This book addresses a critical gap in understanding net-zero strategies and sustainability practices in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA), exploring their intersection with data innovation, climate risk, climate governance, firm performance, firm risk, greenwashing, and green finance. In doing so, the book demonstrates how data innovation plays a crucial role in advancing net-zero goals by enabling organizations to optimize resource usage, identify emission hotspots, and improve operational efficiency through advanced data analytics, machine learning, and AI. The book underscores the need for vigilance against greenwashing, emphasizing transparent reporting practices and robust verification mechanisms to uphold credibility and trust in sustainability claims. Providing new insights provided by a diverse set of contributors, including industry leaders and policymakers, the book highlights the integration of financial and environmental sustainability into net-zero initiatives, emphasizing elements such as carbon accounting, biodiversity accounting, and economic resilience. This perspective is relatively unexplored, especially in comparison to other developed regions, making the book a pioneering resource in identifying and addressing the unique challenges and opportunities present in the MENA region in the global fight against climate change. With both theoretical and empirical studies, practical case studies, industry analyses, and policy evaluations, the book presents a comprehensive overview of how net-zero strategies can be effectively implemented to enhance sustainability practices, both regionally and globally. It is relevant to both scholars and policymakers in areas of economic development, environmental sustainability, and social equity, focused on the means of transition toward a low-carbon future.

This book manifests the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) framework propounded by the United Nations (UN), which connects sports to physical activity and human health outcomes through its ability to combat chronic diseases and improve mental and physical health. The UN also considers sports a catalyst for the socialization of children, youths and adults, the social inclusion of the disadvantaged, economic development of local communities, and a means of fostering intercultural exchange and conflict resolution.

This volume is the first effort of its kind that seeks to examine the scope of sports to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 16, particularly in India, by way of promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. As well, it provides a platform for achieving justice for all; building effective, accountable, and inclusive communication between institutions at all levels; and ensuring equality across ethnicity, faith, and sexual orientation in any corner of the globe.

The content of this volume will be of great interest especially to sports enthusiasts, sports event organizers, trainers, management faculty, students, and scholars. In a broader scenario, however, the discussions will be helpful for policymakers to find an alternative avenue of achieving SDG through the management and promotion of sports, not only in India but in many countries in the global south.

Why has multilateral peacebuilding in conflict-ridden states emerged as a depoliticized practice that rarely engages with local actors and agendas? And why has depoliticization persisted despite continued criticisms? Claiming Impartiality offers an innovative answer to the puzzling persistence of depoliticization in post-war peacebuilding that focuses on the institutional mandates, interests, and practices of those international and bilateral organizations that design and implement most peacebuilding interventions.

Drawing on and expanding a Bourdieusian field perspective, the book examines international organizations as actors in multiple fields of global governance. Using the case studies of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Timor-Leste, it traces the emergence and transformation of peacebuilding practices by leading international and bilateral organizations during the first two decades of the field's existence. The organizational lens highlights the tensions that exist between the objectives of simultaneously acting as a peacebuilding organization and as a peacekeeping, humanitarian, or development organization whose practices are to varying degrees committed to observing the twin principles of impartiality and neutrality. By thinking through these sometimes contradictory roles, the book offers new insights into how these organizations sideline questions of political agency in favor of expanding their influence into related fields of global governance. Claiming Impartiality discusses the future of peacebuilding and explores avenues for addressing political challenges to peace itself.

Die Arbeit widmet sich dem Insolvenzantrag aus allen Blickwinkeln. Ausgehend von einem grundlegenden Versaeumnis des Gesetzgebers zeigt der Autor auf, dass das geltende Recht die Interessen der Einziehungsbetroffenen und der Tatopfer nur unzureichend beruecksichtigt. Auf Grundlage der Untersuchungsergebnisse werden abschliessend Vorschlaege zur Reform der StPO und der RiStBV erarbeitet.

A provocative exploration of the corrosive impact of secrecy on Australian intelligence organizations' effectiveness and operations

Secrecy is central to popular understandings of intelligence and how intelligence services operate. Intelligence agencies generally resist oversight and transparency, arguing that decreases in secrecy come at the cost of intelligence efficacy.

