from the article]

The international community's sobering track record of sustainably reducing the number of armed conflicts worldwide, as well as the increasing involvement of non-human complexities in times of climate crisis suggest that current approaches to foster peace are too narrow and inflexible. So far, demands and calls for more flexible and adaptive peace practice made by policy-makers and researchers have not led to a related paradigm shift. In order to contribute to such a change of practice, this article advances a speculative analytical attempt that seeks to conceptually uncover new modes of engaging with the world for the purpose of peace. It builds on Baruch Spinoza's materialism and describes peace as intimately interrelated with the issue of political community. Following Spinoza, the article reconsiders the imaginary of political community as something that is constantly being rearticulated by a contingent complexity of human and non-human actors, and thus transcends the geographic scope of its formal borders as well as its epistemic scope across power hierarchies. Finally, the article introduces the human–non-human multitude as political subject that is able to detect and interpret the constituents of a political community, and therefore to maintain and sustain peace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Centers of Power in the Arab Gulf States" by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen explores the topic of power within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The book examines different types of power and authority in the six Gulf states, including dynastic families, consultation practices, institutions, representation, opposition, distribution processes, and the role of the military. Ulrichsen takes a relational approach to power, highlighting the influence of external security partners on the Gulf states. While the book provides valuable insights into the power structures of the Gulf monarchies, it also acknowledges the limits of their power. [Extracted from the article]

Pragmatism, responding to the call for 'decentring International Relations', fosters analytical eclecticism for resolving inter-paradigmatic disputes. John Dewey's pragmatism aligns seamlessly with constructivism, offering nuanced insights. However, in bilateral relations, pragmatism is often confined within realist frameworks, lacking analytical rigor for understanding governmentality. In this article, the author challenges this by emphasizing relational power dynamics and non-neutral knowledge, introducing 'balancing pragmatism' rooted in 'bricolage' for nuanced governance. Leveraging Foucauldian insights, the author reconceptualizes governance pragmatism within the power-knowledge interplay, illustrated by the India–Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). The LBA's success challenges realist power paradigms, recognizing the pivotal role of Foucauldian dynamics in enhancing pragmatic balancing. This enriches the constructivist paradigm with discerning governance. Interpreting pragmatism through a Foucauldian lens in the LBA underscores implications for bilateral governance, highlighting analytical eclecticism and adaptability within a Foucauldian framework to address geopolitical challenges. It advocates for a more inclusive analytical approach in international relations. Understanding 'balancing pragmatism' is crucial for practitioners, challenging the state-centric paradigm and emphasizing nuanced governance through the transformative intersection of power and knowledge. Interpreting pragmatism as a Foucauldian-informed balancing act, as seen in the LBA, holds broad implications for IR, urging scholars to integrate Foucault's dynamics for nuanced global analyses of pragmatic balancing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The timid response of member governments of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has puzzled many western observers as it flagrantly violates the most basic norms of international law to which ASEAN expressly subscribes. This article seeks to provide answers to this puzzle. Informed by practice theory, the article transcends conventional realist explanations of how small and medium-sized countries respond to great power politics. Combining material and cognitive arguments, practice theory allows identifying the cultural and ideational roots of these policies and uncovering mismatches between rhetoric and agency. It suggests that, conceptualized as communities of practice, ASEAN member countries' foreign policy elites have developed a path-dependent pragmatism, which guides their response to great power politics and hence the war in Ukraine. Employing a qualitative mixed-methods approach, the empirical part of the article examines how south-east Asia's diplomatic communities of practice define pragmatism and shows that, historically, pragmatism has strongly guided their foreign policies. It traces ASEAN governments' pragmatic responses to the war in Ukraine at three levels: the national, regional and the (global) multilateral level. The article concludes that liberal proselytism does not help the West to win over ASEAN member countries to support its pro-Ukraine course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between the environment, energy, and the history of US-Canada relations. It argues that nature has been forgotten by the wealthy and that environmental diplomacy in the 1980s helped revive the connection with nature. The book examines the three-way relationship between Canada, the United States, and the environment, focusing on the importance of understanding the history of this relationship in relation to the environment and energy. It highlights the impact of natural resources on ecosystems and human systems, as well as the power asymmetries that can arise from interfering with ecosystems or blocking access to natural resources. The article also mentions the importance of balancing sovereignty and prosperity in diplomatic relations, using the example of acid rain as a significant bilateral issue. The book emphasizes that borders do not diminish the connections between physical environments and human relationships, and that when in harmony, people and nature benefit equally. It explores the role of water in shaping early bilateral relations and Canada's political economy, as well as the shift from hydroelectricity to fossil fuels as the top energy export. The article concludes by discussing the wider geopolitical pressures that nature imposes on the US-Canada relationship and the importance of considering nature as a silent actor in international diplomacy. [Extracted from the article]

