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A World Safe for Commerce
American Foreign Policy From The Revolution To The Rise Of China
by Dale C. Copeland
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
An Economist Biggest Book of the Year
How commerce determines whether America preserves the peace or goes to war
When the Cold War ended, many believed that expanding trade would usher in an era of peace. Yet today the United States finds itself confronting not just Russia in Europe but China in the Indo-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America. Shedding new light on how trade both reduces and increases the risks of international crisis, A World Safe for Commerce traces how, since the nation's founding, the United States has consistently moved from peace to conflict when the commerce needed for national security is under threat.
Dale Copeland shows how commerce pushes the United States and its rivals to expand their spheres of influence for access to goods even as they worry about provoking a breakdown in trade relations that could spiral into military conflict. Taking readers from the wars with Britain in 1776 and 1812 to World War II and the Cold War, he describes how America's leaders have grappled with this inherent tension, and why they have shifted, sometimes dramatically, from peaceful, mutually beneficial policies to coercion and force in order to increase control over vital trade and prevent economic decline.
A World Safe for Commerce reveals how trade competition could lead the United States and China into full-scale confrontation. But it also offers hope that both sides can work to improve their overall trade expectations and foster the confidence needed for long-term peace and stability. Dale C. Copeland is professor of international relations at the University of Virginia. He is the author of Economic Interdependence and War (Princeton) and The Origins of Major War. "A World Safe for Commerce is international relations scholarship at its best. It combines offensive and defensive realist theories to provide a sweeping and compelling reinterpretation of US foreign economic and military policy. Copeland's magisterial treatment will be essential reading for scholars of IR theory, US foreign policy, and international political economy."-Michael Mastanduno, Dartmouth College
"A World Safe for Commerce is a stunning achievement. It is the first book to provide a single, comprehensive argument to explain the continuities and changes in American foreign policy over the past two and a half centuries. The implications of the argument for US-China relations and the future peace are profound."-Strobe Talbott, former US deputy secretary of state
"With a sweeping analysis of American foreign policy, Copeland develops a theory of dynamic realism that reveals how economic interdependence shapes grand strategy. Along the way, this provocative book also provides a compelling narrative that connects to current challenges for managing contemporary US-China relations."-Christina L. Davis, author of Discriminatory Clubs
"Copeland's dynamic theory of commerce and power politics is a major contribution to international relations theory, and the basis for bold, original, and meticulously researched interpretations of key episodes of American foreign policy. A World Safe for Commerce is a pathbreaking achievement that will help define scholarly debates for years to come."-Jack S. Levy, Rutgers University
"At a time when America is once again battling great power rivals for control over geopolitical spheres of influence, Dale Copeland's innovative study shows that the expected impact of trade on military security has always been a key motive for American global expansion."-Jack Snyder, author of Human Rights for Pragmatists
"A World Safe for Commerce builds on Copeland's earlier award-winning work blending geopolitics and international commerce in ways that provide a valuable theoretical framework along with keen insights focusing particularly on the United States. The book is both rich in history and bears on critical contemporary global power dynamics."-Bruce W.
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Under the Nuclear Shadow
China's Information-age Weapons In International Security
by Fiona S. Cunningham
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
How and why China has pursued information-age weapons to gain leverage against its adversaries
How can states use military force to achieve their political aims without triggering a catastrophic nuclear war? Among the states facing this dilemma of fighting limited wars, only China has given information-age weapons such a prominent role. While other countries have preferred the traditional options of threatening to use nuclear weapons or fielding capabilities for decisive conventional military victories, China has instead chosen to rely on offensive cyber operations, counterspace capabilities, and precision conventional missiles to coerce its adversaries. In Under the Nuclear Shadow, Fiona Cunningham examines this distinctive aspect of China's post–Cold War deterrence strategy, developing an original theory of "strategic substitution." When crises with the United States highlighted the inadequacy of China's existing military capabilities, Cunningham argues, China pursued information-age weapons that promised to rapidly provide credible leverage against adversaries.
Drawing on hundreds of original Chinese-language sources and interviews with security experts in China, Cunningham provides a rare and candid glimpse from Beijing into the information-age technologies that are reshaping how states gain leverage in the twenty-first century. She offers unprecedented insights into the trajectory of China's military modernization, as she details the strengths and weaknesses of China's strategic substitution approach. Under the Nuclear Shadow also looks ahead at the uncertain future of China's strategic substitution approach and briefly explores too how other states might seize upon the promise of emerging technologies to address weaknesses in their own military strategies. Fiona S. Cunningham is assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. "Using often hard-to-find PRC texts, and interviews with credible PRC interlocutors, Cunningham delivers a granular understanding of the evolution of China's missile, information, and counter-space forces. She makes a sophisticated case that a local war problem, Taiwan, rather than a coherent grand strategy for global hegemony, may be driving this modernization."-Alastair Iain Johnston, Harvard University
"This is an important book. Cunningham presents a powerful theory with major implications for China's military posture and U.S.-China competition. Her careful and painstaking qualitative work paints a vivid and compelling portrait of Chinese strategic thinking."-Joshua Rovner, American University
"Drawing on a stunning array of new sources, Fiona Cunningham offers deep insight into China's military modernization and nuclear strategy. Her brilliant, fascinating book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand emerging technologies, the U.S.-China relationship, and the future of war."-Caitlin Talmadge, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"This book accomplishes a magisterial set of tasks. The book addresses key strategic aspects of China's military modernization in a systematic fashion. The empirical sections are thoroughly researched and incorporate a breathtaking number of superb sources. Given the increasingly closed nature of China, this material will not be surpassed for a long while. There is no comparable book."-Christopher Twomey, Naval Postgraduate School "[An] excellent book. . . . Highly recommended."
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When the Bombs Stopped
The Legacy Of War In Rural Cambodia
by Erin Lin
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
How undetonated bombs from a war that ended more than fifty years ago still affect Cambodian farmers and their land
Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United States dropped 500,000 tons of bombs over Cambodia-more than the combined weight of every man, woman, and child in the country. What began as a secret CIA infiltration of Laos eventually expanded into Cambodia and escalated into a nine-year war over the Ho Chi Minh trail fought primarily with bombs. Fifty years after the last sortie, residents of rural Cambodia are still coping with the unexploded ordnance that covers their land. In When the Bombs Stopped, Erin Lin investigates the consequences of the US bombing campaign across postconflict Cambodia.
Drawing on interviews, original econometric analysis, and extensive fieldwork, Lin upends the usual scholarly perspective on the war and its aftermath, presenting the viewpoint of those who suffered the bombing rather than those who dropped the bombs. She shows that Cambodian farmers stay at a subsistence level because much of their land is too dangerous to cultivate-and yet, paradoxically, the same bombs that endanger and impoverish farming communities also protect them, deterring predatory elites from grabbing and commodifying their land. Lin argues that the half-century legacy of American bombs has sedimented the war into the layers of contemporary Cambodian society. Policies aimed at developing or modernizing Cambodia, whether economic liberalization or authoritarian consolidation, must be realized in an environment haunted by the violence of the past. As the stories Lin captures show, the bombing served as a critical juncture in these farming villages, marking the place in time where development stopped. Erin Lin is assistant professor of political science at the Ohio State University. "This is a devastating look at the long aftermath of the massive American bombing of Cambodia. Through an impressive mix of ethnographic observation, historical data, and mass-sample surveys, Erin Lin shows the enduring economic consequences of that colossal tonnage of bombs-a vital reminder of what warfare means for its poorest and most vulnerable targets."-Gary Bass, Princeton University, author of The Blood Telegram and Judgment at Tokyo
"An astonishing book. With rigorous research, Lin carefully lays out the effects of fear on economic growth in postwar areas of Cambodia. Lin shows how cluster munitions continue to confound development, despite policy changes, agricultural development, and decades of postwar aid. Her book validates the power of an ethnographic approach to reorient economic analysis, infusing scholarship with the moral necessity of linking military technologies to the lives of the people who experience their violence."-Leah Zani, author of Strike Patterns: Notes from Postwar Laos
"This intimate account of lingering postwar damage in rural Cambodia is, like the lasting social and economic wreckage of American bombing itself, deeply devastating and disturbing. Erin Lin boldly shifts our analytical perspective from the bombers to the bombed." -Dan Slater, coauthor of From Development to Democracy
"In this important, sobering, and very relevant contribution to our understanding of the legacies of war, Erin Lin traces the long-run consequences of the US bombing of Cambodia. Combining ethnographic research with statistical analysis of declassified US military data, she shows how farmers today live with the risks posed by the many unexploded bombs still found in fertile areas. Demining of farmland is often followed by predatory land grabbing, contributing to rural inequality in the long shadow of war."-Elisabeth Jean Wood, Yale University
"With wide-ranging curiosity and scholarship, Erin Lin has investigated the lethal legacy of the hundreds of thousands of US bombs dropped decades ago on Cambodia. In When the Bombs Stopped, she ties the continued hardships and
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Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis
A Study of Political Decision-Making
by Barbara Reardon Farnham
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Barbara Rearden Farnham is Senior Associate at the Institute of War and Peace Studies.
Franklin Roosevelt's intentions during the three years between Munich and Pearl Harbor have been a source of controversy among historians for decades. Barbara Farnham offers both a theory of how the domestic political context affects foreign policy decisions in general and a fresh interpretation of FDR's post-Munich policies based on the insights that the theory provides. Between 1936 and 1938, Roosevelt searched for ways to influence the deteriorating international situation. When Hitler's behavior during the Munich crisis showed him to be incorrigibly aggressive, FDR settled on aiding the democracies, a course to which he adhered until America's entry into the war. This policy attracted him because it allowed him to deal with a serious problem: the conflict between the need to stop Hitler and the domestic imperative to avoid any risk of American involvement in a war.
Because existing theoretical approaches to value conflict ignore the influence of political factors on decision-making, they offer little help in explaining Roosevelt's behavior. As an alternative, this book develops a political approach to decision-making which focuses on the impact that awareness of the imperatives of the political context can have on decision-making processes and, through them, policy outcomes. It suggests that in the face of a clash of central values decision-makers who are aware of the demands of the political context are likely to be reluctant to make trade-offs, seeking instead a solution that gives some measure of satisfaction to all the values implicated in the decision. "A valiant and admirable effort to bring together international-relations theory and historical evidence (however anecdotal). . . . No book better re-creates Roosevelt's awareness of the aviation age; it belongs on the scholar's shelf."---Warren F. Kimball, The Times Literary Supplement "Farnham argues with great clarity and commendable force that the Munich crisis played a decisive role in determining for Roosevelt that German aims in Europe . . . posed a direct threat to long-term US security." "Using her theory of political decision making, Farnham effectively weaves together the diverse and contradictory aspects of Roosevelt's policy into a coherent description of a president intent on acting to address American security needs but responsive to domestic political restraints. . . . She makes a strong case, worthy of consideration."---T. Michael Ruddy, History "It is refreshing to see a work that takes a different point of view and argues it vigorously, backed with ample evidence. . . . [An] interesting and worthy read."---Mark J. Rozell, APSA Journal "In this fine book, Barbara Farnham describes and explains Franklin D. Roosevelt's policies and actions toward the Munich crisis of 1938, its background, and its aftermath. She advances a clear thesis that she develops consistently throughout the book. She is perceptive, fair, and balanced in her analyses."---Wayne S. Cole, Diplomatic History "[An] impressive scholarly achievement . . .The book is very readable."---Stephen G. Walker, American Political Science Review "Solving the FDR enigma is not easy. Farnham's theory, bringing an essentially political dimension to the problem of choice, provides historians with a more rigorous and intellectually viable approach to the problem of decoding FDR."-Waldo Heinrichs, San Diego State University "This work provides a subtle reading of FDR's actions and motivations. The result is a fascinating, original, and highly readable book."-Fred I. Greenstein, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
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The Moral Purpose of the State
Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations
by Christian Reus-Smit
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Christian Reus-Smit is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. He is the editor, with Albert Paolini and Anthony Jarvis, of Between Sovereignty and Global Governance: The United Nations, the State, and Civil Society.
This book seeks to explain why different systems of sovereign states have built different types of fundamental institutions to govern interstate relations. Why, for example, did the ancient Greeks operate a successful system of third-party arbitration, while international society today rests on a combination of international law and multilateral diplomacy? Why did the city-states of Renaissance Italy develop a system of oratorical diplomacy, while the states of absolutist Europe relied on naturalist international law and "old diplomacy"? Conventional explanations of basic institutional practices have difficulty accounting for such variation. Christian Reus-Smit addresses this problem by presenting an alternative, "constructivist" theory of international institutional development, one that emphasizes the relationship between the social identity of the state and the nature and origin of basic institutional practices.
Reus-Smit argues that international societies are shaped by deep constitutional structures that are based on prevailing beliefs about the moral purpose of the state, the organizing principle of sovereignty, and the norm of procedural justice. These structures inform the imaginations of institutional architects as they develop and adjust institutional arrangements between states. As he shows with detailed reference to ancient Greece, Renaissance Italy, absolutist Europe, and the modern world, different cultural and historical contexts lead to profoundly different constitutional structures and institutional practices. The first major study of its kind, this book is a significant addition to our theoretical and empirical understanding of international relations, past and present.
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Satellites and Commissars
Strategy and Conflict in the Politics of Soviet-Bloc Trade
by Randall W. Stone
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Randall W. Stone is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester. The dissertation on which this book is based won the Charles Sumner Prize from Harvard University and the 1994 Helen Dwight Reid Award from the American Political Science Association. He is also the author of Lending Credibility (Princeton).
Why did the Soviet Union squander the political leverage afforded by its trade subsidy to Eastern Europe? Why did Soviet officials fail to bargain with resolve, to link subsidies to salient political issues, to make credible commitments, and to monitor the satellites' policies? Using an unprecedented array of formerly secret documents housed in archives in Moscow, Warsaw, and Prague, as well as interviews with former Communist officials across Eastern Europe, Randall Stone answers these questions and others that have long vexed Western political scientists.
Stone argues that trade politics revolved around the incentives created by distorted prices. The East European satellites profited by trading on the margin between prices on the Western market and those in the Soviet bloc. The Soviet Union made numerous attempts to reduce its implicit trade subsidy and increase the efficiency of the bloc, but the satellites managed consistently to outmaneuver Soviet negotiators. Stone demonstrates how the East Europeans artfully resisted Soviet objectives.
