Introduction 1. States and quasi-states 2. A new sovereignty regime 3. Sovereignty regimes in history 4. Independence by right 5. Sovereignty and development 6. Sovereign rights versus development 7. Quasi-states and international history Conclusion.
By tracing the historical activities of the Japan-China Society of Architecture and Building Technology (JCSABT, 1973–2003), which was established in Japan in 1973, this study firstly provides an overview of the friendly exchange groups visiting China from Japan over a 30-year period. Drawing upon a systematic review of Nichi-Chu Kenchiku [Japan – China Architecture], the official journal of JCSABT, this study delineates the evolving professional concerns and focal themes of Japanese architects engaged in China. The focus gradually shifted from early concerns with the construction of socialist China to an interest in cultural heritage, particularly Chinese vernacular architecture, and later to friendly visits and international exchanges. These shifts reflect the dynamic interplay between political context, architectural evolution, and cultural exchange. The study concludes that beneath the surface of “friendly diplomacy,” China and Japan each pursued distinct agendas. China seeks to learn advanced techniques from Japan, while Japan, faced with pressing issues such as widening urban-rural disparities and environmental crises, endeavours to learn from China’s urban and rural development models. Above all,“architectural diplomacy” played a crucial role in fostering Sino – Japanese friendship. The interplay among state power, architecture, and socioeconomic forces collectively contributed to strengthening bilateral relations in Cold War era.
In recent years, Arctic states have accelerated investment in the design and construction of icebreakers. Following delays in U.S. icebreaking programs, construction of the first new American icebreaker in 30 years began in 2025, and sea trials of the Stotiz, which joined the U.S. Coast Guard last year, were conducted. Russia continues to expand its capabilities through the ongoing development of Project 22220 and Project Leader. This article examines the underlying motivations driving states to strengthen their icebreaking fleets. The study is particularly relevant given the strategic role icebreakers play in supporting Arctic energy projects and asserting influence in the region. Special attention is given to comparing the approaches of Russia and the United States. The findings suggest differing motivations: Russia emphasizes economic development and the integration of its northern territories, while the U.S. views icebreakers primarily as tools of geopolitical influence in military, political, and legal domains. The article argues that icebreaker development and NATO cooperation in this sphere are closely tied to the evolving geopolitical landscape, highlighting the need to assess the true objectives behind Arctic policy statements.
Guilherme N. Fasolin, Matias Spektor, Renan Marques
et al.
Abstract Climate change risk perceptions are subjective constructs that individuals use to interpret the potential harms of climate change and influence their engagement in mitigation and adaptation efforts. While research in high-income Western countries has identified cognitive processes, socio-cultural factors, and political ideology as key predictors of climate risk perceptions, their applicability to low- and middle-income regions remains uncertain. This study uses a cross-national survey conducted in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico (N = 5338) to assess climate risk perceptions in Latin America. We show that emotional responses, especially worry and perceived vulnerability to extreme weather, are the strongest predictors. In contrast, political ideology and socio-demographic factors exhibit weak and inconsistent associations, diverging from patterns observed in high-income countries. These findings highlight that climate change is not perceived as a politically divisive issue in the region, suggesting opportunities for cross-party collaboration on climate initiatives. Understanding these unique drivers in regions with emerging economies is crucial for developing effective, tailored risk communication strategies.
Corey Ford, Elizabeth Wilson, Shuoyang Zheng
et al.
This third international workshop on explainable AI for the Arts (XAIxArts) brought together a community of researchers in HCI, Interaction Design, AI, explainable AI (XAI), and digital arts to explore the role of XAI for the Arts. Workshop held at the 17th ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (C&C 2025), online.
Reviving the old proposal of describing gravity as a gauge theory first we describe the construction of the Conformal and the Noncommutative (Fuzzy) Gravities in a gauge-theoretic manner. Then stressing the fact that the tangent group of a curved manifold and the manifold itself do not necessarily have the same dimensions, we show how the above Gravities can be unified with the Internal Interactions, the latter based on the GUT $SO(10)$.
It is noteworthy that as the Russia-Ukraine war enters its third year, China still maintains a firm position consistent with that of the previous year, endeavouring to promote peace talks and ceasefires. This paper employs the content analysis of 97 academic papers on the Ukraine Crisis in Chinese core journals (CSSCI) from February 22, 2022, to February 22, 2024. The research results suggest that Chinese scholars offer a multidimensional analysis of the development of the Russia-Ukraine war. The paper concludes through content analysis and comparison that Chinese scholars share the same stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict as Chinese officials. First, Chinese scholars call for promoting the transformation of the global energy system, accelerating the development and use of new energy sources, and promoting the development of innovative capabilities to cope with the multiple crises caused by economic sanctions. Second, the Russia-Ukraine war has exacerbated multiple global security crises and traditional and non-traditional security issues, severely affected the global security system, and created a new security dilemma. Third, scholars advocate the concept of “a community with a shared future for mankind” and build a post-Russia-Ukraine war world security pattern.
