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Despite using the metaphors of kin-states and blood-brothers for the India-Pakistan conflict, there is limited work exploring this phenomenon. India-Pakistan relations have mostly been theorized by situating them along with a bipolar ethnic and religious framework. This book presents a fresh conflict model to theorize their rivalry by positioning them as warring family branches with common ancient and cultural history. Therefore, this book not only competes with the existing literature but also claims to break new theoretical ground in the subject. This book will be of interest to researchers looking to theorize intergroup conflicts, academicians, students, social activists, politicians, practitioners, track-2 diplomats and above all, the policy makers in both countries. This book has theorized the tensions and dynamics of the India-Pakistan conflict as a process akin to a typical large South Asian family dispute after dividing its tangible assets. Categorizing and depicting India and Pakistan as two segments of such a large family, quarreling over gaining more prestige against the other after dividing ancestral land, this study does not remain unaware of other, larger pushes and pulls experienced in this intractable conflict, interfering in significant ways in the relationship between the partitioning members of the extended family. Arguing for the centrality of the concept of family relations in this context made increasing sense also as an explanation for the intensity of local emotions visible in this complex conflict. The core argument here is that the intractability, intensity, and intimacy associated with various dimensions of the India-Pakistan conflict can be better explained by analyzing it as a dispute between two warring branches of a huge joint family with an enormously rich and diverse ancient history.

This groundbreaking volume offers an in-depth exploration of how Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has reshaped the geopolitical landscape of the post-Soviet space, particularly in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Through expert analyses, the book examines the far-reaching consequences of the war, including shifts in regional alliances, energy security dynamics, the rise of new cooperation platforms, and the growing role of external actors such as China and Turkey. Through rigorous analysis, the book explores critical themes such as the shifting balance of power in the region, the re-emergence of the Organization of Turkic States, Azerbaijan’s deepening engagement with Central Asia, Kazakhstan’s strategic repositioning, and the complex interplay between Russia, China, Turkey, and the West. It also examines how regional actors are adapting to economic disruptions, energy security challenges, and evolving diplomatic alliances. Blending academic depth with policy relevance, "Strategic Implications of the War in Ukraine for the Post-Soviet Space" is an essential resource for scholars, analysts, and professionals in international relations, security studies, and Eurasian affairs.

This book offers a new lens on insurgency-related peace, focusing on the critical role of local initiatives in addressing violent extremism. It centers on the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF), a community-based peace group formed in Borno State, Nigeria, in response to the atrocities of Boko Haram. With over 26,000 members, the CJTF has become a significant player in the fight against Boko Haram, working closely with the military across both urban and rural areas. Using a qualitative ethnographic approach, the book challenges the traditional view that insurgency-related peace efforts are solely the responsibility of the state or conventional security forces. It highlights how local, non-state actors like the CJTF contribute effectively to security and peacebuilding, shedding light on the complexities of civilian-military collaboration. Drawing on David Galula’s insurgency theory, the book examines the CJTF’s role in combating Islamic extremism and demonstrates that local peace movements can complement state-led efforts. This analysis fills a critical gap in the literature, offering a unique contribution to the fields of security studies, peacebuilding, and African politics. Ideal for scholars, policymakers, and practitioners interested in alternative peace strategies, community-driven security, and the challenges of countering extremism, this book provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how local and state efforts can work together to achieve lasting peace. It offers practical insights into the evolving nature of insurgency-related peace and its implications for Nigeria and beyond.

This book examines the post-Cold War U.S.-Japan-China Triangle through the lens of two core international relations variables: power and security. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S., as the sole superpower, aimed to prevent the rise of any rival in Asia or elsewhere that could threaten its global position. This approach aligns with a realist view of international relations, championed by scholars like John Mearsheimer, tracing back to the principles of interstate competition seen as far back as the 1648 Westphalia Treaty and the Peloponnesian War in the 5th century BC. The book argues that the U.S. aims to prevent China from becoming a revisionist power by strategically using its alliance with Japan as a deterrent within the American-led regional order. Historically, the U.S.-Japan-China relationship has seen consistent U.S. support for Japan, often at China’s expense, except during World War II. Since the 19th century, the U.S., alongside European powers, pressured China through treaties such as the 1844 Wanghia Treaty and direct interventions like the Opium Wars. Japan’s industrialization after the Meiji Restoration led to imperialist ambitions that eventually clashed with Western interests, culminating in Japan’s 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor—a short-lived break in the U.S.-Japan alignment. After the Communist rise to power in China in the late 1940s, the U.S. renewed its strategic ties with Japan to contain Chinese influence, solidified by the 1951 security treaty.