Stone draws upon recent developments in bargaining and principal-agent theory, arguing that the incentives created by domestic institutions weakened Soviet bargaining strategies. In effect, he suggests, perverse incentive structures in the Soviet economy were exported into Soviet foreign policy. Furthermore, Stone argues, incentives to smother information were so deeply entrenched that they frustrated numerous attempts to reform Soviet institutions. "Randall Stone provides a theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich study. . . . Masterfully linking theory and case study, Stone provides a provocative analysis that challenges a number of prevailing views. . . . Skeptics may dispute Stone's conclusions but are less likely to question the quality of his analysis and research. Indeed, his careful study has set the terms for debate and an agenda for further research."---Philip Roeder, American Political Science Review "A major achievement in the field of Soviet studies. It is an original, carefully documented, and theoretically valuable contribution to the field. Moreover, this book effectively crosses disciplines of comparative political economy and international relations, making it essential reading both for theorists concerned with the process of integration and for students of Soviet-East European relations."---Alan Rousso, Political Science Quarterly "One of the best-researched analyses of trade between members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. . . . This is a book well worth reading."---Dale R. Herspring, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
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Economic Discrimination and Political Exchange
World Political Economy in the 1930s and 1980s
by Kenneth A. Oye
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Kenneth A. Oye is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the editor of Cooperation under Anarchy (Princeton) and coeditor of Eagle in a New World: American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era (HarperCollins).
Did bilateral and regional bargaining choke off international commerce and finance in the 1930s and prolong the Great Depression? Is the open world economic system now being placed at risk by explicitly discriminatory practices that erode respect for the GATT, the IMF, and the IBRD? Most political economists would answer in the affirmative, warning that bilateral and regional preferences are at best inefficient and at worst catastrophic. By contrast, Kenneth Oye shows how economic discrimination can foster international economic openness by facilitating political exchange. "Oye's new book offers a concise analysis of the structure of international commercial relations, including its financial and macroeconomic underpinnings, in the 1930s and 1980s."---The, Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science "Economic Discrimination and Political Exchange is in my judgment an important piece of work that makes major interpretive and theoretical contributions. Oye succeeds in the rarely achieved task of putting old facts in a new light. At the theoretical level, he goes beyond the increasingly fruitless confrontation of hegemonic, regime-oriented, and pluralistic bargaining theories to make some interesting arguments about the conditions under which each of these patterns of action leads to cooperation."-Robert O. Keohane, Harvard University
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Germany Divided
From the Wall to Reunification
by A. James McAdams
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
A. James McAdams is a Departmental Fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and Associate Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Notre Dame.
Germany Divided remains one of the most thought-provoking and comprehensive interpretations of the forty-year relationship between East and West Germany and of the problems of contemporary German unity. In this politically controversial and analytically sophisticated account, A. James McAdams dissects the complex process by which East and West German leaders moved over the years from first pursuing the ideal of German unity, to accepting what they believed to be the inescapable reality of division, and then, finally, to meeting the challenges of an unanticipated reunification. This new edition contains an epilogue in which McAdams considers some of the political and economic problems faced by eastern and western Germans as they entered their fourth year of living together. "A masterly and elegantly written account of the interweaving of domestic politics and inter-German relations." ". . . a notable analysis of the two Germanys and how they became one." ". . . comprehensive coverage and first-rate analysis of the intricate East-West German relationship in the 1970's and 80's." "A. James McAdams' excellent book is above all the story of the two Germanies' forty-year history with each other. . . . Using a plethora of interviews and other primary sources, McAdams presents a story unavailable elsewhere." "Well documented and consistently rigorous, McAdams' study points out the immense challenges that remain before a liberal democratic Germany can be created." "An outstanding analysis of the changing relations between East and West Germany." "There are very few scholars in the German field who move as comfortably between the different worlds of Bonn and East Berlin as does A. James McAdams."-Norman Naimark, Stanford University
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Seeking the Bomb
Strategies of Nuclear Proliferation
by Vipin Narang
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Vipin Narang is the Frank Stanton Professor of Nuclear Security and Political Science and a member of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is author of Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era (Princeton). Twitter @NarangVipin
The first systematic look at the different strategies that states employ in their pursuit of nuclear weapons
Much of the work on nuclear proliferation has focused on why states pursue nuclear weapons. The question of how states pursue nuclear weapons has received little attention. Seeking the Bomb is the first book to analyze this topic by examining which strategies of nuclear proliferation are available to aspirants, why aspirants select one strategy over another, and how this matters to international politics.
Looking at a wide range of nations, from India and Japan to the Soviet Union and North Korea to Iraq and Iran, Vipin Narang develops an original typology of proliferation strategies-hedging, sprinting, sheltered pursuit, and hiding. Each strategy of proliferation provides different opportunities for the development of nuclear weapons, while at the same time presenting distinct vulnerabilities that can be exploited to prevent states from doing so. Narang delves into the crucial implications these strategies have for nuclear proliferation and international security. Hiders, for example, are especially disruptive since either they successfully attain nuclear weapons, irrevocably altering the global power structure, or they are discovered, potentially triggering serious crises or war, as external powers try to halt or reverse a previously clandestine nuclear weapons program.
As the international community confronts the next generation of potential nuclear proliferators, Seeking the Bomb explores how global conflict and stability are shaped by the ruthlessly pragmatic ways states choose strategies of proliferation. ""Vipin Narang's new book, Seeking the Bomb, is an important contribution to our understanding of nuclear proliferation and, by extension, ways to prevent it . . . . the book, unfortunately, could not be more timely"---Henrietta Wilson, Times Literary Supplement "[Seeking The Bomb] brilliantly dissects and theorizes how states pursue nuclear weapons. . . .[An] innovative account."---Rabia Akhtar, International Affairs "Presenting a wealth of case studies to explain variation in would-be nuclear powers' strategies of nuclear proliferation, Narang offers a nuanced account of internal and external factors that influence decision making in each instance. This book promises to be essential reading for international security experts."-Jennifer L. Erickson, Boston College "This superb book is a major contribution to the scholarly literature on nuclear weapons proliferation and international security. Narang's theory is novel and his rigorous case studies are stunning. This is essential reading."-Scott Sagan, Stanford University "Seeking the Bomb is an exceptional book, one of the most important to come out in the field in decades. It will become the definitive work on its subject matter and be widely read by academic, policy, and general audiences."-Caitlin Talmadge, Georgetown University
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Does Conquest Pay?
The Exploitation of Occupied Industrial Societies
by Peter Liberman
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Peter Liberman is Associate Professor of Political Science, Queens College, City University of New York.
Can foreign invaders successfully exploit industrial economies? Since control over economic resources is a key source of power, the answer affects the likelihood of aggression and how strenuously states should counter it. The resurgence of nationalism has led many policymakers and scholars to doubt that conquest still pays. But, until now, the "cumulativity" of industrial resources has never been subjected to systematic analysis.
Does Conquest Pay? demonstrates that expansion can, in fact, provide rewards to aggressor nations. Peter Liberman argues that invaders can exploit industrial societies for short periods of time and can maintain control and economic performance over the long term. This is because modern societies are uniquely vulnerable to coercion and repression. Hence, by wielding a gun in one hand and offering food with the other, determined conquerors can compel collaboration and suppress resistance. Liberman's argument is supported by several historical case studies: Germany's capture of Belgium and Luxembourg during World War I and of nearly all of Europe during World War II; France's seizure of the Ruhr in 1923-24; the Japanese Empire during 1910-45; and Soviet hegemony over Eastern Europe in 1945-89.
Does Conquest Pay? suggests that the international system is more war-prone than many optimists claim. Liberman's findings also contribute to debates about the stability of empires and other authoritarian regimes, the effectiveness of national resistance strategies, and the sources of rebellious collective action. "An outstanding piece of multilingual historical and economic research in the service of social science." "This close study of five major occupations (including the Nazi, Japanese, and Soviet empires) concludes that conquest pays handsomely. The costs are low; the benefits potentially large. This is a valuable analysis, of significance for strategic study of the 20th century, and of disturbing implications for architects of the current international system."
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The Spectre of War
International Communism and the Origins of World War II
by Jonathan Haslam
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"A Financial Times Best History Book of the Year 2021" "A Telegraph Best Book of the Year 2021" Jonathan Haslam is the George F. Kennan Professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is a fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and professor emeritus of the history of international relations at the University of Cambridge. His books include Near and Distant Neighbors and Russia's Cold War. He divides his time between Princeton, New Jersey and Cambridge, England.
A bold new history showing that the fear of Communism was a major factor in the outbreak of World War II
The Spectre of War looks at a subject we thought we knew-the roots of the Second World War-and upends our assumptions with a masterful new interpretation. Looking beyond traditional explanations based on diplomatic failures or military might, Jonathan Haslam explores the neglected thread connecting them all: the fear of Communism prevalent across continents during the interwar period. Marshalling an array of archival sources, including records from the Communist International, Haslam transforms our understanding of the deep-seated origins of World War II, its conflicts, and its legacy.
Haslam offers a panoramic view of Europe and northeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, connecting fascism's emergence with the impact of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. World War I had economically destabilized many nations, and the threat of Communist revolt loomed large in the ensuing social unrest. As Moscow supported Communist efforts in France, Spain, China, and beyond, opponents such as the British feared for the stability of their global empire, and viewed fascism as the only force standing between them and the Communist overthrow of the existing order. The appeasement and political misreading of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy that followed held back the spectre of rebellion-only to usher in the later advent of war.
Illuminating ideological differences in the decades before World War II, and the continuous role of pre- and postwar Communism, The Spectre of War provides unprecedented context for one of the most momentous calamities of the twentieth century. "Books of this quality and significance are rare. Haslam has mined the archives of all the main players to produce an excellent, game-changing thesis that is as convincing as it is original."---Saul David, The Times "It may be a cliché to say this is a book every intelligent person ought to read, but it really is."---Simon Heffer, The Telegraph "Anyone interested in global tensions in the interwar period will learn much from the latest book of Jonathan Haslam. . . . He draws on a lifetime of expertise on the Soviet Union and Russian foreign policy to explain how fear of communism permeated international relations after 1917."---Tony Barber, Financial Times "
Drawing on sources in English, French, Russian, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish from archives across Europe (and beyond), The Spectre of War is full of fascinating stories that offer a unique glimpse into the tormented world on the eve of the Second World War. Elegantly crafted, it offers the reader the knowledge of a scholar who has worked in the field for decades."---David Motadel, Times Literary Supplement "2021's most impressive work of history pulls together hidden threads to show how fear of Bolshevism poisoned international relations between the wars." "
One of the year's most impressive pieces of research."---Simon Heffer, A Telegraph Best New History Book "With his signature iconoclasm, Jonathan Haslam's sweeping reexamination of the international politics of the 1920s and 1930s shows the centrality of the Russian Revolution, ideologies (and leaders' perceptions of others' ideologies), and the interpenetration of states' domestic politics. This period looks different when it is seen, as it needs to be, in terms of the particularities generated by it
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Disarming Strangers
Nuclear Diplomacy with North Korea
by Leon V. Sigal
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 1998 Book of Distinction on the Practice of Diplomacy, The American Academy of Diplomacy" Leon V. Sigal is a consultant at the Social Science Research Council in New York and Adjunct Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. A former member of The New York Times editorial board, he is also the author of Fighting to a Finish: The Politics of War Termination in the United States and Japan, 1945.
In June 1994 the United States went to the brink of war with North Korea. With economic sanctions impending, President Bill Clinton approved the dispatch of substantial reinforcements to Korea, and plans were prepared for attacking the North's nuclear weapons complex. The turning point came in an extraordinary private diplomatic initiative by former President Jimmy Carter and others to reverse the dangerous American course and open the way to a diplomatic settlement of the nuclear crisis.
Few Americans know the full details behind this story or perhaps realize the devastating impact it could have had on the nation's post-Cold War foreign policy. In this lively and authoritative book, Leon Sigal offers an inside look at how the Korean nuclear crisis originated, escalated, and was ultimately defused. He begins by exploring a web of intelligence failures by the United States and intransigence within South Korea and the International Atomic Energy Agency. Sigal pays particular attention to an American mindset that prefers coercion to cooperation in dealing with aggressive nations. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with policymakers from the countries involved, he discloses the details of the buildup to confrontation, American refusal to engage in diplomatic give-and-take, the Carter mission, and the diplomatic deal of October 1994.
In the post-Cold War era, the United States is less willing and able than before to expend unlimited resources abroad; as a result it will need to act less unilaterally and more in concert with other nations. What will become of an American foreign policy that prefers coercion when conciliation is more likely to serve its national interests? Using the events that nearly led the United States into a second Korean War, Sigal explores the need for policy change when it comes to addressing the challenge of nuclear proliferation and avoiding conflict with nations like Russia, Iran, and Iraq. What the Cuban missile crisis was to fifty years of superpower conflict, the North Korean nuclear crisis is to the coming era. "Sigal makes it disturbingly clear how close the world came to war in Korea in 1994. The product of hundreds of interviews, Disarming Strangers is also the most rigorously detailed account of U.S. policy towards North Korea yet published, and it will remain so for many years.... An important and superbly researched book."---Michael J. Mazarr, Survival "This is a thought-provoking and disturbing book on American and North Korean diplomatic relations. Disarming Strangers is also an extremely well-researched study."---Bill Drucker, Korean Quarterly "Leon Sigal's Disarming Strangers is the most comprehensive treatment of the U.S.-North Korea nuclear negotiations available.... Sigal is at his best in describing the way governments actually come to make decisions."-Robert L. Gallucci, U.S. Negotiator at the High Level Talks, 1993-1994 "A brilliant reconstruction of how close we came to war with North Korea in 1994, . . . A highly cautionary tale, illustrating the value of cooperation, not confrontation, in dealing with dangerous strangers having nuclear aspirations."-Donald P. Gregg, former Ambassador to South Korea "Anyone who cares about how American foreign policy should be conducted after the Cold War should read this book."-Morton H. Halperin, former member, National Security Council Staff
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Unanswered Threats
Political Constraints on the Balance of Power
by Randall L. Schweller
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Randall L. Schweller is Associate Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Schweller's research focuses on theories of world politics, international security, and strategic studies. He is the author of Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest, as well as many articles in journals such as World Politics, International Studies Quarterly, International Security, American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Review of International Studies, and Security Studies. He is currently a member of the editorial board of the journal International Security (Belfer Center of Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University). In 1993, he received a John M. Olin Post-Doctoral Fellowship in National Security at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University.
Why have states throughout history regularly underestimated dangers to their survival? Why have some states been able to mobilize their material resources effectively to balance against threats, while others have not been able to do so? The phenomenon of "underbalancing" is a common but woefully underexamined behavior in international politics. Underbalancing occurs when states fail to recognize dangerous threats, choose not to react to them, or respond in paltry and imprudent ways. It is a response that directly contradicts the core prediction of structural realism's balance-of-power theory--that states motivated to survive as autonomous entities are coherent actors that, when confronted by dangerous threats, act to restore the disrupted balance by creating alliances or increasing their military capabilities, or, in some cases, a combination of both.
