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Social Stratification in an Aging Society with Low Fertility: The Case of Japan (Economy and Social Inclusion)
by Sawako ShirahaseThis edited book empirically discusses stratification in contemporary Japanese society. It is unique for its examination of social inequality in relation to declining fertility and an aging population. Japan is the most aged society in the world: according to the Statistics Bureau of Japan, people who are aged 65 and above comprised 29.1% of the country’s total population in 2021. Meanwhile, the fertility rate has continuously declined since the mid-1970s. Japan experienced a dramatic change in its demographic structure in a short period of time. Such fast change could be a major factor that generated social stratification. In her industrialization, Japan was thought to share a pattern of social stratification similar to that of developed European and North American countries but with a low degree of socio-economic inequality and a high degree of homogeneity. There is no clear support for this description of Japan, although the country does share a pattern and degree of social stratification similar to that observed in Europe and North America. The social stratification theory has been developed in close relationship to the labor market; however, it is necessary to further examine the social stratification of very aged societies in which a substantial number of the population—namely, retired persons—no longer have any ties to the labor market. In this book, the contributors explore the pattern of social stratification at three life stages: young, middle-aged, and elderly. Included are discussions of various aspects of stratification such as education, work, wealth, marriage, family, gender, generation, and social attitudes.
International Student Mobilities and Voices in the Asia-Pacific: Letters to Coronavirus
by Yi’En ChengThis edited volume explores core questions on education and transnational mobility in a time characterized by a global pandemic, recasting them through the lenses of regimes, experiences, and aspirations. The volume brings together 19 short essays in the form of letters addressed to the coronavirus and written by international students , together with nine striking illustrations that depict emotive scenes from the essays, and nine academic commentaries that analytically link these personal narratives to broader societal structures. This book represents a timely intervention, providing an intimate glimpse into young people’s hopes and the challenges they face concerning their education and mobility.
Big Tech Firms and International Relations: The Role of the Nation-State in New Forms of Power (Contributions to International Relations)
by Li ShengThis book presents cutting-edge research and exploration of the role of nation-state when big tech firms present themselves as new participants in contemporary international relations that act on an equal footing with nation-states. The general research goal of this book is to identify the justifications that nation-states have adopted to regulate the big tech firms and the impacts of this process on international trade in the main economies in the world. With the massive instrumentation of data, big tech firms have become actors with the capacity to intervene not only in economies but also, above all, in the politics of different countries with different systems. The emergence of big tech firms has transformed the approach to the concepts of national security, information management and access to new technologies among nation-states. The principles and fundamentals of cyber sovereignty have become one of the bases of states in the contemporary system of international relations. Today, the influence of big tech firms in different societies in the contemporary world is one of the main forms of power. This book tries to collect and present the recent state of the art in studies on the relationship between big tech firms and nation-states in the literature. It also addresses how governments such as those of the US, China and the EU are changing their legislation, creating control and data security mechanisms, imposing entry restrictions on foreign companies, and regulating the actions beyond the cloud of big tech firms inside and outside their borders.
Reflections on Grand Strategy: The Great Powers in the Twenty-first Century
by Samir TataThe book provides an analytic framework for grand strategy and applies the framework to illuminate the grand strategies of the Great Powers of the twenty-first century: India, China, Russia, and the United States. The book also uses Coca-Cola as a case study to illustrate the potential influence of grand strategy on business strategy. The analysis is rigorous, logical, fact-based, historically rooted, and well-sourced with abundant endnotes to encourage further exploration by readers.
