Chen Jie

This book provides a concise and in-depth exposition of distributed control and optimization problems of multi-agent systems. The book integrates various ideas and tools from dynamic systems, control theory, graph theory, and optimization to address the special challenges posed by such complexities in the environment as communication delay, topological dynamics, and environmental uncertainties. In order to deal with the mismatched uncertainties and time delay, observer-based controller and sliding mode control are developed to achieve consensus control. When there is a leader or multiple leaders in the communication topologies, containment control is required. The book studies both state and output containment for nonlinear multi-agent systems with undirected or directed networks. Furthermore, event-triggered schemes are proposed to reduce communication and computation costs. Distributed optimization for multi-agent systems is an interesting topic that has attracted more and more attention due to its wide range of applications such as smart grids, sensor networks, and mobile manipulators. In distributed optimization, the goal is to optimize the global cost function, which is the sum of all local cost functions, each of which is known only by its own local agent. Distributed nonsmooth convex optimization for multi-agent systems based on proximal operators is developed to achieve distributed optimal consensus.

A salient trend in studies of China and transnational civil society - two newly influential global forces - is the converging of their paths. Thousands of international NGOs and foundations have come to operate in China in the 'low politics' of environment, development and epidemics, while democracy activists campaign on China from outside. This path-breaking book investigates transnational groups' evolving relations with China and its NGO sector, and compares China with transnational stories of party states in Eastern Europe and Taiwan. This book discusses the penetration, growth and operation of transnational civil society (TCS) in China. It explores TCS' impacts on the incremental development of China's political pluralism, mainly through exploring the influences of the leading TCS actors on the country's bottom-up and self-governing activist NGOs that have sprung up spontaneously, in terms of capacities, strategies, leadership and political outlook, as a result of complex interactions between the two sectors. Transnational Civil Society in China opens up a new frontier in discussing the society, politics and international relations of China that will appeal to scholars and researchers studying China and transnational/global civil society.

Taiwan has become a significant player on the world stage in many areas and has developed a distinct international profile and influence. Its pro-active foreign policy firmly reminds the world of a new political entity's achievement, aspirations and unfulfilled ambitions. This pioneering book discusses Taiwan's pragmatic diplomacy as a way of seeking legitimacy, survival and development for a burgeoning nation-state, against the dynamic changes in domestic and international scenes and tumultuous relations with China. With special reference to Taiwan's relations with Southeast Asia, a key region in Taiwan's international linkages, the book investigates three major pillars sustaining Taipei's unorthodox diplomacy. These three pillars are: Taiwan's investment and trade prowess, and the global networks built by its business elite; its special relations with global ethnic Chinese communities; and transnational activism of Taiwan's political, social and religious groups, in a so-called 'total diplomacy'. Political Scientists, students and international policy makers along with anyone interested in the changing role of China and Taiwan on the world stage will find this book lively and informative.