"Crown, cloak and dagger: the British monarchy and secret intelligence from Victoria to Elizabeth II" is a comprehensively researched book that explores the relationship between the British monarchy and intelligence agencies. The authors, Richard Aldrich and Rory Cormac, draw on newly opened archives to trace the origins of organized intelligence in England and describe how the royal family has acted independently and in concert with intelligence agencies on intelligence matters. The book covers topics such as Victoria's concerns about empire, the world wars, the Cold War, and the reign of Elizabeth II. It also delves into the personal experiences of British monarchs with assassination attempts and their involvement in intelligence operations. Overall, the book provides valuable insights into the role of intelligence in defending the position of the Crown and the British empire. [Extracted from the article]

The article "Resisting domination in Palestine" delves into the complexities of Palestinian resistance against settler-colonialism, highlighting the moral imperative and collective struggle for liberation. The text explores various forms of domination and resistance at political, economic, environmental, and epistemic levels, shedding light on the structural intricacies of the Zionist project. While emphasizing the need for internal and external liberation efforts, the article also raises concerns about perpetuating settler-colonialism as an enduring phenomenon, urging for direct, uncomfortable, and uncompromising anti-colonial struggles. The book serves as a crucial resource for understanding and dismantling the mechanisms of control in the ongoing fight for Palestinian liberation. [Extracted from the article]

Cynthia Enloe's book, "Twelve feminist lessons of war," offers a feminist perspective on the complexities of wartime scenarios. Enloe examines the experiences of women and girls in various conflicts throughout history, using stories and everyday objects to illustrate the pervasiveness and complexity of gendered power. The book challenges the notion of "later" as a patriarchal construct and explores the tension between women's involvement in the military as liberation or patriarchal exploitation. Overall, the book provides tools to dismantle and rebuild perceptions about war and gender roles, emphasizing the importance of curiosity and solidarity in resisting patriarchy. [Extracted from the article]

"Myanmar's changing political landscape: old and new struggles" is an edited volume that explores the political landscape in Myanmar. The book discusses the country's transition from an oppressive military regime to a quasi-civilian government and the subsequent gradual liberalization process. It also examines the impact of the 2021 coup d'état on Myanmar's political landscape. The book covers various topics including the military, governance, rights, and international relations, providing diverse perspectives from both Myanmar researchers and international experts. While the book is well-researched and organized, it would benefit from a concluding chapter and a supplementary volume to discuss the post-coup changes in Myanmar. Overall, the book offers valuable insights into Myanmar's political development and provides new perspectives on its changing political landscape. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines Japan's security and foreign policy as an example of how a major power engages in the liberal international order (LIO) and what this implies for the future of that order. Facing China's increased power and influence in the past two decades, Japan has made strategic adjustments in response to regional and global power transitions while developing an idea of a wider geopolitical landscape on Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's initiative. However, this article argues that Japan's idea of an expanded regional scope and its vision of order were addressed decades earlier through 'comprehensive security' (sogo anzen hosho). While the country is an ally of the United States and clearly accepts the alliance as a key part of international order, Japan has its own ideas about international order; these accept much of the LIO but go beyond it, particularly in the articulation and operationalization of comprehensive security. By adopting the concept of norm localization, this article argues that Japan does not have the power to coerce others to take any actions to defend the current international order, but it can adapt and tweak the dominant LIO norms, principles and practices to build congruence with local norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity embedded in its own region. To create a broader consensus in favour of sustaining the LIO, major powers like Japan can approach the sceptics by presenting an alternative to either total rejection or total acceptance of the LIO norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do weaker states perceive the liberal international order (LIO) with ambivalence? This article argues that in the case of small states like Malaysia, historical memories, structural realities and domestic imperatives combine to explain their conceptions of and responses to the LIO. The article traces the features and unpacks the factors underpinning the paradoxes of small-state pragmatism