Swedish Copper, Spanish Hulls: Hans Jacob Gahn, a Global Arms Race, and Consuls’ Economic Impact (1780–1784)

In Asia, the arms race began with the emergence of modern nation-states. Their new ruling elites adopted the concepts of ‘national security’ and ‘national interests’ and proceeded to build up their armed forces to meet mythical permanent threats, to the neglect of real threats to Asian societies such as hunger, natural calamities and cultural decay. With the great powers themselves engaged in a global arms race, taking advantage of the Asian elites' preoccupation with ‘national security’, the race in Asia has become a part of the global arms race with China as the latest - but somewhat restrained - entrant. The paper, however, notes a reverse historical trend under way: the European nation-state model being increasingly found unworkable in Asia (leading to a search for structures suitable to the complex Asian societies) and Asian states trying to opt out of global rivalries. This favourable trend, which promises to wind down the arms race in Asia, must, the paper concludes, be actively pushed forward by concerned citizens of Asian countries who form the Third System in Asia.

AI could kickstart a new global arms race – we need better ways to govern it before it’s too late

This short article introduces our Special Issue on ‘Anticipating the Future of War: AI, Automated Systems, and Resort-to-Force Decision Making'. We begin by stepping back and briefly commenting on the current military AI landscape. We then turn to the hitherto largely neglected prospect of AI-driven systems influencing state-level decision making on the resort to force. Although such systems already have a limited and indirect impact on decisions to initiate war, we contend that they will increasingly influence such deliberations in more direct ways – either in the context of automated self-defence or through decision-support systems that inform human deliberations. Citing the steady proliferation of AI-enabled systems in other realms of decision making, combined with the perceived need to match the capabilities of potential adversaries in what has aptly been described as an AI ‘global arms race', we argue that this development is inevitable, will likely occur in the near future, and promises to be highly consequential. After surveying four thematic ‘complications’ that we associate with this anticipated development, we preview the twelve diverse, multidisciplinary, and often provocative articles that constitute this Special Issue. Each engages with one of our four complications and addresses a significant risk or benefit of AI-driven technologies infiltrating the decision to wage war.

This paper offers a new theoretical approach for comparing the current political-economic U-turns in South Africa and Israel. Our principal focus is on a revised notion of capital, emphasizing the central role of differential accumulation by dominant capital groups. We further distinguish between an antagonistic "depth" regime in which differential accumulation is achieved via stagflation, and a less conflictual "breadth" regime where redistribution occurs through growth. Within this framework, we argue that both the recent transition in the two countries, as well as their former regimes, were greatly affected by global developments. Until the 1980s, accumulation in both countries depended largely on depth, characterized by a marked disparity between deepening crisis on the one hand, and rapid differential accumulation on the other. In South Africa, the large companies benefited disproportionately from the impact on gold profit of global inflation, and were therefore reluctant to abandon apartheid. Similarly, Israel's leading firms recorded spectacular gains riding the global arms race and regional conflict, and hence voiced little opposition to the continuation of a war economy at home. Recently, however, these global forces went into reverse, triggering in both countries a shift from depth to breadth. The disinflation associated with rapid globalization undermined gold profit in South Africa, while the end of the Cold War pulled the rug from under the global arms race, drying up the flow of war profit in Israel. In these new conditions, dominant capital groups in the two countries can sustain their differential accumulation only by investing outside their own borders. Capital mobility, though, requires political-economic stability, hence the support of these groups for democracy in South Africa and to regional reconciliation in Israel.

ABSTRACTExisting literature on the global arms race of elite sport policy suggests that homogenisation and standardisation dominate the international scene. In the present article, we challenge this thesis as we delineate Norwegian Sports Federations’ organisational culture and how it works within the elite system to produce international achievements. Leaning theoretically on cultural sociology and organisation culture, we interviewed nine sport directors regarding the liaison between the federation and the national team. We identified two attributes that characterise the work of the sport directors and influenced the culture: dedication to the job, encompassing sacrifices and a sense of privilege, and closeness to the sport, the external support, as well as the coaches, athletes and support staff. In the findings, we elaborate on three key qualities of the culture. First, development orientation in everything, including how results are viewed as a by-product arising from following a process, their focus and commitment on plans, topped with practices of reflection and learning. A hard-working team environment and egalitarian structures enact this development orientation. The hard-working team environment includes clear and complementary roles, competent personnel and support for each other’s work. The egalitarian structure leans on shared values and absence of hierarchy that makes open dialoguing possible. Most likely, through dialogues team members challenge each other and existing knowledge and practices to reach the desired development. In the light of these findings, we discuss how Norway’s organisational culture appears to put its signature in the global arms race by blending the elite sport demands with the egalitarian national culture.

