The Commonwealth consists of only a quarter of the world s states and yet the Commonwealth Secretariat and Foundation have made and continue to make a significant contribution to global politics.

Commonwealth is a superb examination of an often neglected but crucial force in world affairs. Timothy M. Shaw;

• explains the history, structure and future of the Commonwealth
• demonstrates the central role that the Commonwealth has played in advancing decolonization and supporting multiculturalism, democracy and human rights
• details the...

EU studies increasingly recognize the salience of new regional insights. Hence, this collection of original essays provides a broad overview of regionalism, together with detailed analyses on the construction, activities, and implications of both established and emerging examples of formal political and economic organizations as well as informal regional entities and networks. Aimed at scholars and students interested in the continuing growth of regionalism, The Ashgate Research Companion to Regionalisms is a key resource to understanding the major debates in the field. Organized into three...

Human security has been advanced as an alternative to traditional state-based conceptualizations of security, yet controversies about the use and abuse of the concept remain. Investigating innovations in the advancement of the human security agenda over the past decade, this book identifies themes and processes around which consensus for future policy action might be built. It considers the ongoing debates regarding the human security agenda, explores prospects and projects for the advancement of human security, addresses issues of human security as emerging forms of new multilateralisms and...

The global 'financial' crisis at the turn of the decade has accelerated changes in the relative standing of major regions. As both the US and Eurozone economies have confronted a series of setbacks and struggles to find their second breath, so Asia, Latin America and even Africa have picked up the slack and have been able to maintain high levels of growth. The resilience of the Global South questions whether we are witnessing an evolution towards a regional rebalancing or even global restructuring. This responding volume has four interrelated topics. It explores the transformation taking...

This collection is concerned with revisiting and redefining the political economy - both empirical and theoretical - of 'foreign policy' in the South as we approach the twenty-first century: the position of post-colonial states and societies in the post-Bretton Woods and Cold War world. With a focus on Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America, this collection comparatively examines the impact of changing political and economic structures upon policy-makers and civil societies in the South.

Global energy consumption will increase rapidly in the next decades. The discrepancy between demand and supply is worrisome within the old and new cores of the world-economy. Sub-Saharan Africa meanwhile possesses vast potential for energy resources to be further exploited. Whilst the Global North is a traditional player in the sub-Saharan energy sector, new actors from emerging economies - especially Chinaa s state-owned enterprises but also Brazilian, Indian and South African giants - have entered what appears to be a scramble for the largely untapped energy resources of the region. This...

Regionalization in general and regional integration in particular have taken place at a growing pace since the end of the Cold War, when states were set free from various security overlays. Regional integration is 'logical' as it is supposed to advance wealth and peace. Still, the picture is far from clear and the process of regional integration is not automatic; disintegration takes place, as we saw in the cases of the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to mention a few. This is the case not only in states recently brought together but also in traditional states like Britain, The...

The wider region of the Eastern Mediterranean is in transition. What is being evinced is a situation of continuous volatility, centering on developments such as the 'Arab Spring, ' the Greek sovereign debt crisis, Islamic terrorism, the continuation of deadlock over the Cypriot and Palestinian Issues, significant energy finds in the Levantine Basin, concerns over nuclear proliferation and, more recently, the Syrian Civil War. At a systemic level, the move towards a regional multipolar reality has also contributed to volatility by creating a crescendo of antagonisms between all the major...

This is a collection of bold and visionary scholarship that reveals an insightful exposition of re-visioning African development from African perspectives. It provides educators, policy makers, social workers, non-governmental agencies, and development agencies with an interdisciplinary conceptual base that can effectively guide them in planning and implementing programs for socio-economic development in Africa. The book provides up-to-date scholarly research on continental trends on various subjects and concerns of paramount importance to globalisation and development in Africa (politics,...

Bridging foreign policy analysis and international political economy, this volume offers a new look at the problem of agency in comparative regional integration studies. It examines evolving regional integration projects in the Eurasian space, defined as the former Soviet Union countries and China, and the impact that Russian foreign policy has had on integration in the region. Mikhail Molchanov argues that new regionalism in Eurasia should be seen as a reactive response to contemporary challenges that these developing states face in the era of globalization. Regional integration in this part...