This book examines European strategic culture at both national and supranational level.

Focusing on elite perceptions extracted from official discourses, it empirically analyses how the European Union and its member states look at the important dimensions and their perceptual changes in the foreign security and defence realm and explores their convergence/divergence. It also discusses the prospects for the emergence of a European strategic culture in the context of the Russia-Ukraine war, concluding that whilst it has given a boost to Europe's thinking and approach with respect to security and defence which may lead to further integration, there had been a convergence in strategic culture between member states themselves and the EU, even before the war.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of European foreign, security and defence policy, and more broadly to European studies, international relations, security studies and foreign policy.

Sir John Chipman KCMG served as Director-General and Chief Executive of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) from 1993 to 2023. Along with his tenure as Executive Chairman since 2023, and the research positions he held from 1983 before being appointed Director, this represents a professional lifetime spent at the IISS. The Institute enjoys its current reputation for excellence in research and convening, as well as its wide international reach and influence, thanks to Sir John's successes over many decades.

This Adelphi book is a tribute to Sir John's work at and contribution to the Institute. It highlights three areas of intellectual leadership through his writings, spanning broadly the decades he worked at the IISS: strategic studies after the end of the Cold War; regionalism and regional security; and corporate foreign policy. Selected writings by Sir John in these three areas are reprinted here in their original form. They are paired with commentaries by a number of notable friends of the IISS, written specially for this book.

The first English translation of Emanuele Severino's radical critique of the notion of identity.

Starting from his central intuition that Western culture is essentially nihilism, Emanuele Severino reflects anew on the problem of identity, abandoning the ambiguous (and ultimately contradictory) fashion in which being and becoming are grasped in the Western tradition. In this foundational work in Severino's philosophy, the philosopher questions the dominant understanding of identity in Western culture, tracing it back to Aristotle's definition of identity as 'tautotes'. In his endeavour, Severino discusses - with his particular depth - the most renowned philosophical passages from Hegel, Aristotle, Plato and Kant, presenting a radical critique of identity.

This book constitutes part of Severino's monumental theoretical apparatus, comprising a critique of Western metaphysics that sets him alongside Heidegger in contemporary theory. This translation of Tautotes will appeal to those interested in the central problems of Ancient and contemporary philosophy, ontology and metaphysics.

Cultivating the mystical experience and the contemplative traditions that underpin it can have profound ethical consequences.

By taking this path, alongside or instead of the analytic post-enlightenment route more familiar in the West, mysticism can shape the way that we relate our consciousness to our lived experience.

Contemporary society is a hostile place in which to hold onto ideas of hope, not least from an ethical standpoint. The anxiety that pervades this point in our shared history squeezes the opportunities to find escape or to reach a place beyond the immediate. Mysticism and Embodiment uses the body as a site from which to argue for a new understanding of this reality, framing transcendent experience in the context of existential phenomenology. In this context, the role of the mystical imagination comes to the fore, showing its immense value for individual and social healing, as well as our understanding of the other and how we can talk about new possibilities in ethical philosophy.

In this ground-breaking study, Lyn Ossome offers an authoritative, interdisciplinary theory of how postcolonial capitalist democracies reproduce the gendered forms of violence essential to colonial rule.

Focussing on postcolonial African states, and using an interdisciplinary methodology that combines insights from political studies, feminist political economy, historical studies, and literary studies, Ossome shows how postcolonial, capitalist democracies in Africa, like their colonial antecedents, use various identity-markers to determine whose rights and bodies are violable, to what extent, and whether and how the violated have a right to resist. Ossome buttresses her critique through evidence gathered from colonial archives in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, as well as through critical comparisons of three artistic responses to gender-based violence and rape in South Africa and India, all of which shows how her insights might apply across the postcolonial Global South.

Emphasising the importance of intra-household investigation, contributors incorporate a range of methodological theories to address fundamental consumer topics. They demonstrate that consumer decisions are essential for correctly deriving economic quantitative evidence for social and policy issues. Illustrating how individual consumption habits can influence patterns on a regional and national level, entries provide an intergenerational overview of both household and population economics.

The Elgar Encyclopedia of Consumption is an essential resource for economists and sociology scholars, particularly those focusing on consumption and economic theory. It will also be of interest to market researchers and managers seeking to better understand the intricacies of consumer behaviour.

Key Features:

• Explores the economic and social impacts of consumer patterns
• Addresses methodological issues for economists attempting to analyse consumer behaviour
• Presents interdisciplinary entries that combine economic insights and their consequences on household social dynamics
• Evaluates topics from retirement to migration to provide an inclusive overview of purchaser behaviour

The gothic is far more than a genre preoccupied with ghosts, vampires and the supernatural. It is a phenomenon that has influenced the expression of unease and fear across many cultures.

