Encounters with Complexity – serie

This book analyses the multidimensional influence of COVID-19 on world politics, with a special focus on Euro-Asian relations, as well as changes in Europe caused by the pandemic. Expert international and interdisciplinary contributors analyse the measures undertaken to counter COVID, its use to justify increased governmental surveillance, the role of religion and regional institutions and the great power transformations, and the economic crisis that resulted from it. The question driving each chapter is to what extent COVID-19, and the reaction to it, transformed the world. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Public Diplomacy, World Politics and Security Studies. This publication will be also relevant for professionals in the corporate world, international business, state departments, political journalism and think tanks.

This book analyses the multidimensional influence of COVID-19 on world politics, with a special focus on Euro-Asian relations, as well as changes in Europe caused by the pandemic. Expert international and interdisciplinary contributors analyse the measures undertaken to counter COVID, its use to justify increased governmental surveillance, the role of religion and regional institutions and the great power transformations, and the economic crisis that resulted from it. The question driving each chapter is to what extent COVID-19, and the reaction to it, transformed the world. The book will be of interest to scholars and students of International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Public Diplomacy, World Politics and Security Studies. This publication will be also relevant for professionals in the corporate world, international business, state departments, political journalism and think tanks.

This book investigates emotions within International Relations (IR), focusing on their role in shaping political actions and global interactions. For decades, IR theorists and politicians emphasized rational decision-making. However, recent scholarship has sparked a wave of interest in emotions, uncovering their significant influence. Collecting cutting-edge research that situates the emotional turn within the broader idea of Global IR, international contributors consider Western and non-Western emotional norms to reveal how cultural diversity permeates emotional expression and its role in politics. With case studies exploring emotions in contexts such as the China-Taiwan conflict, Western states' policy toward Israel, Polish foreign policy, the Korean War, the African Union responses, role of pain in the Middle Eastern context, and anti-liberal contestations in Latin America, this book is primarily aimed at scholars and advanced students in International Relations, Political Science, and Global and Area Studies.

This book investigates emotions within International Relations (IR), focusing on their role in shaping political actions and global interactions. For decades, IR theorists and politicians emphasized rational decision-making. However, recent scholarship has sparked a wave of interest in emotions, uncovering their significant influence. Collecting cutting-edge research that situates the emotional turn within the broader idea of Global IR, international contributors consider Western and non-Western emotional norms to reveal how cultural diversity permeates emotional expression and its role in politics. With case studies exploring emotions in contexts such as the China-Taiwan conflict, Western states' policy toward Israel, Polish foreign policy, the Korean War, the African Union responses, role of pain in the Middle Eastern context, and anti-liberal contestations in Latin America, this book is primarily aimed at scholars and advanced students in International Relations, Political Science, and Global and Area Studies.

China in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: The Machine State examines AI in China not simply as a technological development, but as part of a longer reflection on order, authority, and the role of technique in social life. Rather than treating AI as a neutral sector of innovation, the book situates it within cultural and political traditions that shape how technology is understood, regulated, and integrated into state projects.Drawing on classical Chinese texts alongside contemporary policy documents and legal frameworks, the study shows how AI has been embedded in a model of modernization grounded in planning, coordination, and infrastructural scale. Data, computing power, and standards emerge as elements of state capacity rather than merely technical assets. The book also addresses tensions within this approach – between control and creativity, scale, and flexibility – and considers China’s efforts to shape global debates on AI governance, particularly through engagement with the United Nations and the Global South.Introducing the concept of the “machine state,” the book offers a framework for understanding how governance increasingly operates through technical systems. It will interest scholars as well as policymakers and business actors seeking to interpret China’s technological strategy and its implications for global technology governance.