Realism is one of many International Relations theories that attempt to understand and explain the way the international system functions in anarchy without any overarching government. It emphasizes the importance of individual states as the primary actors and decision makers within this system and argues that the most defining characteristics of all states include self-interested behavior and an inherent instinct to survive at any cost. The three main subcategories within realism are classical realism, neorealism (in its offensive and defensive variants), hegemonic realism and power-transition theories, and neoclassical realism.

The fifth chapter explores the application of spectral graph theory to network data analysis. The chapter begins with an introduction to fundamental graph theory concepts, including undirected and directed graphs, graph connectivity, and matrix representations such as the adjacency and Laplacian matrices. It then discusses the variational characterization of eigenvalues and their significance in understanding the structure of graphs. The chapter highlights the spectral properties of the Laplacian matrix, particularly its role in graph connectivity and partitioning. Key applications, such as spectral clustering for community detection and the analysis of random graph models like Erdős–Rényi random graphs and stochastic blockmodels, are presented. The chapter concludes with a detailed exploration of graph partitioning algorithms and their practical implementations using Python.

Regulation of the beginning and end of life raises myriad medical, legal, philosophical, moral and ethical issues. It also implicates a range of rights, most notably the right to life, freedom from ill-treatment and the right to private life. This chapter considers the ways in which State regulation of abortion, withdrawal/refusal of medical treatment and assisted dying engage rights protected by the ECHR. In particular, this chapter examines when life begins for the purposes of Article 2 (right to life) and whether the right to life precludes or, indeed, requires that States enable access to assistance in dying. Domestic law is considered, demonstrating the ways in which the margin of appreciation operates to confer a significant degree of latitude on States to regulate the beginning and end of life.

Conventional war is organized violence subordinate to a political objective in which there is pervasive uncertainty and chance. Technology has changed the way war is fought in many ways, but many wars are decidedly low-tech. Often linked to the technologies of war are typical strategies by which states conduct regular war. These strategies are distinguished by the attention they pay to punishing the adversary versus denying them their goals, as well as to attacking capabilities versus the will to go on fighting. Each strategy bases a theory of victory on identifying how the military actions will link to a state’s political objectives. While the advent of nuclear weapons has raised the costs of war between nuclear states, there appears to be no end to the practice of war in the near future.

The fourth chapter introduces the singular value decomposition (SVD), a fundamental matrix factorization with broad applications in data science. The chapter begins by reviewing key linear algebra concepts, including matrix rank and the spectral theorem. It then explores the problem of finding the best low-dimensional approximating subspace to a set of data points, leading to the formal definition of the SVD. The power iteration method is presented as an efficient way to compute the top singular vectors and values. The chapter then demonstrates the application of SVD to principal components analysis (PCA), a dimensionality reduction technique that identifies the directions of maximum variance in data. Further applications of the SVD are discussed, including low-rank matrix approximations and ridge regression, a regularization technique for handling multicollinearity in linear systems.

Immigration is one of the most politically charged aspects of human rights law. This chapter examines the application of Article 8 ECHR in cases where migrants face deportation and where family members seek entry to the Contracting State. In practice few applicants succeed in using Article 8 ECHR to resist deportation even in cases where they were born or lived almost their entire life in the State. This has led to the criticism that the ECtHR prioritises State sovereignty, above migrants, rendering the rights virtually meaningless and legitimising States’ practices. An opposing perspective is that the process of having to justify deportation to an international human rights court is an incursion into State sovereignty that exceeds the limits of the ECtHR’s role. The case law on family reunification is equally contested by both those that believe the ECtHR is exceeding its legitimate function and those that believe the ECtHR is averting its eyes to the hardship and suffering of migrants. The final part of this chapter examines the ways in which Article 8 ECHR has been shaped by domestic immigration law and the driving forces behind the interpretation and application of rights.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce systemic racism and critical race theory. It begins with the story of Breonna Taylor, a successful health-care professional and twenty-six-year-old Black woman who was killed in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, by plainclothes White police officers in 2020. It galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement against systemic racism, the approach to racism that recognizes that all institutions and persons play a role in it, including us. This chapter reviews the history of police violence in the US, the defining features of systemic racism and popular myths about it, and some major themes in critical race theory, a framework that can help us see why race and racism were invented and why they persist despite reform. Colorblind racial ideology, multiculturalism, and anti-racism are discussed as strategies that deal with racism. The chapter includes a Food for Thought section on Nikole Hannah-Jones and the 1619 Project. It ends with a discussion of anti-racism, police violence, and justice for Breonna Taylor.

