This project offers a fresh, in-depth analysis of the evolving relationship between the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the ASEAN region. Through comprehensive analysis of investment data from 2016-2023, the book sheds light on the contrasting yet interdependent roles these banks play in ASEAN, with a special focus on five key countries: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Indonesia. By integrating data analysis with geopolitical insights, the book provides a nuanced understanding of the strategic, economic, and political dynamics at play in Southeast Asia.

Rus' and Mongol Rule presents the fullest examination in English to date of the economic and social history of Rus' from the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries and the impact of Mongol rule. Lawrence N. Langer shows how the Mongols were a double-edged sword, encouraging trade while imposing a harsh tribute in silver, furs, and people. Among the topics examined are the Black Death, the demographic crisis and shortage of labor, taxation and administration, patterns of warfare, the growth of monasteries, the peasantry, and slavery.

Rus' and Mongol Rule begins with the Mongol conquest of Rus in 1237-1241 and ends with the death of Grand Prince Vasilli II and the ascension of his son, Ivan III "the Great" in 1462. Langer shows how the Rus' responded to the tribute by fashioning an administrative and taxation system that drew upon Mongol practice and Rus' tradition. Despite not attacking Novgorod, the Mongols had an enormous impact as the city reformed its administration to meet the demands of their tribute. Simultaneously the city was able to solidify its rights vis-a-vis the grand princes of Vladimir.

Langer gives particular attention to Novgorod and its administration. He also discusses Pskov, which often receives little scholarly attention. In concluding he discusses how the governmental apparatus of Rus evolved to include elements from the Mongols but also administrative practices not unlike those found in the medieval West as well as those traditions derived from Kyivan Rus.

The book studies the regulation of the food and beverage industry (F&B) in and by all leading regional trade agreements (RTAs) in the world. It critically evaluates the institutions, rules, and dispute settlement processes used to regulate F&B in older RTAs, such as United States-Mexico-Canada USMCA, Southern Common Market Mercosur/Mercosul, European Union EU, and Europe-Asia Economic Union EAEU, and also focuses on rapidly evolving or more recently established RTAs, such as the African Continental Free Trade Area AfCFTA, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership RCEP, and Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN. It discusses specific examples of major F&B companies to see if they comply or purport to comply with three indicators of healthy food: front-of-pack labelling; environmental, social and governance ESG compliance and the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and the avoidance of highly processed food HPF. It advances specific proposals to companies and to consumers to help achieve the goal of healthy food. The book marshals a sophisticated legal perspective, detailed economic knowledge of major F&B multinational companies worldwide, and constructive and cutting-edge proposals to such companies about providing consumers with up-to-date information to enable them to choose healthy food.

This book investigates emerging work attitudes among employees in China's service sector, with a particular focus on the phenomena of "Tang Ping" (lying flat) and "Nei Juan" (involution). The research draws upon original empirical data collected in Shanghai in 2023, situating these attitudes within the context of intergenerational workforce dynamics and China's rapidly evolving urban service economy.

This edited volume explores the complex dynamics of African women's political participation, focusing on the tension between numerical representation (quantity) and substantive, impactful political influence (quality). Chapters critically explore whether the growing numbers of women in these positions lead to substantive policy changes, improved governance, and the promotion of gender equity across different spheres of life. The volume looks at these issues through a multi-disciplinary lens, drawing on case studies from across the continent, different perspectives and extensive analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data.

By exploring the distinction between 'quantity' and 'quality' of political representation, the book provides insights for policymakers, scholars, activists, and civil society organisations on how to improve the effectiveness and impact of women's political participation in Africa. Furthermore, it contributes to the global discourse on gender equality and political representation, providing a comparative framework to understand how the African experience of female political engagement can inform broader conversations on women's roles in governance and significant spaces worldwide.

Missed at Maastricht examines why the euro was born without the economic union that many believed was essential to sustain it.