In Blind Trust, Melanie Brand challenges this view. Using archival research examining the role, functions, and public perceptions of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), she shows that operating in secrecy did not ensure intelligence efficacy in Cold War Australia. With little oversight from the government, ASIO's products became increasingly irrelevant to policymakers, and politicians lost sight of ASIO's value. With no external guidance or requirement to be accountable for its actions, secrecy allowed ASIO's staff to break the law and become involved in overtly partisan affairs. Finally, excessive secrecy asks for society's blind trust in an intelligence service, and ASIO lost the public's trust during the Cold War because it was able, for a time, to cover up its mistakes and exceed its authority.

This groundbreaking history of Australia's domestic spy agency is relevant to the security experiences of other democratic nation-states. Blind Trust will inform students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of intelligence studies, international relations, security studies, and history.

This book maps the rise of right-wing parties across three European sub-regions - the Nordic countries, the Visegrad Four, and Western Europe - and examines their growing impact on domestic politics and European integration. Drawing on historical forces such as nationalism, post-war settlements, and the uneven experience of integration, it argues that the right-wing resurgence is not a recent aberration but a recurring feature of European political life. Capitalising on public frustration over immigration, sovereignty, and economic insecurity, these parties have moved from the margins to the mainstream, forcing established parties to shift rightward in response. The book analyses three interconnected questions: how right-wing parties are reshaping the broader political landscape; their impact on the EU through national governments and the European Parliament; and the nature of their support base. It is essential reading for students, researchers, and practitioners in European studies, comparative politics, and international relations.

An exploration of how memories of the Holodomor famine shaped Ukraine's national identity, existential threat perceptions, and resistance against Russia

For many international observers of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Holodomor is the most important story they have never heard. When the Ukrainian Sun Rises explores the domestic, international, and geopolitical implications of this 1932-33 genocide-an artificial famine in Joseph Stalin's Soviet Ukraine that killed at least 4 million people and changed Ukrainian society forever.

Against the backdrop of the current war between Ukraine and Russia, Hook draws on multiyear ethnographic fieldwork across Ukraine, and probes the dynamics and legacy of the Holodomor through the eyes of today's Ukrainian leaders from the political, legal, activist, and academic fields. Never-before-published interviews uncover a paradox: Although this singular event nearly destroyed Ukraine, it also provided the narrative storyline by which contemporary leaders would one day seek to rebuild their nation.

Now, as the Kremlin wages a new genocidal war against Ukraine, this book explains how memories of the Holodomor have shaped Ukrainian leaders' existential threat perceptions since 2014 and have sparked a postcolonial reclamation process that undergirds the country's stunning resistance today. This book will appeal to policymakers and those in think tanks as well as to students and scholars of international relations and anthropology.

Most leading global militaries, led by the United States, embrace military assistance as an essential tool for achieving their high-priority strategic objectives; yet, in spite of its prominence, military assistance activities are poorly informed by coherent strategy, nor are they rooted in underlying theoretical frameworks that help strategists understand and exploit causal mechanisms that can produce desired behaviors and outcomes. As a result, military assistance has struggled to consistently deliver positive, enduring results - and in some cases has proven strategically catastrophic. This book fills a gap in both academic literature and real-world practice: it identifies and elucidates several theoretical foundations of military assistance and offers four distinct strategic frameworks for designing military assistance initiatives. In so doing, the book will offer academics tools to better understand and evaluate military assistance and will offer practitioners a playbook for designing more effective military assistance interventions to address high-stakes global security dilemmas. Finally, it will propose an ethical framework for defense cooperation, offering much-needed guidance in an area fraught with moral risk.

This handbook provides a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of how artificial intelligence is transforming diplomacy, governance and the wider structures of society. Bringing together an international group of leading scholars, it maps the strategic, institutional, cultural, educational, economic and security implications of AI, offering an integrated framework for understanding technological change in the emerging technopolar world.