Comprehending gothic textuality from the 18th century to the present, the Historical Dictionary of Gothic Literature, Second Edition addresses not merely supernatural fiction but also film, television, graphic works and the subtle influence of the genre upon global popular culture. Containing a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography, the dictionary section contains cross-referenced entries on African American gothic, cyberpunk and steampunk, dark academia, folk horror and Japanese gothic. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about gothic literature.

A powerful exploration of how emotions like rage, grief, and pride drive ethnic conflict and shape political life.

The Affective Forces of Ethnic Politics: But Look What They Did to Us! offers a bold intervention into the study of ethnic conflict, challenging the idea that fear, interests, or elite manipulation are the primary drivers of violence. Instead, it reveals how humiliation, grief, pride, and spite, or the affective forces of ethnic politics, sustain long-term antagonism and block the path to reconciliation.

Through emotionally charged case studies from Bosnia, Kosovo, Gaza, and Nagorno-Karabakh, the book shows how wounded identity, symbolic resistance, and accusatory discourse fuel post-conflict polarization. Rather than irrational outbursts, these emotions are deeply structured forces that shape how communities interpret the past, experience the present, and imagine the future. Against approaches that treatemotion as the opposite of reason, the book reframes it as a vital infrastructure of political life that must be understood to address the endurance of ethnic conflict.

Written in a clear, conceptually rich style, the book explains complex emotional dynamics without relying on jargon, making it accessible to students, researchers, and general readers with a basic grounding in conflict or political studies. It offers a powerful new lens for understanding identity conflict, and why reckoning with its emotional foundations is essential for any lasting resolution.

Going beyond unimaginative calls for UN Security Council reform and demands for defunding and "detoothing" the UN entirely, veteran diplomat, Jassim Buallay, offers a practical road map for the modernization of the UN System and improvement of its crisis response.

Since its inception, in the aftermath of the Second World War, the United Nations System has undertaken both the routine work of global affairs, including legal, political, economic, social, cultural, and judicial work, and the exceptional work of crisis management, including responding to territorial disputes, civil conflicts, famine, natural disasters, global health pandemics, and much more. Increasingly, the crisis response capacity of the United Nations System has been exposed as woefully inadequate, hindered by structural redundancies, bureaucratic inefficiencies, budgetary profligacies, and lack of adequate accountability mechanisms.

Drawing upon the extensive knowledge and personal experience of the author working with the United Nations, both from within as an international civil servant and later as a diplomatic representative of his country to the System, Jassim Buallay delves into how UN institutions are organized, mandated, funded, staffed, and managed. Through extensive examination of the history and processes of the United Nations, Buallay explores a middle path for UN reform which emphasizes efficiency and accountability and calls upon all member states to renew their commitment to the UN as the best hope for world peace and sustainable social and economic development.

IRON DOME tells the remarkable story of how a single military system, designed to protect against rockets, reshaped Israel's politics and strategy. Conceived against the resistance from many, and developed at extraordinary speed, Iron Dome eventually became one of the most iconic symbols of modern warfare.

Drawing on extensive fieldwork and interviews with Israeli and American decision-makers, Jean-Loup Samaan traces the rise of Iron Dome against the backdrop of Israel's wars with Hamas and Hezbollah. The new system enabled Israel's governments to assuage the fears of its population amid the flow of rockets targeting its cities.

However, the book shows that the story of Iron Dome is more than a tale of technological prowess: it reveals key insights into the evolving conflict between Israel and the Palestinians since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the struggle within the Israeli Defense Forces to adapt its strategy, and the way missile defense is shaping the future of Israel-US military cooperation. It also offers a compelling study of the core tensions of modern warfare, from the dilemma between offense and defense to the uneasy marriage of strategy and technology.

Key Features:

• Delineates the Schengen territory, including the status of associated countries
• Analyses the institutional framework of Schengen, its enlargement, and its substantive scope
• Explains the historical tensions and controversies surrounding Schengen as a laboratory for European integration and its integration into the EU legal framework
• Provides an in-depth analysis of all instruments forming part of the Schengen acquis, including internal border controls, databases such as the Schengen Information System, and walls and fences at the EU's external borders, as well as police cooperation

The Law of Schengen is an invaluable resource for lawyers specialising in European law and NGO professionals looking to develop their understanding of the Schengen acquis. EU officials from the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, and the European Parliament, as well as European law practitioners, will similarly benefit from its comprehensive analysis.