vis-à-vis international order: a) rejecting power hierarchy but recognizing (and leveraging) power asymmetry; b) acknowledging its smallness but actively punching above its weight whenever possible; and c) promoting co-existence through principled contradictions. Such paradoxical pragmatism is quintessentially an act of hedging aimed at mitigating and off-setting multiple risks amid increasing uncertainties. This article makes three contributions. First, it contributes to the literature on international order by presenting a small-state perspective on the LIO, highlighting that small-state responses are more about 'struggle for survival', rather than 'struggle for power'. Second, the notion of 'paradoxical pragmatism' engages the ongoing debate on 'hedging' in international relations. Third, the article's findings suggest that, theoretically, hedging and its dualistic elements are attributable to both structural and domestic-level factors. While structural conditions drive states to hedge, domestic factors determine the extent and manner in which states hedge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on democracy and offers potential solutions to address the challenges it presents. The author highlights the misuse of AI in election campaigns and the potential for it to undermine democratic principles. They emphasize the need for a deeper understanding of democracy and the political dimension of technology to address these issues. The article also explores the ethical and political concerns surrounding AI surveillance and its potential to infringe upon individual liberties. The author proposes the concept of "democratic AI" and advocates for embedding ethical and political considerations in the design process. They discuss strategies such as institutional reforms, regulatory frameworks, and global governance mechanisms to fortify democracy in the face of AI-related challenges. However, the article is criticized for not adequately addressing systemic inequalities and power dynamics within society, and for potentially silencing marginalized communities affected by AI-driven discrimination and surveillance. Overall, the article provides a timely examination of the impact of AI on democracy and encourages readers to critically engage with these challenges to promote a more inclusive and resilient democratic future. [Extracted from the article]

Kira Huju's book, "Cosmopolitan elites: Indian diplomats and the social hierarchies of global order," examines the complexities of elite belonging in international society. Huju argues that cosmopolitanism is a performance of elite aesthetics that perpetuates exclusion and dominance. Through a case-study of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), Huju explores how class, caste, gender, and religion shape the composition of the IFS and influence participation in international society. The book also highlights the neglect of caste as a factor in International Relations and discusses the impact of Hindutva nationalism on the IFS. Despite some repetition, the book's focus on caste and its reflexive approach make it a valuable contribution to the field of IR. [Extracted from the article]

The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has led many commentators to remark that 'geopolitics is back'. And with geopolitics, the interest in buffer zones is back as well. Yet, International Relations scholarship on buffer zones is confusing and outdated. Scholars disagree on the definition of buffer zones and whether such zones are a vestige of the great power politics of the past or a continuous phenomenon. In this article, we take three steps to reconceptualize buffer zones and their role in international relations. First, we clarify the conceptual confusion by advancing a new definition differentiating between nominal and active buffer zones. Second, we make the case that buffer states and internal buffer zones (i.e., geographic borderlands located within states in rivalry, adjacent to the international borders between the two rivals) share much in common and therefore should be analysed in tandem. Third, we offer a typology of buffer zones with short case-studies based on the dyadic relations of rival states vis-à-vis buffer zones between them. Our goal is to provide a new analytical framework that can serve as a base for a robust research agenda on the role of buffer zones in regional and international stability and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While emigration and population displacements have long been a feature of Iraqi history, this article argues that the 2003 Anglo-American intervention in Iraq and its legacy has contributed to the gradual disappearance of many non-Muslim Iraqi minorities from Iraq. Though the legacy of 2003 can be attributed to a confluence of domestic and geopolitical factors, it is argued here that the 2003 intervention set in motion a process of nation-destroying instead of nation-building, as Iraqi nationhood was divided along primordial lines. Caught between competing ethnic and sectarian nationalisms, Iraqi non-Muslim minorities became targets in the quest for territorial gain and political power heralding an unprecedented and steady level of emigration. This has changed the ethnic and religious demographic of Iraq, the identity of the Iraqi nation-state, as well as fragmented Iraq's multiple ethnic and religious nations both inside and outside the country. Indeed, the effects of nation-destroying have also been transported to the diaspora, strengthening communal identities, altering attachments and creating distance between Iraqi communities abroad. This has led to distanced transnational ethnic and religious Iraqi nations in diaspora who must now also contend with assimilation, a loss of culture and language in the absence of physical links to Iraq. The article offers the first comprehensive and scholarly treatment of the effects of emigration of Iraq's non-Muslim minorities on Iraqi nationhood within the new Iraqi