There is a large potential for expanding trade in the Middle East and North Africa region. This work discusses ways forward for trade integration, capturing the diversity of country experiences within the region without losing the generality of principles involved.

Climate Change Law and Policy in the Middle East and North Africa Region provides an in-depth and authoritative examination of the guiding principles of climate change law and policy in the MENA region. This volume introduces readers to the latest developments in the regulation of climate change across the region, including the applicable legislation, institutions, and key legal innovations in climate change financing, infrastructure development, and education. It outlines participatory and bottom-up legal strategies—focusing on transparency, accountability, gender justice, and other human rights safeguards—needed to achieve greater coherence and coordination in the design, approval, financing, and implementation of climate response projects across the region. With contributions from a range of experts in the field, the collection reflects on how MENA countries can advance existing national strategies around climate change, green economy, and low carbon futures through clear and comprehensive legislation. Taking an international and comparative approach, this book will be of great interest to students, scholars, and practitioners who work in the areas of climate change, environmental law and policy, and sustainable development, particularly in relation to the MENA region.

Latin American Relations with the Middle East surveys the dealings of ten Latin American and Caribbean states – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, and Venezuela – with the Middle East. This volume examins these states' external behavior at both an empirical and conceptual level. Empirically, authors seek to examine Latin American and Caribbean foreign policies towards the Middle East in four dimensions: diplomatic attention; trade and investment (including the energy issue); development cooperation; security matters/intelligence, and relationship with multilateralism (Iran, Palestine, and Syria). Case studies are selectively deployed to observe the influence of unfavorable circumstances that have increased since 2015, such as domestic turmoil, wars, economic crisis, ideological bias, and international constraints. Conceptually, the book enhances the theoretical framework for understanding Southern countries’ foreign policies, through fomenting dialogue with Latin American and Caribbean regional literature on foreign policy. Authors inquire about how decision-making processes occur, and uncover how influential actors help to test the main hypotheses of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). Forging essential new paths of inquiry, this book is a must read for researchers of International Relations, Foreign Policy, South-South Relations, Latin American Politics, and Middle Eastern Politics.

The World Bank Group is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. Its focus is on helping the poorest people in the poorest countries by using its financial resources, staff, and extensive experience to aid countries in reducing poverty, increasing economic growth, and improving quality of life. In partnership with more than 100 developing countries, the Bank Group is striving to improve health and education, fight corruption, boost agricultural support, build roadsand ports, and protect the environment. Other projects are aimed at rebuilding war-torn countries or regions, providing basic services such as access to clean water, and encouraging investments that create jobs. In addition to this critical groundwork around the world, various parts of the World Bank Group are involved in activities ranging from conducting economic research and analysis to providing financial and advisory services to governments and private enterprises. This completely revised and updated second edition provides an accessible and straightforward overview of the World Bank Group's history, organization, mission, and purpose. Additionally, for those wishing to delve further into subjects of particular interest, the book guides readers to sources containing more detailed information, including annual reports, Web sites, publications, and e-mail addresses for various departments. It also provides information on how to work for or do business with the World Bank. A good introduction for anyone interested in understanding what the World Bank Group does and how it does it, this book shows readers who want to learn more where to begin.

A persistently large trade finance gap is an ongoing global challenge, particularly for small and medium-sized enterprises, which continue to face significant barriers to access financing. This report reflects on the Trade Finance Gaps, Growth, and Jobs Survey conducted by the Asian Development Bank since 2012. It provides insights on trade finance trends, analysis, and lessons from the past 10 years and identifies what needs to happen to make access to trade finance more inclusive. The report discusses the rapid digitalization in trade and trade finance markets and advocates for increased international cooperation to enable the full benefits of digitization to be realized.

Transforming World Trade and Investment Law for Sustainable Development explains why the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Agenda for "Transforming our World"—aimed at realizing universal human rights and the17 agreed sustainable development goals (SDGs)—requires transforming the UN and WTO legal systems, as well as international investment law and adjudication. UN and WTO law protect regulatory competition between diverse neo-liberal, state-capitalist, European ordo-liberal, and developing countries' conceptions of multilevel trade and investment regulation. However, geopolitical rivalries and trade wars increasingly undermine transnational rule of law and effective regulation of market failures, governance, and constitutional failures. Protecting the WTO legal and dispute settlement system remains essential for SDGs such as climate change mitigation measures and access to medical supplies and vaccines in global health pandemics. Investment law and adjudication must better reconcile governmental duties to protect human rights and decarbonize economies with the property rights of foreign investors. The constitutional, human rights, and environmental litigation in Europe enhances the legal accountability of democratic governments for protecting sustainable development. However, European economic constitutionalism has been rejected by neoliberalism, China's authoritarian state-capitalism, and many developing countries' governments. The more that regional economic orders (like the China-led Belt and Road networks) reveal heterogeneity and power politics block UN and WTO reforms, the more the US-led neoliberal world order risks disintegrating. UN and WTO law must promote private-public network governance and civil society participation in order to stabilize and de-politicize multilevel governance that protects SDGs and global public goods.

This handbook brings together a mix of established and emerging international scholars to provide valuable analytical insights into how China’s growing Middle East presence affects intra-regional development, trade, security, and diplomacy. As the largest extra-regional economic actor in the Middle East, China is the biggest source of foreign direct investment into the region and the largest trading partner for most Middle Eastern states. This portends a larger role in political and security affairs, as the value of Chinese assets combined with a growing expatriate population in the region demands a more proactive role in contributing to regional order. Exploring the effect of these developments, the expert contributors also consider the reverberations in great power politics, as the United States, Russia, India, Japan, and the European Union also have considerable interests in the region. The book is divided into four sections: • Historical and policy context • State and regional case studies • Trade and development • International relations, security, and diplomacy. This volume is an essential reference for scholars and policy-makers in the fields of international relations, political sociology, international political economy, and foreign policy analysis. Area studies specialists in Middle Eastern Studies, China Studies, and East Asian Studies will also find it an invaluable resource.