This collection examines what 'critical theory' as a distinct intellectual tradition in social, political, and legal thought contributes to the study of EU law and to the future of the European project.

Covering a broad range of substantive fields of EU law and the history of legal integration, including constitutional law, the design of monetary union and economic law, fiscal integration and taxation, labour law, fundamental rights and anti-discrimination law, gender equality, migration law and policy, data protection, and the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), the volume illustrates how a more rigorous engagement with critical theory helps to navigate the post-crisis European legal landscape. The contributors bring fresh, thoughtful, and innovative perspectives to EU law and theory, diagnosing the deep-seated challenges facing contemporary EU law and reimagining the emancipatory possibilities still available for it.

This book explores the evolution and impact of deliberative democracy in East Asia, focusing on Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan through a deliberative systems framework.

Democratization and democratic development in the region are intertwined with social movements, public participation, institutional reform, and deliberative innovation. The book highlights how deliberative democracy can transform politics, inform policymaking, and strengthen democratic governance, while also exploring the integration of deliberation with digital technologies and artificial intelligence to advance democratic innovations. Drawing on practical experiences, it demonstrates how democratic deliberation can shift public attitudes, shape policy, and address complex challenges.

Essential reading for students and scholars of East Asian politics and deliberative democracy, The Transformative Power of Deliberative Democracy in East Asia is also invaluable for political and social scientists interested in comparative democracy, public governance, and public participation in science and technology.

This book is the first publication that comprehensively addresses the Mulheres da Paz Project, implemented throughout Brazil by the federal government, and examines the execution of the program in two different territories in Rio de Janeiro: one dominated by criminal drug trafficking organizations and the other by the presence of militias.

Through rich ethnographic study and interviews, Estivalet shows how women living in the urban peripheries of Rio de Janeiro organized to imagine and create better lives for themselves and their communities in ways far beyond the expectations of the program's founders. Bringing their strengths to the surface and taking advantage of the networks established through participation in the project, the women studied in this book occupied public space and representative positions in institutional politics, such as women's rights councils and women's groups in political parties. They developed activities to generate collective income, train and educate themselves and other citizens and young people, and promoted improvements in the living conditions of their communities.

Gender, Violence, and Public Policies: When Women Act for Peace highlights the transformative impact of women's participation in urban social policy for the achievement of women's rights and human rights.

Russian Nationalism and the Russian-Ukrainian War, the first edition of which was published before Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, was the first book to integrate the roots of Russian military aggression against Ukraine and genocidal policies towards Ukraine with a study of Russian imperial nationalism. The text of this second, revised, updated and extended edition, provides a historical and contemporary understanding behind President Vladimir Putin Russia's obsession with Ukraine and the roots of Russia's invasions of Ukraine in 2014 and 2022.

The book investigates the inability of Russian imperial nationalism, from the time of the Tsarist Empire, throughout the era of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), and since the dissolution of the latter in 1991, to accept Ukraine as an independent country and Ukrainians as a people distinct and separate from Russians. The book highlights the sources of this lack of acceptance in a mythical pan-Russian nation composed of Great, Little, and White Russians (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians respectively). The book analyses why these Russian imperial nationalist myths led to the Kremlin's mistaken belief in a quick three-day victory of its so-called special military operation, which rather led to years of full-scale war.

The establishment of the African Union and its African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) in 2002 marked a fundamental transformation in how African states collectively address security challenges. This book examines the origins, institutional design, and early performance of APSA, revealing the political dynamics that shaped this landmark initiative in regional security governance.

Drawing on extensive elite interviews with key decision-makers, such as former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and access to foreign policy documents, this study reconstructs how a coalition of states known as the Like-Minded Five (South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Ethiopia, and Mali) exercised disproportionate influence over the creation of APSA. The analysis traces the formation of state preferences, the negotiation process through which diverse visions were reconciled, and the relationship between institutional design choices and subsequent performance. The book challenges the tendency to underestimate the agency of African states in shaping continental institutions and instead demonstrates how domestic political considerations shaped South African and Nigerian preferences, whilst strategic coalition-building and normative entrepreneurship enabled these middle powers to translate their vision into institutional outcomes.

Understanding the political bargains struck during APSA's formative period remains essential to understanding security cooperation in Africa and beyond. This book will therefore be an important read for policymakers and for researchers across the fields of African studies, international relations, and security studies.

The carceral imaginary explains Americans' stubborn attachment to or at least acceptance of prisons, both in the hyperbolic tough-on-crime practices and in seemingly progressive sectors.