nation-state. It therefore contributes conceptually and empirically to advancing our understanding of the role of nation-destroying and emigration in nationalizing processes, a neglected area in current migration and nationalism scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Margot Tudor's book provides a history of UN peacekeeping efforts from the second half of the twentieth century, highlighting the UN's role as an actor in its own right. Tudor argues that UN peacekeeping missions were largely ideological, colonial, racist, hierarchical, and self-serving. These missions often destabilized societies and perpetuated violence, acting as a vehicle for wealthy and powerful western states to wage the Cold War and reinvent colonialism. The book covers case-studies from different continents, including the Arab-Israeli War, the Korean War, UN operations in the Congo, and the United Nations Force in Cyprus. While the book focuses on the actions of mid-level UN bureaucrats, it also discusses the role of senior officials. Tudor's work is critical of the UN's actions, with a focus on the Indigenous Peoples who often suffered as a result of UN peacekeeping missions and colonial regimes. The book offers new approaches for understanding the Cold War, decolonization, and multilateral institutions, making it a valuable resource for those interested in the shortcomings of the UN and the broader international system. [Extracted from the article]

Debates on China's rise often limit the focus on the continuity and sustenance of the United States' hegemony and the liberal global order. This debate often ignores the primacy of the regional actors, who are generally reduced to 'pawns' in great power politics, acting without agency, interests, or values of their own. Instead, this article suggests that as China rises—like any other great power of the past—it will first aim to secure regional primacy through an array of policy instruments. To test this it examines three case-studies: 1) China–Pakistan relations in nuclear proliferation; 2) China–India relations with respect to border conflict; and 3) Sri Lanka–China relations for development infrastructure. It finds that China's rise has not been benign and instead Beijing has adopted aggressive policies in its neighbourhood. This article finds that the strategic binary of balancing (interest-based containment) and engagement (constructive cooperation) does not reflect immediate realities and long-term sustainability for regional actors. Instead, it suggests the latter would be better advised looking for closer cooperation with like-minded allies in the region (and beyond) as a way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In their critique of liberal modernity, classical realists theorized its consequence for the heightened sense of insecurity and powerlessness of the individual on the one hand, and the individual's identification with extreme nationalism and violence on the other. This became the challenge posed by liberal modernity in the post-1945 international order. The article argues that the present international order is an extension of the post-1945 order that never resolved this challenge. While the 'embedded' form of liberalism that lasted until the early 1970s made social compromises that mitigated the socio-economic insecurities of the individual in liberal modernity, it did not resolve this challenge. The later advancement of neo-liberalism only further intensified it. The article thus critiques existing debates that downplay the challenge of liberal modernity in their analyses of the crisis of the present international order. It concludes that if the present international order is to be put on more stable and peaceful grounds, it requires a more radical break from its post-1945 and post-Bretton Woods past: a break that does not simply call for 'leadership' or 'offshore balancing' but addresses the psycho-social needs of the individual in liberal modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European populist leaders and movements often extol the virtues of sovereignty, but how exactly are they using this term? Scholars have typically relied on conventional understandings of the concept—Westphalian, popular and national sovereignty—to interpret populist discourses, but some have noted that these categories seem inadequate. This article asks whether much older, long overlooked, versions of sovereignty might help to explain the sovereignty discourse of European populists. These older variants include extralegal sovereignty (a leader's power to act outside the constraints of formal rules) and organic sovereignty (the power of a political community understood as a single 'organism'). Both are inherently illiberal: extralegalism rejects constitutionalism, while organicism is inimical to political pluralism. An examination of the public speeches and statements of one prominent European populist leader, Prime Minister Victor Orbán of Hungary, reveals that he has, indeed, invoked these illiberal versions of sovereignty. By retrieving these older concepts, populists gain a powerful rhetorical tool to advance illiberal principles of political authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2005, the United States recognized India as a 'responsible state with advanced nuclear technology'. How did India go from pariah to a legitimate nuclear state? This article historicizes the concept of nuclear responsibility to explain India's shifting place in the nuclear regime. Existing perspectives view responsibility as a function of discrete state behaviors to the detriment of understanding the relationship between power and responsibility as a discourse. This article tracks the evolving discourse of early proliferators, such as the US, UK and France, who legitimated their possession of nuclear weapons by linking responsibility with deterrence. In its early nuclear history, India challenged these hegemonic perspectives but more recently adopted the deterrence model of responsibility