The book critically investigates the local impact of international organizations beyond a Western rationale and aims to overcome Eurocentric patterns of analysis. Considering Asian and Western examples, the contributions originate from different disciplines and study areas and discuss a global approach, which has been a blind spot in scholarly research on international organizations until now. Using the 1930s as a historical reference, the contributions question role of international organizations during conflicts, war and crises, gaining insights into their function as peacekeeping forces in the 21st century. While chapter one discusses the historicity of international organizations and the availability of sources, the second chapter deliberates on Eurocentrism and science policy, considering the converging of newly created epistemic communities and old diplomatic elites. Chapter 3 sheds light on international organizations as platforms, expanding the field of research from the diversity of organizations to the patterns of global governance. The final chapter turns to the question of how international organizations invented and introduced new fields of action, pointing to the antithetic role of standardization, the preservation of cultural heritage and the difficulties in reaching a non-Western approach.

Maoz views the evolution of international relations over the last two centuries as a set of interacting, cooperative and conflicting networks of states. The networks that emerged are the result of national choice processes about forming or breaking ties with other states. States are constantly concerned with their security and survival in an anarchic world. Their security concerns stem from their external environment and their past conflicts. Because many of them cannot ensure their security by their own power, they need allies to balance against a hostile international environment. The alliance choices made by states define the structure of security cooperation networks and spill over into other cooperative networks, including trade and institutions. Maoz tests his theory by applying social networks analysis (SNA) methods to international relations. He offers a novel perspective as a system of interrelated networks that co-evolve and interact with one another.

This book provides the latest research findings, and discusses, from both theoretical and practical perspectives, innovative research methods and development techniques related to intelligent social networks and collaborative systems, intelligent networking systems, mobile collaborative systems and secure intelligent cloud systems. It also presents the synergies among various paradigms in such a multi-disciplinary field of intelligent collaborative systems. With the rapid development of the Internet, we are experiencing a shift from the traditional sharing of information and applications as the main purpose of the Web to an emergent paradigm, which locates people at the very centre of networks and exploits the value of individuals’ connections, relations and collaboration. Social networks are also playing a major role in the dynamics and structure of intelligent Web-based networking and collaborative systems. Virtual campuses, virtual communities and organizations strongly leverage intelligent networking and collaborative systems by means of a great variety of formal and informal electronic relations, such as business-to-business, peer-to-peer and various types of online collaborative learning interactions, including the emerging e-learning systems. This has resulted in entangled systems that need to be managed efficiently and autonomously. In addition, the latest, powerful technologies based on grid and wireless infrastructure as well as cloud computing are currently enhancing collaborative and networking applications significantly, but are also facing new issues and challenges. The principal purpose of the research and development community is to stimulate research that will lead to the creation of responsive environments for networking and, in the longer term, the development of adaptive, secure, mobile, and intuitive intelligent systems for collaborative work and learning.

"In this book, Zeev Maoz offers a new theory of networked international politics. Maoz views the evolution of international relations over the last two centuries as a set of interacting, cooperative, and conflicting networks of states. The networks that emerged are the result of national choice processes about forming or breaking ties with other states. States are constantly concerned with their security and survival in an anarchic world. Their security concerns stem from their external environment and their past conflicts. Because many of them cannot ensure their security by their own power, they need allies to balance against a hostile international environment. The alliance choices made by states define the structure of security cooperation networks and spill over into other cooperative networks, including trade and institutions. Maoz tests his theory by applying social networks analysis (SNA) methods to international relations. He offers a novel perspective on the study of international relations as a system of interrelated networks that co-evolve and interact with one another"--Provided by publisher.

How social networks, the personalized Internet, and always-on mobile connectivity are transforming—and expanding—social life. Daily life is connected life, its rhythms driven by endless email pings and responses, the chimes and beeps of continually arriving text messages, tweets and retweets, Facebook updates, pictures and videos to post and discuss. Our perpetual connectedness gives us endless opportunities to be part of the give-and-take of networking. Some worry that this new environment makes us isolated and lonely. But in Networked, Lee Rainie and Barry Wellman show how the large, loosely knit social circles of networked individuals expand opportunities for learning, problem solving, decision making, and personal interaction. The new social operating system of “networked individualism” liberates us from the restrictions of tightly knit groups; it also requires us to develop networking skills and strategies, work on maintaining ties, and balance multiple overlapping networks. Rainie and Wellman outline the “triple revolution” that has brought on this transformation: the rise of social networking, the capacity of the Internet to empower individuals, and the always-on connectivity of mobile devices. Drawing on extensive evidence, they examine how the move to networked individualism has expanded personal relationships beyond households and neighborhoods; transformed work into less hierarchical, more team-driven enterprises; encouraged individuals to create and share content; and changed the way people obtain information. Rainie and Wellman guide us through the challenges and opportunities of living in the evolving world of networked individuals.

This paper concerns the rise and evolution of structural inequality in world politics created by the global network of IOs. We take as our starting point the assumption, widely disregarded in political science,that organizations create social networks. In the same way that firms organize corporate networks of relations or that schools organize social interactions among children, IOs structure international relations among nations, binding states together in affiliation networks created by joint membership.

A foundational analysis of the co-evolution of the internet and international relations, examining resultant challenges for individuals, organizations, firms, and states. In our increasingly digital world, data flows define the international landscape as much as the flow of materials and people. How is cyberspace shaping international relations, and how are international relations shaping cyberspace? In this book, Nazli Choucri and David D. Clark offer a foundational analysis of the co-evolution of cyberspace (with the internet as its core) and international relations, examining resultant challenges for individuals, organizations, and states. The authors examine the pervasiveness of power and politics in the digital realm, finding that the internet is evolving much faster than the tools for regulating it. This creates a “co-evolution dilemma”—a new reality in which digital interactions have enabled weaker actors to influence or threaten stronger actors, including the traditional state powers. Choucri and Clark develop a new method for addressing control in the internet age, “control point analysis,” and apply it to a variety of situations, including major actors in the international and digital realms: the United States, China, and Google. In doing so they lay the groundwork for a new international relations theory that reflects the reality in which we live—one in which the international and digital realms are inextricably linked and evolving together.

This book aims to provide the latest research findings, innovative research results, methods and development techniques from both theoretical and practical perspectives related to intelligent social networks and collaborative systems, intelligent networking systems, mobile collaborative systems, secure intelligent cloud systems, etc., as well as to reveal synergies among various paradigms in such a multi-disciplinary field intelligent collaborative systems. With the fast development of the Internet, we are experiencing a shift from the traditional sharing of information and applications as the main purpose of the Web to an emergent paradigm, which locates people at the very centre of networks and exploits the value of people's connections, relations and collaboration. Social networks are also playing a major role in the dynamics and structure of intelligent Web-based networking and collaborative systems. Virtual campuses, virtual communities and organizations strongly leverage intelligent networking and collaborative systems by a great variety of formal and informal electronic relations, such as business-to-business, peer-to-peer and many types of online collaborative learning interactions, including the emerging e-learning systems. This has resulted in entangled systems that need to be managed efficiently and in an autonomous way. In addition, latest and powerful technologies based on grid and wireless infrastructure as well as cloud computing are currently enhancing collaborative and networking applications as a great deal but also facing new issues and challenges. The principal purpose of the research and development community is to stimulate research that will lead to the creation of responsive environments for networking and, at longer-term, the development of adaptive, secure, mobile and intuitive intelligent systems for collaborative work and learning.

An examination of the ways cyberspace is changing both the theory and the practice of international relations.