People, Place, Race, and Nation in Xinjiang, China: Territories of Identity
by David O’Brien Melissa Shani BrownIn one of the only works drawing on interviews with both Uyghurs and Han in Xinjiang, China, and postcolonial perspectives on ethnicity, nation, and race, this book explores how forms of banal racism underpin ideas of self and other, assimilation and modernisation, in this restive region. Significant international attention has condemned the CCP’s use of forced internment in ‘re-education’ camps, as well as its campaign of cultural assimilation. In this wider context, this book focuses upon the ways in which ethnic difference is writ through the banalities of everyday life: who one trusts, what one eats, where one shops, even what time one’s clocks are set to (Xinjiang being perhaps one of the only places where different ethnic groups live by different time-zones).Alongside chapters focusing upon the coercive ‘re-education’ campaign, and the devastating Ürümchi Riots in 2009, this book also unpacks how discourses of Chinese nationalism romanticise empire and promote racialised ways of thinking about Chineseness, how cultural assimilation (‘Sinicisation’) is being justified through the rhetoric of ‘modernisation’, how Islamic sites and Uyghur culture are being secularised and commodified for tourist consumption. We also explore Uyghur and Han perspectives, including of each other, giving insight into the diversity of opinions within both groups.Based on many years of living and working in China, and fieldwork and interviews specifically in Xinjiang, this book will be valuable to a variety of readers interested in the region and Uyghur and Han identity, ethnic/national identities in contemporary China, and racisms in non-western contexts.
Understanding Globalization, Global Gaps, and Power Shifts in the 21st Century: CCG Global Dialogues
by Huiyao Wang Lu MiaoThis book aims to help readers make sense of our changing world by sharing the views of global thought leaders on some of the most important issues of our time, from US-China relations and global governance to climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. The ten dialogues in this book were part of the “China and the World” series of online discussions hosted by the Center for China and Globalization (CCG). The series features CCG President Huiyao Wang in conversation with experts from a range of fields, from renowned scholars of international relations, economics, and history, to journalists, policymakers, and business leaders. The speakers featured in this book are Graham Allison, David Blair, Kerry Brown, Anne Case, Li Chen, Wendy Cutler, Angus Deaton, Thomas L. Friedman, Valerie Hansen, Pascal Lamy, Kishore Mahbubani, Joseph S. Nye Jr., Adam Posen, J. Stapleton Roy, John L. Thornton, Huiyao Wang, Martin Wolf, and Zhu Guangyao. These wide-ranging discussions offer unique insights and perspectives on key trends shaping our world in the 21st century. These include the rise of China and shifts in geopolitics, as well as the evolving nature of globalization, transnational threats, and multilateralism.This is an open access book.This is an open access book.
The Rise of the Indonesian Financial Service Authority: Domestic Implementation Gaps in Portfolio Investment Liberalization
by Chandra KusumaThis book focuses on the Indonesian Financial Service Authority (FSA), which is a newly established authority within Indonesian financial services institutions that has emerged as the ultimate decision-maker for portfolio investment liberalization. In doing so, the book elaborates on how the emergence of the Indonesian FSA has resulted in implementation gaps in Indonesia, in the area of portfolio investment liberalization. The book reveals that the endowment of an ‘independent and free’ status, as well as the FSA’s power over the Indonesian financial sector, has allowed agents in the FSA to provide different positions or responses to the already agreed ASEAN financial liberalization initiatives. Contrary to the expectations of most writers that the independent status of an institution would advance financial liberalization, this book shows that the ‘independent and free’ status of the Indonesian FSA has actually stymied financial liberalization. To achieve this, the book employs a modified account of the historical institutionalism approach, or ‘the agents-in-context’ approach, examining how and why the Indonesian FSA has emerged as an independent authority. The insights drawn from applying a modified historical institutionalism approach to the case study of Indonesian portfolio investment liberalization critiques and complements existing works in the regionalism literature in general, and ASEAN financial integration particularly.
Growth Mechanisms and Sustainable Development of the Chinese Economy: Comparison with Japanese Experiences
by Xinxin Ma Cheng TangWhat can Chinese economists learn from the Japanese economic boom and subsequent stagnation? This project aims to institutionally and empirically investigate the growth mechanism and determinants of sustainable development in China compared with Japanese experiences. This is the first challenge in conducting a comparative study on China and Japan’s economic growth and development. We aim to investigate the economic system transition and its influence on the Chinese and Japanese economy from macroeconomic and microeconomic perspectives. This book will interest economists, scholars of comparative politics, and scholars of China or Japan's economic development.