Joining a critical reading of John Locke with theorists of storytelling, the imaginary, decolonial theory, and carceral logic, Shari Stone-Mediatore brings new philosophical resources to bear on the question of how Americans have become so attached to punishment-based social policies despite the failure of our vast network of prisons to protect us from harm. Stone-Mediatore argues that, alongside the political and economic forces driving prison expansion, a carceral imaginary in which we have become deeply invested emotionally has bonded our imaginations to carceral myths and prevented us from thinking meaningfully about safety and justice. Tracing a pattern in the violence-rationalizing myths studied by Frantz Fanon, Enrique Dussel, James Baldwin, and Ida B. Wells, Stone-Mediatore develops a theory of the righteous-violence imaginary. Viewing contemporary U.S. punitiveness-which has led to the incarceration of nearly two million Americans in 6,000 jails and prisons across the country-through this lens, she elucidates the structure of our carceral imaginary and how it embroils us in ever more needs for violence and mythmaking.

Stone-Mediatore explores how stories that take us on journeys with those on the other side of prison walls can help unsettle the masonry of carceralism and build support for safety practices that do not perpetuate trauma and abuse but advance our mutual healing.

Celebrity 'Outsider' Politicians in the Digital Realm: Donald Trump's Online Charismatic Authority considers Trump's impact on elite level behaviour by analysing how his extremist online political discourses shape communications outputs.

Celebrity 'outsider' politicians like Donald Trump command credibility by establishing themselves through a conjunction of deinstitutionalisation, personalisation and parasocial familiarity. To provide a systematic analysis of this phenomenon, the book asks how Trump's celebrity has been utilised to transfer his 'business assets' from the 'field' of entertainment to the 'field' of politics through his populism. It analyses, assesses and explains the significance of Trump's celebrity personality in shaping the impression management throughout the 2024 Republican Presidential nomination and General Elections processes. Throughout his campaigns it has not been about who Trump is, but it is about what he represented in terms of American supremacism, brash salesmanship and personal narcissism.

Celebrity 'Outsider' Politicians in the Digital Realm will appeal to students, scholars and political practitioners interested in political communication, popular culture and politics.

Exploring how Russia and Turkey have shaped the contestation of democracy across South-Eastern Europe and Eurasia over the past two decades, Sonja Katharina Schiffers examines the pivotal role of gatekeeper elites in Georgia and Bosnia, how their choices enable or resist authoritarian and illiberal external influence, and assesses the counterpressure exerted by the EU and US.

Drawing on nearly one hundred exclusive interviews, this book offers a detailed account of Russian and Turkish external influence and its consequences for democracy in Bosnia and Georgia since the early 2000s. Combining rigorous analysis with practical insights, this book delivers compelling policy recommendations for those committed to defending liberal democracies.

The world is witnessing the rise of numerous ultraconservative and authoritarian leaders, governments, and movements that have challenged democratic institutions. The use of social media and disinformation tools - including the spread of fake news and, more recently, the use of artificial intelligence - has become a common feature across national contexts. From the national to the transnational level, ideas and practices circulate with the shared objective of undermining democratic principles, norms, experiences, and multilateral organizations.
How should we understand the impact of this wave of antidemocratic and ultraconservative politics within multilateral arenas, particularly within the United Nations? And what are the distinctive features of the Bolsonaro administration (2019-2022) within this broader context?
Drawing on research produced through a broad collective effort coordinated by LABMUNDO, this volume offers critical perspectives on the use of terms such as "populist leaders," "populist governments," and "populist foreign policy" to describe this phenomenon. Addressing the issue from theoretical and conceptual standpoints, the studies gathered here explore the Brazilian context of bolsonarism and examine how ultraconservative and antidemocratic leaderships and movements have exerted negative influences on Brazil's foreign policy agenda.

President Joe Biden sought to restore the United States' postwar liberal order in his first two years as president. Biden advocated democratic partnerships, ended the war in Afghanistan, actively supported Ukraine against Russian invasion, pushed techno-nationalist policies, rearranged the Indo-Pacific alliance network, and ratcheted up "great power competition" toward China.
Despite this ambition, Biden's presidency is framed by two separate Trump administrations and is often read as a failed interval in the Trump era. Given this, could contemporaries faithfully evaluate Biden's condensed grand strategy? Can future observers do the same?
A Liberal World Restored?: Grand Strategy Analysis and the Biden Administration presents an innovative approach to identify and assess grand strategy over short time spans by distilling major grand strategy concepts into five ideal types. Despite failures, Joe Biden oversaw a grand strategy that often aligned with expectations set by these criteria. Such results are nuanced. Biden followed grand strategy ideal types related particularly to US power and standing, but his performance on criteria like process and content was mixed.