Going global: differential accumulation and the great U-turn in South Africa and Israel

This research aims to gauge the economic impact of the measures set out in the Strategic Infrastructure and Transport Plan, 2005–2020, as implemented by the Spanish government, on regional development. Contributing to regional development, this plan extends high capacity road networks and high performance rail networks in Spain between 2005 and 2020. To evaluate the plan, this research relies on an innovative technique based on panel data and accessibility indicators, which can quantify the plan's economic impact on regional development. Findings from the study provide a valuable tool for economic, geographic, and territorial assessments of policies implemented in the field of transport and infrastructure, whilst also pointing to guidelines for the design and development of further proposals and actions.

ABSTRACTWhile I was reading Joseph Masco's disturbing book The Future of Fallout, news media reported that China had successfully tested a hypersonic missile, a military technology so advanced it could bypass the US missile defense system. This, many nervous commentators noted, put China ahead of the US in the global arms race, justifying further urgent military investments to catch‐ up. Masco's book is a damning appraisal of such mobilizations of existential threat from the outside and the ways they conceptually underpin the US industrial‐military complex. After World War II fantasies of imminent threat have taken different forms—from the scenarios of nuclear war in the Cold War to those mobilized since 2001 in the so‐called War on Terror. The Future of Fallout examines how these forms of endangerment have seamlessly worked together to colonize American everyday life at the psycho‐social and affective level, while diverting attention from actual forms of planetary violence that the petrochemical industry and the military complex commit.

The launch of special military operations and a new round of Russia-Ukraine conflict are essentially the outbreak of decades of grievances between Russia and the United States over the issue of NATO's eastward expansion. After the end of the Cold War in the 1990s, the United States entered the "unilateral era" and continued to promote NATO's eastward expansion and strategically squeezed Russia, causing Russia's insecurity to continue to rise. At the same time, this Russia-Ukraine conflict also occurred against the backdrop of the United States’ comprehensive advancement of strategic competition with China. By hyping up the joint statement issued by China and Russia in February 2022 and spreading rumors about China's advance knowledge of its actions against Russia, the United States is trying to direct international pressure on China. Although China is not a party to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the deep-seated impact of the conflict on the global political, economic, and security landscape has gradually spread to China-US relations, and several sets of "big triangle" relationships involving China, such as China-US-Russia, China-US-Europe, and other groups of China-US-EU, are also facing profound adjustments. Globalization and regional security have been further frustrated by geopolitical conflicts, the "economic war" and "political war" between major powers have been deepened, the status of the United Nations has been declining day by day, and the global arms race has suddenly intensified. Based on the Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT), this paper comprehensively analyzes the regional and global impacts of special military operations, geo-security contradictions, and the conflict of interests between the two most important world powers, China and the United States. The Russia-Ukraine conflict will continue to affect the adjustment of strategic interests among major powers, and the prospects of China-Russia cooperation and the Asia-Pacific region will determine the direction of the evolution of the future world pattern.

For most of the twentieth century, the most critical concerns of national security have been balance-of-power politics and the global arms race. The religious conflicts of this era and the motives behind them, however, demand a radical break with this tradition. Such situations call for a long-term strategy of cultural engagement and an understanding of how others view the world. In non-Western cultures, religion is a primary motivation for political actions. Historically dismissed by Western policymakers as a divisive influence, religion has significant potential for overcoming the obstacles and conflict. This book looks at five intractable conflicts and explores the possibility of drawing on religion as a force for peace. It builds upon the insights of Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (OUP, 1994) — which examined the role that religious or spiritual factors can play in preventing or resolving conflict — while achieving social change based on justice and reconciliation.