to be granted recognition and legitimacy in the global nuclear regime. The article concludes that nuclear states' success in linking deterrence with responsibility complicates the place of disarmament as an alternative nuclear responsibility discourse. Tying deterrence to responsibility reshaped the global order around the continual presence of nuclear weapons, narrowing moral agency and limiting a nuclear weapon-free future. Reclaiming responsibility will require moving beyond the typical state-centric politics of blame towards institutional and structural approaches to moral agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Very little is known about how Indian diplomats have made sense of the change in political power in New Delhi since 2014, when the election of Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi signalled a radical break from the internationalist credo of the Nehruvian Congress establishment. Attending to this gap in knowledge, this article engages with the ongoing debate about the influence of Hindu nationalism on Indian diplomacy, but departs from the conventional emphasis on foreign-policy analysis or Modi's persona. Instead, it centres on the lived experience of career diplomats in the Indian Foreign Service to whom it falls to conduct everyday diplomacy under Hindu nationalist rule. This focus invites a broader question in the global age of populism: how do contemporary diplomatic services adjust to the arrival of nationalist governments? I suggest that the delays in internalization of nationalist norms and diplomatic practices are only partly a function of ideological misalignment between an internationalist bureaucracy and a nationalist government. What matters is also the extent to which the status of the social class represented by the bureaucrats is invalidated by the government's political project. Building its arguments on the back of 85 elite interviews and archival research in India, the article considers changes to diplomatic discourse, protocol, priorities and training, and details how Indian diplomats have adjusted to and resisted Hindu nationalism. It suggests that we study nationalist critiques of 'cosmopolitan elites' both as an ideological denunciation of internationalist commitments and as a social rejection of the elites who hold them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Understanding Ethiopia's Tigray war" is a comprehensive analysis of the complex and devastating conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) from 2020 to 2022. The book explores the historical context of Ethiopia, including shifts in political power and tensions between centralized and decentralized power struggles. It also examines contemporary politics, including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali's rise to power and Eritrea's role in escalating the conflict. The book details the military operations, humanitarian crisis, and the use of sexual violence and hunger as weapons. It also addresses the dangerous rhetoric and hate speech that exacerbated the war and emphasizes the need for dialogue, reconciliation, and tolerance among Ethiopia's ethnic groups. The book concludes with a summary of themes and lessons learned from the analysis. Overall, it provides valuable insights into the Tigray crisis and its broader implications in the Horn of Africa. [Extracted from the article]

Falkner and Buzan provide a persuasive conceptual basis to understand the core challenges countries must overcome if equity and responsibility in international environmental policy are to be accepted and advanced by those with significant environmental great power. Buzan and Falkner argue that, while environmental power is a neutral concept, the balance of positive or negative power influences how a country is viewed by others. Crucially, contributors explore the relationship between great power status, the management of global international society and the nature of great power responsibility. [Extracted from the article]

Since 2013, the multiplication of regional and international strategies and actions directed at stabilizing Mali and the Sahel, and at countering and preventing violent extremism, has not improved the situation there and, arguably, some of it has made it worse. This article analyses the type of political order and regional governance that has been and is being built after almost a decade of international interventions in the West African Sahel. It is an effort at theorizing and making sense of what is considered here to be a permanent state of intervention in the Sahel that has evolved into a form of counterinsurgency governance—a concept being proposed to point to the influence and the infusion of counterinsurgency principles into philosophies of governance. This article argues that counterinsurgency governance insists on a set of power relations and configurations that seeks to impose limits, parameters and boundaries to the purpose of and the form that Sahelian states, governments and governance ought to take. As such, counterinsurgency governance is simultaneously a mode of governance and a web of political practices and contestation whose mechanisms have failed at fully implementing its principles in the Sahel. Its fallback is the emergence of a regional strategy to manage and establish limits to Sahelian political possibilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somaliland's endurance as Africa's longest de facto state has for decades preoccupied scholarship on state formation and democratization. The prevailing democratic success narrative has, however, downplayed the complex internal political dynamics and crises that have characterized Somaliland's independence since 1991. Relying on a number of robust resources, including 110 interviews and archival work conducted in Somaliland from 2015 until 2021, this article examines at close range Somaliland's political economy and provides a more cautious assessment of Somaliland's democratization trajectory. It argues