The third edition of this popular textbook offers a comprehensive and authoritative introduction to the key questions that will confront anyone interested in world politics for decades to come. This text is a collation of topical chapters, each authored by experts in their own field and written in a clear and balanced manner. The issues which endure, as well as new and unexpected issues, are all covered within this text, with cross-referencing between chapters and to external work. New chapters cover the major developments of this era, including the impact of the financial crisis, climate change, the refugee crisis, the rise of China and Russia. Beeson and Bisely hone this text with their careful editorship. They place this text within the context of the key questions that arise from these issues: to what extent can policy makers cope with fundamental changes to politics, what will the impact of non-state actors be, what can we predict about future world politics, to name a few. This makes the text indispensable to students wishing to understanding contemporary world politics. Being wide-ranging and completely up-to-date, this is the ideal companion for both undergraduates and postgraduate students of internationals relations and politics. The text has been written in a clear and approachable manner to make it accessible to students unfamiliar with the topic.

Objective, critical, optimistic, and with a global focus, this textbook combines international relations theory, history, up-to-date research, and current affairs to give the student a comprehensive, unbiased understanding of international politics. It integrates theory and traditional approaches with globalization and research on newer topics such as terrorism, the rise of new economic superpowers, and the impact of global communications and social networking to offer the ideal breadth and depth of coverage for a one-semester undergraduate course. Student learning is supported and enhanced by box features and "Close Up" sections with context and further information, "Critical Case Studies" that highlight controversial and complex current affairs topics and show how the world works in practice, and questions to stimulate discussion, review key concepts, and encourage further study. It brilliantly demonstrates the significance and interconnectiveness of globalization and new security challenges in the 21st century and illuminates the role of leadership in transnational crises.

Understanding of the theories that underpin international political economy (IPE), and their practical applications, is crucial to the study of international relations, politics, development and economics. This is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with an engaging and coherent foundation to the subject. It considers traditional and alternative approaches to IPE, and in doing so elucidates key concepts, assumptions and the intellectual and historical context in which they arose and developed. At all times, it makes clear their relevance to issues from trade, finance and government, to environment, technology, health, labour, security, migration, development and culture. The book encourages independent reflection and critical thinking through a range of in-text guiding features. In addition, each chapter presents theoretical analysis alongside contemporary issues, helping the reader to relate to the real world of IPE and to better understand how theory helps inform interpretation of it. New to this edition: comprehensively updated to include key coverage of the post-2015 framework of the Sustainable Development Goals, the financial crisis and international government responses - successful or otherwise - to recent challenges; fully updated data, reflective questions, recommended readings, concept and example boxes, and illustrations; new chapters on health, migration and labour; additional coverage of trade theories and key contemporary issues, such as national versus human security, economic versus human development and illegal networks in global trade.

From the war on terror to the global financial crisis, traditional concepts of world politics are being challenged on a daily basis. In these uncertain times, the study of international relations and the forces that shape them have never been more important. Written specifically for students who are approaching this subject for the first time, World Politics is the most accessible, coherent and up-to-date account of the field available. It covers the historical backdrop to today’s political situations, the complex interactions of states and non-state actors, the role of political economy, human security in all its forms, and the ways in which culture, religion and identity influence events. World Politics takes a new approach that challenges traditional interpretations, and will equip students with the knowledge and the confidence needed to tackle the big issues.

Identifies the major weaknesses in the current United Nations system and proposes fundamental reforms to address each. This title is also available as Open Access.

The main objective of this book is to analyse some of the major challenges of the world during the twenty-first century from a multidisciplinary perspective. Global problems do not always have a unique approach, and the study of these problems requires a research effort based on a rigorous and understandable methodology. From this idea, the works contained in each chapter demonstrate the existence of significant links between economics, politics and governance. This book is divided based on these three subjects. One part of the book contains a study of the global economic situation and its existing inequalities. From there, some challenges related to matters such as entrepreneurship and financial literacy will be addressed. On the other hand, political inequality and democratic shortcomings -- along with the international geopolitical reality -- are the common thread that tie together other chapters of the book. Both a national perspective and regional cross comparison are present within this book. Finally, different analyses related to governance complete the third block of this catalog. In this regard, the important influence that the economy and functioning policies have on the governance of states and decision making processes is noted.

Praised for achieving significant breadth and depth of coverage of all the key themes of IR, this introduction is also full of a range of features and techniques – including a wide range of contemporary case studies and reflection boxes - to help students become adept at the subject quickly and easily