Consistent with the new wave of neoclassical realist research, Unanswered Threats offers a theory of underbalancing based on four domestic-level variables--elite consensus, elite cohesion, social cohesion, and regime/government vulnerability--that channel, mediate, and redirect policy responses to external pressures and incentives. The theory yields five causal schemes for underbalancing behavior, which are tested against the cases of interwar Britain and France, France from 1877 to 1913, and the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) that pitted tiny Paraguay against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Randall Schweller concludes that those most likely to underbalance are incoherent, fragmented states whose elites are constrained by political considerations. "In this groundbreaking book, Schweller observes that history is in fact full of what he calls 'underbalancing'--the failure of states to form alliances or build arms in the face of threatening accumulations of power."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "The book focuses largely on 'underbalancing', or on why certain types of states fail to employ balance-of-power strategies. The answer is domestic politics. . . . The book is a clear blend of realism and idealism. . . . A superb book worthy of a wide readership."---Charles F. Doran, International History Review "Unanswered Threats is a most valuable addition to the field. . . . [Schweller] makes a giant leap forward by pairing variables that are reductive and idiosyncratic with well-constructed and empirically testable hypotheses of his own."---Ariel Ilan Roth, International Studies Review "[An] insightful and elegantly written book. . . . [Unanswered Threats] is a formidable first cut on the salient topic of underbalancing."---Evan Resnick, Perspectives on Politics "In the net, two interesting conclusions can be drawn from Schweller's excellent work. The first is that domestic uncertainties can doom the presumed outcomes of realism--in either hyper-aggression or hypo-assertion. The second is that if democratic states can control the logroll, they frequently behave distinctly and differently from other states. They can develop fellow feeling toward other nations that rises above mere short-term
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War and Punishment
The Causes of War Termination and the First World War
by H. E. Goemans
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
H. E. Goemans is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Duke University.
What makes wars drag on and why do they end when they do? Here H. E. Goemans brings theoretical rigor and empirical depth to a long-standing question of securities studies. He explores how various government leaders assess the cost of war in terms of domestic politics and their own postwar fates. Goemans first develops the argument that two sides will wage war until both gain sufficient knowledge of the other's strengths and weaknesses so as to agree on the probable outcome of continued war. Yet the incentives that motivate leaders to then terminate war, Goemans maintains, can vary greatly depending on the type of government they represent. The author looks at democracies, dictatorships, and mixed regimes and compares the willingness among leaders to back out of wars or risk the costs of continued warfare.
Democracies, according to Goemans, will prefer to withdraw quickly from a war they are not winning in order to appease the populace. Autocracies will do likewise so as not to be overthrown by their internal enemies. Mixed regimes, which are made up of several competing groups and which exclude a substantial proportion of the people from access to power, will likely see little risk in continuing a losing war in the hope of turning the tide. Goemans explores the conditions and the reasoning behind this "gamble for resurrection" as well as other strategies, using rational choice theory, statistical analysis, and detailed case studies of Germany, Britain, France, and Russia during World War I. In so doing, he offers a new perspective of the Great War that integrates domestic politics, international politics, and battlefield developments. "Goemans makes a significant addition to our understanding of war termination. In addition, the book is so well written that it is a valuable source for readers at all levels." "One can disagree with particular interpretations of Goemans, or even question his overall thesis, but it is a thesis that must be taken seriously. Goemans is to be congratulated for producing a book of value to scholars and to policy-makers, given the obvious implications of his findings for strategy."---Richard Ned Lebow, International History Review "The greatest strength of this book is that it is eminently thought-provoking, and that is praise not lightly given."---Ralph Ashby, The Historian "War and Punishmentis a refreshing combination of rigorous reasoning and elegant historical analysis on one of the most important, and least understood, aspects of war: what causes wars to end. Anyone interested in the interplay between leadership, domestic politics, and international conflict must read this book. It is a superb and enlightening analysis."-Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University "A fresh and thought-provoking analysis of why the First World War lasted so long and of what caused it to end. Goemans bridges the gap between international history and security studies, offering challenging conclusions for experts in both disciplines. His book deserves a wide readership."-David Stevenson, Professor of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science "This may very well be the best book written in the last twenty years by a political scientist on war termination, war aims, and World War I. Goemans presents a formidable challenge to the way that we think about the prosecution of war, war duration, and the links between these and regime type. Not only does the book contain tremendously valuable theoretical insights, but it also provides compelling empirical evidence."-Allan C. Stam, Yale University
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Entangling Relations
American Foreign Policy in Its Century
by David A. Lake
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
David A. Lake is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, and coeditor of the journal International Organization. He has published widely in the field of international relations and has, most recently, coedited The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion, and Escalation and Strategic Choice and International Relations, both available from Princeton University Press.
Throughout what publisher Henry Luce dubbed the "American century," the United States has wrestled with two central questions. Should it pursue its security unilaterally or in cooperation with others? If the latter, how can its interests be best protected against opportunism by untrustworthy partners? In a major attempt to explain security relations from an institutionalist approach, David A. Lake shows how the answers to these questions have differed after World War I, during the Cold War, and today. In the debate over whether to join the League of Nations, the United States reaffirmed its historic policy of unilateralism. After World War II, however, it broke decisively with tradition and embraced a new policy of cooperation with partners in Europe and Asia. Today, the United States is pursuing a new strategy of cooperation, forming ad hoc coalitions and evincing an unprecedented willingness to shape but then work within the prevailing international consensus on the appropriate goals and means of foreign policy.
In interpreting these three defining moments of American foreign policy, Lake draws on theories of relational contracting and poses a general theory of security relationships. He arrays the variety of possible security relationships on a continuum from anarchy to hierarchy, and explains actual relations as a function of three key variables: the benefits from pooling security resources and efforts with others, the expected costs of opportunistic behavior by partners, and governance costs. Lake systematically applies this theory to each of the "defining moments" of twentieth-century American foreign policy and develops its broader implications for the study of international relations. "An innovative approach to understanding how and why polities choose to structure their relations with one another. . . . Lake has some interesting ideas, which he presents clearly and intelligently." "David Lake works masterfully at the intersection of highly revealing political science theories and recent important findings in the history of U.S. foreign relations. Lake opens fresh, instructive perspectives on the so-called American Century-not least by finally destroying (one hopes once and for all), the myth of American isolationism, and demonstrating how the battle over U.S. foreign policy has been, and continues to be, between whose who wish to deal with the world unilaterally and those he rightly calls internationalist."-Walter LaFeber, Cornell University "This is the most ambitious, most successful attempt yet to bring under a single, conceptual framework the strategic choices available to a state seeking to enhance its security: empire, alliance, and unilateralism. This is a major contribution to the field of international politics."-Jack Snyder, Columbia University "Entangling Relations raises an important question-what accounts for the variation in the institutional structure of security relationships?-and helps us begin to think about this problem more clearly by drawing on work in relational contracting and organizational theory in economics."-Robert Powell, UC-Berkeley
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After Victory
Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars
by G. John Ikenberry
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the Jervis-Shroeder Best Book Award" G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Political and International Affairs at Princeton University and a Global Eminence Scholar at Kyung Hee University in Seoul. His books include Liberal Leviathan (Princeton). The end of the Cold War was a "big bang" reminiscent of earlier moments after major wars, such as the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the end of the world wars in 1919 and 1945. But what do states that win wars do with their newfound power, and how do they use it to build order? In After Victory, John Ikenberry examines postwar settlements in modern history, arguing that powerful countries do seek to build stable and cooperative relations, but the type of order that emerges hinges on their ability to make commitments and restrain power. He explains that only with the spread of democracy in the twentieth century and the innovative use of international institutions-both linked to the emergence of the United States as a world power-has order been created that goes beyond balance of power politics to exhibit "constitutional" characteristics. Blending comparative politics with international relations, and history with theory, After Victory will be of interest to anyone concerned with the organization of world order, the role of institutions in world politics, and the lessons of past postwar settlements for today. "After Victory showed how international governance can serve the interest of hegemonic powers."-New York Times "The liberal argument that democratic regimes can make a dramatic difference in world affairs has finally achieved intellectual respectability, as this fine book so convincingly maintains."-Foreign Affairs "After Victory is a majestic work that combines many familiar but seemingly unrelated themes into one elegant package of exceptional theoretical and empirical sweep. . . . It should have an enduring impact on the study and practice of international relations."-Journal of Politics "Thought-provoking . . . and an important contribution."-Political Science Quarterly "Unquestionably one of the most important books in the field."-International Affairs "An elegant, penetrating study. . . . This pathbreaking work is one of the most important . . . on international order to appear in many years."-Choice
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Cultural Realism
Strategic Culture and Grand Strategy in Chinese History
by Alastair Iain Johnston
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Alastair Iain Johnston is Assistant Professor of Government and teaches Chinese foreign policy and international relations at Harvard University.
Cultural Realism is an in-depth study of premodern Chinese strategic thought that has important implications for contemporary international relations theory. In applying a Western theoretical debate to China, Iain Johnston advances rigorous procedures for testing for the existence and influence of "strategic culture."
Johnston sets out to answer two empirical questions. Is there a substantively consistent and temporally persistent Chinese strategic culture? If so, to what extent has it influenced China's approaches to security? The focus of his study is the Ming dynasty's grand strategy against the Mongols (1368-1644). First Johnston examines ancient military texts as sources of Chinese strategic culture, using cognitive mapping, symbolic analysis and congruence tests to determine whether there is a consistent grand strategic preference ranking across texts that constitutes a single strategic culture. Then he applies similar techniques to determine the effect of the strategic culture on the strategic preferences of the Ming decision makers. Finally, he assesses the effect of these preferences on Ming policies towards the Mongol "threat."
The findings of this book challenge dominant interpretations of traditional Chinese strategic thought. They suggest also that the roots of realpolitik are ideational and not predominantly structural. The results lead to the surprising conclusion that there may be, in fact, fewer cross-national differences in strategic culture than proponents of the "strategic culture" approach think. "If Johnston's analysis of China's strategic culture is correct--and I believe that it is--generational change will not guarantee a kinder, gentler China."---Warren I. Cohen, The Atlantic Monthly "[Cultural Realism] contends that the Chinese are no less concerned with the use of military power than any other civilization--a point that scholars have traditionally disputed because, as Johnston demonstrates, they misread the Chinese classics."---Roderick MacFarquhar, Lingua Franca "Johnston is correct that many actual Chinese uses of force look far more like 'realism' than many Sinologists have realized. His stress on the 'realist' thread in the classics is likewise very illuminating."---Arthur Waldron, The New Republic "The beauty of this book is the clarity and precision of the argument.... We need the intellectual challenge of such social science research on ancient and imperial China."---Joseph W. Eshrick, Journal of Asian Studies
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The Sovereign State and Its Competitors
An Analysis of Systems Change
by Hendrik Spruyt
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 1996 J. David Greenstone Book Prize, American Political Science Association" Hendrik Spruyt is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University.
The present international system, composed for the most part of sovereign, territorial states, is often viewed as the inevitable outcome of historical development. Hendrik Spruyt argues that there was nothing inevitable about the rise of the state system, however. Examining the competing institutions that arose during the decline of feudalism--among them urban leagues, independent communes, city states, and sovereign monarchies--Spruyt disposes of the familiar claim that the superior size and war-making ability of the sovereign nation-state made it the natural successor to the feudal system.
The author argues that feudalism did not give way to any single successor institution in simple linear fashion. Instead, individuals created a variety of institutional forms, such as the sovereign, territorial state in France, the Hanseatic League, and the Italian city-states, in reaction to a dramatic change in the medieval economic environment. Only in a subsequent selective phase of institutional evolution did sovereign, territorial authority prove to have significant institutional advantages over its rivals. Sovereign authority proved to be more successful in organizing domestic society and structuring external affairs. Spruyt's interdisciplinary approach not only has important implications for change in the state system in our time, but also presents a novel analysis of the general dynamics of institutional change. "Hendrik Spruyt's book provides new and interesting analytical framework for examining--from an international perspective--the emergence of new international political systems....The book advances a bold and intriguing hypothesis....[It is] a powerful and provocative essay; the examination of its details will probably provide much work in years to come. Any economic historian who considers the state system as fundamental to European growth should read this work."---Avner Greif, Journal of Economic History "This intriguing book argues that nation-states and territorially sovereign powers were not the only possible form of organization, and that the end of the Middle Ages saw the flowering of a variety of alternatives." "Spruyt ... shows that sovereign states of Europe emerged from the decline of feudalism as urban units gained freedom and formed leagues.... He also puts into perspective the European Union that today's nation-states are attempting to put together.... A significant contribution to political science and to European history." "Spruyt takes on a theme that is ... of central import to political science.... A convincing demonstration that there was nothing inevitable about the triumph of the [present] form of the state."-John A. Hall, McGill University
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Strategic Instincts
The Adaptive Advantages of Cognitive Biases in International Politics
by Dominic D. P. Johnson
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Dominic D. P. Johnson is the Alistair Buchan Professor of International Relations at St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He is the author of God Is Watching You and Overconfidence and War and the coauthor of Failing to Win.
"A very timely book."-Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America
How cognitive biases can guide good decision making in politics and international relations
A widespread assumption in political science and international relations is that cognitive biases-quirks of the brain we all share as human beings-are detrimental and responsible for policy failures, disasters, and wars. In Strategic Instincts, Dominic Johnson challenges this assumption, explaining that these nonrational behaviors can actually support favorable results in international politics and contribute to political and strategic success. By studying past examples, he considers the ways that cognitive biases act as "strategic instincts," lending a competitive edge in policy decisions, especially under conditions of unpredictability and imperfect information.
Drawing from evolutionary theory and behavioral sciences, Johnson looks at three influential cognitive biases-overconfidence, the fundamental attribution error, and in-group/out-group bias. He then examines the advantageous as well as the detrimental effects of these biases through historical case studies of the American Revolution, the Munich Crisis, and the Pacific campaign in World War II. He acknowledges the dark side of biases-when confidence becomes hubris, when attribution errors become paranoia, and when group bias becomes prejudice. Ultimately, Johnson makes a case for a more nuanced understanding of the causes and consequences of cognitive biases and argues that in the complex world of international relations, strategic instincts can, in the right context, guide better performance.