Consultative Democracy or Consultative Authoritarianism?: Understanding Chinese Consultative Politics
by Rongxin LiThis book theorizes Chinese politics, specifically about China’s “deliberative democracy (xieshang minzhu 协商民主)”. Creating a China-West comparative framework, the author interrogates China's government's claims to give representation to citizens, allowing readers to see how all of these concepts interact within Chinese ideology, democratic discourse, and governance, and their relationship with Chinese authoritarianism. Above all, this book represents a sustained hybridization of political theory, one which is neither a simple democratic-authoritarian dichotomy, nor a reinterpretation of the official propaganda. This study will interest scholars of Chinese politics and statecraft, shedding light on an emergent discourse of the state – Chinese xieshang minzhu. More importantly, this book goes beyond a simple rhetorical and linguistic use of ‘deliberative democracy’ in the Western sense, and rather emphasizes the very consultative nature of Chinese politics, which facilitates and reconsolidates Chinese authoritarianism.
Dilapidation of the Rural: Development, Politics, and Farmer Suicides in India
by Sudhir Kumar SutharThis book explains farmer suicides in India in the backdrop of rural politics as a determining factor. By bringing in politics as a variable the research presented in the book reveals that there are non-farm factors playing critical role in prompting behavioral change amongst the peasantry but haven’t received much academic attention. The book argues that the changing nature of public spaces has significantly altered the perception of self in the rural society of India. It presents indicators of this rural change and how the state policy and political parties led political mobilization that changed the character of community relations in the rural areas. The book shows that other possible manifestations of the large-scale behavioral change in the rural areas and increasing rural distress, those are equally serious but haven’t received much attention, are rising cases of drug-addiction, agrarian riots, or other forms of collective violence. The increasing number of farmers protests also need to be understood in this context.
Cultural Sustainability and Arts Education: International Perspectives on the Aesthetics of Transformation (Yearbook of Arts Education Research for Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development #2)
by Benjamin Jörissen Lisa Unterberg Tanja KlepackiThis book is based on the topics, questions and results of the international conference "Aesthetics of Transformation - Arts Education Research and the Challenge of Cultural Sustainability". It aims to foster and sharpen the understanding of the potential role of arts education and arts education research for cultural sustainability. In an ever more complex and interconnected world, culture is a valuable resource for sustainable development. Based on the thesis that the change towards sustainability has to be a change that starts with cultural practices of perception and knowledge, this book makes an important contribution to the broad discourse on cultural sustainability, which has begun to emerge in recent years.In this context, the volume first deals with Intangible Cultural Heritage and how aesthetic practices and certain forms of art are changing through cultural transformation processes. Subsequently, it focuses on issues such as arts and cultural education in times of neoliberalism, (post-)migration and post-coloniality as well as on arts and cultural education under conditions of digital transformation. These theoretical and empirical contributions are complemented by insights into field trips to institutions and exemplary places of practice, showing different representations of educational art practices, cultural heritage, and cultural sustainability. Against this background the book finally offers responses and commentaries that can form the starting point for a far reaching interactive dialogical process on the utmost importance of cultural, aesthetic and arts education as part of a global endeavor for sustainable development.
Principle of Interest Politics: Logic of Political Life from China’s Perspective (Interests Politics Series)
by Puqu WangThe book aims to build a political theory of interest politics by adopting an interest-analyzing approach of Marxism to explore the dual characteristics of social interests. Based on the logical start-point, the book unveils the foundations, nature, and characteristics of social-political life such as political power and political right. Then, a systematic research is conducted from perspectives of political behavior, political system, and political culture, following the two logical thread lines as political power and right. Finally, the book sees the analysis of social and political development in accordance with the inter-function of political power and political rights caused by the changes and development of social interests. It is a must-read book for readers interested in the political theory and political development in China.
