The worldwide exportation of the nation-state went hand in hand with the diffusion of the Western concept of religion, both of which are notably related to the expansion of the Westphalian order. Exploring the diffusion of the twin concepts of nation-state and religion intersects with two bodies of knowledge: nationalism and secularization. Combining them helps explain why and how religion and politics influence each other. Historical institutionalism and conceptual history are used to establish areas of politicization of religion in the qualitative phase of the research and to identify patterns in big data bases in the quantitative phase of the research. This approach is applied to the politicization of religion in Syria, Turkey, India, China and Russia.

Chapter 3 looks at the rules of the organisation. It concludes that the European Commission’s claim that international responsibility follows the internal division of competences does not find support in international dispute-settlement practice. The book reveals that the European Union and its Member States are independently responsible for their joint obligations. The central argument is that while states are free to transfer their powers to an organisation, their international obligations are non-transferable.

During a negotiation, there is seldom the time or capacity for parties to reach a full and complete agreement on a comprehensive legal framework for postconflict governance. Instead, the parties often agree to a preliminary set of principles coupled with a general governing framework.They then set forth an agreed process for negotiating, designing, and implementing a national dialogue, the drafting or amending of a constitution, and elections. This chapter explores the puzzle of whether and how to address constitutional modification during peace negotiations in a manner that promotes a durable peace. It reviews the peace processes related to conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, East Timor, Guatemala, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Somalia, South Africa, Syria, and Yemen to explore whether and how to address constitutional modification during the peace process; the timing of determining and executing a postconflict constitution-drafting process; whether to draft an interim constitution; whether to accomplish constitutional reform through amendments or by drafting a full constitution; how to approve and finalize constitutional modifications; and whether and how to incorporate issues of human rights.

This book concludes that in international economic law, shared responsibility is distributed among subjects of international law which are part of a common institutional structure based on which of them is best placed to remedy breach. This is so because the purpose of international economic adjudication is restorative rather than punitive. Allocation of responsibility does not follow attribution of conduct (or breach) but instead depends on the system of remedies available under a given treaty. Allocation of responsibility is thus a dynamic concept which is not tied to breach but rather depends on the nature of the treaty regime in question.

While Chapter 3 sought to situate international commercial arbitration in the broader context of international adjudication, this chapter focuses on a specific context – that of France. It uses a key concept, the arbitration clause, to explore a wider set of attitudes toward international commercial arbitration that prevailed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first part of this chapter explores the movement from renewal to anxiety in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century France – the largely pro-arbitration regime of the French Revolution and the current of hostility toward arbitration that emerged during the Consulate and the First Empire. The second part of this chapter explores the pendulum movement from anxiety to renewal in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This seminal period for arbitration saw French legislators recognize the validity of arbitration clauses in commercial contracts and create a special regime for international commercial arbitration. In short, this chapter is about the “saga” of the arbitration clause, which offers a unique means of exploring the dynamic of renewal and anxiety in the Age of Aspirations.

The Saudi-led intervention in Yemen is a valuable case study in the coercive use of air power. Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign demonstrates the danger of employing a punishment approach against a subnational actor in a multi-sided internal conflict. Strategies of collective punishment, blockade, and decapitation have all malfunctioned against a stubborn and resilient Houthi adversary. The early audit from Yemen endorses a denial strategy, supports the growing orthodoxy that air attack is most effectively applied in support of ground forces, and offers insight on the relative utility of interdiction and close air support for that purpose. The Saudi-led coalition’s performance also underscores how difficult it is to achieve positive objectives with proxy warfare, regardless of air support. This chapter dissects the campaign, assesses its effectiveness, and draws lessons about air power’s ability to influence the outcome of similar complex civil war scenarios elsewhere.

This chapter examines the new architecture of air power enabled by remote warfare. The development of remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) such as the Predator and Reaper, combined with global communication networks, manned aircraft, and precision-strike capabilities, created a far-flung kill web that exploited permissive skies to target pernicious threats. Leveraging local surrogates and special operations forces along with increasingly sophisticated sensors and weapons, RPAs rendered high-value terrorists, enemy concentrations, and military infrastructure visible and vulnerable in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, and Somalia. Persistent surveillance-strike capabilities reduced risk to US and allied forces and fostered rapacious demand for RPAs as contemporary air warfare became increasingly remote, digitized, and precise. As the kill web’s architecture evolved, RPAs became vehicles of political expediency. Yet new questions emerged about the allure and efficacy of remote warfare and air power operations in countries not at war with the United States.