The editor shares his views on the creation of an Antarctic-type treaty for the Canadian Arctic Islands with reasonable and shared access for everyone. "By offering Canadian arctic islands and associated waters as a demilitarized international park, say under the control of the United Nations, the Canadian nation would be seen to be taking an enormous step forward on the world scene by dissociating itself from the global arms race and by showing an enlightened and determined leadership never before contemplated in northern latitudes."

The United States are trying to prevent China from gaining more influence through its monetary and trade policy. While his predecessor in the White House, Barack Obama, “pivoted to Asia” trying to contain China with his Transpacific Partnership Initiative (TPP) in cooperation with American allies, Donald Trump bases his strategy on the strength of his military and his nationalistic economic policy. He is ready to confront China, which would also affect America’s friends. Yet allies may buy the goodwill and the protection of the USA, if they pay tribute in terms of bilateral trade, especially if they invest in American weaponry. The geo-economics of the United States is the major driver of a new global arms race that is increasingly being waged in Asia and the Pacific region. Partners of the United States in Asia and the Pacific are being upgraded with new security arrangements and arms deliveries against a possible aggression from China.

Turkey, sharing borders with Iraq and Iran, is becoming increasingly involved with the US and Israel, its post-Cold War strategic partners, in the Middle Eastern TMD project. Turkey's regional security concerns, and dependency on the US - which is partly caused by Turkey's exclusion from the European integration - provides the leverage for American pressure on Turkey to participate in the NMD program. The silence of the Turkish political elite on NMD is an indication of the depth of Turkey's dilemma in choosing between its global level concerns that the NMD would spark a new global arms race and polarization, or its regional level security perceptions and calculations. Thus, it seems that the Turkish position is biased towards obtaining a missile defense system for regional purposes. The issue of NMD, and the NATO TMD project adds also a new dimension to the Turkish-European security relationship, which has been fading since the end of the Cold War, and provides a new basis for cooperation.

An analysis has been conducted on the current geostrategic situation of the ‎Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The internal, regional, and international situation of ‎Pakistan, the only nuclear-armed state of Islamic world, has been analyzed. Against the ‎backdrop of territorial disputes between regional states, the main elements threatening ‎Pakistan's national security have been discussed. The impact of the ongoing global ‎power struggles on Pakistan has been analyzed. The interests of major powers within the ‎context of Pakistan have been highlighted. A brief analysis of the challenges and ‎opportunities Pakistan faces due to its geostrategic position has been conducted. From a ‎military perspective, it has been demonstrated how critical the territorial factor is for ‎Pakistan in a potential conventional war with India. A brief analysis of Pakistan's defense ‎strategy and military power has been provided. The key outlines of Pakistan's nuclear ‎doctrine have been shown. Attention has been drawn to the dangerous nature of the ‎‎"Hindutva" ideology of the current Indian government, which is attempting to create ‎hegemony in the region. The analysis also includes India’s rapid economic growth and its ‎increasing military spending, which has placed it among the top in the global arms race.‎

IntroductionThe economic burden of herpes zoster (HZ), including its most common complication, postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), and its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL) is not well described in Spain. The aim of this study was to estimate HZ-related healthcare costs and impact on HRQL in Spanish adults aged 50 years or older.MethodsA prospective, observational study was performed with patients with HZ recruited through four general practitioner networks in Spain (NCT01521286). HRQL data were collected using the EuroQoL-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire; HZ-related pain and associated interference with activities of daily living (ADL) were assessed using the Zoster Brief Pain Inventory (ZBPI) questionnaire at days 0 (HZ rash onset), 15, 30, 60, and 90; patients with PHN were assessed up until day 270. Medical resource utilization was recorded throughout study follow-up. Work loss for patients/caregivers was also assessed. Costs were calculated from both the payer and societal perspectives.ResultsA total of 545 patients with Hz were included, of whom 25 developed PHN. During days 0–30 post HZ diagnosis, the mean EQ-5D utility score was 0.738, equating to a utility loss of 0.138. Sleep was the ADL most affected component. The mean costs for HZ in the overall cohort were €240 and €296 from the payer/societal perspective, respectively; €187/€242 for patients with HZ without any HZ-related complications; and €571/€712 for patients who developed PHN. The majority of costs were incurred during days 0–30.ConclusionsIn Spain, HZ and HZ-related complications such as PHN reduce patient HRQL and increase the economic burden for both payers and society in general.Trail RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT01521286.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12325-021-01717-7.