Strategic Instincts shows how an evolutionary perspective can offer the crucial next step in bringing psychological insights to bear on foundational questions in international politics. "Rich. . . . Full of insights." "Remarkable in its scope and fascinating to read. I hope it's widely read by politicians, military experts, and diplomats because it offers a variety of consequential actionable insights."---Daniel T. Blumstein, Journal of Bioeconomics "Johnson's work furthers our understanding of how adaptive traits of human psychology that evolved over the millenniums yield competitive advantages in modern times."---Ziyuan Wang, China International Strategy Review "Dominic Johnson has written a very timely book. Relying on psychology and evolutionary biology, he draws a far more realistic picture of human decision making than rational choice theory allows. It is high time that adaptive intuition take its rightful place alongside logic and calculation."-Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO of New America "A thoughtful, almost forensic, examination of significant historical examples demonstrating an idea that became clear to us in the Irish Peace Process-those who operate contrary to the laws of rational, responsible behavior often succeed better than those who do. This is evolutionary research at its challenging best, with profound implications for international relations."-John Alderdice, Member of the House of Lords "This excellent book argues that common psychological biases, generally decried as responsible for errors and misfortune, are evolutionarily derived and, on balance, advantageous. Strategic Instincts is original and important."-Robert Jervis, Columbia University
"Strategic Instincts is a fascinating application of evolutionary psychology to international relations. By emphasizing the often beneficial consequences of cognitive biases that have evolved over human history, Dominic Johnson provides an intriguing and provocative new perspective on international security. Anyone with good strategic instincts will want to read this book."-Jack S. Levy, Rutgers Unive
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A Constructed Peace
The Making of the European Settlement, 1945-1963
by Marc Trachtenberg
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 2000 Paul Birdsall Prize, American Historical Association" "Winner of the 2000 George Louis Beer Prize, American Historical Association" Marc Trachtenberg is Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of History and Strategy (Princeton) and Reparation in World Politics: France and European Economic Diplomacy, 1916-1923.
People still think of the Cold War as a simple two-sided conflict, a kind of gigantic arm wrestle on a global scale," writes Marc Trachtenberg, "but this view fails to grasp the essence of what was really going on." America and Russia were both willing to live with the status quo in Europe. What then could have generated the kind of conflict that might have led to a nuclear holocaust? This is the great puzzle of the Cold War, and in this book, the product of nearly twenty years of work, Trachtenberg tries to solve it.
The answer, he says, has to do with the German question, especially with the German nuclear question. These issues lay at the heart of the Cold War, and a relatively stable peace took shape only when they were resolved. The book develops this argument by telling a story--a complex story involving many issues of detail, but focusing always on the central question of how a stable international system came into being during the Cold War period. A Constructed Peace will be of interest not just to students of the Cold War, but to people concerned with the problem of war and peace, and in particular with the question of how a stable international order can be constructed, even in our own day. "An authoritative history of the German Question during the first half of the Cold War. . . . [T]he work's originality, and the way its recaptures how issues were linked in the minds of policymakers, makes it the leading general history of the early Cold War in Europe." "An exhaustive, well-written study of statecraft at the highest levels." "A powerful, original, and engaging work. Marc Trachtenberg has woven together an enormous array of evidence and information, much of it only recently available to researchers, into a compelling interpretation of an extremely important historical period. Trachtenberg's book is broad as well as deep, and its implications for our understanding of the dynamics of the Cold War extend well beyond the period it examines."-Aaron L. Friedberg, Princeton University "Marc Trachtenberg's grasp of the finer points of Western internal debates on nuclear weapons and strategy is impressive. His book is an extraordinary piece of research and analysis that may very well set the standard in the field of Cold War studies for years to come."-William Stueck, University of Georgia
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Divided Armies
Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War
by Jason Lyall
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the Lepgold Prize, Mortara Center for International Studies, Georgetown University" "Winner of the Peter Katzenstein Book Prize, Cornell University Department of Government" "2019 War on the Rocks Holiday Reading List" "One of Foreign Affairs' Best Books of 2020" "Winner of the Best Book Award, Conflict Processes Section of the American Political Science Association" "Winner of the Edgar S. Furniss Book Award, Mershon Center for International Security Studies" Jason Lyall is the James Wright Associate Professor in Transnational Studies and associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, where he also directs the Political Violence FieldLab.
How do armies fight and what makes them victorious on the modern battlefield? In Divided Armies, Jason Lyall challenges long-standing answers to this classic question by linking the fate of armies to their levels of inequality. Introducing the concept of military inequality, Lyall demonstrates how a state's prewar choices about the citizenship status of ethnic groups within its population determine subsequent battlefield performance. Treating certain ethnic groups as second-class citizens, either by subjecting them to state-sanctioned discrimination or, worse, violence, undermines interethnic trust, fuels grievances, and leads victimized soldiers to subvert military authorities once war begins. The higher an army's inequality, Lyall finds, the greater its rates of desertion, side-switching, casualties, and use of coercion to force soldiers to fight.
In a sweeping historical investigation, Lyall draws on Project Mars, a new dataset of 250 conventional wars fought since 1800, to test this argument. Project Mars breaks with prior efforts by including overlooked non-Western wars while cataloguing new patterns of inequality and wartime conduct across hundreds of belligerents. Combining historical comparisons and statistical analysis, Lyall also marshals evidence from nine wars, ranging from the Eastern Fronts of World Wars I and II to less familiar wars in Africa and Central Asia, to illustrate inequality's effects.
Sounding the alarm on the dangers of inequality for battlefield performance, Divided Armies offers important lessons about warfare over the past two centuries-and for wars still to come. "A welcome mingling of the traditions of quantitative and qualitative political science. He sets a rigorous and imaginative methodological standard that others will struggle to match."---Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs "An inviting and challenging read, one that necessitates and rewards thoughtful investment."---Dr. Larry D. Miller, National Defense University Press "An extraordinary achievement, providing new ideas about the non-material determinants of battlefield performance, and presenting compelling quantitative and qualitative evidence. It will no doubt shape research agendas on war for many years to come." "The book provides the theoretical basis for an intuitively grasped characteristic of armed forces around the world today and through history. Its argument should inform future policymaking, as well serve as a basis to re-examine past wars."---Axel Dessein, Wavell Room "A major contribution to any literature that seeks to understand military design or behavior. . . . [Lyall's] valuable empirical work and data collection - and clear methodology - will provide numerous avenues for further research to anyone with an interest in civil-military relations and conflict.-Max Margulies, Political Science Quarterly" "Lyall's important work arrays data from 250 wars since 1800 to prove systematically what Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower described: that the political compact between a country and its fighting forces is a major determinant in warfare. This beautifully written book brilliantly blends quantitative and qualitative methods to show that what states choose to do about status and belonging-about political identity-before wars decisively affects thei
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Useful Adversaries
Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958
by Thomas J. Christensen
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Thomas J. Christensen is currently Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University. He formerly held an SSRC/MacArthur Foundation fellowship in international peace and security and was an Olin National Security Fellow at Harvard University.
This book provides a new analysis of why relations between the United States and the Chinese Communists were so hostile in the first decade of the Cold War. Employing extensive documentation, it offers a fresh approach to long-debated questions such as why Truman refused to recognize the Chinese Communists, why the United States aided Chiang Kai-shek's KMT on Taiwan, why the Korean War escalated into a Sino-American conflict, and why Mao shelled islands in the Taiwan Straits in 1958, thus sparking a major crisis with the United States.
Christensen first develops a novel two-level approach that explains why leaders manipulate low-level conflicts to mobilize popular support for expensive, long-term security strategies. By linking "grand strategy," domestic politics, and the manipulation of ideology and conflict, Christensen provides a nuanced and sophisticated link between domestic politics and foreign policy. He then applies the approach to Truman's policy toward the Chinese Communists in 1947-50 and to Mao's initiation of the 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis. In these cases the extension of short-term conflict was useful in gaining popular support for the overall grand strategy that each leader was promoting domestically: Truman's limited-containment strategy toward the USSR and Mao's self-strengthening programs during the Great Leap Forward. Christensen also explores how such low-level conflicts can escalate, as they did in Korea, despite leaders' desire to avoid actual warfare. "[Christensen] makes a convincing and original argument that political leaders, in order to secure public support for their fundamental grand strategy, may have to adopt a more hostile foreign policy than they would prefer . . . This volume is indispensable for anyone interested in Sino-American relations."
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The Clash of Ideas in World Politics
Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change, 1510-2010
by John M. Owen
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 2011 Lepgold Prize, Mortara Center for International Studies, Georgetown University" John M. Owen IV is associate professor of politics at the University of Virginia.
Some blame the violence and unrest in the Muslim world on Islam itself, arguing that the religion and its history is inherently bloody. Others blame the United States, arguing that American attempts to spread democracy by force have destabilized the region, and that these efforts are somehow radical or unique. Challenging these views, The Clash of Ideas in World Politics reveals how the Muslim world is in the throes of an ideological struggle that extends far beyond the Middle East, and how struggles like it have been a recurring feature of international relations since the dawn of the modern European state.
John Owen examines more than two hundred cases of forcible regime promotion over the past five centuries, offering the first systematic study of this common state practice. He looks at conflicts between Catholicism and Protestantism between 1520 and the 1680s; republicanism and monarchy between 1770 and 1850; and communism, fascism, and liberal democracy from 1917 until the late 1980s. He shows how regime promotion can follow regime unrest in the eventual target state or a war involving a great power, and how this can provoke elites across states to polarize according to ideology. Owen traces how conflicts arise and ultimately fade as one ideology wins favor with more elites in more countries, and he demonstrates how the struggle between secularism and Islamism in Muslim countries today reflects broader transnational trends in world history. "The historical narratives Owen employs to test this theory are nuanced, illuminating, and a joy to read."---Peter Liberman, Foreign Affairs "Owen provides the most compelling explanatory framework to date for examining forcible regime promotions, supported by a convincing historical narrative that sets the bar high for future works on the subject. More importantly, Owen's book is a welcome contribution providing a timely toolbox for both academics and policy analysts to examine the ongoing events in the Middle East and beyond."---Luca Tardelli, International Affairs "Owen . . . makes use of formidable analytical skills to reveal patterns in 209 instances internationally and demonstrate the use of regime promotion as a strategic weapon. . . . Recommended."---Ellen J. Jenkins, Canadian Journal of History "[T]he depth of learning that informs the historical aim of Owen's text is proof of the validity of historical work, regardless of the fact that it does not and cannot enable us to make precise predictions."---Jeff Noonan, European Legacy "This book is a major contribution to the literature on hierarchy in international relations. It empirically demonstrates more convincingly than any other study to date that forcible regime change is a normal tool of statecraft. Owen's focus on the importance of transnational ideological polarization as the primary cause of such activity is an explanation that materialists cannot ignore."-Stephen D. Krasner, Stanford University "This book is a major contribution to the history and theory of international relations. We were already in debt to John Owen for his excellent, nuanced analysis of the notion that democracies do not fight each other. This volume is far more ambitious and proves that-as in world politics itself-ideas and historical understanding are more important than accumulations of numbers."-Stanley Hoffmann, Harvard University "John Owen has produced another important book, this one about using force to change regimes in other countries. On a topic soaked with harsh rhetoric and strong emotions, Owen offers historical perspective and serious analysis. His data is striking. It shows that forcible regime changes come in waves, clustered in certain periods, followed by long lulls. Owen helps us understand the logic of this pattern, especially the
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Revolutions in Sovereignty
How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations
by Daniel Philpott
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Daniel Philpott is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has published on such topics as self-determination, sovereignty, and ethics and international relations.
How did the world come to be organized into sovereign states? Daniel Philpott argues that two historical revolutions in ideas are responsible. First, the Protestant Reformation ended medieval Christendom and brought a system of sovereign states in Europe, culminating at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Second, ideas of equality and colonial nationalism brought a sweeping end to colonial empires around 1960, spreading the sovereign states system to the rest of the globe. In both cases, revolutions in ideas about legitimate political authority profoundly altered the "constitution" that establishes basic authority in the international system.
Ideas exercised influence first by shaping popular identities, then by exercising social power upon the elites who could bring about new international constitutions. Swaths of early modern Europeans, for instance, arrived at Protestant beliefs, then fought against the temporal powers of the Church on behalf of the sovereignty of secular princes, who could overthrow the formidable remains of a unified medieval Christendom. In the second revolution, colonial nationalists, domestic opponents of empire, and rival superpowers pressured European cabinets to relinquish their colonies in the name of equality and nationalism, resulting in a global system of sovereign states. Bringing new theoretical and historical depth to the study of international relations, Philpott demonstrates that while shifts in military, economic, and other forms of material power cannot be overlooked, only ideas can explain how the world came to be organized into a system of sovereign states. "This convincing portrait show how power and ideas together shape international relations."---John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "Revolutions and Sovereignty is a cogently argued and superbly written book in which Daniel Philpott sets forth an original and provocative thesis. Challenging Realist and materialist interpretations of international relations, he makes an impressive case for the central role of ideas, particularly religious ideas, in shaping the nature of revolutions in the international state system beginning with the impact of Protestantism on the Westphalian settlement of 1648. This is a book which undoubtedly will stimulate much debate and which demands and deserves thoughtful attention at a time when that state system is in the midst of yet another revolutionary transformation."-Samuel Huntington, Harvard University "Dan Philpott is a rising star in international relations, and this book demonstrates why. It is rich in historic detail, conceptually rigorous, bold, and written with felicity. The reader puts down Revolutions in Sovereignty with a keener sense of why ideas matter to the world of international politics, an arena often construed as a field of force in which ideas play an inconsequent role."-Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago, author of Women and War "Revolutions in Sovereignty tells us how ideas have shaped the basic structure of international relations in the modern era. Before sovereign statehood became real, it became an ideal in the minds of the leaders and their followers who then made states sovereign. In explaining how this happened, Daniel Philpott brings original and insightful scholarship to bear on large and important issues."-Michael Doyle, Princeton University, author of Ways of War and Peace
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Strong Borders, Secure Nation
Cooperation and Conflict in China's Territorial Disputes
by M. Taylor Fravel
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
M. Taylor Fravel is associate professor of political science and member of the Security Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
As China emerges as an international economic and military power, the world waits to see how the nation will assert itself globally. Yet, as M. Taylor Fravel shows in Strong Borders, Secure Nation, concerns that China might be prone to violent conflict over territory are overstated. The first comprehensive study of China's territorial disputes, Strong Borders, Secure Nation contends that China over the past sixty years has been more likely to compromise in these conflicts with its Asian neighbors and less likely to use force than many scholars or analysts might expect.
