Table Of ContentIssues in 21st Century World Politics
Issues in 21st Century
World Politics
Third Edition
Edited by
Mark Beeson
and
Nick Bisley
Selection, editorial matter and Introduction © Mark Beeson and Nick Bisley 2010, 2013, 2017
Individual chapters © their respective authors 2010, 2013, 2017
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First edition published 2010 by
PALGRAVE
Second edition published 2013 by
PALGRAVE
Third edition published 2017 by
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Contents
List of Contributors vii
Issues in 21st Century World Politics: An Introduction 1
Mark Beeson and Nick Bisley
1 Rising Powers and the Return of Geopolitics 9
Nick Bisley
2 Ways of War in the Twenty-First Century 23
Caroline Kennedy-Pipe and Thomas Waldman
3 Non-traditional Security and World Politics 38
Alistair D. B. Cook
4 Global Terrorism 52
Andrew Phillips
5 International Organizations: Can They Break Free from States? 68
Sean Starrs
6 Globalization and Governance 83
Mark Beeson
7 Regions and Regionalism 97
Louise Fawcett
8 International Law and World Politics 113
Aidan Hehir
9 Nationalism and Identity 126
John Hutchinson
10 Climate Change 141
David Gordon and Matthew Paterson
11 Global Financial Crises 157
Giulia Mennillo and Timothy J. Sinclair
12 Gender and World Politics 172
Laura Sjoberg and Natalia Fontoura
v
vi Contents
13 Inequality and Underdevelopment 185
Ray Kiely
14 Migrants and Refugees in Global Politics 200
Anne Hammerstad
15 Social Movements in World Politics 217
Kelly Gerard and Sky Croeser
16 Democracy’s Meaning, Progress and Recession 233
William Case
References 250
Index 289
List of Contributors
Mark Beeson is Professor of International Relations and Political Science at the
University of Western Australia.
Nick Bisley is the Executive Director of La Trobe Asia and Professor of
International Relations at La Trobe University.
William Case is Professor of Comparative Politics at the City University of
Hong Kong.
Alistair D. B. Cook is Research Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International
Studies, Nanyang Technological University.
Sky Croeser is based in the Department of Internet Studies at Curtin University.
Louise Fawcett is Professor of International Relations and Wilfrid Knapp F ellow
and Tutor in Politics at St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford.
Natalia Fontoura is a doctoral student of Political Science at the University of
Florida.
Kelly Gerard is Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at the
University of Western Australia.
David Gordon is an Assistant Professor in the Politics Department at the
University of California Santa Cruz.
Anne Hammerstad is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Kent University and
Senior Research Associate at the South African Institute of International Affairs.
Aidan Hehir is Reader in International Relations at the University of Westminster.
John Hutchinson is Associate Professor in Nationalism at the London School
of Economics.
Caroline Kennedy-Pipe is Professor of War Studies and Head of the School of
Politics, Philosophy and International Studies at the University of Hull.
Ray Kiely is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London.
Giulia Mennillo is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science
at the National University of Singapore.
vii
viii List of Contributors
Matthew Paterson is Professor of International Politics at Manchester University.
Andrew Phillips is Associate Professor in International Relations and Strategy
at the University of Queensland.
Timothy J. Sinclair is Associate Professor in International Political Economy
at the University of Warwick.
Laura Sjoberg is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of
Florida.
Sean Starrs is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and International
Studies at the City University of Hong Kong.
Thomas Waldman is Lecturer in Post-war Recovery Studies in the Department
of Politics, University of York.
Issues in 21st Century World
Politics: An Introduction
Mark Beeson and nick Bisley
This is the third time we have edited Issues in 21st Century World Politics.