The volume's scope extends across both international and domestic spheres, revealing how AI redistributes global power, reshapes international order, alters diplomatic practice, and redefines major domains of social life including education, employment, media ecosystems, public discourse, cultural identity and national resilience. These themes are increasingly significant because AI now functions as a structuring force in world politics and societal transformation, influencing everything from international law and economic statecraft to learning systems, public opinion formation, crisis diplomacy and collective security.

Although scholarship on AI has expanded rapidly, there remains no single handbook that synthesizes these diverse developments within a coherent, diplomacy and society centred analytical framework. The core problem this handbook addresses is the lack of an authoritative reference that captures AI's simultaneous impact on global governance, diplomatic agency and societal evolution. Existing studies tend to illuminate individual sectors or policy challenges, yet a consolidated resource that brings together these intersecting transformations has been missing.

This handbook fills that gap by providing conceptual foundations, comparative perspectives and policy-oriented insights that connect technological innovation with social change and international relations. The volume is designed for an international readership of scholars, graduate students, diplomats, policymakers, educators and professionals seeking a rigorous, interdisciplinary reference on how artificial intelligence is reshaping diplomacy and society.

This Open Access book examines how Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have adjusted their security strategies in response to increasing geopolitical threats. Moving beyond traditional deterrence, these states have adopted a Total Defence approach as an inclusive strategy that unites the military and civilian sectors to bolster national resilience.

Drawing on insights from scholars and military leaders, the book examines how Total Defence is understood, communicated and implemented across the region. Through detailed case studies, it reveals the shared objectives and distinct national models that influence defence policy.

The book shows how cross-border cooperation and community-based defence efforts are creating a unified operational space in the Greater Baltic Region. Offering valuable lessons for countries facing similar security challenges, it also contributes to broader discussions on NATO's evolving role in regional defence.

This book, the second volume of The Synergistic Effect of Sustainable Business Practices on Human Capital and Economic Performance, extends the research and insights of the first volume by focusing on the intersection of human capital development, economic performance, and sustainable business strategy. In an era of rapid technological advancement, shifting workforce expectations, and intensified ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) imperatives, organizations face the challenge of integrating sustainability not only into operational practices but also into the management and development of their human assets. This volume explores how strategic workforce management, employee engagement, and organizational learning contribute to sustainable economic outcomes at the firm, industry, and national levels. The book will covers theoretical frameworks linking sustainability, human capital, and economic performance, research Findings on the role of human resources in achieving sustainability-driven competitive advantage, case studies from diverse industries and geographies illustrating best practices in integrating HR strategy with sustainability objectives, policy implications for governments and international agencies in promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth and future-oriented discussions on the Future of Work, workforce digitalization, and the skills required in a sustainable economy.

By combining perspectives from economics, human resource management, and sustainability science, this volume will serves as a valuable reference for academics, practitioners, and policymakers seeking to understand and leverage the synergies between people and profit in driving sustainable corporate performance.

This book celebrates the remarkable contributions of Dr Keiko Koda, a leader in second language (L2) acquisition and reading development, who retired from Carnegie Mellon University in 2024. The chapters in this volume explore recent theoretical developments and practical applications in L2 reading research from a cross-linguistic perspective. The book addresses a wide range of issues in L2 reading among diverse learner populations, including young multilingual learners from both low- and middle-income countries and post-industrial nations. It also focuses on various types of learners in different educational settings worldwide, such as foreign language learners, heritage language learners, and dual language learners. Topics covered include meta-analyses, innovative applications of theory in pedagogy, and the design of assessment tools. Collectively, these contributions have the potential to significantly advance both theoretical frameworks and practical approaches in the field. This book is useful for researchers, educators, graduate students, and multilingual education specialists interested in theoretical and practical advancements in second language reading and cross-linguistic transfer.