This chapter examines the human rights implications of the UK’s legal response to terrorism, focusing on the ECHR. It explores the significant body of terrorism legislation that has evolved over the past three decades, considering also the legacy of The Troubles. There are myriad rights that may be impacted by terrorism legislation including the right to life, freedom from ill-treatment, right to liberty, right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to enjoy such rights free from discrimination. Having regard to the evolving nature of terrorist threats including, for instance, inceldom and right-wing extremism, and the increasing role of online modes of communication, the chapter examines the potential limitations of the existing legal framework in responding to terrorism. The chapter further explores the role of the derogation power under Article 15 ECHR in the counter-terrorism context and the potential for a progressive dilution of rights as courts are called upon to accommodate within the existing rights rubric increasingly restrictive terrorism legislation.

International law arose in the mid nineteenth century when European powers determined to codify and formalize customary law, to restrain the use of violence in armed conflict, and to create certain protected categories of people. The Hague and Geneva Conventions formed the core of the emerging laws of war and international humanitarian law. While the Conventions have been breached at times, they still form one of the most widely accepted and long-standing aspects of international law. International humanitarian law and laws of war clarify and formalize the differentiation between civilians and combatants, regular and irregular forces, lawful and unlawful combatants. While international laws attempt to make the demarcation of these boundaries as precise as possible, the realities of war always undermine and undo such delineation efforts. Recently, there have been increasing efforts to regulate these gray areas and create international laws and agencies to regulate groups that elude classification.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce the Black maternal mortality crisis and intersectionality. It begins with the story of Kira Johnson, an accomplished Black businesswoman, mother, and wife living in Los Angeles, California. Kira died due to medical neglect after giving birth to her second son, Langston, in 2016 and her death illustrates the Black maternal mortality crisis in the US, the highest among rich countries in the world. This chapter reviews the concept and popular myths on gendered racism, how sexism and racism intersect and combine in the experience of Black women, girls, and femmes. It introduces intersectionality, a valuable tool to understand and dismantle gendered racism driving this Black maternal health crisis, and other intersecting systems of power. Intersectionality is discussed as a field of study, an analytical approach, and as critical action. The chapter includes a Food for Thought section on the Page Act of 1875 and the Atlanta spa shootings of 2021. It ends with a discussion of Kira Johnson and reproductive justice.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce dehumanization and humanness. It begins with the story of Carmelita Torres, a seventeen-year-old adolescent girl from Juárez, Mexico. In January 1917, she was asked to get naked, shave her hair, and take a kerosene bath by US immigration authorities when she was coming to work as a maid in El Paso, Texas. The story of Carmelita illustrates dehumanization, the denial of people’s full humanity. This chapter examines popular myths and different forms of dehumanization, such as treating people like animals (animalistic dehumanization), objects (mechanistic dehumanization), and supernatural beings (mystic dehumanization). To confront dehumanization, we need to affirm our humanness, the dignity and wholeness of all human beings that makes them unique, free, and entitled to rights. Carmelita and others affirmed their humanness by protesting in the 1917 Bath Riots. The chapter includes a Food for Thought section on Halloween, blackface, and redface. It ends with a discussion of Carmelita Torres and the affirmation of our humanity.