that the political authority of cross-border oligarchic–corporate structures and the securitization of aid created an 'oligopolistic state' and 'peaceocracy' rather than a national, democratic government. This analysis highlights how de facto states struggle to balance political control and financial hardship generating creative and uneven governance structures. This study also raises important questions about how donors in the Gulf and in Asia provide new opportunities for recognition through Islamic finance and business that may affect de facto states' commitments to democratization. Finally, it contributes to theorizing about the ideologies of privatized governance that emerge in peripheral and developing economies and the political consequences of perennial non-recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The liberal trade order is in crisis. I argue that the origins of the current crises lie in the underlying tension which exists in the World Trade Organization (WTO), magnified by a churning in global power dynamics. A dilemma at the heart of the WTO between two important goals of representativeness and effectiveness means that both goals cannot be pursued at the same time. Now, this inherent tension is being magnified by power shifts in the global economy most evident in the rise of emerging powers within the WTO, who demand more representation, and the retreat by the US towards a more inward-looking orientation; both together damage effectiveness. Simultaneously, new powers such as China and India are defending a 'reformed multilateralism' combined with selective protectionism with varying capacity. These shifts are transforming previous 'crises within institutions' into a 'crisis of institutions' at the WTO, wherein the rules of the game, ideas of free trade and the legitimacy of the WTO are under threat. Global trade politics is seeing new coalitions at the WTO, as emerging powers craft their own rise, US defends sovereignty and trade protections, and launches a challenge to China's rise, and some established powers (the EU for example) seek to reform it. The new global trade politics is walking on two uneven legs and creating winners and losers and new ways of managing the transitional trading order as did the creation of the post-world war order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial liberalism would suggest that whereas globalization was conducive to great power cooperation—or at least moderated competition—deglobalization is likely to ignite greater competition amongst the Great Powers. In reality, however, the picture is much more complex. To begin with, the intense globalization of the 1990s and 2000s is not responsible for moderating Great Power tensions; instead, it is itself a product of the security situation resulting from the end of the Cold War. Furthermore, while globalization did serve to reinforce cooperation between the United States and rising challengers, such as China, which sought to harness the economic gains of globalization to accelerate their rise, it also created or intensified fault-lines that have led to heightening tensions between the Great Powers. Finally, while we are currently witnessing increasing tensions between the US and both China and Russia, deglobalization does not appear to be the primary cause. Thus, geoeconomic conditions do not drive security relations; instead, the geoeconomic environment, which is itself influenced by Great Power politics, is better understood as a medium of Great Power competition, which may affect the character of Great Power competition and its intensity, but does not determine it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a collection of abstracts from various articles on the topic of peacekeeping. The articles cover a wide range of aspects related to peacekeeping, including the impact on contributing countries and troops, the politics and motivations behind peacekeeping armies, the experiences of soldiers, and the role of peacekeeping in shaping domestic security procedures. The articles also examine peacekeeping efforts in specific countries such as The Gambia, China, Latin America, Russia, Ethiopia, and Bangladesh. Additionally, there is an article that discusses the intersection of climate change and peacebuilding. These abstracts provide diverse perspectives and insights into the complex nature of peacekeeping. The research agenda also highlights the importance of climate change in peacebuilding efforts and aims to guide future studies. The agenda covers various topics, including child soldier rehabilitation in Sri Lanka, the Western response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, deterrence in the Taiwan Strait, international relations theory, the United Nations' engagement with China's Belt and Road Initiative, and new approaches to peace. Policy papers explore the evolving strategic relationship between the US, UK, and France, Sweden's foreign policy, global AI governance, and Japan's response to the changing strategic environment. [Extracted from the article]

This article discusses the evolution of the European Union's counterterrorism efforts over the past 20 years and its current level of influence on global counterterrorism. The authors argue that the 9/11 attacks played a significant role in shaping the EU's approach to counterterrorism, leading to increased cooperation and the creation of new supranational European legal instruments and institutions. The book also explores the EU's actions in different counterterrorism environments, including its partnership with the United States, its involvement in south Asia (Pakistan and Afghanistan), and its engagement in the Middle East (Iraq and Syria). The authors conclude that the EU has the ability to combat terrorism globally, although factors such as access and political power may limit its influence. Overall, this book provides a detailed and nuanced analysis of EU counterterrorism and its external dimension, making it a valuable resource for those studying European counterterrorism and EU influence on international counterterrorism. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the book "Southeast Asia in China: historical entanglements and contemporary engagements" by Ying-kit Chan and Chang-Yau Hoon. The book aims to address the power asymmetry in discussions about China's rise by exploring the reciprocal dynamics between China and Southeast Asia. It focuses on three central themes: the periphery, people, and ideas. The authors examine the centrality and agency of Southeast Asia(ns) in their interactions with China, analyze the role of non-state actors in the region, and critically interrogate the ideas that China has developed through its interactions with Southeast Asia. The book provides a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between China and Southeast Asia and is recommended for students and scholars of international relations. [Extracted from the article]

Despite the prominent attention that the problem of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) has recently garnered globally, we still know far too little about what is sexual about sexual violence, according to whom, as well as why and how this matters in our efforts to prevent and redress its harms. A growing theoretical, political, legal and ethical imperative to ask questions about the sexual part of sexual violence across both war and peace is nonetheless emerging. This article therefore turns to the accounts of male and female survivors of CRSV at the at the Refugee Law Project (RLP) in Kampala, Uganda. In our reading of their accounts, we explore how the participants understand the possible imbrication of the perpetrator's sexual desire and pleasure with the violence they inflicted, as well as how they deem such intermeshing impossible or deeply problematic in and to the gendered frames that govern how they think about the distinctions between violence and sex, as well as themselves as sexual, social, embodied subjects. Read together, these conflicted and conflicting testimonies offer a vantage point from which to rethink some of the reductive truisms that persist in dominant policy-friendly accounts of wartime sexual violence—namely that such violence is about power and not about 'sex'. The participants' accounts thus urge us, as scholars and policy advocates, to resist reducing the multi-layered experiences of victim/survivors of sexual violence to fit into the palatable narratives of victimhood that prevail in humanitarian, juridical and policy spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do actors weaponize water in intrastate conflicts? Existing typologies of water weaponization make deterministic differentiations between state and non-state actors and invoke opaque labels like 'terrorism'. Furthermore, these typologies ignore how various actors engaged in violent conflict also cooperate over water, and whether water weaponization occurs beyond war. I propose a new typology for water weaponization in an analysis of the case of Syria, drawing on the leaked 'ISIS papers' as well as primary sources and interviews. The study begins by charting how the Ba'athist regime used water as a weapon of domination and legitimacy against its Kurdish population with infrastructure that would later facilitate the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS) ability to take hold of northeast Syria. I then turn to how non-state armed groups like ISIS and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have adopted strategies of water weaponization similar to the Syrian government by targeting and channelling water systems with major tactical implications. Finally, I show how enemy parties such as ISIS and the al-Assad regime weaponized cooperative water agreements to advance their mutual interests with violent implications for civilians. As such, I sort strategies of water weaponization into four categories: domination and legitimacy, military tools, military targets, and cooperation. In doing so, this new typology makes three main contributions, by: 1) accounting for how water is weaponized in state-society relations outside conflict; 2) refining existing definitions of water as a military tool and target; and 3) appraising the weapon-like effects of water cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Influential members of the disarmament community have in recent years maintained that further progress towards the international community's nominally shared goal of a world without nuclear weapons depends on recapturing the spirit and practices of cooperation that prevailed in the late 1980s and 1990s. Proponents of abolition, in this view, should focus their efforts on revitalizing the tried and tested arms control formula that was implemented following the end of the Cold War. In this article, I argue that this call to make disarmament great again reflects unwarranted nostalgia for a past that never was, fostering overconfidence in established approaches to the elimination of nuclear weapons. Far from putting the world on course to nuclear abolition, the end of the Cold War saw the legitimation of nuclear weapons as a hedge against 'future uncertainties' and entrenchment of the power structures that sustain the retention of nuclear armouries. By overselling past progress towards the elimination of nuclear arms, the nostalgic narrative of a lost abolitionist consensus is used to rationalize the existing nuclear order and delegitimize the pursuit of new approaches to elimination such as the movement to stigmatize nuclear weapons and the practice of nuclear deterrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we argue that prevalent explanatory frameworks of sexual violence against men primarily pursue one line of inquiry, explaining its occurrence as exclusively strategic and systematic, based on heteronormative and homophobic assumptions about violence, gender and sexualities. Feminist IR scholarship has significantly complexified our understanding