Die Arbeit befasst sich mit der Frage ihrer Einfuehrung und zeigt dabei auf, dass zwar keine Kompetenz der Europaeischen Union im Rahmen der Wirtschafts- und Waehrungsunion besteht, wohl aber im Rahmen der ihr zugewiesenen sozialpolitischen Zustaendigkeit gem. Art. 153 AEUV sowie ueber den Europaeischen Sozialfonds. Dazu analysiert sie die historische Entwicklung sowie die systematischen Bezuege, aber auch vergleichbare Diskussionen zur US-amerikanischen Arbeitslosenversicherung. Sie zeigt daran anknuepfend Moeglichkeiten einer Einfuehrung ueber differenzierte Integration innerhalb, aber auch ausserhalb des Unionsrechts auf.

Inner Worlds examines the emergence and operation of representations of interiority-consciousness, "folk mind," "spirit"-in Japan from its industrial revolution to the rise of fascism during the interwar period. These representations functioned to reproduce the capitalist system by containing its excesses. Thus, poverty in the 1880s was ostensibly the result of defects in one's innate mental character. A degenerate "crowd mind" explained the strikes and riots of the early twentieth century. State subversion during the 1930s supposedly reflected an attenuated "folk spirit." By locating the roots of capitalism's excesses not within the socioeconomic order itself but within a defective interiority, ideologies of interiority operated to contain disruptions to Japan's socioeconomic order, conceal its defects, and sustain the capitalist system. Inner Worlds reveals how interiority was constituted in ways consistent with both the demands of the emerging capitalist order of the late nineteenth century and the conditions that coalesced to form a fascist conjecture in the 1930s.

This book offers an explanation on how the process of socialization constitutes a new entity-a person- and what the ontological status of the new entity that comes into existence through socialization is. This title is unique in explaining the process of socialization ontologically. The author argues that acquiring personhood is only possible through socialization in society. Therefore, being a person is not an intrinsic property of an organism. A person is an entity that is constituted by the interaction between a body and a society. Persons and their bodies are, the author argues, of different ontological kinds. He defends the notion of the constitution as one which is compatible with the idea that persons are distinct entities from their bodies.

This book appeals to students and researchers and offers a suggestion to solve the problem of personal identity over time. The author puts forth the idea that persons are constituted events in contrast to the standard approach which places them in the category of objects. Discussing personhood leads naturally to a consideration of wildlife and the question of whether any non-human animal can be a person.

A step-by-step leadership guide to help overcome employee resistance to AI, boost innovation, and unlock AI's full business value

As leaders rush to adopt artificial intelligence (AI)-driven by its potential to revolutionize operations, boost return on investment, and drive innovation-they often encounter significant hurdles. These challenges are not simply technical but also deeply human, involving employee resistance, cognitive biases, and entrenched organizational culture, all of which undermine successful AI adoption.

Drawing on over twenty-five years of consulting experience and rigorous behavioral science research, Gleb Tsipursky shows business professionals at all levels how to harness their greatest resource while solving their biggest challenge: their anxious and resistant people. You will learn how to boost employee engagement, dismantle cultural roadblocks, and build the psychological sense of safety required for AI-powered innovation that maximizes efficiency and effectiveness. Through real-world case studies, including many from clients, readers will see how to transform AI skeptics into empowered AI champions, design upskilling programs that drive engagement and innovation, and weave ethical governance guardrails into every deployment.

The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work includes frameworks, conversation scripts, and metrics based on more than 100 consulting projects, along with over 50 interviews with leaders from Microsoft, Uber, Experian, and many other leading firms. This book delivers a practical roadmap to turn employee anxiety into energy, resistance into results, and promising pilots into scalable breakthroughs, cementing a durable competitive edge in the AI age.

This book offers an accessible introduction to financial stability and macroprudential policy with a particular focus on Europe. Covering economic, institutional and regulatory aspects, it is an essential read for professionals and scholars alike.

The first part explores the macroprudential mandate, emphasising the importance of monitoring the entire financial system. The second part introduces the fundamentals of macroprudential supervision and addresses various risk types and their assessment. The third part examines macroprudential policy in detail, covering the key players, institutions and tools used to enhance financial stability.

