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The recent events in the Middle East caught most political commentators, observers and thinkers by surprise. Who would have imagined that a non-state actor like Hamas could launch an attack on Israel and create such a complex condition for a powerful state, heavily supported by the USA and Western powers? However, crises in the Middle East often escalate unpredictably, defying calculations and expectations. This paper argues that since October 7th 2023, not only in the Middle East but also in several other regions worldwide, major rival powers have been struggling with crises that are leading to reshape the global order. The paper argues that the realms of Economy, Security, and Diplomacy among the primary global powers are all under scrutiny as they navigate the crises that have intensified significantly towards altering the global order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to gain insight into Brazil's role in an unbalanced multipolar scenario. To achieve this objective, the principal concepts and assumptions of neorealism and offensive neorealism are set forth. It is argued that the optimal strategy for Brazil at this juncture is to pursue internal balancing to enhance its bargaining position among major powers and peer competitors. In this sense, the paper is normative, although its recommendations are derived from the system's imperatives, such as the vulnerabilities of alliances in a multipolar world. The United States is engaged in pivotal areas in Asia and Europe, which creates a margin of maneuverability in Latin America, historically a zone of influence for the United States. Moreover, Brazil must enhance its material strength, as it is a country of considerable richness and size, and thus of interest to great powers. To achieve a strong bargaining position, structural problems such as defense spending and investment must be addressed. We conclude that, regardless of whether Brazil "picks a side" or maintains a neutral position, internal balancing is necessary to achieve its objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on platforms and cultural production is dominated by studies that take the Anglo-American world and Northwestern Europe as their main points of reference. Central concepts in the field, consequently, bear the imprint of Western institutions, cultural practices, and ideals. Critically responding to this state of affairs, this opening essay of the special issue on Global Perspectives on Platforms and Cultural Production, consisting of 20 articles, aims to: 1) challenge universalism, 2) provincialize the US, and 3) multiply our frames of reference. Pursuing these objectives, we bring together ideas from postcolonial and decolonial theory and platform studies in a systematic research program. This global perspectives program allows us to: denaturalize and rethink dominant concepts and ideas through research from around the globe; explicitly thematize and examine the global power relations that structure platform economies; and critically interrogate the knowledge production about these economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of the Ukraine war on EU member states’ foreign policy and civil society, given the Union’s severe measures against Russia, requires rigorous academic attention. Cyprus is a special case because of its multifaceted ties with Russia, which have been mainly developed upon three pillars: economic, diplomatic, and cultural/religious. Since 2018, systemic developments stemming from Western reaction to the annexation of Crimea have undermined Cypriot-Russian economic relations, but diplomatic and cultural ties remained strong. However, the 2022 invasion seems to have affected even the most solid pillars of Cypriot-Russian friendship. To test this hypothesis, this article examines the consequences of the war at three levels: systemic effects that relate to geopolitical developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and the renewed great power competition; Cyprus’ policy in the Council of the EU; and internal balances in the Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to our understanding of China as a major/great power by analysing visual narratives in the Chinese Central Television (CCTV) political documentary Daguo Waijao (Major Country Diplomacy, DGWJ). It develops an analytical framework to tease out visualized role claims and demonstrates how those of constructive competitor, cooperative partner, norm-maker, economic power and responsible power are conceptualized in DGWJ through its narratives. The study concludes that China refuses to take on the pre-defined roles projected onto her by the United States and instead attempts to reinterpret them according to her own goals and views. In this vein, DGWJ can also be understood as an attempt at strategic altercasting. While the US identifies China (and Russia) as challengers and opponents to the liberal international order, DGWJ presents China's promotion of 'alternative' multilateral institutions and initiatives—such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the (BRICS) New Development Bank or the country's engagement in regional peace- and trust-building measures—as a sign of genuine commitment to the global commons. Key emphasis is on maintaining peace and cooperation and avoiding conflict between a rising China and the existing leading power (namely, the US) while at the same time actively promoting new norms and approaches (together with Russia). The study highlights the importance attached in DGWJ to the recognition of China's role claims by significant others. In this context, the ability to rise as a great power is increasingly defined not only by material power recourses but also by the ideational dimensions of global leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the strategic impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on Vietnam's foreign policy and Vietnam's responses to the war. It argues that although the war has triggered diverse, even opposing, responses from Vietnam's ruling elite, it has not changed the general direction of Vietnam's foreign policy because it has not directly and fundamentally affected Vietnam's quest for security, resources, and identity. However, the war posed moral and strategic dilemmas for Hanoi, tore the web of geopolitical partnerships upon which Vietnam relied to secure its place in the world, and threatened to shake Russia's unique and critical role in Vietnam's