The formation of the euro is often explained as either an accident of history or the grand vision of a few key leaders. Emmanuel Mourlon-Druol upends this account. Recovering the perspectives of overlooked officials and lesser-known committees, he shows that ambitious proposals for economic union-a planning bureau, an unemployment benefit, a deposit insurance scheme, a center for economic policy coordination, a borrowing capacity-were advanced from as early as 1957. The problem, ultimately, was not a lack of ideas; rather, it was a persistent refusal to centralize decision-making power in a supranational authority. Anything resembling a transfer of sovereignty to a European body was, for most policymakers, politically unthinkable-a "federal anathema."

Reframing the Economic and Monetary Union's lopsidedness not as a design failure of the early 1990s but as the culmination of decades of shelved ambitions, Missed at Maastricht offers essential context for understanding Europe's ongoing predicament.

Parliamentary committees play a decisive role in lawmaking, yet their internal dynamics remain largely unexplored in political science - particularly when it comes to voting behavior. This book breaks new ground by systematically analyzing committee-level voting in the European Parliament (EP), drawing on an original dataset that covers the EP's 8th legislative term (2014 - 2019). It offers the first comprehensive empirical assessment of how consensus, cohesion and coherence emerge within committees and how these dynamics shape legislative outcomes.

Through rigorous analysis, the book reveals how internal committee decisions influence the EP's institutional role, legislative efficiency, and democratic legitimacy. It situates the EP-characterized by strong committees and exceptional transparency-within comparative parliamentary research and uses it as a lens to explore broader questions of legislative governance within the European Union and beyond.

By linking empirical findings to key theoretical debates, this book contributes to a deeper understanding of legislative behavior, institutional negotiation, and the evolving nature of parliamentary democracy. As such, it is an essential resource for scholars of EU politics, legislative studies, and institutional theory.

This book presents a collection of various topics that reflect the evolving landscape of economics, leadership, technology, and social systems in an interconnected world. It offers a multidisciplinary perspective on how innovative technologies can drive sustainable development, enhance societal well-being, and contribute to the achievement of global goals such as the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. The book explores how technological advancements impact society across various sectors, such as education, energy, healthcare and environmental protection. Drawing on detailed case studies, theoretical perspectives, and empirical data, it offers a balanced view of both the opportunities and challenges posed by innovations like renewable energy, digital platforms, and other emerging technologies.

Based on the papers presented at the 8th International Conference on Economics and Social Sciences (ICESS 2025) held in Bucharest, Romania, this volume is valuable for scholars, practitioners, and anyone interested in the future of global economic and social systems.

This book offers a unique analysis of the economic and political rise of the BRICS. It examines their contribution to the global economy and international institutions, as well as their contrasting interests and agendas. The BRICS' place within the global order is acknowledged to highlight the role they have in promoting sustainable development, encouraging South-South cooperation, developing new technologies, and participating in global governance. Understanding the trajectories of these emerging economies is essential for identifying new responses to contemporary global challenges.

Moving beyond Western-centric perspectives, the book explores both the opportunities and constraints facing the BRICS and other emerging economies, while also emphasizing the importance of identifying common ground to address present and future global issues. It will be of interest to students, scholars, and policymakers working in development economics, global governance, and international relations.

America's staggering racial and economic divides did not emerge by accident-they were built. Stratification Economics exposes how centuries of law, policy, and institutional design manufactured inequality, from slavery and land dispossession to redlining, deregulation, and modern tax regimes that funnel wealth upward. Neoliberal ideology, the book shows, cloaks these structures in the language of markets and meritocracy, obscuring how privatization, austerity, and constitutional doctrine consistently entrench hierarchy. Across domains-housing, labor, education, corporate power, and the courts-the same pattern recurs: policies that appear neutral in theory reproduce racial and class stratification in practice.

Against this backdrop, the manuscript advances Stratification Economics as a transformative framework for understanding and undoing inequality. Drawing on cutting-edge empirical research, it reveals discrimination as a rational strategy of group advantage and offers a clear blueprint for equitable reform. In doing so, it reframes the American economy not as an engine of opportunity, but as a system we must redesign to achieve it.

The book offers a concise, accessible guide to Vector Autoregression (VAR) models.