Ideal for professionals working in supervisory authorities, commercial banks and central banks, as well as for students of economics and supervisory studies, this book provides a solid foundation for understanding financial system stability and macroprudential policy.

This edited collection examines the political and social roles of war veterans in Eastern Europe throughout the long twentieth century. Given the ongoing relevance of ex-combatants in the region, the volume addresses key questions concerning the place of former soldiers in society from 1918 to the present. Its chapters offer national case studies from Central and Eastern Europe, including the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. Particular attention is paid to the involvement of conflict survivors in the dissolution of communist federations and the formation of new polities. The collection traces the social and political activities of specific ex-combatant movements and organisations across Eastern Europe, highlighting both how former fighters influenced the regimes under which they lived and how those regimes, in turn, shaped veteran communities. Drawing on interdisciplinary analyses across comparative and entangled history, gender studies, political science, and radicalism studies, this timely collection deepens our understanding of war-related political change in Eastern Europe in the long twentieth century.

Islampolitik: The Role of Islam in Modern-State Building examines the interrelationship between Islam and state-building in global modernity. Synthesizing scholarship from the fields of sociology, political science, history, religious studies, Middle East, and Islamic studies, this book brings together theories from both below (subjectivities) and above (governance) into one comprehensive resource.

Islampolitik investigates how modern states draw on religion, specifically Islam, when creating templates for subjectivity formation of individuals and communities as part of their broader governance strategies. The book provides a needed challenge to the long-held perception amongst scholars of governance and modernity: namely that Islam is a source of pre-modern rationales creating obstacles to modern governance and state maintenance processes. The book provides empirical insights into the connection between global modernity and modern frames for identity construction.

The President and the Bomb: The Making of American Nuclear Policy, 1939 -1974, at once an original and compelling reconsideration of the role of human agency in international affairs, fills an important gap in the relationship between nuclear weapons policy and presidential decision-making, particularly when examined beyond the context of individual chief executives. On this score alone, Siracusa and Spiller's study makes a significant contribution to the existing literature. The outcome is a tour de force of high-level historical analysis translated into a comprehensive survey of changing presidential nuclear thinking over the first four critical decades of the bomb.

This handbook assesses and discusses the topic of international security, paying attention both to great powers, and smaller actors. In addition to traditional security topics, it also covers topics on international law, international organisations, globalisation, and transnational challenges.

Consisting of 62 chapters, the handbook is divided into four parts: (1) Complexity of International Security; (2) Material Geographies and Contemporary Conflicts, which examines the tangible dimensions of security, including territorial disputes, resource distribution, and ongoing conflicts; (3) Immaterial or Diffuse Geographies, focusing on energy, data, cyberspace, digital technologies, and artificial intelligence; and (4) International Security Perspectives on Governance and International Law.

As such, the handbook brings together multiple aspects of international security, combining theories and case studies. While continuing to track the development of the new and diverse security concepts, it also considers the latest relevant international events or other important topics, such as energy security, maritime security, decarbonisation of global economy, armed conflict, populism, Ukraine War, Artificial Intelligence, Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems (LAWS), Arctic, and Feminist Movements.

This second part of a two-volume work offers a comprehensive exploration of China's ambitious "Made in China 2025" initiative and its broader geopolitical implications. By examining China's strategic shift from a low-cost manufacturing hub to a high-tech powerhouse, chapters provide a critical assessment of the initiative's progress and its impact on global economic dynamics.

In this volume, authors explore the idea that through the MIC 2025 initiative, China seeks not only to reduce structural dependencies on advanced economies but also to redefine the institutional logic governing.

Through expert contributions, readers will gain insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by China's industrial strategies, including the semiconductor "chips war" and the new global bipolarity centered around technology and innovation.

This volume is essential for scholars and practitioners in international political economy, Chinese studies, and global economic governance. It offers a nuanced understanding of China's evolving role on the global stage, making it a valuable resource for graduate-level courses and research institutions focused on contemporary China. With its interdisciplinary approach, the book provides a holistic view of China's rise and its implications for the future of global economic and strategic competition.