Africa’s potential and challenges in the 21st century make it a focal point for global attention. The continent’s political landscape is now more diverse, with a mix of democracy, authoritarianism, peace, and conflict. Understanding the dynamics of African politics is crucial. This comprehensive book delves into African Politics and International Relations, exploring power through the lenses of politics, geography, sociology, and anthropology. It is based on the author’s three decades of fieldwork and research across Africa, Asia, and the West. Ideal for academic scholars, students, diplomats, government officials, journalists, and NGO staff seeking to deepen their understanding of African politics and international relations.

"Facebook Friendship Groups as a Space for Peace" provides new ways of thinking about the concept of friendship in international relations by drawing upon Aristotle’s ancient insights on sociability and reconceptualizing them for modern international relations. This book explores how citizens can be engaged in public diplomacy through everyday interactions in Facebook friendship groups which allows them to promote understanding and reframe identity narratives. This book provides rich-in-demand empirical insights from citizens in the global south about the ways that social media friendship groups can be used to facilitate positive relations between citizens from countries that have a history of conflict. It also provides important insights for state leaders on the kinds of citizen initiatives that are seen as most useful in promoting positive images among foreign peoples. However, it challenges much of the notion that citizen initiatives will improve foreign public views of a state’s foreign policy, especially when those foreign policy priorities negatively affect citizens directly, like former President Donald Trump’s travel ban. Negative foreign policy initiatives cause distrust and once that is broken, it is difficult to rebuild absent changing the foreign policy. This book shows that conflict is deeply contextual, and as such public diplomacy initiatives must also be designed in such a way to address the unique challenges that exist between countries. Social media friendship groups can be a place to start to promote understanding, dispel stereotypes and reframe enemy narratives, which are essential to long-term positive relations.

'Pandemic and Narration: Covid-19 Narratives in Latin America' sheds light on how, as Covid-19 spread, infecting and killing millions across the world, life not only continued to be experienced but also continued to be narrated. By putting together this volume, we help understand what happened in the region from a perspective in which, unlike most of what we saw during the health emergency, numbers, statistics and percentages are not at the centre of the analysis. The essays gathered here foreground something else: the manifold ways Covid-19 was subjectively and collectively narrated in the news, government reports, political speeches, NGO communications, social media, literature, songs and many other media. From a wide range of disciplinary approaches, the contributors to this edition pay attention to how fictional and non-fictional stories, official discourses, as well as personal and political accounts, documented, represented and shaped the health crisis, laying bare how —in Latin American countries— the spread of the virus intersected with corruption, gender-based violence, inequality and exclusion, as with community, solidarity and hope. Readers will find that the focus on narrative provides an alternative source of knowledge on Latin America’s Covid-19 experience. Our perspective contrasts with the usual emphasis on death tolls, infection rates, weekly cases, vaccination counts, and the plethora of statistics that illustrated the gravity of the situation in the build-up to, during, and after the peak of the crisis. While extremely important to understand the situation, numbers do not tell the whole story. A comprehensive picture of the pandemic can only be achieved when the stories of the virus are accounted for. Health, after all, is no stranger to narrative. And neither is Latin America.

Whether states balance against or bandwagon with threatening great powers remains an unsolved problem for international relations theory. One school argues that military power compels minor powers to accommodate threats, while another defends that it elicits balancing instead. With the emergence of potential hegemons in both Asia and Europe — namely China and Russia — understanding state alignment is more urgent than ever. This book shows that bandwagoning has been a rare choice in contemporary Asia and Europe. The only states that chose bandwagoning with China or Russia faced both conflicts with third rivals and low levels of U.S. assistance. Going further, I divide bandwagoning between full alignment, survival accommodation, and profit accommodation. Bandwagoners choose among these three options based on the severity of the threat posed by the potential hegemon, the intensity of third conflicts, and the level of U.S. assistance. I test this novel theory against three European (Armenia, Belarus, and Serbia) and four Asian (Cambodia, Myanmar, North Korea, and Pakistan) cases. This study is the first to provide an exhaustive and compelling explanation of bandwagoning fully compatible with neorealism and adds to the balancing-bandwagoning debate. Beyond scholarly implications, this research’s findings offer advice for policymakers concerned with the changing balance of power in Asia and Europe and how to counter China and Russia’s influence.

What is the role of regional organizations in maintaining security across different parts of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)? How did COVID-19 impact states in the region and what types of collective action have helped respond to public health emergencies? In what way is LAC environmental policy formulated and what broader lessons can be drawn for the Global South? This edited volume addresses these questions, revealing the reasons behind the successes and failures of LAC regional responses to collective challenges as well as their limitations and potential for future improvement. It contains 11 chapters, authored by 16 authoritative academics who employ methodologically-diverse perspectives. Each chapter provides insights that would be of interest to scholars, students and policy-makers working on the regional governance of LAC and the Global South. The contributions are thematically organised in three parts and produced with pragmatic considerations in mind, discussing existing and potential real solutions to pressing issues.