Download or read book Restraining Great Powers written by T. V. Paul and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the Cold War, the United States emerged as the world's most powerful state, and then used that power to initiate wars against smaller countries in the Middle East and South Asia. According to balance-of-power theory--the bedrock of realism in international relations--other states should have joined together militarily to counterbalance the United States' rising power. Yet they did not. Nor have they united to oppose Chinese aggression in the South China Sea or Russian offensives along its western border. This does not mean balance-of-power politics is dead, argues renowned international relations scholar T. V. Paul; instead it has taken a different form. Rather than employ familiar strategies such as active military alliances and arms buildups, leading powers have engaged in "soft balancing," which seeks to restrain threatening powers through the use of international institutions, informal alignments, and economic sanctions. Paul places the evolution of balancing behavior in historical perspective, from the post-Napoleonic era to today's globalized world. This book offers an illuminating examination of how subtler forms of balance-of-power politics can help states achieve their goals against aggressive powers without wars or arms races.

Download or read book The Great Powers and the International System written by Bear F. Braumoeller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-02-11 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do great leaders make history? Or are they compelled to act by historical circumstance? This debate has remained unresolved since Thomas Carlyle and Karl Marx framed it in the mid-nineteenth century, yet implicit answers inform our policies and our views of history. In this book, Professor Bear F. Braumoeller argues persuasively that both perspectives are correct: leaders shape the main material and ideological forces of history that subsequently constrain and compel them. His studies of the Congress of Vienna, the interwar period, and the end of the Cold War illustrate this dynamic, and the data he marshals provide systematic evidence that leaders both shape and are constrained by the structure of the international system.

Download or read book Regional Great Powers in International Politics written by Iver B. Neumann and published by Springer. This book was released on 1992-06-18 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Illuminates the interplay between regional concerns and the international context, which together define the hierarchy of states. Building on case studies, this book demonstrates that this status cannot be attained solely by building a military or economic power base.

Download or read book Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers written by Yan Xuetong and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-22 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading foreign policy thinker uses Chinese political theory to explain why some powers rise as others decline and what this means for the international order Why has China grown increasingly important in the world arena while lagging behind the United States and its allies across certain sectors? Using the lens of classical Chinese political theory, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers explains China’s expanding influence by presenting a moral-realist theory that attributes the rise and fall of great powers to political leadership. Yan Xuetong shows that the stronger a rising state’s political leadership, the more likely it is to displace a prevailing state in the international system. Yan shows how rising states like China transform the international order by reshaping power distribution and norms, and he considers America’s relative decline in international stature even as its economy, education system, military, political institutions, and technology hold steady. Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers offers a provocative, alternative perspective on the changing dominance of states.

Download or read book Orders of Exclusion written by Kyle M. Lascurettes and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When and why do powerful countries seek to enact major changes to international order, the broad set of rules that guide behavior in world politics? This question is particularly important today given the Trump administration's clear disregard for the reigning liberal international order in the United States. Across the globe, there is also uncertainty over what China might seek to replace that order with as it continues to amass power and influence. Together, these developments mean that what motivates great powers to shape and change order will remain at the forefront of debates over the future of world politics. Prior studies have focused on how the origins of international orders have been consensus-driven and inclusive. By contrast, Kyle M. Lascurettes argues in Orders of Exclusion that the propelling motivation for great power order building has typically been exclusionary. Dominant powers pursue fundamental changes to order when they perceive a major new threat on the horizon. Moreover, they do so for the purpose of targeting this perceived threat, be it another powerful state or a foreboding ideological movement. The goal of foundational rule writing in international relations, then, is blocking that threatening entity from amassing further influence, a motive Lascurettes illustrates at work across more than three hundred years of history. Far from falling outside of the bounds of traditional statecraft, order building is the continuation of power politics by other means.

Download or read book Great Powers and Geopolitics written by Aharon Klieman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-02 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the theoretical-historical-comparative political framework needed to fully grasp the truly dynamic nature of 21st century global affairs. The author provides a realistic assessment of the shift from U.S predominance to a new mix of counterbalancing rival middle-tier and assertive regional powers, while highlighting those geopolitical zones of contention most critical for future international stability. The book will appeal to scholars and policy makers interested in understanding the contours of the emerging world order, and in identifying its principal shapers and leading political actors.