By developing theories of cooperation and escalation in territorial disputes, Fravel explains China's willingness to either compromise or use force. When faced with internal threats to regime security, especially ethnic rebellion, China has been willing to offer concessions in exchange for assistance that strengthens the state's control over its territory and people. By contrast, China has used force to halt or reverse decline in its bargaining power in disputes with its militarily most powerful neighbors or in disputes where it has controlled none of the land being contested. Drawing on a rich array of previously unexamined Chinese language sources, Strong Borders, Secure Nation offers a compelling account of China's foreign policy on one of the most volatile issues in international relations. "Fravel's is an elegant argument that works well to explain Chinese behavior and holds promise for application elsewhere."---Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs "This comprehensive, compelling volume by Fravel seeks to address the overstated concerns that China might be prone to violent conflict over territory."---S.K. Ma, Choice "M. Taylor Fravel . . . provides compelling evidence that in its territorial disputes China has been less prone to violence and more cooperative than realist theory or conventional wisdom about an expansionist state might suggest."---David Rosenberg, China Journal "This is a tour de force work of scholarship that is comprehensive, empirically rich and analytically strong. . . . For anyone who works on contemporary China, this book will be an indispensible reference volume."---Andrew Scobell, Pacific Affairs "The book is not only a necessary work for everyone dealing with Chinese politics, but also it deserves to become a new standard for the study of international politics in general."---Bart Dessein, International History Review "[T]his book is an unqualified welcome addition to the still comparatively sparse academic literature on China's territorial disputes and security perceptions."---Chien-Peng Chung, Contemporary Southeast Asia "Fravel offers an important interpretation of China's behaviour, based on what it has actually done in the last six decades. . . . The book will help many trying to decide whether China will be a disruptive or a positive international force in the years to come."---Kerry Brown, Asian Affairs "This book makes a refreshing change, both for its theoretical and empirical rigour and in its balanced coverage."---Jonathan Sullivan, Political Studies Review "How China handles the issue of Taiwan is going to offer a significantly novel framework for international studies over territorial sovereignty disputes. Fravel has provided a plethora of historical details and sophisticated explanations for these diplomatic events, and has produced a highly readable book."---Yuk Wah Chan, Journal of Chinese Political Science "Professor M. Taylor Fravel . . . has made a valuable contribution to Princeton Studies in International History and Politics. . . . His impeccable research helps in correcting false notions, for instance, on China's boundary agreement with Pakistan on March 2, 1963."---A. G. Noorani, Frontline "This excellent book is the first to systematically examine China's
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Knowing the Adversary
Leaders, Intelligence, and Assessment of Intentions in International Relations
by Keren Yarhi-Milo
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Co-Winner of the 2016 DPLST Book Prize, Diplomatic Studies Section of the International Studies Association" "Winner, 2014 Edgar S. Furniss Book Award, Mershon Center for International Security Studies" Keren Yarhi-Milo is assistant professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University.
States are more likely to engage in risky and destabilizing actions such as military buildups and preemptive strikes if they believe their adversaries pose a tangible threat. Yet despite the crucial importance of this issue, we don't know enough about how states and their leaders draw inferences about their adversaries' long-term intentions. Knowing the Adversary draws on a wealth of historical archival evidence to shed new light on how world leaders and intelligence organizations actually make these assessments.
Keren Yarhi-Milo examines three cases: Britain's assessments of Nazi Germany's intentions in the 1930s, America's assessments of the Soviet Union's intentions during the Carter administration, and the Reagan administration's assessments of Soviet intentions near the end of the Cold War. She advances a new theoretical framework-called selective attention-that emphasizes organizational dynamics, personal diplomatic interactions, and cognitive and affective factors. Yarhi-Milo finds that decision makers don't pay as much attention to those aspects of state behavior that major theories of international politics claim they do. Instead, they tend to determine the intentions of adversaries on the basis of preexisting beliefs, theories, and personal impressions. Yarhi-Milo also shows how intelligence organizations rely on very different indicators than decision makers, focusing more on changes in the military capabilities of adversaries.
Knowing the Adversary provides a clearer picture of the historical validity of existing theories, and broadens our understanding of the important role that diplomacy plays in international security. "[Knowing the Adversary] enriches the debate over the best way for policymakers and analysts to filter the vast pools of information they gather about rivals." "[A] solid scholarly book….The major contribution of the book is the systematic focus on a notoriously amorphous subject--how world leaders and intelligence organizations draw inferences about their adversaries' long-term intentions." "Knowing the Adversary is a great success: it is thoroughly researched, well written, convincing in its conclusions, and rich in policy implications of the highest security importance."---Mark L. Haas, Political Science Quarterly "How do political leaders and intelligence organizations make inferences about adversary intentions? Yarhi-Milo makes a major contribution to the study of this critical question by developing a new theory of threat perception and testing it in three important historical cases. With its extraordinarily detailed historical research, extensive coverage of primary sources, compelling evidence, and balanced interpretations, Knowing the Adversary is indispensable reading for conflict theorists, intelligence analysts, and diplomatic historians."-Jack S. Levy, Rutgers University "Threat perception is a central topic for international politics, but is remarkably understudied. Yarhi-Milo's fascinating and important book is a huge step forward. Testing theories based on rational choice, organization theory, and psychology, and using original research on British perceptions of Nazi Germany and American views of the USSR, she shows that decision makers and intelligence analysts looked at different indicators and that the attention paid by both groups was highly selective."-Robert Jervis, author of Perception and Misperception in International Politics "Knowing the Adversary tackles a central question in international security and reaches nonobvious conclusions with wide implications. The quality of the empirical work is outstanding. I can think of few recent qualitative studies t
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The Cold War and After
History, Theory, and the Logic of International Politics
by Marc Trachtenberg
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Marc Trachtenberg is professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. His books include A Constructed Peace and The Craft of International History (both Princeton).
A new way of looking at international relations from a leading expert in the field
What makes for war or for a stable international system? Are there general principles that should govern foreign policy? In The Cold War and After, Marc Trachtenberg, a leading historian of international relations, explores how historical work can throw light on these questions. The essays in this book deal with specific problems-with such matters as nuclear strategy and U.S.-European relations. But Trachtenberg's main goal is to show how in practice a certain type of scholarly work can be done. He demonstrates how, in studying international politics, the conceptual and empirical sides of the analysis can be made to connect with each other, and how historical, theoretical, and even policy issues can be tied together in an intellectually respectable way.
These essays address a wide variety of topics, from theoretical and policy issues, such as the question of preventive war and the problem of international order, to more historical subjects-for example, American policy on Eastern Europe in 1945 and Franco-American relations during the Nixon-Pompidou period. But in each case the aim is to show how a theoretical perspective can be brought to bear on the analysis of historical issues, and how historical analysis can shed light on basic conceptual problems. "[A] stimulating reconsideration of some of the central and already much-studied issues of the Cold War. . . . Trachtenberg argues his case thoughtfully and interestingly. Contentious in parts, stimulating throughout, this is a book for historians and international relations scholars, especially those interested in each other's endeavours, and for a wider academic readership, too."---Roger Morgan, Times Higher Education "Trachtenberg provides a fresh analysis of the United States and Eastern Europe and the question of Soviet motivations and intentions in 1945. It is familiar territory to diplomatic historians and yet the insights and the repositioning that are made possible through the methodology are fascinating."---David Ryan, International Affairs "The Cold War and After . . . will be a particularly valuable asset for (post)graduate students, although established IR scholars will also benefit. For those occupying the broad center of international studies, this book is a master class in historical and qualitative methods."---Peter Harris, Political Studies Review "Trachtenberg's often provocative conclusions make The Cold War and After . . . an important book. Any scholar interested in the latest approach to the history of the Cold War would do well to read it."---Russel Lemmons, Historian "Marc Trachtenberg is one of the best international historians in the land. His new book is filled with important insights and interesting stories. But the most important virtue of The Cold War and After is that it shows clearly that international history and international relations theory are inextricably linked and scholars cannot engage in one of those enterprises without paying serious attention to the other."-John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago "Marc Trachtenberg is unsurpassed in his ability to combine history and political science, and by bringing together a set of wide-ranging and incisive essays, he has produced a volume that belongs on the shelves of all serious scholars working in the field. The deep research, probing analysis, and distinctive voice make this book a pleasure to read."-Robert Jervis, Columbia University "This is an outstanding book, engaging and stimulating from beginning to end. Trachtenberg is one of the rare analysts of international relations with a rich sense of history, and he is one of those rare historians who can look at public policy without harsh partisan blinders.
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Violent Victors
Why Bloodstained Parties Win Postwar Elections
by Sarah Zukerman Daly
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the Leon Epstein Outstanding Book Award, Political Organizations and Parties section of the American Political Science Association" "Shortlisted for the Gregory Luebbert Best Book Prize, Comparative Politics section of the American Political Science Association" Sarah Zukerman Daly is associate professor of political science at Columbia University. She is the author of Organized Violence after Civil War: The Geography of Recruitment in Latin America.
Why populations brutalized in war elect their tormentors
One of the great puzzles of electoral politics is how parties that commit mass atrocities in war often win the support of victimized populations to establish the postwar political order. Violent Victors traces how parties derived from violent, wartime belligerents successfully campaign as the best providers of future societal peace, attracting votes not just from their core supporters but oftentimes also from the very people they targeted in war.
Drawing on more than two years of groundbreaking fieldwork, Sarah Daly combines case studies of victim voters in Latin America with experimental survey evidence and new data on postwar elections around the world. She argues that, contrary to oft-cited fears, postconflict elections do not necessarily give rise to renewed instability or political violence. Daly demonstrates how war-scarred citizens reward belligerent parties for promising peace and security instead of blaming them for war. Yet, in so casting their ballots, voters sacrifice justice, liberal democracy, and social welfare.
Proposing actionable interventions that can help to moderate these trade-offs, Violent Victors links war outcomes with democratic outcomes to shed essential new light on political life after war and offers global perspectives on important questions about electoral behavior in the wake of mass violence. "Violent Victors is a rich, rigorous and comprehensive book that delves into the complex and nuanced relationship between wartime violence and postwar electoral politics, transitional justice and governance."---Laia Balcells, International Affairs "Articulates a fascinating and novel puzzle. . . . [and provides] a thorough consideration of alternative explanations."---Michael K. Miller, Perspectives on Politics "A must-read."---Mauricio Rivera, Journal of Peace Research "[A] penetrating study of founding elections in postwar societies. . . . [Violent Victors] is required reading for anyone interested in peacebuilding, justice, democracy, and governance after civil war."---Manuel Meléndez-Sánchez, Peace & Change "This is an impressive book in its breadth and comprehensive approach to the question of why violent political parties receive significant support in postwar elections, even when they have committed abuses against the citizenry."-Susan D. Hyde, author of The Pseudo-Democrat's Dilemma: Why Election Observation Became an International Norm "A tour de force. Drawing on an original and counterintuitive theoretical argument and superb research methods, Daly addresses the puzzle of how political parties that commit mass atrocities in civil war win free and fair postwar elections. Violent Victors is an outstanding book."-Scott Mainwaring, coauthor of Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall
"In elections after civil wars, why do many voters support parties that engaged in mass violence against civilians? Sarah Zukerman Daly provides a surprising and compelling answer: the most ruthless fighters in war are perceived to be the political leaders most willing and able to keep the peace afterward. This is an important book."-Scott D. Sagan, Stanford University "In this masterful book, Daly reveals why citizens vote for political parties known to have committed atrocities in war. It is not due to fear, coercion, ideology, or ignorance. Instead, it is the result of a desperate desire for stability and security. Highly recommende
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George F. Kennan and the Making of American Foreign Policy, 1947-1950
by Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C.
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Finalist for the 1993 Hoover Presidential Library Association Book Award" Wilson D. Miscamble, C.S.C., is Director of Graduate Studies and Associate Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame.
When George C. Marshall became Secretary of State in January of 1947, he faced not only a staggering array of serious foreign policy questions but also a State Department rendered ineffective by neglect, maladministration, and low morale. Soon after his arrival Marshall asked George F. Kennan to head a new component in the department's structure--the Policy Planning Staff. Here Wilson Miscamble scrutinizes Kennan's subsequent influence over foreign policymaking during the crucial years from 1947 to 1950. "A good analytical examination of American foreign policy as seen through the lens of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff. . . . As such it embraces much more than the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The author insists that there was no grand design to American policy in these years, but one is impressed by the pervasive and lucid intellect of Ambassador Kennan."---William G. Hyland, Foreign Affairs "This book is the most insightful treatment of George Kennan that has yet been published and the best work I know on the making of U.S. foreign policy during this period. The work is an astonishing scholarly accomplishment. Miscamble offers fresh interpretations and a new sense of the context in which policy was made and of the complex influences on the policymakers."-Richard H. Ullman, Princeton University
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We All Lost the Cold War
by Richard Ned Lebow
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1994" Richard Ned Lebow is Professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Janice Gross Stein is Harrison Professor of Conflict Management and Negotiation at the University of Toronto.
Drawing on recently declassified documents and extensive interviews with Soviet and American policy-makers, among them several important figures speaking for public record for the first time, Ned Lebow and Janice Stein cast new light on the effect of nuclear threats in two of the tensest moments of the Cold War: the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the confrontations arising out of the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. They conclude that the strategy of deterrence prolonged rather than ended the conflict between the superpowers. "The orthodoxy . . . is that deterrence worked and the arms race defeated the Soviet Union. Hitherto there has been little dissent from those positions, apart from those 'revisionist' historians who merely turned the whole orthodoxy on its head. . . . Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein are not revisionists in that sense. They are far too sensible for emotional nonsense of that kind. Yet their work is quite as unorthodox, probably as shocking to the closed corporation of Cold War 'scholars' but much more surprising than that of the Chomskyans."---Godfrey Hodgson, The Independent (London) "They've got it just right. It is a dangerous conclusion that the West won the Cold War. The argument that one side won the Cold War is mistaken. We all lost the Cold War, particularly the USA and the USSR. We all won by ending it. That is the scientific conclusion."-Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev
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Who Adjusts?
Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy During the Interwar Years
by Beth A. Simmons
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 1995 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award" Beth A. Simmons is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.
In this work Beth Simmons presents a fresh view of why governments decided to abide by or defect from the gold standard during the 1920s and 1930s. Previous studies of the spread of the Great Depression have emphasized "tit-for-tat" currency and tariff manipulation and a subsequent cycle of destructive competition. Simmons, on the other hand, analyzes the influence of domestic politics on national responses to the international economy. In so doing, she powerfully confirms that different political regimes choose different economic adjustment strategies. "One of the best books I have read in years. . . . Simmons develops a novel, domestic explanation for the policy failures of the interwar period . . . [and] untangles the complicated web of the interwar international political economy. The book not only sets a new standard of research excellence, but it is required reading for all international political economists, as well as many comparativists and historians. . . . Who Adjusts? will certainly become a classic analysis of interwar economic policy."---David A. Lake, American Political Science Review "[Simmons's] arguments and results hold considerable interest for economists and historians as well as political scientists."---Kenneth Mouré, American Historical Review "This ambitious study makes an important contribution to systemic theories of international economics cooperation. . . . Simmons's bold and lucid analysis is stimulating."---Patricia Clavin, Economic History Review
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Regional Orders at Century's Dawn
Global and Domestic Influences on Grand Strategy
by Etel Solingen
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Etel Solingen - Winner of the 2018 William and Katherine Estes Award, National Academy of Sciences" Etel Solingen is Distinguished Professor and Thomas T. and Elizabeth C. Tierney Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and the recipient of the National Academy of Sciences 2018 William and Katherine Estes Award.