Motherland: Soviet Nostalgia in the Russian Federation
by Charles J. SullivanThis book explores the extent to which and the reasons why Russia’s citizens harbor feelings of nostalgia for the Soviet Union today. Based on the results of a nationwide survey and rigorous field research carried out within several of Russia’s regions, Dr. Sullivan uncovers material and cultural rationales for this sentiment of nostalgia – which poses both an opportunity and a challenge to the Russian government. With Russian nationalism and revanchism a resurgent force in contemporary global affairs, this detailed study will interest scholars of international relations and of populist authoritarianism around the world.
Innovative Trends in International Business and Sustainable Management (Approaches to Global Sustainability, Markets, and Governance)
by Elena I. Lazareva Anton D. Murzin Baiba A. Rivza Victoria N. OstrovskayaThis book describes the current innovative tendencies characteristic of multifaceted scientific research and practical developments in the field of international business development and sustainable management. This book shows how companies are forced to change development strategies and business models, which actualizes new priorities for scientific research in the field of international business and sustainable management. Therefore, completely new subject areas of research are being formed; management guidelines are being transformed; new business development tools are being developed; the very system of academic research is changing. This book “Innovative Trends in International Business and Sustainable Management” is devoted to the discussion of these and other issues related to all major areas of international business development and sustainable management. This book systematically describes multidimensional trends, challenges, and opportunities for the development of international business and sustainable management in the context of a global pandemic. In this sense, it is unique and relevant for both scientific researchers and modern business practitioners. This book uniquely highlights new priorities of scientific and practical research in the field of international business and sustainable management that require a systematic knowledge of the ongoing transformations of trends, challenges, and opportunities for the development. Aimed at scholars and practitioners, the book provides illustrations of international best practice for conducting business beyond borders. The main goals of the book are firstly to provide opinions on current innovative approaches and technologies for solving modern problems of international business, as well as on the formation of a multi-level system of sustainable management of the socioeconomic systems’ development, secondly, to integrate research from academia, as well as practitioners in order to form priorities, approaches and models of company management in the context of globalization, strategies for the development of management systems in the context of the “new reality”, thirdly, to find the most relevant new areas of research, the results of which can be useful to companies for making management decisions, and concludes to analyze new tools for the development of international business, their capabilities, and areas of application
Brazil—Japan Cooperation: From Complementarity to Shared Value
by Nobuaki Hamaguchi Danielly RamosThis is an open access book. Relations between Brazil and Japan progressed dynamically in the 1960s and 1970s, centering on the substantial complementarity between Japan’s needing primary goods to sustain high economic growth and Brazil’s seeking non-hegemonic investment to invigorate its resource potential. Now that this complementarity has lost significance, the two countries are restructuring their relations to protect shared values of democracy, freedom, the rule of law, and the need for maintaining good relations with both China and the United States. Analyzed here is the development of this renewed bilateral relationship in multiple directions: productivity, global environment and health, migration, and triangular cooperation in third countries’ development. Facing the prospect of a declining population, Japan may become more open to international migration, but the experience with Japanese-descent Brazilian workers since the amendment of the migration control law in 1990 presents many lessons and challenges for the symbiosis of multicultural groups. Brazil, for its part, needs to address social inequality. To this end, it is fundamental to improve the quality of work.This book argues that Brazil and Japan can benefit from cooperation in managing those country-specific issues. It also discusses ways that Brazil and Japan can profit from coordinating action on global problems such as greenhouse gas reduction, mitigation of tropical diseases, healthy community building, and high-quality infrastructure for poverty reduction.
New World Order and Small Regions: The Case of South Caucasus
by Emil AvdalianiThe book provides a comprehensive understanding of the unfolding geopolitical changes in the South Caucasus in the age of increased great power competition across Eurasia. Recent research on the geopolitics of the South Caucasus focuses either on interstate relations among Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia or on each of regional actor’s (Russia, Turkey and Iran) ties with the region’s one or all three states. Little attempt has been made to see the region’s shifting geopolitical importance from a global perspective: growing US-China rivalry and shifting balance of power in Eurasia; recalibration of the US’ military and diplomatic vision in western Eurasia to adjust to the Chinese challenge. The book argues, from a theoretical point of view, that the increased competition in the region fits into the global pattern of unfolding great power competition, when military and economic calculations drive regional powers to increase their influence on immediate neighborhoods sidelining the collective West from the negotiating table and the emerging new security architecture.