Download or read book The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery written by Paul Kennedy and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paul Kennedy's classic naval history, now updated with a new introduction by the author This acclaimed book traces Britain's rise and fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural 'sons of the waves', he suggests instead that the country's fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between 'continental' and 'maritime' schools of strategy over Britain's policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political and strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history. A new introduction extends his analysis into the twenty-first century and reflects on current American and Chinese ambitions for naval mastery. 'Excellent and stimulating' Correlli Barnett 'The first scholar to have set the sweep of British Naval history against the background of economic history' Michael Howard, Sunday Times 'By far the best study that has ever been done on the subject ... a sparkling and apt quotation on practically every page' Daniel A. Baugh, International History Review 'The best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us' Jon Sumida, Journal of Modern History

Download or read book Major Powers and the Quest for Status in International Politics written by T. Volgy and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-05-11 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the effects and consequences of major global power and major regional power status attribution on the foreign policies of states striving for such status and the consequences of status differentiation for the international system and the post-Cold War international order.

Download or read book Great Powers and Geopolitical Change written by Jakub J. Grygiel and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2007-02-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named by Foreign Affairs as a book to read on geopolitics. In an era of high technology and instant communication, the role of geography in the formation of strategy and politics in international relations can be undervalued. But the mountains of Afghanistan and the scorching sand storms of Iraq have provided stark reminders that geographical realities continue to have a profound impact on the success of military campaigns. Here, political scientist Jakub J. Grygiel brings to light the importance of incorporating geography into grand strategy. He argues that states can increase and maintain their position of power by pursuing a geostrategy that focuses on control of resources and lines of communication. Grygiel examines case studies of Venice, the Ottoman Empire, and China in the global fifteenth century—all great powers that faced a dramatic change in geopolitics when new routes and continents were discovered. The location of resources, the layout of trade networks, and the stability of state boundaries played a large role in the success or failure of these three powers. Grygiel asserts that, though many other aspects of foreign policy have changed throughout history, strategic response to geographical features remains one of the most salient factors in establishing and maintaining power in the international arena.

Download or read book Great Powers and International Hierarchy written by Daniel McCormack and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-08-16 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hierarchical relationships—rules that structure both international and domestic politics—are pervasive. Yet we know little about how these relationships are constructed, maintained, and dismantled. This book fills this lacuna through a two-pronged research approach: first, it discusses how great power negotiations over international political settlements both respond to domestic politics within weak states and structure the specific forms that hierarchy takes. Second, it deduces three sets of hypotheses about hierarchy maintenance, construction, and collapse during the post-war era. By offering a coherent theoretical model of hierarchical politics within weaker states, the author is able to answer a number of important questions, including: Why does the United States often ally with autocratic states even though its most enduring relationships are with democracies? Why do autocratic hierarchical relationships require interstate coercion? Why do some hierarchies end violently and others peacefully? Why does hierarchical competition sometimes lead to interstate conflict and sometimes to civil conflict?

Download or read book States Nations and the Great Powers written by Benjamin Miller and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-30 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why are some regions prone to war while others remain at peace? What conditions cause regions to move from peace to war and vice versa? This book offers a novel theoretical explanation for the differences and transitions between war and peace. The author distinguishes between 'hot' and 'cold' outcomes, depending on intensity of the war or the peace, and then uses three key concepts (state, nation, and the international system) to argue that it is the specific balance between states and nations in different regions that determines the hot or warm outcomes: the lower the balance, the higher the war proneness of the region, while the higher the balance, the warmer the peace. The theory of regional war and peace developed in this book is examined through case-studies of the post-1945 Middle East, the Balkans and South America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and post-1945 Western Europe.

Download or read book Aftershocks written by Seva Gunitskiy and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-28 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past century, democracy spread around the world in turbulent bursts of change, sweeping across national borders in dramatic cascades of revolution and reform. Aftershocks offers a new global-oriented explanation for this wavelike spread and retreat—not only of democracy but also of its twentieth-century rivals, fascism and communism. Seva Gunitsky argues that waves of regime change are driven by the aftermath of cataclysmic disruptions to the international system. These hegemonic shocks, marked by the sudden rise and fall of great powers, have been essential and often-neglected drivers of domestic transformations. Though rare and fleeting, they not only repeatedly alter the global hierarchy of powerful states but also create unique and powerful opportunities for sweeping national reforms—by triggering military impositions, swiftly changing the incentives of domestic actors, or transforming the basis of political legitimacy itself. As a result, the evolution of modern regimes cannot be fully understood without examining the consequences of clashes between great powers, which repeatedly—and often unsuccessfully—sought to cajole, inspire, and intimidate other states into joining their camps.