Etel Solingen provides a comprehensive explanation of foreign policy based on how states throughout the world have confronted the rapid emergence of a global economy and international institutions. A major advance in international relations theory, Regional Orders at Century's Dawn skillfully uses a key issue--internationalization--to clarify other recent debates, from the notion of a democratic peace to the relevance of security dilemmas, nationalism, and the impact of international institutions. The author discusses in rich detail the Middle East, Latin America's Southern Cone, and the Korean peninsula, and builds on examples drawn from almost every other region of the world.
As Solingen demonstrates, economic liberalization--with its dramatic political and economic consequences--invariably attracts supporters and detractors, who join in coalitions to advance their agendas. Each coalition's agenda, or "grand strategy," has consequences at all levels: domestic, regional, and international. At home, coalitions struggle to define the internal allocation and management of resources, and to undermine their rivals. Throughout their regional neighborhoods, coalitions opposing internationalization often compete for dominance, sometimes militarily. Coalitions favoring internationalization, instead, often cooperate. At the global level, each coalition finds support for its "grand strategies" from different international institutions and from competing global economic trends. Solingen's concept of "grand strategy" proposes more than a theory of foreign policy and explains the role of nationalism and ethno-religious revivalism in the politics of liberalization. "A penetrating and timely contribution to the literature on international and regional conflict." "[This book] bridges the divide between international political economy and security studies. . . . A new explanation for regional conflict and cooperation. . . . One of Solingen's main contributions is to offer a causal mechanism that can account for peace among democratic and nondemocratic dyads."---Miriam Fendius Elman, Harvard University Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, International Studies Review "A sophisticated theoretical interpretation of internationalism at the end of the century."---Anthony Smith, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, Contemporary Southeast Asia "A refreshing challenge to some conventional wisdoms."---Helge Hveem, University of Oslo, Australian Journal of Political Science "A bold and innovative attempt to suggest a grand theory of foreign policy and international relations."---Arie M. Kacowicz, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Political Science Quarterly
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Cooperation Among Democracies
The European Influence on u.s. Foreign Policy
by Thomas Risse-Kappen
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Thomas Risse-Kappen is Professor of International Relations at the University of Konstanz, Germany, and International Relations Chair at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He is the editor of Bringing Transnational Relations Back In.
In exploring the special nature of alliances among democracies, Thomas Risse-Kappen argues that the West European and Canadian allies exerted greater influence on American foreign policy during the Cold War than most analysts assume. In so doing, he challenges traditional alliance theories that emphasize strategic interactions and power-based bargaining processes. For a better understanding of the transatlantic relationship, the author proposes that we instead turn to liberal theories of international affairs. Accordingly, liberal democracies are likely to form the "pacific federations" described by Immanuel Kant or "pluralistic security communities" as Karl W. Deutsch suggested.
Through detailed case studies, Risse-Kappen shows that the Europeans affected security decisions concerning vital U.S. interest during the 1950-1953 Korean war, the 1958-1963 test ban negotiations, and the 1962 Cuban missile crisis--all during a span of time in which the U.S. enjoyed undisputed economic and military supremacy in the alliance. He situates these case studies within a theoretical framework demonstrating that the European influence on decision-making processes in Washington worked through three mechanisms: norms prescribing timely consultations among the allies, use of domestic pressures for leverage in transatlantic interactions, and transnational and transgovernmental coalitions among societal and bureaucratic actors. The book's findings have important repercussions for the post-Cold War era in that they suggest the transatlantic security community is likely to survive the end of the Soviet threat. "A serious contribution. . . . The author demonstrates that the analysis of norms points to an improved understanding of international relations. . . . Excellent documentation." "A sophisticated study of the Western alliance that emphasizes European influence on US decision-making. . . .[T]his book will be useful to historians as well as to political scientists interested in alliance and international relations theory. . . . A book that is outstanding in a crowded field. The careful research and thoughtful argument in Cooperation among Democracies make it one of the very best studies of the Western alliance."---Frank Costigliola, The International History Review
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The Geopolitics of Shaming
When Human Rights Pressure Works-and When It Backfires
by Rochelle Terman
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
A bold new perspective on the strategic logic of international human rights enforcement
When a government violates the rights of its citizens, the international community can respond by exerting moral pressure and urging reform. Yet many of the most egregious violations appear to go unpunished. In many cases, shaming not only fails to induce compliance but also incites a backlash, provoking resistance and worsening human rights practices. The Geopolitics of Shaming presents a new theory on the strategic logic of international human rights enforcement, revealing why and how states punish violations in other countries, when shaming leads to an improvement in human rights conditions, and when it backfires.
Drawing on a wide range of evidence-from large-scale cross-national data to original survey experiments and detailed case studies-Rochelle Terman shows how human rights shaming is a deeply political process, one that operates in and through strategic relationships. Arguing that preexisting geopolitical relationships condition both the causes and consequences of shaming in world politics, she shows how adversaries are quick to condemn human rights abuses but often provoke a counterproductive response, while friends and allies are the most effective shamers but can be reluctant to impose meaningful sanctions.
Upending conventional wisdom on the role of norms in world affairs, The Geopolitics of Shaming demonstrates that politicization is integral to-not a corruption of-the success of the global human rights project. Rochelle Terman is assistant professor of political science at the University of Chicago. "Placing human rights shaming in strategic context allows Terman to explore, not just happy stories of compliance, but also logics of backlash, resistance, and hypocrisy in human rights promotion. This smart and provocative marriage of geopolitics with norm promotion has broad implications beyond human rights."-Martha Finnemore, George Washington University
"Why do governments shame certain states about human rights violations but ignore other abusers? When does shaming work? Rochelle Terman's relational approach reveals the possibilities but also the significant geopolitical limits of this widely revered tactic. Her nuanced book makes a significant contribution to a realistic account of human rights."-Clifford Bob, Duquesne University and author of Rights as Weapons: Instruments of Conflict, Tools of Power
"This insightful book addresses the important and timely debate about whether shaming strategies are effective in bringing about changes in human rights practices. Terman makes the crucial point that, in order to better understand the politics of shaming, we need to think about the relationship between who is doing the shaming and who is being shamed."-Brian Greenhill, author of Transmitting Rights: International Organizations and the Diffusion of Human Rights Practices
"Rochelle Terman exposes the risks and opportunities of shaming as a means of enforcing international human rights. She provides convincing evidence that shaming's consequences depend on relationships. Friends may feel peer pressure to respond while adversaries are likely as not to lash back. Terman's book should be read by anyone who cares about the future of human rights."-Beth A. Simmons, author of Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics
"The Geopolitics of Shaming is one of the must-read books of this year. Rochelle Terman greatly advances our understanding of a fundamental but woefully understudied dynamic of international politics: shaming. Terman compellingly argues that shaming is best thought of relationally, as a strategic interaction between actors. International relations scholars of any background will find something worthwhile here."-Ayşe Zarakol, University of Cambridge "Winner of the Best Book Award, International Collaboration Section of the Am
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Why Wilson Matters
The Origin of American Liberal Internationalism and Its Crisis Today
by Tony Smith
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Tony Smith is the Cornelia M. Jackson Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. His many books include America's Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy and The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the Twenty-First Century (both Princeton).
How Woodrow Wilson's vision of making the world safe for democracy has been betrayed-and how America can fulfill it again
The liberal internationalist tradition is credited with America's greatest triumphs as a world power-and also its biggest failures. Beginning in the 1940s, imbued with the spirit of Woodrow Wilson's efforts at the League of Nations to "make the world safe for democracy," the United States steered a course in world affairs that would eventually win the Cold War. Yet in the 1990s, Wilsonianism turned imperialist, contributing directly to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the continued failures of American foreign policy.
Why Wilson Matters explains how the liberal internationalist community can regain a sense of identity and purpose following the betrayal of Wilson's vision by the brash "neo-Wilsonianism" being pursued today. Drawing on Wilson's original writings and speeches, Tony Smith traces how his thinking about America's role in the world evolved in the years leading up to and during his presidency, and how the Wilsonian tradition went on to influence American foreign policy in the decades that followed-for good and for ill. He traces the tradition's evolution from its "classic" era with Wilson, to its "hegemonic" stage during the Cold War, to its "imperialist" phase today. Smith calls for an end to reckless forms of U.S. foreign intervention, and a return to the prudence and "eternal vigilance" of Wilson's own time.
Why Wilson Matters renews hope that the United States might again become effectively liberal by returning to the sense of realism that Wilson espoused, one where the promotion of democracy around the world is balanced by the understanding that such efforts are not likely to come quickly and without costs. "A painstaking, take-no-prisoners attack on those who believe that America's historical experience can be duplicated everywhere. . . . This makes for powerful reading."---Robert Kaplan, Wall Street Journal "A valiant effort to assert that Woodrow Wilson's view of how America should relate to the world has relevance today. . . . Smith performs a service to readers looking to place current domestic political developments in historical context." "[Smith] wants to reclaim Wilson's historical memory to bolster the very idea of liberal internationalism, which he correctly considers under assault. For Smith, the problem is not that the United States stands for liberal values and seeks to promote democracy abroad; for too many, doing so has become synonymous with military force and overthrowing governments. The association of Wilson's precepts with the recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya has caused many to question the wisdom of a vigorous American role in the world. The result, Smith argues, is that 'neo-Wilsonianism sabotaged the very tradition from which it had emerged.'"---Derek Chollet, The National Interest "Even a review as generous in length as H-Diplo allows cannot do justice to Smith's intellectual achievement in his reconsideration of Wilson. . . . The point is to evaluate the major actors, of whom this man stands paramount, for who they were and what they thought they were doing. As a scholar and our only professional academic to become president, Wilson would have wanted nothing less. Tony Smith's book takes us a long way down the path to a true understanding of this man and these events."---John Milton Cooper, Jr., H-Diplo Roundtable Review "A significant and highly original contribution to the scholarship on Wilson and Wilsonianism. The book manages to offer new insights to our understanding of Wilson as well an original critique of cont
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The Politics of Secularism in International Relations
by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Co-Winner of the 2011 Hubert Morken Award for the Best Publication in Religion and Politics, Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is assistant professor of political science at Northwestern University.
Conflicts involving religion have returned to the forefront of international relations. And yet political scientists and policymakers have continued to assume that religion has long been privatized in the West. This secularist assumption ignores the contestation surrounding the category of the "secular" in international politics. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations shows why this thinking is flawed, and provides a powerful alternative.
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd argues that secularist divisions between religion and politics are not fixed, as commonly assumed, but socially and historically constructed. Examining the philosophical and historical legacy of the secularist traditions that shape European and American approaches to global politics, she shows why this matters for contemporary international relations, and in particular for two critical relationships: the United States and Iran, and the European Union and Turkey.
The Politics of Secularism in International Relations develops a new approach to religion and international relations that challenges realist, liberal, and constructivist assumptions that religion has been excluded from politics in the West. The first book to consider secularism as a form of political authority in its own right, it describes two forms of secularism and their far-reaching global consequences. "This book is a timely and sobering discussion of important theoretical, as well as practical, issues of IR theorizing and how religion relates to politics in general. It is a first-rate read and can be recommended to all scholars interested in the interplay of religion and politics."---Ragnhild Nordås, Journal of Peace Research "Hurd has produced a timely and compelling book that will be of interest to a wide range of scholars well beyond the discipline of international relations theory."---Dianne Kirby, H-Net Reviews "Hurd's study deserves praise for its original slant on the role of secularism in international relations. Its rich and well-written discussion in both case studies will also attract academics in related areas."---Hakki Tas, Political Studies Review "[T]his is a useful and provocative work that should be read carefully. Its analysis should be applied to other contexts, because without an adequate understanding of religion--or even of our own misconceptions about religion--we will continue to mismanage our relations with states and communities shaped in part by faith identities."---John Anderson, International Affairs "There is much to like about this exhaustively researched book. Its innovative argument calls on those who study the relationship of religion to international relations to rethink how they view their subject at the most fundamental level. I would recommend it to anyone doing research in this field, especially those working on the responses of the West to political Islam."---Patrick Callahan, Journal of Politics and Religion "Elizabeth Hurd presents a valuable analysis that . . . contains a wide bibliography, makes use of interdisciplinary theoretical insights, and illuminates contemporary political events."---Ali Yasar Sanbay, Turkish Journal of Islamic Studies "A highly sophisticated, original, sobering (as opposed to saber-rattling) intervention into the debate on religion and world affairs. International relations theorists have tended to reduce the study of religion to either religious organizations, sometimes understood as moralizing interest groups or as terrorist organizations, or to generic principles that are synonymous with international norms. By investigating different lived and historically shifting conceptions of the secular in different cultural contexts, Hurd provides an o
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Producing Security
Multinational Corporations, Globalization, and the Changing Calculus of Conflict
by Stephen G. Brooks
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Stephen G. Brooks is Assistant Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University, where his dissertation received the American Political Science Association's Helen Dwight Reid Award.
Scholars and statesmen have debated the influence of international commerce on war and peace for thousands of years. Over the centuries, analysts have generally treated the questions "Does international commerce influence security?" and "Do trade flows influence security?" as synonymous.
In Producing Security, Stephen Brooks maintains that such an overarching focus on the security implications of trade once made sense but no longer does. Trade is no longer the primary means of organizing international economic transactions; rather, where and how multinational corporations (MNCs) organize their international production activities is now the key integrating force of global commerce.
MNC strategies have changed in a variety of fundamental ways over the past three decades, Brooks argues, resulting in an increased geographic dispersion of production across borders. The author shows that the globalization of production has led to a series of shifts in the global security environment. It has a differential effect on security relations, in part because it does not encompass all countries and industries to the same extent. The book's findings indicate that the geographic dispersion of MNC production acts as a significant force for peace among the great powers. The author concludes that there is no basis for optimism that the globalization of production will promote peace elsewhere in the world. Indeed, he finds that it has a net negative influence on security relations among developing countries. "An original and important work that all researchers concerned with the security implications of economic trends will want to read. Brooks's careful craftsmanship is evident from start to finish. Importantly, he forces our attention away from simple trade flows to the underlying forces of transnational production that will continue to have central consequences for global security in our age."---Brian M. Pollins, Perspectives on Politics "[A] path-breaking book. . . . [T]his is an innovative, sound, systematic, and insightful volume for all those who are interested in the implications of economic globalization for interstate war and peace."---Quan Li, Ethics and International Affairs "Producing Security is an important and timely work, and makes a compelling argument for the importance and economic consequences of the globalization of production . . . . [It] merits real praise for attempting to bridge the often all-too-wide gap between international political economy and security studies."---Tanisha M. Fazal, Political Science Quarterly "A much welcomed addition to the security literature; indeed one of the more innovative in recent memory."---Darryl S.L. Jarvis, Australian Journal of Public Affairs "Overall, this is a sensible and thoughtful contribution to the international relations literature. Brooks is to be congratulated for being willing to engage with the realities of the contemporary global economy, and to put forth bold theories about their security implications."---Geoffrey Jones, International History Review "This is not only one of the three best books in international political economy in the last ten years, it is one of the most important recent books in the entire field of international relations. Brooks integrates security studies and international political economy with skill and wisdom. Focusing sharply on the globalization of production, the author explores its implications for national security, international politics, and international economic relations. In addition, he links the discussion to various theories of international relations."-David Baldwin, Princeton University "Stephen Brooks has quickly emerged as an original and persuasive voice among international security experts. One
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1989
The Struggle to Create Post-Cold War Europe
by Mary Elise Sarotte
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"A Financial Times Book of the Year" "Winner of the 2010 Robert H. Ferrell Book Prize Award, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations" "Co-Winner of the 2010 Marshall Shulman Book Prize, Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies" "Winner of the 2009 DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies, awarded by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2010" Mary Elise Sarotte is Visiting Professor of Government and History at Harvard University and Dean's Professor of History at the University of Southern California. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall.