Internationalizing Higher Education with National Characteristics: Similar Global Trends but Different Responses
by Min HongIn an era of globalization, internationalization of higher education (IHE) has been constructed as an almost inevitable trend and has become a common pursuit of many nations in their higher education (HE) policies. This book focuses on two nations, China and Australia, in terms of this trend. The broadest aim of this book was to find out the interactive relationships between global and national pressures in policy development by comparing the international HE policies in China and Australia. The three categories, overarching meta-policies at the macrolevel (nation), institution focused policies at the mesolevel (universities), and people focused policies at the microlevel (individuals) are documented and analyzed. Similarities and differences are identified. Similarities include promoting and deepening IHE as one important agenda in national policies at the macrolevel in the two nations, promoting transnational cooperation in the provision of HE at the mesolevel, as well as increasing international student numbers and encouraging an outflow of student learning and exchanges at the microlevel. Differences include China’s soft power initiatives and Australia’s appeal for the sustainability of international HE as a national priority in the area of IHE at the macrolevel; the focus on “World Class Universities” construction in China and strengthening the overall HE system in Australia; and different issues in relation to people mobility and brain circulation—specifically, encouraging more outflow of students and attracting more inflow of talents and international students in China, and over-reliance on international students financially in Australia. It is suggested that different responses to the global trends reflect the specificities of each nation and the ways path-dependent factors mediate global pressures. This comparison will facilitate a better understanding of how globalization has affected and been responded to in IHE policies and enable a better understanding of their path-dependent mediation through a focus on two specific sets of national policies.
The History of Public Relations in China
by Ke Xue Sherry Xueer Yu Mingyang YuThis book is the first on the history of Chinese public relations, and has been selected as one of the “40 representative books for 40 years of public relations in China” by the Public Relations Society of China. In four chapters, it systematically reviews and analyzes the trajectory and evolution of public relations in China from the very start – when the “reform and opening” policy was adopted in 1978 – to the present.The book will help both established and new scholars and practitioners in the field to understand the changing nature of public relations in China. It offers a unique perspective by placing the discussion of the development of public relations in the general context of the changes and development of China as a whole, and in relation to the changing status of public relations around the world. Accordingly, readers will not only gain a more in-depth understanding of the history of the field, but also of the political, economic, societal, cultural and scientific development of China in modern times.
Principles of Institutional and Evolutionary Political Economy: Applied to Current World Problems (Springer Texts in Business and Economics)
by Phillip Anthony O’HaraThis is the very first book to explicitly both detail the core general principles of institutional and evolutionary political economy and also apply the principles to current world problems such as the coronavirus crisis, climate change, corruption, AI-Robotics, policy-governance, money and financial instability, terrorism, AIDS-HIV and the nurturance gap. No other book has ever detailed explicitly such core principles and concepts nor ever applied them explicitly to numerous current major problems. The core general principles and concepts in this book, which are outlined and detailed include historical specificity & evolution; hegemony & uneven development; circular & cumulative causation; heterogeneous groups & agents; contradiction & creative destruction; uncertainty; innovation; and policy & governance. This book details the nature of how these principles and concepts can be used to explain current critical issues and problems throughout the world. This book includes updated chapters that have won two journal research Article of the Year Awards on climate change (one from the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy, EAEPE); as well as a Presidential address to the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE) on corruption. The structure of the book starts with two chapters on the principles of institutional and evolutionary political economy: firstly their history, and secondly a chapter on the contemporary nature of the principles and concepts. This is followed by nine chapters applying some of the core principles to current world problems such as the coronacrisis, climate change, corruption, AI-robotics, policy, money & financial instability, terrorism, HIV-AIDS and the nurturance gap. The book finishes with a conclusion, a glossary of major terms and an index. The author’s principles are well established in the literature and this book provides a detailed exposition of them and their application.