Starting with data preparation, the book demonstrates how VAR models are estimated, the criteria for selecting the number of lags and how the researcher should use model diagnostics. Expanding the analysis to Structural VARs (SVAR), the book then illustrates, with numerical examples, how their most popular outputs (impulse response functions, forecast error variance decomposition, historical decomposition) should be calculated and interpreted. Other topics such as potential data issues, confidence intervals, and forecasting are also explored, along with the most usual identification schemes. VAR model extensions such as Local Projections, Cointegration (Vector Error Correction), and Bayesian Models are also included, offering examples to that aim to assist practitioners. The book includes more advanced topics such as time-varying VARs. Throughout the book, emphasis is placed on the interpretation and understanding of the models, and even though mathematical formulae are presented, this is for the purpose of linking the analysis with the existing literature on the topic. The book is an ideal resource for researchers, students and professional economists alike who wish to better understand econometric forecasting concepts without the burden of complex mathematical derivations.

International Relations and Feminisms: Latin American Voices in a Global Debate brings together the voices and experiences of scholars working in Latin American International Relations and offers a timely and critical intervention in a central debate shaping contemporary International Relations scholarship. From diverse feminist perspectives, the volume challenges the discipline's traditional assumptions and expands how global politics, power, and security are understood. Moving beyond Eurocentric and state-centric frameworks, the book foregrounds voices, experiences, and knowledges that have long been marginalised. Through theoretically informed and empirically grounded chapters, it demonstrates how feminist approaches reveal the gendered foundations of international politics and reshape core concepts such as sovereignty, diplomacy, security, and global governance. Engaging with intersectional, postcolonial, and decolonial debates, the volume speaks to scholars, students, and practitioners seeking inclusive and reflexive tools to analyse world politics, positioning Latin American feminism as a central lens for understanding and transforming International Relations.

How an all-but-forgotten medieval astronomy book ushered in the modern age of science

Few people today have heard of Johannes de Sacrobosco, yet his textbook was the most widely read astronomy book ever written. For five hundred years, from when it was first written in the Middle Ages to the dawn of the modern world, the Sphere introduced Europeans to the cosmos. The Book Everyone Read traces the unpredictable twists and turns of scientific knowledge and discovery through the stories of Sacrobosco's readers-and in doing so, tells a new story of the emergence of modern science.

Kathleen Crowther shows how the secret to the Sphere's longevity lay with its readers themselves, who chose which aspects of Sacrobosco's original thirteenth-century text to accept, which to modify, and which to reject. Far from unchanging, editions of the book were accompanied by commentary, corrections, and details that challenged and revised the book's original worldview of a finite, Earth-centered cosmos. Crowther introduces us to the university professors who peppered their lectures on the Sphere with tales of the exciting new discoveries made with telescopes and musings on the new Sun-centered model proposed by Copernicus, the navigators who found their way across the Atlantic using information about the stars they found in the book, the missionaries who brought translations of it to the Americas and Asia, and many others.

Through the surprising life of a medieval book of astronomy, The Book Everyone Read charts a scientific conversation that extended far beyond what we understood before.

This book deepens and provides specificity to conversations about what multispecies climate justice might look like, both conceptually and empirically. Bringing together a range of humanities, social sciences, and critical physical sciences scholars who draw on case studies in a variety of geographical settings, each chapter is animated by the politico-ethical impulse to dismantle anthropocentric and liberal ideas of justice and build practices and modes of interspecies solidarity in their place. The book draws substantially on the scholarship in environmental justice and political ecology, alongside materialist, post humanist, Indigenous, and feminist geographies, to assert an understanding of climate change as a multispecies problem, the solutions for which can only be found in decolonial, intersectional, and abolitionist praxis. It is anchored in transdisciplinary approaches to multispecies climate justice to explore what interspecies climate solidarities are - and could be. In doing so, the book offers a diagnosis of the complicated injustices embedded in climate change, encourage and prefigure more just and inclusive scalar imaginaries anchored in multispecies recognition and transformative climate just futures.