Download or read book Global Powers in the 21st Century written by Alexander T.J. Lennon and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008-08 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although the United States is considered the world's only superpower, other major powers seek to strengthen the roles they play on the global stage. Because of the Iraq War and its repercussions, many countries have placed an increased emphasis on multilateralism. This new desire for a multipolar world, however, may obscure the obvious question of what objectives other powerful countries seek. Few scholars and policymakers have addressed the role of the other major powers in a post-9/11 world. Global Powers in the 21st Century fills this gap, offering in-depth analyses of China, Japan, Russia, India, and the European Union in this new global context. Prominent analysts, including Zbigniew Brzezinski, C. Raja Mohan, David Shambaugh, Dmitri Trenin, Akio Watanabe, and Wu Xinbo, examine the policies and positions of these global players from both international and domestic perspectives. The book discusses each power's domestic politics, sources of power, post-9/11 changes, relationship with the United States, adjustments to globalization, and vision of its place in the world. Global Powers in the 21st Century offers readers a clear look at the handful of actors that will shape the world in the years ahead. Contributors: Franco Algieri, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Yong Deng, Xenia Dormandy, Evan A. Feigenbaum, Michael J. Green, Robert E. Hunter, Edward J. Lincoln, Jeffrey Mankoff, C. Raja Mohan, Thomas G. Moore, Robin Niblett, George Perkovich, Gideon Rachman, Richard J. Samuels, Timothy M. Savage, Teresita C. Schaffer, David Shambaugh, Robert Sutter, Dmitri Trenin, Celeste A. Wallander, Akio Watanabe, Wu Xinbo. About the Editors Alexander T.J. Lennon is editor in chief of The Washington Quarterly, the journal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is the editor of The Epicenter of Crisis: The New Middle East (MIT Press, 2008) and other Washington Quarterly Readers. Amanda Kozlowski is associate editor of The Washington Quarterly.

Download or read book Brazil s Africa Strategy written by C. Stolte and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-04-16 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book analyzes Brazil's Africa engagement as a rising power's strategy to gain global recognition, linking it to Brazil's broader foreign policy objectives and shedding light on the mechanisms of Brazilian status-seeking in Africa.

Download or read book Norms Without the Great Powers written by Adam Bower and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Can multilateral treaties succeed in transforming conduct when they are rejected by the most powerful states in the international system? In the past two decades, coalitions of middle-power states and transnational civil society groups have negotiated binding legal agreements in the face of concerted opposition from China, Russia, andmost especiallythe United States. These instances of a so-called 'new diplomacy' reflect a deliberate attempt to use the language of international law to bypass great power objections in establishing new global standards. Yet critics have frequently derided such treaties as utopian and counter productive because they fail to include those states allegedly most capable of effectively managing complex international cooperation. Thus far no study has offered a systematic, comparative study of the promise, and limits, of multilateralism without the great powers. Norms Without the Great Powers addresses this gap through the presentation of a novel theoretical account and detailed empirical evidence regarding the implementation of two archetypal cases, the antipersonnel Mine Ban Treaty and International Criminal Court. Both treaties have substantially reshaped expectations and behaviour in their respective domains, but with important variation in the extent and breadth of their impact. These findings provide the impetus for assessing the prospects for similar strategies on other topics of contemporary global concern. This book offers a timely addition to the dynamic and growing literature on the practice and consequences of international governance and should appeal to academics, civil society experts, and foreign policy practitioners working in fields such as security, human rights, and the environment.

Download or read book Great Powers and the Quest for Hegemony written by Jeremy Black and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-10-31 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely book provides a general overview of Great Power politics and world order from 1500 to the present. Jeremy Black provides several historical case-studies, each of which throws light on both the power in question and the international system of the period, and how it had developed from the preceding period. The point of departure for this

Download or read book Great Powers Climate Change and Global Environmental Responsibilities written by Robert Falkner and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-01-10 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first of its kind to examine the role of great powers in the international politics of climate change. It develops a novel analytical framework for studying environmental power in international relations, what counts as a great power in the environmental field, and what their special environmental responsibilities are. In doing so, the book connects International Relations (IR) debates on power inequality, great powers and great power management, with global environmental politics (GEP) scholarship. The book brings together leading scholars in IR and GEP whose contributions focus on major environmental powers (United States, China, European Union, India, Brazil, Russia) and international institutions and issue areas (UN Security Council, multilateral environmental agreements, international climate leadership, coal politics). The contributors to this volume examine how individual great powers have responded to the global climate challenge and whether they have accepted a special responsibility for stabilizing the global climate. They place emerging discourses on great power responsibility in the context of wider debates about international environmental leadership and climate change securitization. And they provide new insights into how international power inequality intersects with the global ecological crisis, and what special role great powers could and should play in the international fight against global warming.