Handbook on Economics of Discrimination and Affirmative Action
by Ashwini DeshpandeThis Handbook deals with theoretical and empirical evidence on the economics of discrimination and affirmative action across the world, assessed over a variety of social identities, such as caste, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, tribal status. It also outlines methodological advances in this area, with plenty of additional references for the interested reader. It combines theoretical frameworks developed in the West with historical writings about discrimination and social justice from primarily Indian philosophers, aspects which are typically not found under one roof. It offers the reader a combination of insights into theories across a range of disciplines, as well as evidence, data –both quantitative and qualitative, in addition to the latest methodological advances in the estimation of discrimination – econometric, experimental, mixed-methods.
The Law for Energy Prosumers: The Case of the Netherlands, New Zealand and Colombia
by Daniela Aguilar AbaunzaThis book argues that law has a vital role in shaping the electricity system to enable a more active role for consumers in liberalizsed electricity industries. To do that, this book offers a unique legal perspective of the Netherlands, New Zealand and Colombia to help understand some of the current legal approaches to prosumers and therefore the legal challenges and opportunities facing. Law and regulation have the role of creating a level playing field for emerging participants, such as prosumers, to participate and compete in the market together with traditional actors, bringing not only more competition but also representing a more sustainable, environmental and democratic way to supply energy. Furthermore, law and regulation have the role of responding to innovation and creating space for technological advances to procure the changes in the industry without delay. This book examines some of the legal barriers for the raise of energy prosumers. The traditional role of the distributor when responding to increasing distributed generation in the network; prosumers unable to decide to whom they can sell their electricity to; the price of the energy or even whether to participate more actively in demand response programs. A further issue is the lack of clarity about whether small prosumers are entitled to consumer protection rights and legal challenges regarding configuration, access to the network, access to markets and strict unbundling rules for community energy projects. This book provides a clear, analytical, and informed approach to understanding the regulatory framework around energy prosumers. It will appeal to policy makers, lawyers, individuals, business entrepreneurs or communities wanting to engage in energy projects, as well as academics, researchers and students
Conserving and Managing Historical Urban Landscape: An Integrated Morphological Approach (The Urban Book Series)
by Xiaoxi Li Ye ZhangThis book focuses on urban morphology and its application to urban conservation and management. The rapid disappearance of historical urban landscapes, especially in developing countries, is largely attributed to the lack of historic awareness and broad-brush demolition and redevelopment in urban development. The book provides a new, integrated morphological approach that enables fine-grained and cross-scale examination of urban form based on both its historicity and socio-economic potential, with the aims of informing more responsive and context-specific conservation and management of historical urban landscapes. The robustness of this new approach and the feasibility of its application to urban conservation practice are tested and demonstrated by three case studies in drastically different cultural contexts, namely Ludlow, a medieval town in the UK, Chinatown in Singapore and a historic quarter in Nanjing, China. Combining historico-geographical and configurational approaches, the book also makes a significant breakthrough in terms of coordinating and synthesizing different traditions of urban morphology, which has been a key challenge to this field over the past decades. In addition, by using multi-source data, ranging from conventional cartographic maps to computer-generated and open online data, the integrated approach innovatively relates qualitative and quantitative aspects of urban form and links the qualitative and quantitative analyses of formal structure. As an interdisciplinary study merging geography, urban history, urban planning and design, this book is to be primarily used as a reference book for graduate students and scholars in various fields who are interested in urban form and urban conservation and management. In addition, it offers practitioners in urban planning and design a useful tool for managing changes in historical urban landscapes. Lastly, it contributes to developing a common platform to facilitate dialogues among various stakeholders and participants in urban conservation practice.
