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This book examines the geostrategic alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean and MENA regions. It analyzes how these alliances transcend stereotyped political and cultural prototypes throughout western Eurasia as the outcome of shifting regional power balances. The authors explain how this development has its foundation mostly in the United States' ¿Pivot to Asiä policy, resulting in a lower priority ranking of the Middle East for Washington, but also in the emergence of Chinäs economic incursion on the wider region.The book looks into and presents different reasons for this paradigm shift: First and foremost, the historical ambitions and conflicting assertions of sovereignty in the region. Then, competition over control of hydrocarbons reserves and pipeline politics, civil wars, and political chaos in certain littoral states. US retrenchment and Russiäs naval base expansion in Syria, as well as Turkish expansion in Libya, NATO allies divisions and, not to reckon with, waves of migration and refugees. Yet some internal and external factors could lead to some changes in these trends, including the need to engage in energy transitions due to climate change consequences in the region.Therefore, this book is a must-read for scholars, students, policy-makers, and practitioners interested in a better understanding of the political development in the Eastern Mediterranean and MENA regions, as well as of International Relations in general.

In the context of rapid developments in Turkey and its broader geopolitical environment over the past decade, this book examines and conceptualises TurkeyΓÇÖs changing foreign policy towards a more assertive and revisionist paradigm. More specifically it details the rhetorical and practical-political content of what is termed ΓÇÿLausanne SyndromeΓÇÖ; namely, TurkeyΓÇÖs efforts in recent years ΓÇô under the AKP government ΓÇô to revise the geopolitical status quo brought about by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) in its broader neighbourhood.By employing a Neoclassical Realist theoretical framework and paying particular attention to ideational factors, the book argues that, contrary to the more widely known ΓÇÿS├¿vres SyndromeΓÇÖ, which predicts a more cautious brand of Turkish foreign policy, the ΓÇÿLausanne SyndromeΓÇÖ is associated with a different political-ideological current and predicts a more revisionist type of foreign policy behaviour, even though it has emerged out of the same historical circumstances and been triggered by the same external geopolitical factors. The impact of the ΓÇÿLausanne SyndromeΓÇÖ on TurkeyΓÇÖs foreign policy behaviour is subsequently tested in four case studies from the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East: Cyprus, Libya, Syria, and Iraq.

This book examines the sanction regimes imposed by the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations against Russia, Iran, and North Korea. While the application of sanctions as a foreign policy tool has developed considerably, particularly over the last three decades, their empirically verifiable effects remain contested. Based on detailed empirical evidence, this book investigates the dynamic nature of individual sanctions measures, their multi-layered objectives as a foreign policy tool, their effects on the targeted economies and governments, and how targeted states respond to them. Furthermore, it offers a rare comparative perspective. The book presents a concise summary of the most important aspects and describes some key characteristics that could improve the use of sanctions as a foreign policy tool. This book will appeal to researchers, scholars, and students of international relations, as well as practitioners and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of the effects of sanction regimes and the improvement of sanctions as a foreign policy tool. 

This book is for policy-makers navigating the digital transformation. Global governance is needed to mitigate the disproportionate risks of artificial intelligence but is in a state of deep crisis. Revisiting the era of telecommunication monopolies, this book argues that today¿s return of sovereignty resembles the great reregulation, but of the entire digital economy. Breaking through the previous asymmetrical distribution of technology and institutional power, China threatens the United States¿ technology hegemony. The task is to avert from the straitjacket of hyperdigitalization without causing new silos.

This open access book aims to emphasize the potential for Japan, Europe and Indo-Pacific countries including the US to respond to shared domestic and international challenges on finding joint ways to uphold and develop the liberal international order (LIO) in the Asian Pacific region and the world. It explores how these countries and the region (the EU) can work together to promote solidarity and cooperation to advance democratic standards and rules-based norms globally.The US understands the LIO in a political sense and centers its focus on democracy, aiming to build a coalition of democracies opposed to China and Russia which represent a kind of authoritarian axis. The US aims both to defend the LIO and respond to the China challenge and to build a coalition of countries that will do both. In contrast European countries aim at defending the ¿rules-based order¿¿a term preferred because they fear that the concept of the LIO might alienate or antagonize non-democratic countries. They face a dilemma between working with China to reform the LIO or, in seeking to defend it from China, excluding China. Germany and France differ regarding whether to play a passive or active role in the Indo-Pacific, the former choosing to preserve peace and stability for continued exports, and, until recently, doing little to contribute to security. Its views echo those of the ASEAN countries, which are unable or unwilling to take an active role in protecting the LIO. On the contrary France, along with the UK, actively carries out presence operations in the Indo-Pacific. Rather than upholding US dominance, France supports a multipolar order that will also reduce Chinäs influence in the region, with France acting as a balancing power and offering an alternative to the choice between China and the United States. Japan and India show interest in European views with the former leaning more toward its allies, the US and AUKUS, and the latter seeing Europe less as an alternativeto the status quo and more as a complement of QUAD. This book concludes that the US needs to build coalitions rather than forcing allies and neighbors to choose sides, while Japan, Asian countries, and Europeans should more actively reform the LIO.