How the political events of 1989 shaped Europe after the Cold War
1989 explores the momentous events following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the effects they have had on our world ever since. Based on documents, interviews, and television broadcasts from Washington, London, Paris, Bonn, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, and a dozen other locations, 1989 describes how Germany unified, NATO expansion began, and Russia got left on the periphery of the new Europe.
This updated edition contains a new afterword with the most recent evidence on the 1990 origins of NATO's post-Cold War expansion. "Sarotte's focus is on Germany. . . . [She] describes a host of competing conceptions of post-cold-war Europe that flourished, mutated and perished in the maelstrom of events that led up to German unity. . . . Two decades later . . . [t]here are still nuclear missiles aimed across the continent. It's hard to imagine that it could have been otherwise--but, Sarotte shows us, it could have been."---Paul Hockenos, New York Times Book Review "A great virtue of Mary Elise Sarotte's 1989 is that she makes the problem of hindsight bias explicit, and systematically explores the roads not taken."---Timothy Garton Ash, New York Review of Books "Much the most exciting of these books is Mary Elise Sarotte's 1989. In contrast to the other authors, Sarotte treats the uprisings and collapses of that year as a prelude to the biggest change of all: 'the struggle to create post-Cold War Europe', as her subtitle puts it. . . . Sarottte [is] a lucid and compelling writer."---Neal Ascherson, London Review of Books "The author embeds her interpretation in a sharp-eyed, fluent narrative of 1989-1990 that sees the realpolitik behind the stirring upheavals. . . . [S]he offers a smart and canny analysis of the birth of our not-so-new world order." "Mary Elise Sarotte's 1989 . . . shows why this post-Cold War world, and not a different one, came out of the dramatic events of 1989, and why the result was bound to pit the U.S. against Russia again in the twenty-first century."---George Packer, NewYorker.com "A hugely impressive study that looks beyond 1989 to the many-faceted battle to shape the new Europe." "Sarotte's book is compact and highly interpretive. Yet Sarotte has thoroughly mastered the original source material in all the key countries. She distills it with great skill, constantly enlivening her account with a sensibility for what these changes meant in life and culture. Hers is now the best one-volume work on Germany's unification available. It contains the clearest understanding to date of the extraordinary juggling performance of Kohl."---Philip D. Zelikow, Foreign Affairs "[A] scrupulous account of the high politics and diplomacy of 1989. With remarkable diligence, [Sarotte] has interviewed almost all the surviving participants, and quarried government archives and other libraries for documents that illustrate the decision-making (and lack of it) that year. The result is a tale of hypocrisy and indecision in high places." "The tragic hero of 1989, for Sarotte, is Gorbachev. He was, and is still seen by many Russians as a King Lear figure: a man prepared to give away what he should have retained to a west be
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Stay the Hand of Vengeance
The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals
by Gary Jonathan Bass
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Honorable Mention for the 2000 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Government and Political Science, Association of American Publishers" Gary Jonathan Bass is Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. He worked as a Washington reporter and West Coast correspondent for The Economist, for which he wrote extensively on the former Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal. Bass has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic, and other publications.
International justice has become a crucial part of the ongoing political debates about the future of shattered societies like Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Chile. Why do our governments sometimes display such striking idealism in the face of war crimes and atrocities abroad, and at other times cynically abandon the pursuit of international justice altogether? Why today does justice seem so slow to come for war crimes victims in the Balkans? In this book, Gary Bass offers an unprecedented look at the politics behind international war crimes tribunals, combining analysis with investigative reporting and a broad historical perspective. The Nuremberg trials powerfully demonstrated how effective war crimes tribunals can be. But there have been many other important tribunals that have not been as successful, and which have been largely left out of today's debates about international justice. This timely book brings them in, using primary documents to examine the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, the Armenian genocide, World War II, and the recent wars in the former Yugoslavia.
Bass explains that bringing war criminals to justice can be a military ordeal, a source of endless legal frustration, as well as a diplomatic nightmare. The book takes readers behind the scenes to see vividly how leaders like David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton have wrestled with these agonizing moral dilemmas. The book asks how law and international politics interact, and how power can be made to serve the cause of justice.
Bass brings new archival research to bear on such events as the prosecution of the Armenian genocide, presenting surprising episodes that add to the historical record. His sections on the former Yugoslavia tell--with important new discoveries--the secret story of the politicking behind the prosecution of war crimes in Bosnia, drawing on interviews with senior White House officials, key diplomats, and chief prosecutors at the war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Bass concludes that despite the obstacles, legalistic justice for war criminals is nonetheless worth pursuing. His arguments will interest anyone concerned about human rights and the pursuit of idealism in international politics. "Why war-crimes tribunals? In this dense and compelling account, which examines trials from St. Helena to The Hague, Bass, a professor at Princeton, makes a realist's case for idealism and a pessimist's case for perseverance." "[C]ompelling. . . . [A] timely and exhaustive survey of how political leaders have wrestled with the problem of war criminals since 1815. . . . Bass . . . argues convincingly that trying war criminals is a better option than its alternative: revenge. . . . [An] important reminder . . . that . . . governments, including our own, must keep step by prosecuting war criminals."---Chuck Sudetic, The New York Times Book Review "One of the most valuable books to appear about doing justice. . ."---Aryeh Neier, New York Review of Books "[An] impressive scholarly work. . . . Balanced and thorough. . . ." "[A]n intriguing tale, and one told with flair by Gary Jonathan Bass. . . . Mr Bass's book could not be better timed. . . . Mr Bass's compelling account of earlier attempts to apply law in the aftermath of armed conflicts offers a useful historical setting for the current debates about a permanent court. . . . [I]nternational legalism, after a cent
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Worse Than a Monolith
Alliance Politics and Problems of Coercive Diplomacy in Asia
by Thomas J. Christensen
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Thomas J. Christensen is the William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace and War and Director of the China and the World Program at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School. He is the author of Useful Adversaries (Princeton). From 2006-2008, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
In brute-force struggles for survival, such as the two World Wars, disorganization and divisions within an enemy alliance are to one's own advantage. However, most international security politics involve coercive diplomacy and negotiations short of all-out war. Worse Than a Monolith demonstrates that when states are engaged in coercive diplomacy--combining threats and assurances to influence the behavior of real or potential adversaries--divisions, rivalries, and lack of coordination within the opposing camp often make it more difficult to prevent the onset of conflict, to prevent existing conflicts from escalating, and to negotiate the end to those conflicts promptly. Focusing on relations between the Communist and anti-Communist alliances in Asia during the Cold War, Thomas Christensen explores how internal divisions and lack of cohesion in the two alliances complicated and undercut coercive diplomacy by sending confusing signals about strength, resolve, and intent. In the case of the Communist camp, internal mistrust and rivalries catalyzed the movement's aggressiveness in ways that we would not have expected from a more cohesive movement under Moscow's clear control.
Reviewing newly available archival material, Christensen examines the instability in relations across the Asian Cold War divide, and sheds new light on the Korean and Vietnam wars.
While recognizing clear differences between the Cold War and post-Cold War environments, he investigates how efforts to adjust burden-sharing roles among the United States and its Asian security partners have complicated U.S.-China security relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union. "I am sure that there will be many who will dispute Christensen's emphasis on alliance politics as the major factor in recent U.S.-Asian diplomatic history. Personally, I find his evidentiary base persuasive and his analysis attractively parsimonious. . . . [A]n intelligent, accessible, and significant work."---James W. White, American Diplomacy "Christensen both writes well and supports his hypothesis well; the material makes for mesmerizing reading."---June Teufel Dreyer, Journal of Military History "The [book] is a sumptuous array of original analysis and rich detail, backed up by judicious use of archival and secondary sources in both Chinese and English. . . . [F]or anyone teaching a college-level course on U.S.-East Asia relations or East Asian politics, the book should be required reading. . . . Christensen's Worse than a Monolith is a major contribution to Cold War studies and U.S.-East Asia relations."---Sung-Yoon Lee, New Global Studies "A great scholarly book is not one that offers ultimate answers to all the questions that it has raised and tried to deal with; it is one that asks meaningful questions and, in coming up with answers to them, serves as a new point of departure for scholarly discussion and intellectual exchange. Christensen's is exactly such a book, and it is in this spirit that I write this review and put forward the above suggestions. This book surely will be read, discussed and, at times, debated by scholars for a long time to come."---Chen Jian, H-Diplo/ISSF Roundtable Reviews "Christensen's volume greatly enriches our understanding of alliance politics and deterrence in Asia during the Cold War. It is thorough in its research, clear in its presentation, rich in its insight, and thought-provoking in its interpretations."---Qiang Zhai, H-Diplo/ISSF Roundtable Reviews "Christensen's book is an important contribution to the burgeoning literature on East Asian security. He provides a counterintuitive theoretical claim tha
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Economic Interdependence and War
by Dale C. Copeland
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 2017 ISA Annual Best Book Award, International Studies Association" "One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2015" Dale C. Copeland is an associate professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. He is the author of The Origins of Major War.
Does growing economic interdependence among great powers increase or decrease the chance of conflict and war? Liberals argue that the benefits of trade give states an incentive to stay peaceful. Realists contend that trade compels states to struggle for vital raw materials and markets. Moving beyond the stale liberal-realist debate, Economic Interdependence and War lays out a dynamic theory of expectations that shows under what specific conditions interstate commerce will reduce or heighten the risk of conflict between nations.
Taking a broad look at cases spanning two centuries, from the Napoleonic and Crimean wars to the more recent Cold War crises, Dale Copeland demonstrates that when leaders have positive expectations of the future trade environment, they want to remain at peace in order to secure the economic benefits that enhance long-term power. When, however, these expectations turn negative, leaders are likely to fear a loss of access to raw materials and markets, giving them more incentive to initiate crises to protect their commercial interests. The theory of trade expectations holds important implications for the understanding of Sino-American relations since 1985 and for the direction these relations will likely take over the next two decades.
Economic Interdependence and War offers sweeping new insights into historical and contemporary global politics and the actual nature of democratic versus economic peace. "This bold, well-written, and landmark work draws together the fields of international political economy and security studies. It also illuminates modern international history and the future." "[A] landmark book." "[A] stimulating and penetrating book. . . . A landmark contribution to the ongoing debate on the relationship between interdependence and peace."---Jack Snyder, International Security "Exhaustively researched. . . . Copeland is a rarity among contemporary international relations scholars."---Erik Gartzke, Political Science Quarterly "Economic Interdependence and War is international relations on a gigantic scale. Copeland asks big questions, makes big arguments, engages big alternatives, and tests them all on big powers over a big time span. . . . Books like this one are a healthy reminder that there remains trenchant things to say about the big picture. . . . A work of passion, conviction, and erudition."---Joseph Parent, Perspective on Politics "This book provides a novel, nuanced and highly illuminating examination of the relationship between economic interdependence and war. . . . The book's central arguments and findings will also be of clear interest and importance for current and future policy makers as they seek to grapple with the long-term effects of increasing economic interdependence."---Stephen Ellis, Political Studies Review "This landmark book makes bold arguments and parallel big achievements. On theoretical front, the book succeeds in presenting that as an amalgam of liberal and realist approaches, future trade expectation theory has a significant deductive and explanatory power. On empirical front, the book is one of the best case studies that go in depth based on the diplomatic-historical evidence among the existing large-N quantitative empirical studies."---Hakan Mehmetcik, Journal of Global Analysis "Copeland is a refreshing book . . . most of all because it offers a possibility to reconcile and balance the traditional realist and liberal insights at the level of broad intuitions."---Massimo Morelli and Tommaso Sonno, Journal of Economic Literature "Readers seeking an engaging historical examination of war and international relations theory will learn much from Dale Copeland's Economic
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How Enemies Become Friends
The Sources of Stable Peace
by Charles A. Kupchan
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Finalist for the 2011 Estoril Global Issues Distinguished Book Prize" "Honorable Mention for the 2011 Arthur Ross Book Award, Council on Foreign Relations" Charles A. Kupchan is professor of international affairs at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on the National Security Council during the Clinton presidency and is the author of The End of the American Era (Knopf).
How nations move from war to peace
Is the world destined to suffer endless cycles of conflict and war? Can rival nations become partners and establish a lasting and stable peace? How Enemies Become Friends provides a bold and innovative account of how nations escape geopolitical competition and replace hostility with friendship. Through compelling analysis and rich historical examples that span the globe and range from the thirteenth century through the present, foreign policy expert Charles Kupchan explores how adversaries can transform enmity into amity-and he exposes prevalent myths about the causes of peace.
Kupchan contends that diplomatic engagement with rivals, far from being appeasement, is critical to rapprochement between adversaries. Diplomacy, not economic interdependence, is the currency of peace; concessions and strategic accommodation promote the mutual trust needed to build an international society. The nature of regimes matters much less than commonly thought: countries, including the United States, should deal with other states based on their foreign policy behavior rather than on whether they are democracies. Kupchan demonstrates that similar social orders and similar ethnicities, races, or religions help nations achieve stable peace. He considers many historical successes and failures, including the onset of friendship between the United States and Great Britain in the early twentieth century, the Concert of Europe, which preserved peace after 1815 but collapsed following revolutions in 1848, and the remarkably close partnership of the Soviet Union and China in the 1950s, which descended into open rivalry by the 1960s.
