ABSTRACT
This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part assesses the international security situation in the aftermath of the overthrow and execution of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya’s long-standing dictator, in October 2011. It demonstrates the ways in which nonstate actors around the world were essential players in the movement to challenge and dismantle the racially segregationist policies known as apartheid carried out by the minority white South African government against the black majority between 1948 and 1994. The part examines the importance of the increased movement of peoples across borders to larger political and economic changes taking place across the globe. It illustrates the way that US policymakers, media outlets, and often the public at large frequently portrayed Japan as an economic rival rather than as a fellow facilitator in the creation of a globally interdependent economic system during the latter part of the twentieth century.
