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While the “decline of the West” is now almost taken for granted, China’s impressive economic performance and the political influence of an assertive Russia in the international arena are combining to make Eurasia a key hub of political and economic power. That, certainly, is the story which Beijing and Moscow have been telling for years. Are the times ripe for a “Eurasian world order”? What exactly does the supposed Sino-Russian challenge to the liberal world entail? Are the two countries’ worsening clashes with the West drawing them closer together? This ISPI Report tackles every aspect of the apparently solidifying alliance between Moscow and Beijing, but also points out its growing asymmetries. It also recommends some policies that could help the EU to deal with this “Eurasian shift”, a long-term and multi-faceted power readjustment that may lead to the end of the world as we have known it.
Angie and her husband, Aldo, are celebrating their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary on a small Caribbean island in the British West Indies when Aldo makes a fateful decision. With his wifes best interests in mind, Aldo commits suicide by diving off a cliff, ultimately avoiding a long and painful battle with terminal cancer. Shocked and dismayed at his spontaneous choice to end his life, Angie runs into the ocean and tears up his suicide note, realizing it is too late to stop him. Life as she knew it is suddenly over. A few hours later, Aldos body washes up on shore. After Angie identifies his remains, she flies his body home to New York. But she is about to receive another shock when her mortician friend, George Macklin, discovers the body in the coffin is not her husband and recommends that Angie cremate the body and collect the insurance money. Angie reluctantly follows his suggestionwithout knowing that George is on the verge of revealing a surprising dark and dangerous side. In this suspenseful international thriller, two friends are about to go over the edge for moneywith disastrous results.
While the pandemic has monopolised attention over the past two years, it's far from the only story, as tectonic changes continue on the world stage and the "great transition" picks up pace. As well as the traditional dynamics of international power, torn between US-China bipolarism and the ambitions of old and new regional actors, this Report explores the other major transitions taking place. Firstly, the economic transition of a world deeper and deeper in debt and now seeing the return of state intervention. Secondly, the transition of the democracies and international law, or more precisely, their dual "crisis" in the face of contrasting models. And thirdly, the environmental and digital transitions, which will be key features of the decades to come. Intertwining inextricably with each other, these transitions will shape the major trends in regional politics and, in turn, be shaped by them. That's why Italy and Europe are facing momentous challenges, which the ISPI Report 2022 strives to outline, to equip readers with a compass for a changing world.
The international system is going through a phase of heightened disorder. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, and the Israel-Hamas conflict in late 2023 have shown that the current crisis of the international order is being increasingly militarized. Facing wars and instability closer to home, and a rise in big-power competition, Europe is feeling less and less "secure". This year's ISPI Report unpacks the different dimensions of the current "Age of Insecurity", looking into its political, economic, and demographic facets. It shows how different actors in the international system tackle such insecurity (while also contributing to create more), with a focus on the United States, China, Russia, India and the "Global South", and the main protagonists of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. It finally zooms in on Europe, looking for viable options that could help the continent better face these rising political, economic, and demographic insecurities.
Based on a connected, relational and multidisciplinary approach (history, ethnography, political science, and theology), Mission and Preaching tackles the notion of mission through the analysis of preaching activities and religious dynamics across Christianity, Islam and Judaism, in the Middle East and North Africa, from the late 19th century until today. The 13 chapters reveal points of contact, exchange, and circulation, considering the MENA region as a central observatory. The volume offers a new chronology of the missionary phenomenon and calls for further cross-cutting approaches to decompartmentalise it, arguing that these approaches constitute useful entry points to shed new light on religious dynamics and social transformations in the MENA region. Contributors Necati Alkan, Federico Alpi, Gabrielle Angey, Armand Aupiais, Katia Boissevain, Naima Bouras, Philippe Bourmaud, Gaetan du Roy, Séverine Gabry-Thienpont, Maria-Chiara Giorda, Bernard Heyberger, Emir Mahieddin, Michael Marten, Norig Neveu, Maria Chiara Rioli, Karène Sanchez Summerer, Heather Sharkey, Ester Sigillò, Sébastien Tank Storper, Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Annalaura Turiano and Vincent Vilmain.
A survey of the latest scholarship on Catholic missions between the 16th and 18th centuries, this collection of fourteen essays by historians from eight countries offers not only a global view of the organization, finances, personnel, and history of Catholic missions to the Americas, Africa, and Asia, but also the complex political, cultural, and religious contexts of the missionary fields. The conquests and colonization of the Americas presented a different stage for the drama of evangelization in contrast to that of Africa and Asia: the inhospitable landscape of Africa, the implacable Islamic societies of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires, and the self-assured regimes of Ming-Qing China, Nguyen dynasty Vietnam, and Tokugawa Japan. Contributors are Tara Alberts, Mark Z. Christensen, Dominique Deslandres, R. Po-chia Hsia, Aliocha Maldavsky, Anne McGinness, Christoph Nebgen, Adina Ruiu, Alan Strathern, M. Antoni J. Üçerler, Fred Vermote, Guillermo Wilde, Christian Windler, and Ines Zupanov.
Expansive and engaging, this book investigates the fluidity of sites of power and authority in global politics. Examining the key shifts and turns of politics in globally oriented spaces since the end of the Cold War, contributions from leading scholars explore the continually shifting parameters of global governance.
The partition of the Indian subcontinent, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, the reunification of Germany, the continuing feud between two Koreas, the Irish peace process, the case of Israel/Palestine and the lingering division of Cyprus, have together given rise to a huge body of literature. However, studies of partitions have usually focused on individual cases. This innovative volume uses comparative analysis to fill the gap in partition studies and examines cross-cutting issues such as: * violence * state formation * union and regional unification * geopolitics * transition.
This unique collection of essays by leading international scholars gives a profound introduction into the great diversity and richness of facets forming the study of one of earth’s most exciting areas, the Iranian and Caucasian lands. Each of the 37 contributions sheds light on a very special topic, the range of which comprises historical, cultural, ethnographical, religious, political and last but not least literary and linguistic issues, beginning from the late antiquity up to current times. Especially during the last decennia these two regions gained greater interest worldwide due to several developments in politics and culture. This fact grants the book, intended as a festschrift for P...
Jews in Japan: Presence and Perception. Antisemitism, Philosemitism and International Relations is a study on the history of real and imagined Jews in Japan, which discusses the little known cultural, political and economic ties between Jews and Japan, and follows the evolution of Jewish stereotypes in Japan in the last century and a half. The book begins with the arrival of Jews and their image in late 19th to early 20th-century Japan, when the seeds of later stereotyped visions were sown. The discussion then focuses on wartime Japan, delving into the complex and mixed attitudes of the Japanese Empire toward Jews. In postwar Japan, the partial reception of the Holocaust intertwined with ear...