Connectivity, as well as conflict, characterizes Eurasia. This edited volume explores dynamic geopolitical and geo-economic links reconfiguring spaces from the eastern edge of Europe through the western edge of Asia, seeking explanation beyond description. The ancient Silk Road tied together space, much as pipelines, railroads, telecommunications infrastructure, and similar cultural and constructed links ease the mobility of people and products in modern Eurasia. This book considers Eurasia along an interlinked corridor, with chapters illustrating the connections as a discussion foundation focusing on the shared interactions of a set of nation states through time and across space, generating more positive considerations of the resurgently important region of Eurasia. China’s interests fall into three chapters: the southeastern border with Vietnam, the southwestern Himalayan edge, and the western Muslim regions. Russia’s recovery relates events to a larger landmass context and focuses on the importance of historic mobility. A geo-history of the Caspian considers this petroleum-rich area as a zone of cultural and economic interconnection. The final focus on Central Asia treats the traditional heart of “Eurasia”. The concluding chapter pulls together strands linking subregions for a new concept of “Eurasia” as an area linked by vital interests and overlapping histories.

Connectivity, as well as conflict, characterizes Eurasia. This edited volume explores dynamic geopolitical and geo-economic links reconfiguring spaces from the eastern edge of Europe through the western edge of Asia, seeking explanation beyond description. The ancient Silk Road tied together space, much as pipelines, railroads, telecommunications infrastructure, and similar cultural and constructed links ease the mobility of people and products in modern Eurasia. This book considers Eurasia along an interlinked corridor, with chapters illustrating the connections as a discussion foundation focusing on the shared interactions of a set of nation states through time and across space, generating more positive considerations of the resurgently important region of Eurasia. China’s interests fall into three chapters: the southeastern border with Vietnam, the southwestern Himalayan edge, and the western Muslim regions. Russia’s recovery relates events to a larger landmass context and focuses on the importance of historic mobility. A geo-history of the Caspian considers this petroleum-rich area as a zone of cultural and economic interconnection. The final focus on Central Asia treats the traditional heart of “Eurasia”. The concluding chapter pulls together strands linking subregions for a new concept of “Eurasia” as an area linked by vital interests and overlapping histories.

Jacopo Maria Pepe examines the rapid development of non-energy transport infrastructure in the broader Eurasian space. By doing so, the author considers the ongoing structural transformation of the Eurasian continent against the backdrop of deepening commercial interconnectivity in Eurasia into broader areas of trade, supported by the rapid development of rail connectivity. He frames this process in a long-wave historical analysis and considers in detail the geopolitical, geo-economic, and theoretical implications of deepening physical connectivity for the relationships among China, Russia, Central Asia, and the European Union.

This book evaluates Central Asian regionalism by analyzing the impact of Russia and China on physical infrastructure in the region. The narrative builds a picture of the nature of the two powers’ influence on the development of regional connectivity in Central Asia. The study covers the 30-year period since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, with a focus on the last decade preceding the global pandemic. Qualitative research methods, i.e., documentary analysis, media analysis, and elite interviews, are implemented to explore how activities of Russia and China impact regional cooperation among Central Asian states. Multiple case studies of projects in the networked sectors of infrastructure, i.e., transportation, energy, and telecommunications, are used to build the argument and demonstrate the ways in which Russia’s and China’s engagement influence regional connectivity. The book is of interest to the scholars who study international relations in Eurasia, major power relations, Sino-Russian relations, China foreign policy, international institutions in Asia, multilateralism, and regionalism. The empirical depth of the book attracts attention of area studies scholars who focus on Central Asia, Central Eurasia, and any of the five Central Asian states. Additionally, the scholars who analyze the roles of hard infrastructure find the book particularly important. The in-depth cases on multilateral financial institutions and regional networks, particularly energy, transportation, and telecommunication, are of great value to those interested in these respective sectors.

