This inaugural issue of Volume 35 of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs presents a collection of six articles from across the discipline, advancing innovative contributions in current theoretical debates and illuminating contemporary aspects of international politics. Firstly, Jorg Kustermans and Ted Svensson introduce an excellent forum in which their contributions as well as those of Julia Costa López, Tracey Blasenheim and Alvina Hoffmann explore various manifestations of ritual and authority in world politics. Next, Anjan Kumar Sahu examines the securitisation of development in India through the constitution of climate change as a major threat, thus explaining the evolution of India’s domestic climate policy. Wojciech Kaczkowski, Ayşe Lokmanoglu and Carol Winkler then draw attention to the contrasting definitions of global terrorism in different contexts. Oumar Ba argues that the destruction of World Heritage sites by Islamist fundamentalist groups must be understood, beyond its shock value, as the possible expression of a political project of government. In another timely contribution, Michael Christensen interrogates the practices of political expertise in relation to democracy promotion and post-truth politics. Finally, Natalie Martin provides a compelling analysis of the changing relationship between the Gülen movement and the AKP over the last twenty years.
The first book review, written by Andrew Latham and Ben Porter, commends Rush Doshi’s The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order for its rich inquiry into the shaping of Chinese foreign policy, debunking representations centred around individual personalities to reveal the weight of structural and historical trends. Next, Changwook Ju’s review of Jason Lyall’s Divided Armies: Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War welcomes the book’s discussion of battlefield effectiveness while noting its methodological virtues.
The contributions to this issue evidence the diversity of approaches that CRIA commits to, reflecting that of International Relations scholarship itself while especially welcoming theoretically innovative and historically informed contributions. As ever, we are grateful to our authors for choosing CRIA to publish their research. We also thank our peer reviewers for their immense contribution to the journal. We are happy to receive proposals for special issues (directed to the Editors in Chief), especially about areas of study that do not receive adequate attention in IR and from scholars who face barriers to participation in knowledge production. Book reviews should be directed to the Features Editor. Details and submission guidelines may be found at https://www.cria.polis.cam.ac.uk. We wish our readers all the best for the new year.
Editors-in-Chief
Cambridge Review of International Affairs