The editors observe that in key texts written to teach international relations less mention is made of personal data collection risks in countries around the globe.

In the early twenty-first century, the international relations literature still posits realism as a dominant paradigm in the Western School. This volume introduces alternative frames of reference that address the deficiencies of liberalism with its lack of sufficient attention to ethnic diversity. By drawing on constructivism with its focus on framing, particularly the influence in instrumentalist terms of narratives shaped by the media, this volume explores that influence by analysing case studies in historical context. In 2020, the world’s present, yet unequal, experiences of the triptych, personal data, global pandemic and social protests, lead us to introduce personal data (Image I), the mesh region (Image II) and the distributed ecosystem (Image III) to capture the dynamic, transformative nature of the changing relationship between structure and agency.

Acknowledgements; Foreword by Prof. John Sexton-President Emeritus, New York University Word Clouds by Leslie Elizabeth Prosy, New York University; Introduction by Colette Mazzucelli, James Felton Keith, and Andrea Adams; Part I Chapter 1 Data to the People? Surveillance Capitalism and the Need for a Legal Reconceptualisation of Personal Data beyond the Notion of Privacy Jakub Wojciech Kibitlewski; Chapter 2 Human Subjects, Digital Protocols: The Future of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) and Digital Research in Vulnerable Communities Charles Martin-Shields and Ziad Al Achkar; Part II Chapter 3 Rome vs. Regions: Government in Italy during COVID-19: Implications for the Future of the European Union (EU) Christian Rossi, Colette Mazzucelli, and David C. Unger; Chapter 4 Roma Lives Matter under the COVID-19 Pandemic: But More So for Populist Nationalism Andras L. Pap; Chapter 5 Ethics of Personal Data Collection in Bosnia– Herzegovina (BiH) Mary Kate Schneider; Part III Chapter 6 Lessons from the Ebola Epidemic in Sierra Leone: The Importance of State, INGO, and Local Network Actors Thynn Thynn Hlaing and Emilie J. Greenhalgh; Chapter 7 The Digital ‘Marketplace of Ideas’: The Need for a Human Rights-Centred, Multi-stakeholder Approach to Cyber Norms Laura Salter; Conclusion by Colette Mazzucelli, Andrea Adams, and Anna Grichting; Afterword by Annette Richardson, Special Advisor, Office of the Executive Director and Under Secretary-General, UN Women; List of Contributors; Index