Central Asia has been perceived as a landscape of connections, of Silk Roads; an endless plain across which waves of conquerors swiftly rode on horseback. In reality the region is highly fragmented and difficult to traverse, and overcoming these obstacles led to routes becoming associated with epic travel and high-value trade. Put simply, the inhabitants of these lands became experts in the art of travelling the margins. This volume seeks to unravel some of the myths of long-distance roads in Central Asia, using a desert case-study to put forward a new hypothesis for how medieval landscapes were controlled and manipulated.

China's 'Great Firewall' has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world. As the Chinese internet grows and online businesses thrive, speech is controlled, dissent quashed, and attempts to organise outside the official Communist Party are quickly stamped out. Updated throughout and available in paperback for the first time, The Great Firewall of China draws on James Griffiths' unprecedented access to the Great Firewall and the politicians, tech leaders, dissidents and hackers whose lives revolve around it. New chapters cover the suppression of information about the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, disinformation campaigns in response to the exposure of the persecution of Uyghur communities in Xinjiang and the crackdown against the Umbrella movement in Hong Kong.

Central Asia is a relatively understudied neighbor of Afghanistan. The region is often placed into a number of historical and political contexts—a section of the Silk Road, a pawn in the “Great Game,” the “spillover” state that exemplifies the failure of US foreign policy—that limit scholarly understanding. This edited volume contributes by providing a broad, long-term analysis of the Central Asia–Afghanistan relationship over the last several decades. It addresses the legacy of Soviet intervention with a unique first-hand selection of interviews of former Soviet Central Asian soldiers that fought in the Soviet–Afghan War. It examines Afghanistan’s norther neighbors, discussing Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—their strategy for Afghanistan, their perception of challenges and opportunities of the country, and patterns of cooperation and conflict. The collection also looks at recent US strategic initiatives in the region, in particular the New Silk Road Initiative that envisions a growing Central Asia–South Asia connection.

This core text is the first to provide a much-needed interdisciplinary approach to international studies. Emphasizing the interconnected nature of history, geography, anthropology, economics, and political science, International Studies details the methodologies and subject matter of each discipline then applies these discipline lenses to seven regions: Europe; East Asia and the Pacific; South and Central Asia; sub-Saharan Africa; the Middle East and North Africa; Latin America; and North America. This disciplinary and regional combination provides an indispensable, cohesive framework for understanding global issues. The fully updated fourth edition includes four new global issues chapters: The Refugee Crisis in Europe; The Syrian Civil War and the Rise of the Islamic State; Global Climate Change; and The Globalization of Modern Sports.

This book provides a much-needed classroom text in international studies that is genuinely interdisciplinary in its approach. International Studies focuses specifically on five core disciplines; history, geography, anthropology, political science and economics, and describes them in relation to one another, as well as their individual and collective contributions to the study of global issues. The expert authors also emphasize the continuing importance of area studies within an interdisciplinary and global framework, applying its interdisciplinary framework to substantive issues in seven regions: Europe, East Asia and the Pacific, South and Central Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and North America. This new edition has been completely updated and substantially revised with two new chapters on Media, Sovereignty and Cybersecurity and Sustainable Development. This disciplinary and regional combination offers a useful and cohesive framework for teaching students a substantive and comprehensive approach to understanding global issues.

Global policy making is unfurling in distinctive ways above traditional nation-state policy processes. New practices of transnational administration are emerging inside international organizations but also alongside the trans-governmental networks of regulators and inside global public private partnerships. Mainstream policy and public administration studies have tended to analyse the capacity of public sector hierarchies to globalize national policies. By contrast, this Handbook investigates new public spaces of transnational policy-making, the design and delivery of global public goods and services, and the interdependent roles of transnational administrators who move between business bodies, government agencies, international organizations, and professional associations. This Handbook is novel in taking the concepts and theories of public administration and policy studies to get inside the black box of global governance. Transnational administration is a multi-actor and multi-scalar endeavour having manifestations, depending on the policy issue or problems, at the local, urban, sub-regional, sub-national, regional, national, supranational, supra-regional, transnational, international, and global scales. These scales of 'local' and 'global' are not neatly bounded and nested spaces but are articulated together in complex patterns of policy activity. These transnational patterns represent a reinvigoration of public administration and policy studies as the Handbook authors advance their analysis beyond the methodological nationalism of the nation-state.