of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), documenting its multiple forms and causes across time and space—thereby moving beyond the persistent opportunism-strategy dichotomy and critically engaging with the dominant 'rape as a weapon of war' narrative. Drawing on empirical material from Sri Lanka and northern Uganda we queer the current explanatory frameworks, analyzing multiple instances of CRSV against men that both simultaneously seem to confirm and defy categorizations as opportunistic or strategic, while being situated in broader and systematic warfare dynamics and unequal power-relationships. Our empirical material shows that relying on crude categorizations such as the opportunism–strategy binary is unproductive and essentialist, as it tends to mask over the complexities and messiness of deeply gendered power relationships during times of war. Binary strategy/opportunism categorizations also imply broader unintended political consequences, including the further marginalization of sexual violence acts that fall outside the dominant scripts or binary frameworks—such as sexual violence against men with opportunistic underpinnings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyse the factors underpinning the shift towards hybrid security governance in Africa. Extant scholarship largely attributes this shift to broader global processes, such as histories of colonialism, neoliberalism and transformations in global governance, which have served to legitimize the role of private authority in security provision around sites of resource extraction. Our analysis seeks to understand the relative and relational influence of power and rules in international politics by offering empirical insights about what hybrid security arrangements look like 'on the ground'. Drawing upon recently conducted fieldwork in Kenya, Uganda and Ghana, we examine how hybrid security arrangements affect the lives of those living near sites of natural resource extraction. Our analyses suggest that although hybrid security has emerged as the leading approach to security governance, this approach to security does not uniformly involve or serve the interests of all stakeholders. Rather, we find that hybrid security arrangements aid the security of extractive operations—securing investments in both physical and human capital—while sometimes undermining the security of nearby communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kazakhstan has followed a foreign policy of multivector diplomacy since its independence from the former Soviet Union. While multivectorism was a strategy of necessity in its early years, it has evolved to empower Kazakhstan to effectively protect its independence and negotiate its relationship with the great powers on its borders and further afield. After the 2014 Russian seizure of Crimea it is noteworthy that Kazakhstan has maintained positive relations with Russia while asserting its sovereignty and independent foreign policy. In this article we investigate how Kazakhstan has negotiated the rise of China, taking advantage of the economic opportunities it presents. We trace the foreign policy of Kazakhstan from independence forward, examining its relationships with its Great Power neighbours and its role in international organizations and negotiations. We posit that multivectorism is similar to the strategy of omni-enmeshment and complex balancing seen in south-east Asia. Both are effective methods for secondary powers to protect their sovereignty and to coexist with Great Powers without becoming their client states. Kazakhstan's approach to foreign policy is an exemplar for secondary states. This article contributes to the literature on the strategic decision-making of secondary powers and to the theoretical analysis of the foreign policy of Kazakhstan during a critical moment of transition from the long-time rule of Nursultan Nazarbayev to the presidency of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is becoming widely accepted that we have transitioned, or are now transitioning, from an international liberal order to a different reality. Whether that reality is different solely in terms of power dynamics, or also in terms of values and institutions, is up for discussion. The growing body of literature on 'post-liberalism' is used as an entry-point for this article, which aims to explore how the post-liberal transition applies to cyberspace. We explore how power dynamics are evolving in cyberspace, as well as how established norms, values and institutions are contested. The article then looks at the emergence of cyber diplomacy as a consequence and response to the post-liberal transition. As it will be argued, if cyberspace was a creation of the liberal order, cyber-diplomacy is a post-liberal world practice. What role it plays in shaping a new order or building bridges between different political visions, and what it means for the future of cyberspace, will constitute key points of discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the realist tradition of International Relations (IR), hegemony denotes the primacy of a state or group of states, and it is commonly associated with hegemonic stability theory. With China's rise, commentators have been claiming the end of US hegemony. To conclude, Martin offers a brief overview of the arguments seeking to reveal the "hegemony of hegemony". [Extracted from the article]

Under the leadership of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the centre-left Indian National Congress (INC) took a dim view of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The author offers a rich account of Israeli attempts to garner India's favour for the Zionist movement, which the INC rebuffed in its aim to consolidate a pro-Palestinian policy. Ruling over a newly independent India, the INC affirmed the stance of the Non-Aligned Movement, opposing colonialism and apartheid, and was particularly critical of Israeli policies towards Palestine. [Extracted from the article]