This essay asks if the war and society approach needs reinforcement to fully capture the history of the Cold War. Both within the United States and around the globe, the Cold War was many wars: a theoretical war of nuclear threats; an armed and active conflict; a covert war; and a domestic crusade. Is a war and society framework adequate to describe a conflict of such dimensions? This essay probes the interpretive possibilities of adding a war as society frame to buttress the war and society approach. Focusing on the American Cold War’s geographies (where was it fought?), its warriors (who fought it?), and its timelines (when did it begin, and did it actually end?), I explore the myriad ways in which Americans experienced a multi-front and seemingly permanent war. Policymakers wanted everyone to be drafted into some kind of service for the Cold War, but Americans ultimately rejected that call. They could support a national security state to conduct the war, but they ultimately wanted a healthy distance from the battles. They sought coexistence–war and society–not fusion–war as society.

This chapter analyses security exceptions in international trade law, focusing on their interpretation and application within the World Trade Organization (WTO) and preferential trade agreements (PTAs). It examines the evolving nature of national security concerns, particularly in cybersecurity, and how these concerns intersect with trade regulations. The chapter discusses the justiciability of security exceptions, the level of deference accorded to states in defining their security interests, and the challenges posed by the expansion of security concerns beyond traditional military domains. It also evaluates the adequacy of existing WTO and PTA frameworks in addressing contemporary security issues, suggesting that further innovations may be necessary to balance trade liberalisation with national security imperatives in the digital age.

This chapter examines the relationship between geopolitical rivalry and world trade law. It begins by discussing the consequences of trade for national power and security, and how dominant states approach foreign economic policy. It then analyses recent geopolitical developments and their implications for the evolution of the international economic order. It concludes by discussing the implications of the analysis for world trade law and policy in the future.

This final chapter looks broadly at the remaining years of the twenty-first century and the start of the twenty-second. Considered are the implications of a world population in 2100 that approaches or exceeds 10 billion. Some, if not all, of these musings may appear dismal to many. Most certainly the world facing monumental population and environmental challenges. Some of them are addressed in this chapter. There are also demographic implications for governance and civil society, national security, human rights, and international relations. The world is witnessing enormous advances in technology. Both population and noetic exponentialism are becoming even more problematic. The era of the Industrial Revolution is long over. The world is now experiencing the Information Revolution. Population size and change are in the middle of this incredible phenomenon.

This chapter examines China’s evolving governance of international marriages through the lens of sovereign concerns, focusing on border stability, population management and national security. It explores how material and affective processes inform the regulations and representations of marriage migration to China. The discussion shows how the Chinese state continually revises its administrative and legal framework for international marriage, and also highlights the historical, racialised and gendered forces embedded in this process. The argument contends that the regulatory framework of marriage migration is shaped by shifting ‘structures of feeling’ that define belonging in Chinese society. These intersecting spheres of state affective and regulatory practices reveal new power dynamics and inequalities in China’s relations with the outside world.

This Chapter conceptualizes security exceptions under international trade and investment agreements. In particular, it seeks to construct the chain that links trade and security-related issues arising from the application of security measures by clarifying the concept of national security to be used for the book, revisiting the current role of international organizations in balancing free trade and national security, ie the UN and the WTO, and finally contemplating the decision to incorporate security exceptions into international economic agreements or the decision to adopt security measures through the lenses of economic contract theory, the theories of international relations, such as realism, institutionalism, and constructivism, and the concept of securitization.

This chapter provides an overview of the economics of terrorism and social media. Recent advances in the economics of information and economics and psychology help summarize the literature on how terrorism and social media interact. I discuss the implications of the transition from mass media to social media for terrorism in general before describing the impact of social media on the industrial organization of terrorism in particular. I also summarize recent work on the impact of terrorism on social media as well as the economics and psychology of national security have provided some solutions. Overall, social media has been an important part of the industrial organization of terrorism as well as its undoing where progress has been made. What we do not know (but ought to know) include topics such as how social media strengthens or weakens anti-terrorism initiatives given newer developments such as encryption and whether or not terrorist cyber-attacks may increase in importance over time as social media grows in scale.