foreign relations. Hanoi responded by reinforcing the current paradigm of its foreign policy, performing a delicate balancing act between the great powers, and deepening ties with the major powerhouses in its surrounding region. By taking 'one step backward, then two steps forward' in its relations with the United States, Hanoi succeeded in keeping both Moscow and Washington close to itself despite their mutual hostility. Its loyalty to Moscow helped to keep Russia on its side rather than on Beijing's side in the South China Sea. In the long term, however, the costs of this 'bamboo diplomacy' may outweigh its benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, Cambodia has gained geopolitical significance in the competition among great powers in the Indo-Pacific—China, Japan, and the United States—forcing Cambodia to align and realign its relations with these powers. Comprehensive, comparative, systemic analyses of Cambodia's relations with these three great powers remain limited. This is despite the shifting geopolitical context associated with China's rise, the United States' changing international liberal agenda, and Cambodia's domestic political development. Utilizing various qualitative methods that include data from news reports in Khmer, English, and Chinese and interviews with diverse stakeholders—scholars, journalists, leaders of civil society organizations, representatives of multilateral institutions, and diplomats—this article seeks to fill this gap by providing an up-to-date, empirically rich, and theoretically grounded analysis of Cambodia's relations with these three great powers. This study will delineate economic, security, and domestic causes of change and continuity within an integrated analytical lens that combines international relations and comparative politics to provide a multi-level (state and systemic) and multi-actor (state and non-state) analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although bilateral relations improved during Duterte's presidency, tensions reemerged under the presidency of Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. The perception and response of the Philippines to China's actions, especially under Xi Jinping's leadership and amid China's development, are central to this article. President Marcos Jr. initially attempted to maintain amicable relations with China, recognizing the considerable opportunities that China's vast market and economic strength offered for the economic development of the Philippines. However, confronted with China's assertive actions in the South China Sea, President Marcos Jr. diverged from the approach of his predecessor, President Duterte. Instead, he proactively and assertively responded to China, which led to a deadlock in the bilateral relationship. Recognizing the power disparity between the Philippines and China, President Marcos Jr. actively sought security and military cooperation with the United States. Despite China's efforts to establish an image as a responsible great power and its ambition to promote shared prosperity and development with neighboring countries through economic assistance under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, these aspirations are contradicted by its assertive behavior on sovereignty disputes. This contradiction compels the Philippines to strategically balance China's influence by engaging in security and military cooperation with the United States in response to China's assertiveness. This scenario poses challenges for China in balancing its assertive stance with its aspiration to be perceived as a peaceful, friendly, and responsible great power. Consequently, the aforementioned dynamic poses a setback for President Xi Jinping's vision of achieving the Chinese Dream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to secession in the colonial domain, which is considered legitimate in contemporary international law, separation in the non-colonial sphere is a controversial issue and is a matter of dispute between governments and international lawyers. There is general agreement that in case of severe human rights violations, it is possible for a people to enjoy the right to remedial secession and in this case, international law does not support th territorial sovereignty of states. Nevertheless, great powers have always played a key role in the application of this principle by claimant movements. This article, with a descriptive-analytical method, seeks to examine the legal situation and the possibility of evaluating the right to self-determination in the context of contemporary international law on the one hand and examinine its application in light of great powers’ practices, on the other hand. The findings of this article show that the human rights situation in a state should be considered so as to determine whether non-colonial independence is suitable or the right to self-determination in the framework of "remedial secession" should be ensured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the backdrop of intensifying United States–China strategic competition, the European Union (EU) has recently changed course and moved closer to mirroring US rhetoric and action on China. Why has this happened, and how can it be best explained? In this article, it is argued that current role dynamics between the EU and the two rival great powers can help us understand the growing, albeit not full, EU–United States alignment on China. Role theory assumes that co‐operation between actors intensifies when their roles become more compatible. Accordingly, it is shown that the EU has recently adjusted its role to be more closely aligned with the United States' position. That is to say, the EU has reshaped its own role conception, whilst the bloc has likewise become more open to meeting US role expectations after EU–United States role‐playing turned positive once again under President Joe Biden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is offering high-speed railway (HSR)—the most prominent part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)—to neighbouring member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). However, those countries’ agencies have been overlooked while discussing China’s eco-political interests in infrastructure cooperation. Thus, this article examines China’s HSR projects in Southeast Asia to identify their geopolitical implications, especially regarding the ASEAN member countries’ impact on China’s regional competition. It focuses on China’s expanding