This book, the first of two volumes, presents a global perspective, with case studies from each continent, on the political economy of indigenous populations. It presents the diverse socio-economic systems that have shaped indigenous communities and examines how colonisation, land dispossession, cultural suppression, and economic marginalisation have threatened them. By highlighting the issues related to European innovation and growth, such as environmental degradation, traditional narratives of Western superiority are challenged. The value of indigenous knowledge, governance, and environmental protection is, in contrast, examined to highlight the traditions that are lost through colonisation and economic exclusion.

This book sets out a path of justice and equity for indigenous communities that overcomes the historical injustices and structural inequalities that they have faced. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in the political economy and the protection of indigenous peoples.

Music and Sound in Transpacific East Asia establishes transpacific circulation as a framework to understand the movement of music, sound, media, objects, texts, and people across East Asia and its diasporas. This collection of fourteen essays details a wealth of musical and sonic formations that emerged from neglected histories of transpacific circulations - from Cantonese opera in late-nineteenth-century San Francisco and Japanese tango musicians in 1930s Shanghai to church bells constructed from U.S. military oxygen tanks in post-Korean War South Korea. The essays explore such locations as transforming spaces of performance and sites of cultural negotiation, networked through migration, empire, war, and religion. Drawing from post/colonial history, anthropology, sound studies, memory studies, deaf studies, historical linguistics, and critical area studies, this collection offers new perspectives that challenge nation-, land-, and genre-based premises of musical authenticity.

The commodification and marketing of nationalism in a populist-governed country

Most accounts of populist politics revolve around political parties, electoral politics, eroding democratic institutions, media, and political propaganda. In Marketing Radicalism, Virag Molnar examines instead populism as a cultural process-one that reshapes cultural identities and meanings of cultural citizenship. Looking at such domains as fashion, publishing, and tourism, Molnar shows how identity politics, culture wars, culture industries, consumer markets, and popular culture contribute to the rise of far-right populism. The marketing of nationalism creates powerful narratives that reimagine the nation as a populist fantasyland, and these narratives are used by far-right governments in their efforts to topple liberal norms.

Hungary under Viktor Orban has provided an ideological blueprint for far-right populist politicians-and a cautionary tale for liberal democracies. Using Hungary's commodification of nationalism as a case study, Molnar explores the ways that cultural producers relied on consumer markets to promote traditionalism through folk-revivalist fashion; weaponized the public shredding of a children's book to disenfranchise LGBTQ+ communities; used tourism to neighboring Transylvania to envision a "Greater Hungary" that spilled over national borders; and packaged a mythic Orientalism in the form of horseback archery. Molnar's account offers important lessons on the mainstreaming of right-wing popular culture, the importance of markets in circulating and amplifying far-right identity narratives, and the political mobilization of cultural traditions for geopolitical reorientation.

This book is the first to explore Argentine tango as both a philosophical practice and a metaphor for human existence. Written by an Argentine professional dancer and academic philosopher, it bridges embodied experience and intellectual inquiry to propose a transformative "philo-tango" approach. Drawing on classical philosophy, existentialism, and contemporary therapeutic movements, the book argues that tango's five loves-of music, self, partner, floor, and community-offer a kinesthetic path to virtue ethics and personal growth. Through lyrical analysis, case studies, and philosophical reflection, Carone shows how tango can heal, connect, and inspire, making it not just a dance but a way of life. This groundbreaking work will appeal to scholars in philosophy, dance studies, and ethics, as well as practitioners of tango and philosophical counseling.

When reading this book, there are moments I literally leap for joy. Tango as a Metaphor for Life will make an important contribution to the fields of dance studies and philosophy. It is original; it breaks new ground in both philosophy and dance studies; it is filled with illuminating anecdotes, observations, and analyses of both dances and texts; and it is grounded in the author's extensive knowledge and personal expertise in both dance and philosophy. Carone's overarching claim that the practice of Tango, when integrated with philosophical dialogue, functions not only to represent life but transform it, will resonate across disciplines. Her Philo-Tango approach has enormous, proven potential for breaking open conversation and catalyzing healing in a number of venues, from academic to therapeutic settings. The range and depth of the author's scholarship are consistently impressive. Brava!