The deployment of 5G has raised diverse national security concerns, leading to policies restricting Chinese companies’ participation in this critical infrastructure. This chapter examines these policies against the background of international investment law, focusing on restrictions against Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE. It evaluates the compatibility of these measures with international investment agreements and explores potential violations of national treatment, most-favored-nation treatment, fair and equitable treatment, and full protection and security standards. The chapter also discusses the justification of these policies under national security exceptions, concluding that international investment law may not be fully equipped to address the evolving geo-economic landscape.

This chapter investigates the role of science and technology as a function of the history of the World War II effort to transform national security resource and acquisition under Vannevar Bush at MIT, its effects upon American society as President Eisenhower warned the nation in 1961, and the later forces of globalization, the knowledge economy and accelerating emerging and disruptive science and technology as applied to war and terror today. Important is our understanding of our application of a specific logic to war and terror after 9/11; forward deployment of American military power overseas and homeland security (defense of the homeland) for the purpose of understanding the rapid evolution of technological capability in achieving outcomes. Furthermore, we will look more specifically at emerging science and technology as a particular area of technological innovation that stems from research and development phenomena that is tasked to provide outsize national security, specifically counterterrorism deliverables for the United States.

National security concerns have long shaped international relations, with economic interdependence traditionally seen as fostering stability. However, recent geopolitical shifts have challenged this assumption. The strategic rivalry, particularly between the US and China, has raised the stakes of international competition and new forms of economic warfare. Historically committed to multilateralism, the EU faces pressures to reassess its approach due to an increasing use of economic coercion by other states. Emerging powers, particularly BRICS, are also redefining their roles in the global order, employing economic tools to counter Western hegemony. As unilateralism rises and the effectiveness of multilateral institutions like the WTO is questioned, a “new geo-economic order” appears to be emerging. This Chapter creates the basis for the normative and evaluative questions of this book by exploring how major economic players navigate national security concerns in an increasingly fragmented trade landscape.

Chapter 6 is devoted to the topic of Variable Interest Entity (VIE), which is widely used for overseas listings of Chinese companies. The legality of VIE has long been a subject of intense debate in China due to its alleged circumvention of China’s foreign investment law: The VIE structure allows foreign investors to participate in overseas-listed Chinese companies through contractual control rather than a shareholding relationship, thus bypassing relevant restrictions on foreign investment in China. This chapter argues that China adopts a policy of strategic ambiguity about the legality of the VIE structure, so as to balance the need to protect national security and the need to facilitate overseas listing of Chinese companies. There are institutional reasons behind this policy, including interest group politics of regulatory agencies and the rent-seeking activities of regulatory officials. The policy of strategic ambiguity will likely continue in the foreseeable future, and so will the uncertainty over the legality of the VIE structure.

The influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the law and legal order of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region might seem not to be a case of inter-Asian law because it occurs within a single jurisdiction. Yet, Beijing has employed a wide range of means to shape Hong Kong’s legal order, ranging from making or interpreting PRC law for Hong Kong, to mandating or pressing for local lawmaking in Hong Kong, to more diffuse influences on Hong Kong’s legal order and its context. Chinese influence has made Hong Kong law less liberal and democratic and more like the PRC’s. The China–Hong Kong case shows the spectrum of modes of inter-Asian legal influence, the complexity of the relationship between transplants or exports of legal models and legal influence, and the issues that lie ahead in an era of possible competition between China and the United States/the West for legal influence.

This chapter explores how technocratic elites in the five NATO host nations respond to the multiple pressures surrounding nuclear sharing. Based on original interview data, it analyses how these elites perceive the purpose of hosting nuclear weapons, assess the legitimacy of various domestic and international audiences, and navigate interactions with diverse stakeholders. The chapter also examines national strategic documents and official government communications directed at the public, parliament, and civil society regarding nuclear sharing. Additionally, it investigates how elites articulate and defend nuclear sharing in international settings, particularly in the context of an increasingly adversarial global environment.