railway diplomacy and the reactions of ASEAN member countries and other major extra-regional countries. It argues that ASEAN member countries are not passive recipients of HSR projects, as they show significant agency toward China. Indeed, HSR projects reveal ‘dynamic interdependence’ between such countries on the one hand, and China as well as other major powers competing for regional geopolitics. China utilizing the BRI to connect ASEAN member countries with its railway network for economic, political, and strategic purposes has resulted in two geopolitical implications: interdependent relations between China and ASEAN member countries, as both sides must collaborate in planning, constructing, and managing the HSR and increased geopolitical autonomy of Southeast Asian countries, as the US and its allies also offer connectivity schemes to contain China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines visual representations of Afghan people during the global Cold War and assesses the limits of available visual records that document this complex history. A product of strategic, skewed discourses bolstered by tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Afghanistan’s Cold War visual record is predicated upon widespread images that perpetuate a dominant narrative of the country and its people as uncivilized, oppressive, and frequently in need of aid from a superpower, ultimately condensing Afghanistan’s visual history. I explore heavily circulated images of Afghans in Soviet and Western media, and digital archives, such as the Afghan Media Resource Center, that create a visual history of Afghanistan that is one-sided and benefits foreign political agendas. Given the limits of Afghanistan’s visual archive, I argue for the potential for counter-archival practices online by Afghan refugees and diaspora to lend insight into Afghan lived experiences and repair this visual record. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent studies of Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have attempted to highlight the theoretical significance of CVAs for understandings of community (re)making. However, the power dynamics inherent in community (re)making has rarely been expounded. In recognition of this, we weave together case studies across countries to explore the complex power relations played out in and through the transformation of CVAs. Collectively, CVAs are understood as ever-changing, heterogeneous ancestral communities composed of common ancestral ties be it origin, locality, surname, religion or language. We aim to contribute to existing scholarship on ethnic and diaspora studies through focusing on CVAs in three ways: (1) foreground CVAs as sites of power relations through unpacking ethnic relations and gender hierarchies; (2) illuminate Chinese diaspora transnationalism beyond political-economic perspectives; and (3) examine the contemporaneous transformation of ethnic Chinese communities in shifting times, including amidst China's "rise" as a global power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power transitions among major states have shaped the course of cooperation in the history of the international system. We study this relationship from a public opinion angle by examining the effect of a potential power transition on attitudes towards bilateral trade liberalization. Power transitions can spur political and economic conflict because the rising power gains greater influence over the course of world politics, including trade rules, allowing it to assert its national interest and the interests of its citizens. This implies that citizens in the rising power are more supportive of bilateral economic cooperation than citizens in the declining power. Empirical findings from parallel, survey‐embedded experiments in China and the United States lend support to this conjecture. Great Power competition, therefore, interferes with current international economic affairs – an aspect that has received less attention in previous research on trade politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for analysis of the German war economy became urgent after the defeat of France and the threat of an invasion of Britain by Nazi Germany after the battle of Dunkirk in the summer of 1940. The expertise of émigré scholars now was in strong demand. First, this essay discusses the series of twelve articles that Hans Singer contributed at the request of Keynes to the Economic Journal from 1940 to 1944. An important characteristic of war economies is a shortage of consumer goods, which raises the question of the appropriate rationing scheme. Therefore, the notion of a virtual price system, introduced by Erwin Rothbarth, which takes note of the welfare consequences of interventions into the free choices of consumers, is the focus of the next section. Hal C. Hillmann was a leading analyst of the German war economy, the comparative strength of the great powers, and postwar reconstruction. Finally, the article discusses the role of Nicholas Kaldor, who had firsthand knowledge as a key member of the research team of highbrow economists chaired by John Kenneth Galbraith that at the end of the war studied the effects of Allied bombing on the German war economy. Kaldor's experience, also as the director of the Research and Planning Division of the UN Economic Commission for Europe from 1947 to 1949, significantly influenced his pioneering contributions to growth theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the end of the Cold War, the relations established by the European Union with the Central Asian states have been shaped particularly within the framework of economic and security strategies. Central Asia has historically been a strategic and indispensable region for the European Union as well as actors such as Russia, China and the USA. This article analyzes the motivation of interest that the European Union has resolutely and consistently maintained despite the great power struggles in the Central Asian region after the Cold War. The study comprehensively evaluates the strategic relations of the European Union with both regional actors and great powers in terms of economy and security. The article aims to provide original contributions to the field of International Relations regarding the European Union's Central Asia policy by analyzing regional economic and security strategies within the framework of Realist Theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into the concept of permanent neutrality in international law, using Turkmenistan as a case study. Turkmenistan's foreign and domestic policies are heavily influenced by its permanent neutrality, which is enshrined in its constitution and national monuments. The text also explores how autocrats, like Turkmenistan's regime, may use international law, specifically permanent neutrality, to legitimize their rule both domestically and internationally. The analysis suggests that Turkmenistan's use of permanent neutrality aligns with the concept of Authoritarian International Law (AIL), showcasing the regime's strategic manipulation of legal norms for non-democratic purposes. [Extracted from the article]

