This chapter outlines approaches to studying security that deal with the following topics: (1) security amongst states, (2) the role of geography in defining that security, or so-called geopolitics, and (3) the concept of regional security. This lays the foundation for an in-depth study of Arctic security dynamics. In essence, security relations amongst states inherently entail a regional dimension (states of geographic proximity being more concerned with similar or the same security issues), although various approaches have grappled with this dimension in different ways.

Chapter 5 considers Iran’s many ethnic, ethnolinguistic, and ethnoreligious communities. Ethnicity is the most amorphous and abstract of the five categories. Scholars have yet to produce a comprehensive account of its expressions in Iran. Ethnicity for Iran’s dominating sector is elusive, perhaps because of the potential vulnerability of those who currently control the country’s power and wealth. Iranians express contradictions and complexities in their societies and cultures by way of symbolic polarities, which they deploy in daily life and popular culture. Iran’s regions demonstrate how diverse peoples relate to one another, especially in peripheral, border, and marginalized territories. Large concentrations of minority peoples reside in most of Iran’s thirty-one provinces. Cohesive villages and urban neighborhoods offer benefits to minority and other residents as they organize their lives and create meaning at the local level. Changing social and socioeconomic cleavages in Iran relate to transformations brought about by the monarchy’s end and the theocracy’s emergence.

Chapter 9 is dedicated exclusively to an analysis of Romance de 1930. It interrogates the prevailing assumption that environmental determinants unilaterally shape character development, thereby limiting the potential for self-awareness to emerge. By closely examining seminal literary texts of the period, the chapter argues that the interaction between social and psychological factors creates a complex dynamic in which both domains exert reciprocal influence. As a result, the traditionally perceived gulf between the regionalist and intimist novel – often considered substantial – appears significantly less pronounced upon closer scrutiny. Within this conceptual framework, rigid categorical distinctions may obscure essential insights rather than clarify them. Jorge Amado’s designated “proletarian novel,” Jubiabá, serves as a salient example, illustrating how the external milieu and Balduíno’s internal subjectivity jointly determine the arc of this iconic popular protagonist. This case forms part of a broader set of analyses presented throughout the chapter.

Chapter 23 presents Grande sertão: veredas as the peak of a regionalist tradition that begins with José de Alencar. Yet Rosa’s story goes beyond this local tradition by blending a wide range of influences: from the Old Testament to medieval knightly romances, from ancient philosophy to hermetic and alchemical ideas, and from epic poetry to the Faustian myth. This combination creates a “universal” regionalism. The chapter also offers a detailed comparison between Grande sertão: veredas and William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, highlighting shared concerns. Both novels include a strong interpretive element where understanding plays a vital role. In Rosa’s work, the protagonist Riobaldo faces a series of difficult choices, the most significant of which led to the loss of Diadorim. Struggling with this, Riobaldo chooses to tell his story to a compassionate listener, making one last effort to confront his guilt and find answers to the questions that have long troubled him.

Chapter 11 delves into Erico Veríssimo’s extensive body of work, highlighting its central themes and narrative techniques. The analysis focuses especially on the epic trilogy O tempo e o vento, with particular attention to its first volume, O continente (1949), widely considered the high point of Veríssimo’s literary career. When discussing Noite (1954), the chapter argues that the novel’s plot and development “reaffirm the primacy of the individual over the social machine,” effectively challenging the idea that Veríssimo is merely a horizontal novelist – one whose works cover broad terrain but lack depth. While his stories are truly expansive, they also feature some of the most layered and unforgettable female characters in Brazilian literature, such as Clarissa, Olívia, Ana Terra, Bibiana, and Dona Quitéria. The chapter goes on to examine Veríssimo’s distinctive use of counterpoint, a technique that creates a richly layered narrative and serves as a signature of his style.

Chapter 10 looks at Jorge Amado’s large body of work, dividing his novels into three main stages. These stages build on each other, adding new themes and styles that broaden Amado’s creative reach. The release of Gabriela, cravo e canela in 1958 is a key moment in this development. While staying true to his political beliefs, Amado’s ideas grew into a form of social humanism that mixed local culture, storytelling traditions, comic characters, strong women, and an open look at sexuality. Amado’s focus on sexuality highlights a major theme: the blending of races as a lively force that enriches culture, promotes acceptance, and pushes back against racism and xenophobia. In Amado’s third stage, Brazil goes beyond itself to symbolize the spirit of the Americas, reflecting the idea of e pluribus unum. The chapter ends by considering how Amado was received in the United States, calling it a “rollercoaster ride” shaped by both fair and unfair reasons.

Chapter 22 takes a close look at Graciliano Ramos’ 1938 novel Vidas secas through the idea of a “deep Brazil.” This concept suggests that after the failures of Romanticism, early twentieth-century fiction renewed its search for Brazil’s true identity. Ramos, being from the northeast, turned his attention to the region’s hinterlands, its people, and their struggles – subjects he knew intimately. The chapter also places Ramos’ life and the making of Vidas secas in context. It shows how the novel both embraces and transcends regionalism, creating a dynamic “pendulum movement” whereby tradition and modernity, continuity and change, exist side by side. The social aspects are highlighted, and the novel’s loosely connected chapters are described as a narrative “archipelago.” Ultimately, the chapter argues that Vidas secas moves beyond its regional focus to address a broader theme: the endless suffering of humanity.

