The research results published in this set of proceedings range from pure semigroup theory to theoretical computer science, in particular formal languages and automata. Contributed by internationally recognized researchers, the papers address issues in the algebraic and combinatorial theories of semigroups, the structure theory of automata, the classification theory of formal languages and codes and applications of these theories to various areas like circuit testing, coding theory, or cryptography. The underlying theme is the semigroup and automaton theories and their role in certain applications.

The research results published in this book range from pure mathematical theory (semigroup theory, discrete mathematics, etc.) to theoretical computer science, in particular formal languages and automata. The papers address issues in the algebraic and combinatorial theories of semigroups, words and languages, the structure theory of automata, the classification theory of formal languages and codes, and applications of these theories to various areas, like quantum and molecular computing, coding theory, and cryptography.

The topics included in this proceedings cover both mathematics and computer science. They include Codes, Free Monoids, Transformation Semigroups, Automata, Formal Languages, Word Problems, Orders and Combinatorics. Attention is paid to the algebraic theories of codes and rewriting systems, which are the key subjects that combine these two fields. The number of papers in the proceedings exceeds 45 and all papers have been refereed.

The role of discursive power in shaping international relations analyzed through the lens of whaling politics. In the second half of the twentieth century, worldwide attitudes toward whaling shifted from widespread acceptance to moral censure. Why? Whaling, once as important to the global economy as oil is now, had long been uneconomical. Major species were long known to be endangered. Yet nations had continued to support whaling. In The Power of Words in International Relations, Charlotte Epstein argues that the change was brought about not by changing material interests but by a powerful anti-whaling discourse that successfully recast whales as extraordinary and intelligent endangered mammals that needed to be saved. Epstein views whaling both as an object of analysis in its own right and as a lens for examining discursive power, and how language, materiality, and action interact to shape international relations. By focusing on discourse, she develops an approach to the study of agency and the construction of interests that brings non-state actors and individuals into the analysis of international politics. Epstein analyzes the “society of whaling states” as a set of historical practices where the dominant discourse of the day legitimated the killing of whales rather than their protection. She then looks at this whaling world's mirror image: the rise from the political margins of an anti-whaling discourse, which orchestrated one of the first successful global environmental campaigns, in which saving the whales ultimately became shorthand for saving the planet. Finally, she considers the continued dominance of a now taken-for-granted anti-whaling discourse, including its creation of identity categories that align with and sustain the existing international political order. Epstein's synthesis of discourse, power, and identity politics brings the fields of international relations theory and global environmental politics into a fruitful dialogue that benefits both.

What does it mean to say that a particular war is just or unjust, that terrorism is always wrong, or that torture can sometimes be morally justified? What are the moral bases for the possession or use of nuclear weapons, intervening in other countries’ civil wars, or being a bystander to genocide? Such questions take us to the heart of what is morally right and wrong behaviour in our world. Global Violence: Ethical and Political Issues provides readers with the analytical tools to better understand the suppositions that underlie the debates about such questions, as well as advances its own reasoned and informed ethical analyses of these topics. The book engages different normative approaches from the fields of ethics, political theory, and international relations and uses them to examine a set of case studies on the subjects of inter-state and civil war, nuclear weapons, terrorism, torture and genocide.

Nicholas Onuf’s International Legal Theory: Essays and Engagements 1966-2007 is a collection of the author’s articles and book reviews from the period, including some previously unpublished material. The book records the author’s efforts to address important problems in international legal theory and to engage other scholars who were also addressing these problems. As well as demonstrating Onuf’s own constructivist contribution to the theoretical dimension of international law and international relations, each piece is preceded by a short introduction which highlights the wider themes and developments which have occurred in the field of international law in the last forty years.