This study examines Russia's strong reaction to the German Military Mission sent to Istanbul under the leadership of General Liman von Sanders during the winter of 1913-1914 and the impact of this reaction on Anglo-Russian relations. Although the mission was publicly presented as a military initiative aimed at restructuring the Ottoman army, it was perceived by the Entente Powers as a strategic move to enhance Germany's influence over the Ottoman Empire. Within the context of the balance of power among the Great Powers, demands for the cancellation of the mission initially caused a crisis between the Entente and Central Powers and later escalated into a major conflict within the Entente itself due to resistance from Germany and the Ottoman Empire. While Britain sought to resolve the crisis diplomatically to avoid provoking Germany further, Russia, alarmed by the perception that Istanbul and the Straits had fallen under German influence and interpreting this development as a call to war, adopted a more aggressive stance. Russia advocated for stricter measures, including the occupation of certain strategic locations in Anatolia. This divergence in responses within the Entente bloc led to a significant trust crisis, deepening the internal divisions within the alliance. The mission became one of the most critical crises in European diplomacy during the period between the Balkan Wars and the First World War. This study aims to analyze this process with a particular focus on Britain and Russia. Relying predominantly on a comparative analysis of British, French, and German archival documents, the research evaluates the mission within the framework of the power struggle between the Entente and Central Powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power and leadership are a multi-layered and relational process. However, political decision-makers often tend to reduce power to the resources possessed and the results that can be achieved with them. This one-dimensional perspective leads to an understanding of power based on hard power elements such as coercion, control, and domination. When an actor who wants to maintain or increase its power overloads its power elements to establish power and domination over other actors, it can leads to a situation called “power fatigue”. Power fatigue limits the capacity of the dominant actor to generate solutions, leading to crises at both the unit and system levels. In this context, the study aims to analyze the conceptualization of power fatigue through the periods of Bush, Obama, and Trump, considering the dominant role of the United States of America (USA) in the international system shaped after the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The end of the American century is being discussed as China is building a new world system with the "New Silk Road" and other initiatives. The petrodollar deal with Saudi Arabia ended in 2024, while former peripheral countries are integrating into Chinese economic cycles as the Global South. The expansion of Western companies in Eastern Europe and the geopolitical changes in the transatlantic world system are also being addressed. China is seen as an emerging global power that is turning away from the transatlantic space. [Extracted from the article]

This article examines China's strategic maneuvers within the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) agreement negotiations, highlighting its role as an emerging great power in shaping international maritime law and governance. The BBNJ initiative, crucial for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, presents an arena where China's diplomatic, strategic, and legal tactics converge to enhance its influence on the global stage. Through a detailed analysis of the negotiation phases and China's interactions with other states, this study explores how China, while operating under its status as a developing country—a stance recognized globally—effectively wields its ascending power to shape negotiation outcomes that serve its strategic national interests. China's approach in the BBNJ agreement discussions demonstrates a sophisticated integration of traditional values, strategic alliances, and selective engagement with international norms, ensuring that new legal frameworks do not undermine existing agreements or its maritime ambitions. This article sheds light on China's influence in shaping the BBNJ agreement while offering insights into the broader implications of its strategies for other emerging powers in international environmental governance. Although advancing national interests is a common goal for all nations in multilateral negotiations, this article emphasizes the distinctive strategies China employs—integrating traditional values, forging strategic alliances, and adopting selective engagement—to effectively shape outcomes and safeguard its strategic objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US, Russia, and China – the current "Great Powers" – often disagree over primary rules of international law, such as the scope of self-defence in response to an armed attack. Such disagreements over primary rules can often be explained in traditional realist fashion, because powerful States generally interpret international law in a manner that reflects and advances their interests. But that is not always the case. In some situations, Great Power disagreements over primary rules are driven less by realpolitik than by very different understandings of the formal sources of international law – the sources that determine what qualifies as a primary rule. Most comparative international law scholarship has focused on how the Great Powers view primary rules, ignoring how the US, Russia, and China disagree over the formal sources of international law. This article focuses on disagreements in the latter category. After a brief