The Living Environmental Education: Sound Science Toward a Cleaner, Safer, and Healthier Future (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Wei-Ta Fang Arba'at Hassan Ben A. LePageThis open access book is designed and written to bridge the gap on the critical issues identified in environmental education programs in Asian countries. The world and its environments are changing rapidly, and the public may have difficulty keeping up and understanding how these changes will affect our way of life. The authors discuss various topics and case studies from an Asian perspective, but the content, messaging, and lessons learned need not be limited to Asian cultures. Each chapter provides a summary of the intensive research that has been performed on pro-environmental behaviors, the experience of people working in industry and at home, and their philosophies that guide them in their daily lives. We highlight humanity’s potential to contribute to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by understanding better the environmental psychology, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability and stewardship protection elements that contribute to responsible environmental citizenship. The content of the chapters in this book includes a discussion of the crucial issues, plans, and evaluations for sustainability theories, practices, and actions with a proposed management structure for maximizing the cultural, social, and ecological diversity of Asian experiences compared to other theories and cultures internationally. We intend that the data in this book will provide a comprehensive guide for students, professors, practitioners, and entrepreneurs of environmental education and its related disciplines using case studies that demonstrate the relationship between the social and behavioral sciences and environmental leadership and sustainability.
Changing Law and Contractual Relations under COVID-19: Reallocation of Social Risks in Asian SME Sectors (Kobe University Monograph Series in Social Science Research)
by Yuka KanekoCOVID-19 has changed not only human lives since the beginning of the year 2020, but systems of human society as well. Legal measures have been employed in every country to mandate the state’s control of human behavior in order to stop the pandemic. But the mode of legal control has differed by country, showing different results in terms of constraining the spread of infection. While the behavioral restrictions continue, the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic have been causing another catastrophe, particularly in the most vulnerable sectors of each society. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are typical representatives of such vulnerable groups, compelled to assume the economic burdens of the pandemic that have been shifted from the larger economic actors that hold the advantage in contractual negotiations. Statistical data on infection status have revealed a great gap between countries, such as European nations reaching the level of several thousand deaths per one hundred thousand population, while most Asian countries have maintained a level of one or two digits. Even though COVID-19 affects the whole world, the redistribution of risks in the pandemic is a goal to be pursued in the socio-cultural context of each society. This book explores the law and social changes in Asian countries under the impact of COVID-19, with a particular focus on the social relations surrounding the SMEs. These form the center of contractual relations between various socio-economic actors and at the same time, are a direct counterpart of the governmental SME policies, peculiar to Asian interventionist governments. A comparative approach is taken, using the results of interview surveys based on structured questions conducted via research collaboration between the contributors from Japan as well as other Asian countries. A comparative analysis of the risk redistribution in the pandemic between countries that share similar preconditions is still possible and meaningful. The authors of this book hold the view that Asian countries have sufficient bases for international comparison, particularly on the risk reallocation in the SME sector, given the relatively well-controlled level of infection, presumably due to the similarity of cooperative social culture. Another basis for comparison is the similarity of the laws surrounding the business operation of SMEs since normal times, which makes it feasible to compare the difference in the pandemic. What risks should be reallocated between whom, and how?
Maritime Security of the Arab Gulf States: Analysis of Current Threats, Confrontation Mechanisms, and Future Challenges
by Ashraf Mohammed KeshkThis book outlines the state of play in maritime security in the Gulf and provides a historical perspective to current issues while also surveying different mechanisms for Gulf maritime security, both at the collective and individual state levels.The book addresses a number of questions related to maritime security in the Gulf States, such as what are the main threats facing maritime security? Do the Arab Gulf States have the necessary naval capabilities to confront these maritime security threats? What are the efforts that the Arab Gulf States have made in order to maintain their maritime security? What are the regional frameworks through which the Arab Gulf States can address maritime security threats? And what are the obstacles hindering the Arab Gulf States’ efforts to maintain maritime security?This book would be a valuable read for Gulf Cooperation Council States, the ministries of defense in the Arabian Gulf countries, security institutions, the Arabian Gulf countries’ military academies, thinks tanks and universities in the six Gulf States, Western think thanks concerned with the Arabian Gulf region, and scholars specializing in Arabian Gulf countries.