ABSTRACT
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, global relations are in flux, reflected in changing analyses of development, foreign policy (FP), international political economy (IPE), international relations (IR) and other areas, as indicated at the end of this opening section. This is particularly apparent in Africa and the Caribbean, where burgeoning subfields cannot be ignored, such as climate change, global coalitions, responsibility to protect (R2P) initiatives and peacemaking, resource wars and water scarcity among many other issues. Such redefinitions are reinforced by the unevenness of globalisation, most glaringly in the rise and impact
of the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – which are located outside the relatively marginal regions where the fragile and failed states are concentrated.