introduction in Part I, Part II explains how the US, Russia, and China perceive the formal sources of internal law in abstracto – which they privilege and why, methodological inconsistencies in how they understand and apply a particular source, and so on. Part III then examines four areas of international law in which different perceptions of the formal sources have a significant effect on how the US, Russia, and China perceive the primary rules: the jus ad bellum , the jus in bello , arms control, and cyberspace. Some concluding remarks follows in Part IV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews three recent books covering a broad spectrum of deterrence research and uses them to argue for a properly constituted field of Deterrence Studies. Having declined after the Cold War, research slowly revived after 9/11, and then picked up rapidly in the last decade with the rise of great power competition. Having been consigned to the academic margins for decades, such is the centrality of deterrence in international affairs, and the continued growth of multi- and interdisciplinary research on the topic, that it deserves its own field, rather than indefinitely remaining as a subset of other fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article "Recalibrating Arms Control for Emerging Technologies" discusses the contested utility of arms control in the face of intensifying great power competition and the development of new military capabilities. It explores the need to manage competition in emerging technologies through a recalibration of arms control mechanisms, shifting from quantitative to qualitative approaches. The article highlights the importance of dialogue between major powers to address trust issues and outlines potential pathways for arms control success, emphasizing the need for realistic expectations and tailored solutions for specific emerging technology challenges. The text also draws parallels with historical arms control efforts and underscores the importance of balancing competitive strategies with diplomatic engagement to create conditions conducive to arms control. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the ongoing debate over European defense spending within NATO and the implications for burden sharing among member countries. It outlines three distinct US visions for burden sharing, each with varying implications for European security and autonomy. The first vision advocates for maintaining the status quo of US leadership within NATO, the second envisions a more conditional approach to US security commitments, and the third proposes a rebalanced NATO with greater European responsibility. The article highlights the challenges and tradeoffs faced by European allies in navigating these different visions and emphasizes the need for strategic thinking and long-term perspectives in addressing burden sharing dilemmas. [Extracted from the article]

Remembering the devastating defeat of the Russian Empire in the Russo–Japanese War (1904–1905), in particular, at the Battle of Tsushima (May 1905), does not easily fit into patriotic and 'great power' narratives of the past promoted in Putin's Russia. In contrast to monolithic, state-dominated accounts of the Great Patriotic War (1941–1945), which have come to prevail over the last two decades, alternative accounts of memory emerge through remembering the Russo–Japanese War. This article highlights how the polyphonic memory of this conflict poses a challenge to monopolistic state-authored accounts, with their rigid, nationalist framings of memory, borders and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1980s to mid-2000s, American missionaries conducted information campaigns across the United States to change US evangelicals' perceptions of the AIDS epidemic and secure their support for global AIDS work. Drawing on colonial discourses about suffering foreign bodies and souls, missionaries conditioned US evangelicals to shift their feelings about AIDS from disgust to grief, which activated practices of compassion. Evangelicals then funded abstinence-only sex education courses packaged as AIDS prevention programs across the Global South. Missionaries' messaging facilitated US evangelicals' transformation in these decades from the most implacable foes of people with HIV/AIDS domestically to some of the biggest supporters of AIDS work internationally. Assessing US evangelicals' changing attitudes about and involvement with the AIDS epidemic reveals how transnational religious networks linked US conservative political priorities to global health humanitarianism and how religious actors expanded American global power in a postcolonial context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the U.S. decision to designate Kenya as a major non-NATO ally, elevating its international security status. This move is seen as a realist foreign-policy decision to advance U.S. military and security interests in East Africa. The article highlights Kenya's regional security leadership role, challenges in the new security order, and implications for neighboring countries like Ethiopia. It also touches on the potential impact of the U.S.-Kenya security partnership on democracy, human rights, and regional stability. [Extracted from the article]

The "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" is a new trade road linking China and other countries in the world in the new era, promoting the development of Asia Pacific integration. With the increase of China's investment in the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" countries, its security is influenced by factors such as major country games, regional conflicts, and so- cial instability, and also bringing great uncertainty to investment safety. Therefore, a reasonable assessment of investment se- curity risk of the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" is an important basis for ensuring investment security. In this paper, the investment security risk assessment index system is constructed comprehensively based on great power influence, state behav- ior and state interaction. Aiming at the uncertainty of the assessment index, hesitation degree distribution function of institu- tion fuzzy set is established. The score function and distance measure of intuitionistic fuzzy set are improved, and the quanti- tative assessment model of investment security risk is constructed by combining TOPSIS method. The investment security risk in 27 countries along the "21st Century Maritime Silk Road" was experimentally verified, and the ranking was finally ob- tained based on different risk attitude of decision maker, which provided reference for the decision-making of the "21st Cen- tury Maritime Silk Road". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the theoretical and empirical development of contemporary minilateralism through the lens of US–China great power competition. The aim is to assess four theoretically informed predictions about US and Chinese minilateral formation: (a) the US would form minilaterals more readily than China, (b) the US would appreciate minilaterals more than China, (c) the US and China would have differing rhetorical approaches to discussing the value of minilaterals, and (d) that minilaterals formed in the contemporary period would tend toward institutionalisation in order to ensure their persistence (a reflection of the long-term nature of Sino-US competition). Following the Introduction, section II provides a descriptive, empirical overview of the perspectives on minilateralism in Washington and Beijing, focusing on the US judgment that they are an asymmetric advantage for the US, and China's evaluation that they are a risk to its foreign and security policy strategy. Section III examines a set of US-led minilateral cases (Quad 2.0, AUKUS, US-Japan-South Korea, US-Japan-Australia, and US-Japan-Philippines) and the Chinese responses to their development. Finally, section IV concludes with thoughts on policy implications, as well as other avenues of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the post-Cold War era, China has been committed to intensifying its strategic partnership with Russia in an attempt to usher into the world a new order. To achieve this goal, these two states have since the end of the Cold War expanded their cooperation, including the oil and gas cooperation. The research objectives of the paper are to explore the latest development in the China–Russia oil and gas cooperation and the motivations and outcomes from a Chinese perspective. It contributes to the scholarly discussion by analyzing China's intensified energy cooperation with Russia in the greater picture of China's rise and examining it in a political economy way. This paper finds that the rapidly enhanced energy cooperation is a visible manifestation of China's quest for energy security and a greater say in the world energy market. This paper concludes that China wishes to achieve three objectives by intensifying its oil and gas cooperation with Russia: this first is related to China's sustained economic growth; the second to China's aggravated security environment since the US 'pivot to Asia'; the third to China's dream of restoring its past status as a great power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses upon the decision by President Ford in 1975 to begin a covert operation inside Angola so as to prevent a communist-backed government coming to power. By drawing on recently declassified documents from the United States, this article enhances our understanding of how domestic political factors had such a strong influence over the course of US foreign policy. As such, this article contributes to the wider literature on US foreign policy during the Cold War, which continues to debate how much credence should be placed upon the domestic variable in understanding US foreign policy. Moreover, this article focuses on how the failure of US covert action inside Angola contributed to US policymakers deciding to jettison their policy of superpower détente and return to a more confrontational and militaristic form of Cold War policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a key battleground in the global struggle between democracy and authoritarianism, Africa offers US policymakers insights to navigate competing interests and power dynamics. For a comprehensive view of this competition, this article analyzes American, Chinese, French, and Russian geopolitical strategies; employs a geopolitical analysis of current events, diplomatic maneuvers, and historical lessons; and uses policy documents, expert opinions, and case studies of geopolitical engagements. It then provides actionable policy recommendations for fostering stable, long-term US relations in Africa and offers strategic perspectives on managing the global power competition applicable to broader national security and diplomatic contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, the current status and future of al-Qaeda is a central policy question, especially as the U.S. government looks to pivot away from counterterrorism toward managing great power competition. This article presents a debate on this issue between Daniel Byman and Asfandyar Mir. Mir argues that al-Qaeda remains a significant threat, committed to fighting the United States despite pressures to alter direction. The control of al-Qaeda central over its major regional affiliates remains strong, with steady growth in capability. It also retains important allies and has major opportunities due to the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the domestic political environment, changing priorities in the United States, and great power competition. Byman, in contrast, contends that al-Qaeda suffers debilitating organizational problems, with affiliates having localized and the movement lacking a haven remotely comparable to pre-9/11 Afghanistan. In addition, improved counterterrorism keeps al-Qaeda off balance. If al-Qaeda remains a major threat, counterterrorism must remain among the United States' major national security priorities, even if it is not the top one, and robust counterterrorism measures need to be sustained. If al-Qaeda is weak, the importance of counterterrorism in the hierarchy of U.S. foreign policy priorities can fall substantially. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines patterns and factors influencing U.S. civil-military relations interventions in developing countries. Drawing on theories of new clientelism and geopolitics, it proposes developing states' political traditions and U.S. geostrategic interests jointly shape U.S. intervention policies through an interactive effect. Quantitative analysis of U.S. military assistance and engagement data across 97 developing countries (1990–2020) supports key hypotheses: U.S. civil-military intervention is higher in military-dominated polities and states of major geostrategic interest, with military political traditions amplifying geostrategic factors. Case studies of Egypt and India further reveal differentiated pathways of U.S. military influence across varying political systems. The findings provide new explanations of U.S. foreign military behavior, analytical perspectives on Third World military diplomacy, and insights for developing countries in responding to great power military pressures while preserving sovereignty and security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the global power structure entered a period of geopolitical transition. An evolved vision in the twenty‐first century shows the arrival of the geopolinomic order based on the combination of economic, political and territorial codes. Geopolinomic codes, in synergy with the global political economy, regulate the territorial and infrastructural arrangement of the world order in periods of geopolitical transition between hegemonic and emerging powers. Spatialization of power politics requires going through a set of geopolitical representations and this adds a thin discursive layer to the territorial hegemonic order. I argue that the development of geopolinomic codes allows for a more significant infusion of political economy through the centrality of territorial communication networks. A country with more manoeuvring power in adjusting geopolinomic codes and its triple levels can change the balance of global power structures in its favour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is daredevil aggression like Russia's war on Ukraine such an important factor in world politics? Neither offensive nor defensive realists give a fully satisfactory answer. This paper maintains that the problem lies in their shared assumption that states pursue security. Tracing neorealism's roots in evolutionary economics, and hence indirectly in biological theories of natural selection, I argue that many policies are compatible with state survival. What is hard is surviving as a great power. States that rise to that rank, and remain there, behave as if they sought to maximize their influence, not their security. This Darwinian competition selects in favor of states with expansionist institutions and ideologies. Failing to recognize this phenomenon risks conferring a spurious legitimacy on imperialism. At the same time, neorealists have also committed a fallacy familiar to biologists: assuming that traits enhancing group fitness are selected even when they diminish fitness in intragroup competition. Whereas interstate competition selects in great powers for traits that promote influence-maximization, with the spread of democracy, intrastate competition increasingly selects for security-seeking. Yet the former process sometimes still dominates the latter, above all in authoritarian great powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to provide an answer to the question, "Why is China dismissive of India's great power ambitions?" It argues that China's dismissiveness of India's great power ambitions is explained by cognitive bias towards India based on its colonization and freedom struggle. This is because India was formally colonized by Great Britain, but China was never formally colonized. Second, India won its freedom from British colonial/imperial rule through a nonviolent struggle unlike China, which fought a bloody war of liberation against Japan and a civil war leading to the formation of the People's Republic of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital coalitions are the primary tool of the USA to compete with China in the digital age and differ markedly from traditional alliances and military coalitions. It is necessary to go beyond the vision of pure great power rivalry and probe Sino–US digital competition through the lens of coalitions and the relationship between the dominant state and coalition members. A digital coalition is a state consortium with an organisational nature, confrontational targets, common goals, and the capability to take collective action, formed to deal with the digital strategy, norms, standards, industry, and products. The two main determinants of the building and maintenance of the digital coalition are the security dependency of allies on the USA and the technological stranglehold in the digital relationship. Security dependency determines the likelihood of coalition construction; the higher the dependency, the more willing allies will be to respond to the dominant state's digital security narrative and mobilisation. There is potential for the construction of simple digital coalitions centred on conceptions and governance initiatives. However, building and maintaining a complex digital coalition depends on the presence of a technological stranglehold as well as security dependencies. A technological stranglehold involves controlling the supply of key technologies critical to the survival of the industry, and compels allies to sacrifice market interests and participate in a digital coalition to ensure the integrity of their industries. The Chip 4 Alliance and Trade and Technology Council are typical examples of US-led digital coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South Korea and the Philippines hold pivotal geopolitical positions amidst escalating tensions between the USA and China. Both Seoul and Manila find themselves ensnared in the expanding rivalry between these great powers, subjecting them to numerous strategic challenges amid the prevailing regional status quo of instability. Despite their efforts to maintain a delicate balance, often characterized as hedging behavior, the space available for such maneuvering is diminishing, compelling them toward perilous geopolitical alignments. Therefore, this paper seeks to address the following questions: How does the shrinking space to hedge influence the alignment strategies of South Korea and the Philippines? How do their alignment choices impact the geopolitical dynamics of the China–US strategic competition? It argues that as this space contracts, they possess the capability to significantly influence the regional balance of power through their alignment, which we frame as the kingmaker's role and the power of the weak paradox. Seoul, navigating the complex dynamics of the Korean Peninsula, must carefully weigh its commitments to both Washington and Beijing, particularly in light of ongoing developments with North Korea. Meanwhile, Manila, in the aftermath of the Duterte administration's alignment oscillations, has sought to establish a clearer strategic direction largely influenced by tensions in the South