Each time we have done so, there has been some seemingly monumental ‘issue’
or other that seemed remarkable as we were editing the book. This edition is
no different. Indeed, there is no shortage of things happening in the world at
the time of writing (early 2016) that have potentially major implications for
the future of the international system. There is a very real chance that the
American electorate could put Donald Trump, a reality TV star with no politi-
cal experience, into the White House, reinforcing the sense that US political
system has serious structural flaws. This also reflects a broader trend towards
insurgent populism across the democratic world, with the election of Rodrigo
Duterte in the Philippines one of the most notable examples. Established politi-
cal processes and practices seem to be unable to deliver, and unpredictable and
dangerous politics seems to be the order of the day. Even as China undertakes
a brash and confident foreign policy asserting large and destabilizing claims in
the South China Sea, its economy faces very significant headwinds. Some ana-
lysts think that a serious financial crisis is a distinct possibility in the world’s
second largest economy. Britain’s surprising vote to leave the EU is likely to
badly damage the broader European project while the ongoing problems in
Syria and Crimea underscore the deep-seated political and social fissures in
Southwest Asia.
The very way we think about the conduct of, and possibilities for, international
relations (IR) seems somehow more fluid and uncertain than usual. Before we
even begin to try and itemize some of the potentially more consequential of these
many and varied developments, therefore, it might be worth stepping back a little
and trying to decide whether there really is something different and distinctive
about the way the twenty-first century is unfolding.
No doubt everyone thinks the times they live in are remarkable and special in
some way. It is only with the benefit of hindsight that we can see that some events
really were significant turning points in history and that the times that produced
them were especially significant as a consequence. In the twentieth century, two
world wars, the greatest depression the world has ever known and – more posi-
tively – the ending of the Cold War, surely qualify as special moments in history
1
2 Mark Beeson and Nick Bisley
that have had long-lasting effects. Perhaps less well recognized now, but likely
to be so in the future, was the rapprochement between the US and China that
made possible the economic reforms that created the greatest human develop-
ment achievement in history.
But what about the twenty-first century? Is there anything that really sets it
apart from other times? Are there events that are really so significant that they
can be thought of as transformational moments akin to 1989? The answer is the
somewhat unsatisfactory both ‘yes’ and ‘no’.
On the one hand, we have September 11. The fact that we don’t actually need to
remind the reader that this was the date of the terrorist attacks on the US in 2001
is itself significant. Even if the events themselves weren’t that epochal in terms
of casualities or in their material impact on the target country, they were spec-
tacular examples of ‘propaganda by the deed’. More importantly, they prompted
the United States to fundamentally reorient its foreign and defense policy for
almost a decade to focus on the rather nebulous idea of a ‘global war on terror’.
On the other hand, these events also highlight something novel about the con-
temporary era, perhaps. Although it is hard to imagine more dramatic events, not
least because of the way they were beamed around the world in real time, their
consequences were rather slower to unfold. Indeed, it is possible to argue that they
are still resonating throughout the international system generally – the United
States’ role within it more particularly (Acharya 2014b).
A further important feature of the first couple of decades of the twenty-
first century has been the rise and apparent decline of the US as the world’s
first, global unipolar actor (Layne 2012). At century’s opening, the US confi-
dently bestrode the world, unchallenged by any country or force and at the top
of virtually all global measures of power and influence. A decade or so on,
bloodied by wars that had not gone to plan in Iraq and Afghanistan, economi-
cally undercut by the worst recession since the 1930s, US power and influence
seemed at a low ebb, with prominent scholars asking whether American global
dominance had gone for good (e.g. Nye 2015). What are we to make of this
roller coaster of great power experience? Is it a result of distinctly American
circumstances or are there deeper forces at play that tell us something about
the state of world politics?
One of the clichés of contemporary life is that the pace of events has increased
and their impact is more diffuse and realized in many places simultaneously.
The remarkably truncated nature of America's unipolar moment – which some
still think continues (Brooks and Wohlforth 2016) – is perhaps the most con-
sequential manifestation of this possibility. Not only has American power
clearly diminished relative to others, but the impact of this change is also
being felt around the world in different ways. First, the old order that the US
helped to build in the wake of World War II is changing and quite possibly
even disintegrating (Bremmer 2012). There are many possible explanations
for the differences in the way that global politics occurs these days, as Beeson
notes in Chapter 6, but one of the most important has u ndoubtedly been the
rise of new powers with different ideas about the way the world ought to be