Kimerer L. LaMothe, Ph.D., Harvard University, USA

"Gabriela Carone brings together her expertise in academic philosophy and tango to reveal how tango dance and culture can give substance to the Socratic quest to live an examined life, and how, in turn, a philosophical life of self-reflection can bring tango to its most expressive and deeply meaningful manifestations. This outstanding book masterfully threads together the naturally congenial-yet often, for human beings, hard to harmonize-strands of the non-verbal, kinesthetic, and embodied nature of dance with the dialectical, conceptual, and reflective demands of philosophy. This work makes a much-needed contribution not only to the study and philosophy of dance, especially tango, but also to broader debates in practical philosophy, the philosophy of love, embodied approaches in the psychology and philosophy of cognition, Latin American philosophy, and, more generally, to investigations that situate themselves within the ancient tradition of philosophy as a way of life and a therapy for living."

--Patricia Marechal, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Philosophy Department, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

This book, the second of two volumes, presents a global perspective, with case studies from each continent, on the political economy of indigenous populations. It examines the marginalization of indigenous populations and the structural inequalities they face. These challenges are contextualized within broader globalization trends, including the commodification of indigenous knowledge. The need for cultural preservation amid technological change is highlighted, alongside the need to support environmental justice and indigenous movements. The economic dominance of Western countries and displacement of indigenous communities is challenged through the inclusion of policy recommendations to protect indigenous peoples.

This book sets out a path of justice and equity for indigenous communities that overcomes the historical injustices and structural inequalities that they have faced. It will be relevant to students and researchers interested in the political economy and the protection of indigenous peoples.

This book centres on the transformation that the European Union has undergone in framing its reaction to the Russian aggression towards Ukraine, and analyses the effects that that reaction is having across a number of its policies.

Key EU policy domains examined include the formulation of sanctions packages under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and their implementation and enforcement, but also migration, enlargement and defence policy.

The volume presents a legal analysis of the innovations introduced in various policy fields and their profound implications on EU external action writ large, including a discussion of ensuing case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the impact of the EU practice on restrictive measures on Public International Law.

The book provides an updated examination of the latest developments regarding the EU's reaction to the Russo-Ukrainian war and their legal and political implications. It will be of interest to scholars of European Law, European studies, International Relations and Political Science, in addition to foreign policy practitioners and legal professionals.

Sara Poli is full Professor of EU law in the Department of Political Science at the University of Pisa in Italy.

Madalina Moraru is an Associate Professor of EU Law in the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Bologna in Italy.

Luca Paladini is an Associate Professor of EU Law in the Department of Humanities of the University for Foreigners of Siena in Italy.

Clara Portela is a Professor of Political Science in the Department of Constitutional Law and Political Science of the University of Valencia Faculty of Law in Spain.

This book proposes the theory of dual (analog-digital) transformation (ADX) as a new framework for business transformation in the digital era, highlighting leading Japanese manufacturing firms. At its foundation, the book presents two core perspectives, the three-core competence strategy and the architecture strategy, which explain how firms build and reconfigure organizational capabilities in response to technological change. By tracing the evolution of manufacturing architecture and competence development, the book shows how analog and digital systems can coexist and reinforce each other.

While digital transformation (DX) has gained global attention, the enduring strength of Japanese manufacturing lies in its continued evolution through analog transformation-the refinement of craftsmanship, process integration, and tacit knowledge. The book examines how current IT technologies, including data analytics, IoT, and AI, are reshaping the traditional foundations of monozukuri (Japanese manufacturing), and how firms can align IT architecture and organizational competences to sustain innovation in the AI era.

Beyond the conventional framework of digitization, digitalization, and DX, this book proposes ADX as the next step for firms rooted in collaborative monozukuri-a model integrating analog excellence with digital innovation. Sustainable competitiveness emerges not from replacing analog systems, but from combining the two.

Through multiple cases of Japanese firms, the book demonstrates how Japanese manufacturers are restructuring capabilities, bridging management and production, and achieving deep analog-digital integration. Ultimately, it offers a roadmap for traditional manufacturing firms to evolve their IT strategies and thrive in the age of AI and organizational reinvention.