China Sea. Both are now increasingly tacking hard toward Washington for security assurances and have acknowledged economic security anxieties concerning their links with Beijing. Furthermore, they are placing greater emphasis on upholding the rules-based international order amid growing global uncertainties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic studies on the new quality productive forces NQPF are mushrooming, however, on the whole, the majority of existing studies primarily focus on revealing and summarizing the economic laws guiding the development of NQPF based on the"general"characteristics of individual organizations at the microlevel and institutions at the macro level. This paper argues that the background of "getting great" and the competition scenario between countries determine that "heterogeneity" is the most relevant and theoretically challenging issue in the NQPF, and also the most likely to yield significant academic outcomes. In view of the fact that the existing problem setting, conceptual framework, and analytical tools of existing eccomics fail to effectively address the unique prescriptive phenomena of NQPF, including direct competition between countries, power countries, and heterogeneity, future academic research on new quality productive forces should go beyond the current "general" issues orientation, directly address the extreme phenomena and problems in the "genesis" stage in the latest round of scientific and technological revolution, and strive to push forward the frontiers of theoretical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The African populace met the end of colonialism in Africa with jubilation. There was hope that its demise would lead to socioeconomic emancipation after decades of segregation, discrimination and denial of local values and traditions. Nevertheless, what emerged has been the total opposite: corruption, never-ending conflict, the rise of violent non-state actors, elitism, poverty, and inequality. This gave rise to a new scramble for Africa, as major powers compete for influence on the continent. To investigate the difficulties of consolidating inclusive development in post-colonial Africa, this paper employed a semi-systematic research approach. The authors searched for peer-reviewed, English-language literature published from 1998 to 2023 through five online databases (Google Scholar, Sabinet, SAGE journals, Social Science Citation Index, Web of Science and EBSCOhost). The new scramble for Africa appeared to have presented so far both opportunities and risks. As great powers compete for influence and deeper relations, Africa is caught in the middle. It remains to be seen whether this scramble will be different from the previous colonization and whether it will foster the consolidation of inclusive development in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rise of mediatization, open-source intelligence (OSINT) has evolved into a decentralized form of intelligence gathering, influenced by both political and commercial logic. This transformation has positioned social media as a primary source of OSINT, enhancing the capabilities of non-state actors and significantly impacting international politics, particularly in the realm of great-power competition. Through an analysis spanning individual, state, and systemic levels, this article examines OSINT's role in shaping contemporary international politics. By exploring case studies such as the Russo-Ukrainian War, Israel-Hamas War, and strategic competition between China and the United States, this article illuminates how OSINT influences decision-making processes and global power struggles and contributes to a deeper understanding of the evolving landscape of intelligence and its implications for statecraft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history and current workings of the United Nations suggest it is not an effective vehicle for the promotion of Canadian interests and values. As it has generally been, the Security Council is paralyzed by great power vetoes, while the General Assembly has an overwhelming majority that reliably votes against the West, and against Canada. The creation of the postwar liberal international order owed more to other multilateral organizations and groupings with which Canada is associated than the UN. In its core function of underwriting global security and stability, the UN has generally failed and often been irrelevant, with the crucial understandings reached between the great powers directly. In an age of increased international polarization, the UN will remain of only modest utility and Canada would be better advised to forward its values and interests primarily through other multilateral vehicles, working with like-minded states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While Latin America's parties suffer from notoriously incongruent relations between legislators and voters, we use mass and legislator-level surveys to show that many parties' voters and/or legislators coalesce around a singular view about the United States and China. The data indicate frequent congruence between the two levels, and in most of those cases, attitudes towards both countries are positive. Presuming that policies towards the superpowers are not valence issues, this suggests that attitudes towards the powers do help to structure party politics, although the rivalry between the powers is seldom salient. In explaining the correlates of intra-partisan agreement, we focus on ideology, party system structuration, and economic ties. Among the findings is that because attitudes towards the United States are more likely to polarize the left and right, China has extra potential for growing its support. A warning, however, is that legislators in several rightist parties do share a negative perspective about China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for a more diverse and inclusive approach to International Relations (IR) studies in Indonesia, highlighting the dominance of Western-centered theories and the exclusion of perspectives from the Global South. It calls for a "pluriversal" IR curriculum that incorporates Indonesian values and philosophies to provide a more nuanced understanding of global politics. The article suggests practical strategies for implementing a pluriversal IR program in Indonesian universities, emphasizing the importance of re-evaluating the pedagogy of IR studies to better reflect local realities and perspectives. [Extracted from the article]