Why are policymakers, scholars, and the general public so surprised when the world turns out to be unpredictable? World Politics at the Edge of Chaos suggests that the study of international politics needs new forms of knowledge to respond to emerging challenges such as the interconnectedness between local and transnational realities; between markets, migration, and social movements; and between pandemics, a looming energy crisis, and climate change. Asserting that Complexity Thinking (CT) provides a much-needed lens for interpreting these challenges, the contributors offer a parallel assessment of the impact of CT to anthropocentric and non-anthropocentric (post-human) International Relations. Using this perspective, the result should be less surprise when confronting the dynamism of a fragile and unpredictable global life. This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to Knowledge Unlatched—an initiative that provides libraries and institutions with a centralized platform to support OA collections and from leading publishing houses and OA initiatives. Learn more at the Knowledge Unlatched website at: https://www.knowledgeunlatched.org/, and access the book online at the SUNY Open Access Repository at http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/7129.

A World in Chaos: Social Crisis and the Rise of Postmodern Cinema traces the evolution of postmodern cinema through its multiple and overlapping expressions. Through an analysis of films such as American Beauty, Blade Runner, Natural Born Killers, and Thelma and Loiuse, Carl Boggs and Thomas Pollard explore the historical and theoretical shift from the long era of modernity to an emergent postmodernity and examine its intersection with film culture. Unlike most works on media studies, Boggs and Pollard bring together elements of sociology, history, economics, literature, communications, and pop culture to fully explore the complex developmental interaction between film and society. The resulting work illuminates the different, often conflicted and contradictory, currents at work in the film industry that long ago departed from the ritualized practices of the classical studio system. Engagingly and clearly written, A World in Chaos is perfect for film and pop culture enthusiasts as well as everyone interested in the role of film in American society.

War looms over Sanctuary in the fifth Thieves’ World® anthology compiled by the New York Times–bestselling author of the Phule’s Company series. The invasion by the Beysibs, an amphibious humanoid race, brings unusual prosperity to the city of Sanctuary. But underneath the glittering façade lies a ticking time bomb, for the nefarious residents of Sanctuary don’t take kindly to an invasion—well-meaning or otherwise . . . Join Janet Morris, C. J. Cherryh, Robert Lynn Asprin, Lynn Abbey, David Drake, and Diana L. Paxson as their stories unravel the fates of Sanctuary’s favorite liars, thieves, assassins, and warriors. “Abbey . . . understands Sanctuary and its characters. She also knows how to write a short story with a strong main character, a riveting plot that contains twists and turns, and a satisfying resolution. Best story in the book . . . Lalo is the most interesting of all of the characters in Thieves’ World and his stories are always interesting. Paxson . . . spins an interesting and well written yarn that closes the book nicely.” —brianbookreviews.blogspot.com

All over the world people look forward to a perfect future, when the forces of good will be finally victorious over the forces of evil. Once this was a radically new way of imagining the destiny of the world and of mankind. How did it originate, and what kind of world-view preceded it? In this engrossing book, the author of the classic work The Pursuit of the Millennium takes us on a journey of exploration, through the world-views of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India, through the innovations of Iranian and Jewish prophets and sages, to the earliest Christian imaginings of heaven on earth. Until around 1500 B.C., it was generally believed that once the world had been set in order by the gods, it was in essence immutable. However, it was always a troubled world. By means of flood and drought, famine and plague, defeat in war, and death itself, demonic forces threatened and impaired it. Various combat myths told how a divine warrior kept the forces of chaos at bay and enabled the world to survive. Sometime between 1500 and 1200 B.C., the Iranian prophet Zoroaster broke from that static yet anxious world-view, reinterpreting the Iranian version of the combat myth. For Zoroaster, the world was moving, through incessant conflict, toward a conflictless state--"cosmos without chaos." The time would come when, in a prodigious battle, the supreme god would utterly defeat the forces of chaos and their human allies and eliminate them forever, and so bring an absolutely good world into being. Cohn reveals how this vision of the future was taken over by certain Jewish groups, notably the Jesus sect, with incalculable consequences. Deeply informed yet highly readable, this magisterial book illumines a major turning-point in the history of human consciousness. It will be mandatory reading for all who appreciated The Pursuit of the Millennium.

In this dramatic short story -- a prequel to the award-winning Chaos Walking Trilogy -- author Patrick Ness gives us the story of Viola's journey to the New World. Whether you're new to Chaos Walking or an established fan, this prequel serves as a fascinating introduction to the series that Publishers Weekly called one of the most important works of young adult science fiction in recent years.

Adopting an historical approach, explores four controversies facing global analyses today: the geography of world power, the power of states versus the power of capital, the social power of subordinate groups, and the changing balance of civilizational power.

The world is divided by dangerous and shifting faultlines the global order is suffering a period of dislocation. Since the onset of the 21st century, the world is embroiled into a war with itself. The democracy is receding in the era of rising populism, and nonagenarian like Kissinger are hearing the drums of the Third World War. Donald Trump, in his four years presidency, shook the foundations of the United States of America and leaving the White House in tatters in January 2021. President Erdogan is pampering the ambition of restoration of the Ottoman empire while reigning in the Kemalist forces. Muhammad Bin Salman is riding his ruthless aspirations to lead Arabs against the Iranian regime. President Xi Jinping’s China struts the global stage with newfound confidence and economic prowess. Pakistan is finding itself again between a rock and a hard place with instability at its heart and a saphronised India on its doorsteps. Worst of all, the conflict-ridden world is threatened by a pandemic that has caused an economic bloodbath from Wall Street to Tokyo with millions of lives lost and billions at risk to fall prey to a virus that is changing faster than its cure. T H Hassan analyses a grandly messed up world and proposes solutions to resolve the undergoing crises and conflicts. T M Hassan analyses the world at conflict while drawing upon the ancient enmities and imminent collisions that define the struggle for power and control in the twenty-first century. Region by region, it delayers the causes, contexts, actors and likely outcomes of globally significant violent struggle now underway. This book is an imperative read to make sense of the fractured and perilous world around us and find an exit from the ongoing chaos.