"Smart cities" use surveillance, big data processing and interactive technologies to reshape urban life. Transit riders can see the bus coming on a map on their phones. Cities can measure and analyze the garbage collected from every household. Businesses can track individuals' movements and precisely target advertisements. Google's failed Sidewalk Labs proposal in Toronto, which drew sharp criticism over surveillance and privacy concerns, is just one of the many smart city projects which have been proposed or are underway in Canada. Iqaluit, Edmonton, Guelph, Montreal, Toronto and other cities and towns are all grappling with how to use these technologies. Some cities have quickly partnered with digital giants like Uber, Bell and IBM. Others have kept their distance. Big tech companies are hard at work recruiting customers and shaping – sometimes making – public policy on data collection and privacy. Smart Cities for Canada: Promise and Perils is the first book on smart cities in Canada. In this collection, experts from across the country investigate what this new approach means for the problems cities face, and expose the larger issues about urban planning and democracy raised by smart city technology. This is a valuable, timely, independent‐minded book for Canadians.

This book explores the post-apocalyptic novel in American literature from the 1940s to the present as reflections of a growing anxiety about the decline of US hegemony. Post-apocalyptic novels imagine human responses to the aftermath of catastrophe. The shape of the future they imagine is defined by "the remainder," when what is left behind expresses itself in storytelling tropes. Since 1945 the portentous fate of the United States has shifted from the irradiated future of nuclear holocaust to the saltwater wash of global warming. Theorist Brent Ryan Bellamy illuminates the political unconscious of post-apocalyptic writing, drawing on a range of disciplinary fields, including science fiction studies, American studies, energy humanities research, and critical race theory. From George R. Stewart's Earth Abides to N.K. Jemisin'sRemainders of the American Century, Remainders of the American Century describes the tension between a reactionary impulse and the progressive impetus for a new world.

2020 marks 75 years since the end of World War II, yet even as the war slips from living memory, its legacies continue to influence current political and military thinking. This anthology will analyse these legacies for a number of countries and regions including China, Russia, the United States, the Near East, and Germany illustrating in detail how World War II is not merely a historical event, but a defining moment for current military and political thinking around the globe. This book will therefore be of interest for those interested in history, but also political and military decision makers, and followers of current political and military affairs.

T. E. Lawrence once observed that Saudi Arabia had "so little art" that it could "be said to have no art at all. " Whether that was once the case is arguable. But that it is not the case now is clear in Sean Foley's Changing Saudi Arabia.Exploring the contemporary arts movement in Saudi Arabia in the context of the kingdom's changing political realities, Foley finds that artists are expressing thoughts and feelings that the Saudi public typically has not felt safe to articulate. These artists are promoting discussions about the need for peaceful and progressive social reform—and they are doing it in ways that escape the wrath of the absolute monarchy. Without confronting the state or the political system, Foley argues, Saudi society is exercising significant agency through its cultural production.

"A notable and well-written work on a critical subject." —C. Dale Walton, Comparative StrategyThough China remains a relatively weak nuclear power, it has in recent years become central to US strategic policymaking. What explains this shift? How is the US-China strategic nuclear relationship evolving? What role do other states play in shaping it?To address these questions, the authors of US-China Nuclear Relations examine a series of strategic triangles involving China, the US, and one or more key third actors (among them, Australia, India, Iran, Japan, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan). Their work also critically highlights the challenges and opportunities facing Washington and Beijing in this increasingly complex security arena.

On 24 September 2019 the 17-year-old activist Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations Climate Action Summit saying, ‘People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction’. A day earlier, however, the climate policy foundation Climate Intelligence (CLINTEL) sent the UN their World Climate Declaration, signed by 800 prominent scientists including Nobel Laureate Professor Ivar Giaever and Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore, stating that there is no climate emergency: ‘You’re tired of alarmism and failed predictions of climate models that can’t predict the past, let alone the future. You distrust the business leaders, politicians and scientists of the climate industrial complex – you just want The Facts.’ This book contains original research and new theories of climate and will arm you with these facts. Leading scientists are contributors, including former Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA’s Marshall Space Center Dr Roy Spencer, and lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Third Assessment Report Professor Emeritus of Meteorology Richard Lindzen of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and many more.

The story of Magna Carta is the essential prologue to the story of Western democracy. It is a foundation stone in the political culture and legal system of Australia and other countries that share a common law heritage. This book combines a most readable general history of the influence of Magna Carta in the emergence of Western democracy since 1215 with beginning and concluding observations on the Great Charter’s relevance to Australia, the European settlement of which began as that of a penal colony. Magna Carta was soon, however, to provide a sound basis for the ‘British right’ to colonial self-government. This is the tale of the importance of history and culture in securing rights, and how the Great Charter is far more pivotal to our present freedom than a face-value reading of the document would allow.

“A rich set of studies..

“Meticulously researched..

Shiraishi Takashi reflects on the diplomatic challenges facing the countries of Asia in today's geopolitical order, exploring historical context, long-term trends, and current strategies. The tectonic shifts in the global order are having a particularly dramatic impact in Asia, with its combined economy now larger than that of either North America or Europe. As he explores the nature of that impact, Takashi highlights the diversity of Asia (focusing on the ASEAN countries, China, and Japan) and the national strategies that have resulted from these differences. One key question that he addresses: What accounts for the divide between the maritime states and the countries of mainland Asia? Takashi’s incisive analysis, combining a discussion of international relations with a consideration of Asia's varying political cultures, sheds light on current affairs in the vast region from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean and beyond.

The premise of this new text is straightforward: Religion matters in world politics. Therefore, to comprehend the world around us, we need to understand how and why religion matters, analyze the interaction in a systematic way, and have a framework in which to fit facts and events that we cannot yet anticipate. The goal of Religion and Politics on the World Stage is to provide the information and tools necessary to accomplish those tasks. Designed with undergraduate students in mind, the book: Explains theories, trends, assumptions, and situations in an accessible way; consistently applies an international relations framework; and presents individual, state, and global levels of analysis. The vignettes that open each chapter, depicting key aspects of the nexus between religion and world politics, quickly engage readers and serve as compelling entryways into discussions of broader issues

Frustrated by the abrogation of promises by nuclear weapons states to disarm, countries that have foregone nuclear weapons joined forces with key members of civil society in efforts that culminated in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). How did this initiative succeed—in defiance of the major powers—in changing the discourse around nuclear weapons? What roles did the various actors play, and how did the language of the treaty evolve? Answering these questions, Jean Krasno and Elisabeth Szeli provide a deeply researched account of the TPNW campaign, the negotiations, and the ongoing challenges of ratification and impementation.

As Miles Larmer writes in the foreword, Adventures in Zambian Politics is unlike any political memoir you have ever read.It is ..

“An essential introductory read..

The relationship among neo-nationalisms, populisms and racisms has long existed in the political landscape of western societies and, today, it is a key issue to understand current affairs and the popularity of racist, anti-Semite and Islamophobic positions. This book provides a lucid and accurate analysis of European and American social contexts, including United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and United States, where the socio-political debate is dominated by neo-nationalist instances.

“Offer[s] fresh perspectives..