International relations, Political science (General)
The dangers associated with the entanglement of nuclear and conventional forces have become an area of increasing concern. In this article, I survey the growing nuclear-conventional entanglement risks in Northeast Asia as well as the ways in which entanglement is driving a new era of nuclear arms racing in response. In order to better manage the risks of nuclear crises occurring, I outline the need for a greater emphasis on assurance policies to match the current focus on making deterrent threats. Given the high chance of such crisis nevertheless occurring in Northeast Asia in the years ahead, I make the case for developing what I call “crisis management interoperability” between allies armed with nuclear and strategic non-nuclear weapons. Such interoperability is aimed at ensuring that the difficult task of crisis signalling is not further complicated by alliances with entangled nuclear and conventional forces.
Nuclear engineering. Atomic power, International relations
In 2021, Ukraine produced such an amount of food that it would have been possible to feed about 400 million people, not counting the population of Ukraine. The strategy for the development of the agricultural sector of Ukraine envisages providing food for 1 billion of the world’s population by 2030. However, the aggression of Russia on February 24, 2022, and the subsequent hostilities led to the contamination of agricultural lands with a significant amount of Explosive Remnants of War (ERW), which requires humanitarian demining. This article is devoted to the review of the humanitarian demining process from the point of view of its impact on the environment and the determination of the main components affecting the production of agricultural products. In the first period of the demining process, there will be a significant decline in the production of agricultural products. This decline will be determined by the reduction in the area of cultivated agricultural land due to the danger of explosion. In the course of the demining and liquidation of ERW, the area of land will increase, as will the volume of production, but the quality of products will decrease due to the presence of heavy metal compounds and explosive residues in it and the deterioration of the quality of the soil itself. Therefore, after the liberation of Ukraine’s territory, contaminated by mines and ERW, taking into account its importance as the world’s granary, the demining time is of great importance and Ukraine will be very grateful for any help that will reduce it.
The present paper presents some of the latest Romanian legal provisions to support the European Green Deal objectives and the adoption of the "Fit for 55" package. Our paper presents some of the latest Romanian legislative initiatives and programs as part of the joint European effort to make Europe the first green continent. Thus, we briefly discuss The National Integrated Energy and Climate Change Plan 2021-2030, Emergency Ordinance 71/2021 on the promotion of non-polluting road transport vehicles, in support of low-emission mobility, Rabla Plus Program 2024, Emergency Ordinance 108/2022 regarding the decarbonisation of the energy sector, the proposed National Hydrogen Strategy and presents the modifications to the Law 220/ 2008.
Nick Bryan-Kinns, Corey Ford, Shuoyang Zheng
et al.
This second international workshop on explainable AI for the Arts (XAIxArts) brought together a community of researchers in HCI, Interaction Design, AI, explainable AI (XAI), and digital arts to explore the role of XAI for the Arts. Workshop held at the 16th ACM Conference on Creativity and Cognition (C&C 2024), Chicago, USA.
We report on status and perspectives of the International Lattice Data Grid. ILDG was established some twenty years ago as a community-wide initiative to enable the sharing of gauge configurations generated by many major lattice collaborations. After a phase in which availability and usage of services had degraded, an effort to modernize and reactivate ILDG 2.0 has been started. The initiative has made important progress and we can look forward to larger and fully FAIR data sets becoming available to a wider audience.
This article examines the linkage of markets and democracy in the post-1989 Czech transition as a neoliberal populist discourse that delegitimized alternatives to the market as a return to authoritarianism. Using Laclau’s concept of equivalential linkages, I analyze Václav Klaus’
texts surrounding the voucher privatization program to determine how he formulated this linkage and communicated it to the public. Framing
markets as natural, essential, and fundamentally Czech, Klaus constructed the people as a virtuous community of market individuals while othering
those who opposed markets as communist holdouts and, elitists. Klaus further legitimized marketization through identification with international
neoliberal projects and thinkers. Through his moralized and dichotomized discourse, Klaus communicated to the public that there could be no freedom
without markets, nor markets without freedom: a circular formulation that continues to influence Central and Eastern European political economy.
If international relations can be theorised as ‘inter-textual’, then why not also – or indeed better – as ‘inter-carbonic’? For, not only is the modern history of carbon to a large degree international; in addition, many of the key historical junctures and defining features of modern international politics are grounded in carbon or, more precisely, in the various socio-ecological practices and processes through which carbon has been exploited and deposited, mobilised and represented, recycled and transformed. In what follows I seek to make this case, arguing that carbon and international relations have been mutually constitutive ever since the dawn of modernity in 1492, and that they will inevitably remain so well into the future, as the global economy’s dependence on fossil carbon continues unabated and the planet inexorably warms. Will climate change generate widespread conflict, or even civilisational collapse? How are contemporary power dynamics limiting responses to climate change? And how, conversely, might 21st-century world order be transformed by processes of decarbonisation? Building on research in political ecology, I argue that a dialectical sensitivity to ‘inter-carbonic relations’ is required to properly answer these questions. Scholars and students of International Relations (IR), I suggest, need to approach climate change by positioning the element C at the very centre of their analyses.