This chapter analyses the role played by coinage in the Achaemenid empire, exploring the dynamics of royal policy and iconography within the multifaceted political and economic within its imperial space. The vast Persian empire stretched from Mesopotamia and further east to the Aegean Sea. When the Persians captured the Lydian kingdom of Kroisos in 546, at first they took over his coinage in gold and silver, and later, from around 515, they produced distinctively Persian coinage of gold darics and silver sigloi, which had images of an archer, as a symbol of the Persian king. These were only for the western part of their empire, and even there they were not part of a fully coin-using economy. Their purposes were probably gift-giving and payments to mercenary soldiers. Other coinages continued to be made, in electrum, for example at Kyzikos, and especially in silver. A large variety of silver coinages were made at many cities in western Asia Minor and in Cyprus. Some were very small denominations, perhaps to facilitate daily market exchanges. The famous deposits of coins in the Apadana of Persepolis are analysed in detail, and the controversial puzzle of their selection is discussed.

This chapter examines what the designs of coins may tell us about the communities that commissioned them. Religious designs featured predominantly, often the presiding deity of a city or a design which referred to it. Mythology and topography also played an important role, often rooting coinages in their localities, and there were references to events or contemporary personalities. Comparisons can be made in relation to artistic work in other fields, such as gems, with a special reference to those who were involved in their creation – the engravers of the dies from which the coins were struck. The engraving of coin dies appears to have been regarded as an artistic exercise, and the appearance of signatures on coins offers a window onto part of the chaîne opératoire of coin production.

This chapter uses aspects of numismatic evidence (circulation and weight standards) to examine what coinage can tell us about connectivity and regionalism in Archaic Greece. Coinage spread westwards and northwards from its beginnings in around 550, first in the Aegean basin (Aegina and other islands), mainland Greece (Athens, Corinth, Boeotia, Thessaly) and further north (Thrace and Macedonia). By 480 it had been adopted by a wide range of communities, but they represented only a minority of known states. They are characterised by a number of different weight standards – principally the Euboeic, Aeginetan, Corinthian and Attic. Early Athenian coinage consisted of the so-called Wappenmünzen, but these were succeeded in the late sixth century by the famous ‘owls’. However, Aegina was probably the first place in mainland Greece to have made coins, from about 550, and its plentiful coinage circulated widely. Corinthian coinage was also influential. Northern Greece saw several zones of production, while inland tribal communities produced very large coins as a way of exporting the silver from their mines. All these coins circulated together and are found in hoards all over the eastern Mediterranean, having been used in trade and mercenary payments. A link with trireme warfare is also explored.

The explosion of Greek (and Phoenician) settlements around the shores of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea saw many of them adopt their own coinages with a rich iconographic repertoire, often religious in nature or reflecting a local activity such as viticulture. This chapter explores the evidence coinage offers for relationships between colonies and mother-cities, in some cases showing ongoing connections, in others showing the development of new regionalisms. Their coinages appeared quite soon after 550: in the east (Cyrene) and the west (mainly southern Italy, Sicily, but also southern France and Spain), while coinage in some of the cities of the Black Sea appeared early in the fifth century. Sources of silver are explored. Some nearby indigenous communities also made coins, adopting and adapting designs and weight standards.

How and why do African leaders cooperate through regional intergovernmental organizations (RIOs) to manage political and security threats? The central argument of this book is that particularly in regions prone to coups d’état and intrastate conflicts, heads of state concerned with their personal survival often treat RIOs as bases for organizing, in essence, mutual protection clubs. Heads of state adapt RIOs’ competencies in an effort to protect themselves and stabilize like-minded, cooperative leaders in their neighborhood. The mutual aid theory in this book centers on common expectations, reciprocity between leaders, and the positioning of RIOs as the international community’s designated first responders to crises. This chapter provides a summary of the argument, situates the book’s contributions to the field, and concludes with an overview of the remainder of the book.

The implications of tool distributions and exceptional building projects in the Argolid and Boeotia are discussed. Substantial gaps remain in the story of transregional craft and political ties, but the present study offers new clues about the political makeup of at least part of the Mycenaean world.

This chapter examines the relationship between preferential trade agreements (PTAs) and the multilateral trading system represented by the WTO. It explores the historical context of PTAs, their proliferation, economic effects, and WTO surveillance. The chapter analyses the legal texts governing PTAs, including GATT Article XXIV, GATS Article V, and the Enabling Clause, and discusses controversies surrounding their interpretation. It also delves into regulatory issues within PTAs, such as rules of origin and provisions extending beyond WTO rules. Furthermore, the chapter addresses WTO dispute settlement cases involving PTAs and the evolving landscape of trade agreements, including digital economy and critical minerals agreements. Finally, it considers the systemic effects of PTAs on the multilateral trading system, highlighting both positive and discriminatory aspects.

‘Pan-Asianism’ came to prominence after the Second World War. Beyond the conventional understanding of the link between pan-Asianism and Japanese imperialism since then, this chapter explains the role of pan-Asianism as an anti-imperial ideology and strategy in the early twentieth century. As an anti-imperial ideology, pan-Asianism advanced a normative argument for the emancipation of Asia from Western imperialism and provided an alternative to Eurocentric discourse on civilisation, a vision premised upon a shared Asian spirituality, heritage, culture and glorious past. As an anti-imperial strategy, pan-Asianism offered Indian nationalist leaders in exile a language to gain support of the Japanese and the Chinese for their nationalist movement against British rule. Although pan-Asianism later came to be used as a justification in Japanese imperialism, it is important to highlight the anti-imperial role that pan-Asianism played in the early twentieth century. This chapter does so by analysing the works of leading Pan-Asianist ideologues and activists of the period and by highlighting the ideological and strategic aspects of their conception of pan-Asianism as anti-imperialism.