In a world where conflict among nations seems inescapable, How Enemies Become Friends offers critical insights for building lasting peace. "Kupchan's magisterial accomplishment, drawing on an extraordinary range of theories and cases, is to provide an overarching account of when and why countries in conflict move toward stable peace. . . .This book will be read by scholars and policy thinkers for a very long time."---G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "Kupchan has a lucid style and writes with authority and wisdom. In the course of his argument, he knocks firmly on the head a number of dangerously misleading nostrums."---G. R. Berridge, Hague Journal of Diplomacy "[Kupchan] is one of those rare Americans with a genuinely global view of international relations. . . . By the time he reaches the end of his brilliant analysis, Kupchan has shown that diplomacy and wilful compromise are the real foundations of peace."---Gilles Andreani, Survival "This wide-ranging comparative historical study seeks to discover why and how some adversaries not only achieved friendship but created zones of durable peace." "How Enemies Become Friends is an ambitious book, which, through a combination of theoretical understanding and in-depth case studies, delivers a powerful argument that champions Obama's policy of engagement with Iran and China. Such an important topic demands vigorous analysis, which Kupchan is well qualified to deliver. . . . This book is entitled to serious consideration by those in the field of international relations."---Grace Nicholls, Majalla "[A] learned, lucid, fascinating account."---Robert Cornwall, Christian Century "How Enemies Become Friends is a highly important contribution to the debate in the United States on how to manage U.S. foreign and security policy in a world of considerably reduced U.S. power. Above all, Kupchan provides the historical and theore
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America's Mission
The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy
by Tony Smith
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Tony Smith is the Cornelia M. Jackson Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. His recent work includes The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: Wilsonianism in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton).
America's Mission argues that the global strength and prestige of democracy today are due in large part to America's impact on international affairs. Tony Smith documents the extraordinary history of how American foreign policy has been used to try to promote democracy worldwide, an effort that enjoyed its greatest triumphs in the occupations of Japan and Germany but suffered huge setbacks in Latin America, Vietnam, and elsewhere. With new chapters and a new introduction and epilogue, this expanded edition also traces U.S. attempts to spread democracy more recently, under presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama, and assesses America's role in the Arab Spring. "America's Mission is a book with a mission. It's aim . . . is nothing less than to overthrow the hitherto dominant theory dealing with American foreign affairs and to put in its place a different one."---Theodore Draper, New York Review of Books "America's Mission provides a comprehensive historical review of the record of American liberal internationalism. Tony Smith argues persuasively that liberal internationalism is not a cultural quirk of unsophisticated Americans. Rather, it has built on powerful global historical trends. The liberal internationalist streak in American foreign policy has, in turn, been responsible for shaping a liberal world order conducive to American security and economic interests."---Francis Fukuyama, New Republic "[Smith's] account of the 20th century is just about as close to unputdownable as it gets in the genre of political history, and ends up advocating what seems to be an appropriate level of optimism for what remains, after all, a terrifying and chaotic world." "This work, formidable in scope and scholarship, is a rousing defense of liberal Wilsonian internationalism. . . . [Smith's] historical account [of attempts to implant democracy] is accompanied by a sophisticated analysis of the perspectives on democratization of Marxists, comparativists, and realists, who hold respectively, says the author, that the United States will not, cannot, and should not promote democracy worldwide."---David C. Hendrickson, Foreign Affairs "Smith elegantly ties explanation of the past to prescription for the future. No other contemporary political scientist . . . has connected those two dimensions to this subject so well."---Mark P. Lagon, Perspectives on Political Science "This contentious study of US foreign policy is sure to generate new debates about the ideals and realities that inspire and legitimize US foreign policy." "A historically sweeping, theoretically ambitious study of American attempts at promoting liberal democracy abroad, this is the most subtle and thorough examination of a "mission" that has had more than its share of successes, halts, detours, and deviations. No student of America in this world will be able to ignore it: there is simply no comparable volume."-Stanley Hoffmann, Chairman, Center for European Studies, Dillon Professor of the Civilization of France "No one concerned with America's role in the world can afford to ignore the powerful argument and impressive scholarship of this landmark study."-Ronald Steel, University of Southern California, School of International Relations "Breathtaking in its coverage. . . . The author combines historical narrative with political analysis in dazzling fashion, particularly on Woodrow Wilson, whose pragmatic idealism is the leitmotif of this book."-Arthur S. Link, Princeton University
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Nuclear Logics
Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East
by Etel Solingen
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Winner of the 2008 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award, American Political Science Association" "Etel Solingen - Winner of the 2018 William and Katherine Estes Award, National Academy of Sciences" "Co-Winner of the 2008 Robert Jervis and Paul Schroeder Award for the Best Book on International History and Politics, International History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" Etel Solingen is Distinguished Professor and Thomas T. and Elizabeth C. Tierney Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and the recipient of the National Academy of Sciences 2018 William and Katherine Estes Award.
Nuclear Logics examines why some states seek nuclear weapons while others renounce them. Looking closely at nine cases in East Asia and the Middle East, Etel Solingen finds two distinct regional patterns. In East Asia, the norm since the late 1960s has been to forswear nuclear weapons, and North Korea, which makes no secret of its nuclear ambitions, is the anomaly. In the Middle East the opposite is the case, with Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Libya suspected of pursuing nuclear-weapons capabilities, with Egypt as the anomaly in recent decades.
Identifying the domestic conditions underlying these divergent paths, Solingen argues that there are clear differences between states whose leaders advocate integration in the global economy and those that reject it. Among the former are countries like South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, whose leaders have had stronger incentives to avoid the political, economic, and other costs of acquiring nuclear weapons. The latter, as in most cases in the Middle East, have had stronger incentives to exploit nuclear weapons as tools in nationalist platforms geared to helping their leaders survive in power. Solingen complements her bold argument with other logics explaining nuclear behavior, including security dilemmas, international norms and institutions, and the role of democracy and authoritarianism. Her account charts the most important frontier in understanding nuclear proliferation: grasping the relationship between internal and external political survival. Nuclear Logics is a pioneering book that is certain to provide an invaluable resource for researchers, teachers, and practitioners while reframing the policy debate surrounding nonproliferation. "Nuclear Logics is a ground-breaking work demonstrating how theory-oriented studies in political science should be conducted. Nuclear Logics is an admirable undertaking which makes an indispensable contribution to IR theory development."---Shih-Yu Chou, Political Studies Review "The most comprehensive, theoretical, and systematic challenge [to system-level imperatives] in years. . . . This is an impressive work . . . of primary value to experts and graduate students." "Solingen's argument is cogent and well researched . . . convincing and intuitive . . . demolishes the structural realist account. . . . It deserves a wide readership." "A serious, scholarly piece of work . . . reinvigorating the already rich theoretical debate on this issue. . . . Her methodological tools could prove useful in determining which Middle Eastern countries are more likely to go nuclear in reaction to Iran's programme." "Proliferation theory steps outside the ivory tower in Etel Solingen's recent book, Nuclear Logics." "The cutting edge of nonproliferation research . . . should be of great interest to both policy practitioners and scholars. [This book] display(s) a combination of theoretical sophistication, methodological rigor, focused comparative analysis involving original field research, and attention to hypothesis testing rarely found in the nonproliferation literature." "Nuclear Logics is a timely study with important theoretical and practical implications. At the theoretical level, it encourages us to set aside monocausal explanations in favour of a more sophisticated but still transportable approach. At the practical level, the
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States and Power in Africa
Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
by Jeffrey Herbst
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"Co-Winner of the 2001 Gregory Luebbert Best Book Award, Comparative Politics Section of the American Political Science Association" Jeffrey Herbst is president of Colgate University.
Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. In States and Power in Africa, Jeffrey Herbst places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective. Herbst's bold contention-that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long before European penetration of the continent-is sure to provoke controversy, for it runs counter to the prevailing assumption that colonialism changed everything.
This revised edition includes a new preface in which the author links the enormous changes that have taken place in Africa over the past fifteen years to long-term state consolidation. The final chapter on policy prescriptions has also been revised to reflect the evolution of African and international responses to state failure. "This ambitious and original book turns a comparative historical lens on state-building in Africa. . . . A brave effort to rethink some outdated approaches to fundamental problems." "An original and intriguing book, which I read with the greatest interest. Herbst's argument is provocative and lucidly presented. This book will be read and debated not only by Africanists but also by others in the political science community. It is the most important and successful contribution to the literature on African politics since Jackson and Rosberg's Personal Rule in Black Africa."-Robert H. Bates, Harvard University, author of Open-Economy Politics: The Political Economy of the World Coffee Trade "Herbst's arguments will excite controversy among students of African history and politics, who have built up an extensive story about European transformations of African politics. His analysis raises doubts about how deeply those transformations went; rather, he maintains that durable conditions of topography and social structure have long constrained African state formation. Herbst offers an integrated account of state formation, transformation, and deformation in sub-Saharan Africa."-Charles Tilly, Columbia University, author of Durable Inquality
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Aftershocks
Great Powers and Domestic Reforms in the Twentieth Century
by Seva Gunitsky
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"One of Foreign Affairs Best of Books 2017 – Political and Legal / Globalization" Seva Gunitsky is assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
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. "Highly recommended. . . . The conclusion is especially strong and provocative, speculating that though democracy has advantages that prevent crises from becoming so severe they threaten stability, autocratic capitalism may be a viable alternative if democracy fails to provide security and prosperity for its people." "In this landmark study, Gunitsky . . . illuminates the deep connections between global shfits in power and waves of domestic regime change. . . . No book has made a stronger case that the fate of democracy is tied to the rise and fall of great powers and the leadership of liberal hegemonic states." "An important, well-argued and well-written contribution to the literature on the international dimension of change in political regimes across different countries."---Nicholas Bouchet, International Affairs "Aftershocks is a tour de force, traveling across the twentieth century, simultaneously providing a parsimonious theoretical map of the entire century's experience with democratic breakthroughs and breakdowns, while also remaining immersed in rich historical detail. . . . Gunitsky has given us a powerful lens to understand not only the past but the present as well."---Daniel Ziblatt, Perspectives on Politics "Ambitious and lucid, Aftershocks offers an alternative way to view twentieth-century global history, and is a book that belongs in the company of works by Gilpin and Ikenberry. In our own time of global power shifts, Gunitsky's fundamental claim-that hegemonic transitions explain the spread and contraction of democracy across entire regions-is vitally important and impossible to ignore."-John M. Owen IV, University of Virginia "By delving into how international dynamics shape the spread of democracy and autocracy over time, Gunitsky presents a much-needed theoretical and empirical synthesis for anyone interested in international relations and domestic politics. As the world faces changing global powers and declining support for democracy, Gunitsky's book is essential reading with significant practical implications."-Susan D. Hyde, University of California, Berkeley "Aftershocks examines the role of international factors in shaping the rise and fall of regime types. Contending that a regime cannot be understood in purely domestic terms, Gunitsky explores the nature of global influences and how they work. This book has a big historical sweep and is filled with well-chosen examples."-Peter Gourevitch, University of California, San Diego "Aftershocks makes a strong and creative theoretical argument while providing a wide variety
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Legitimacy and Power Politics
The American and French Revolutions in International Political Culture
by Mlada Bukovansky
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
Mlada Bukovansky is Assistant Professor of Government at Smith College.
This book examines the causes and consequences of a major transformation in both domestic and international politics: the shift from dynastically legitimated monarchical sovereignty to popularly legitimated national sovereignty. It analyzes the impact of Enlightenment discourse on politics in eighteenth-century Europe and the United States, showing how that discourse facilitated new authority struggles in Old Regime Europe, shaped the American and French Revolutions, and influenced the relationships between the revolutionary regimes and the international system.
The interaction between traditional and democratic ideas of legitimacy transformed the international system by the early nineteenth century, when people began to take for granted the desirability of equality, individual rights, and restraint of power. Using an interpretive, historically sensitive approach to international relations, the author considers the complex interplay between elite discourses about political legitimacy and strategic power struggles within and among states. She shows how culture, power, and interests interacted to produce a crucial yet poorly understood case of international change.
The book not only shows the limits of liberal and realist theories of international relations, but also demonstrates how aspects of these theories can be integrated with insights derived from a constructivist perspective that takes culture and legitimacy seriously. The author finds that cultural contests over the terms of political legitimacy constitute one of the central mechanisms by which the character of sovereignty is transformed in the international system--a conclusion as true today as it was in the eighteenth century. "Bukovansky convincingly argues that ideas matter in international politics." "Bukovansky's volume is a most interesting analysis of the topic. . . . [I]t is a valuable addition to the bookshelves of those interested in the dynamics of politics (and who isn't?)."---Lora Sigler, European Legacy "Mlada Bukovansky has written a powerful study, arguing a bold and compelling theory with clarity and confidence."-Joyce Appleby, University of California, Los Angeles "Legitimacy and Power Politics makes an important and original set of arguments that speak directly to some of the most central debates in international relations theory."-Martha Finnemore, George Washington University
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Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare
The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945
by Tami Davis Biddle
Part of the Princeton Studies in International History and Politics series
"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2002" Tami Davis Biddle is Associate Professor of National Security and Strategy at the United States Army War College. She teaches military and diplomatic history, national security policy, and grand strategy. Her research focuses on the evolution of military ideas, and their implementation as strategies for national defense and methods of warfighting.
A major revision of our understanding of long-range bombing, this book examines how Anglo-American ideas about "strategic" bombing were formed and implemented. It argues that ideas about bombing civilian targets rested on--and gained validity from--widespread but substantially erroneous assumptions about the nature of modern industrial societies and their vulnerability to aerial bombardment. These assumptions were derived from the social and political context of the day and were maintained largely through cognitive error and bias. Tami Davis Biddle explains how air theorists, and those influenced by them, came to believe that strategic bombing would be an especially effective coercive tool and how they responded when their assumptions were challenged.
Biddle analyzes how a particular interpretation of the World War I experience, together with airmen's organizational interests, shaped interwar debates about strategic bombing and preserved conceptions of its potentially revolutionary character. This flawed interpretation as well as a failure to anticipate implementation problems were revealed as World War II commenced. By then, the British and Americans had invested heavily in strategic bombing. They saw little choice but to try to solve the problems in real time and make long-range bombing as effective as possible.
Combining narrative with analysis, this book presents the first-ever comparative history of British and American strategic bombing from its origins through 1945. In examining the ideas and rhetoric on which strategic bombing depended, it offers critical insights into the validity and robustness of those ideas--not only as they applied to World War II but as they apply to contemporary warfare. "Well written, full of nuance and detail, and solidly researched. Biddle has done a thorough job of cutting through the thicket of contradictions and fantasies that surround the strategic bombing debate from 1914 to 1945."---Dominick A. Pisano, Military History "There are books about military ideas and books about military practice. This work by a talented young historian integrates the two forms. In addition to a deft pen and an eye for wry anecdote, Biddle possesses an instinct for the ways in which ideas about new forms of warfare germinate, spread, and are adopted in the absence of good data. The importance of this book therefore not only stems from what it tells the reader about how the two great air powers of the first half of the twentieth century thought about this new instrument of war. It also offers cautionary lessons in an age of radical military change. Sleek and dazzling new technology is one thing; sensible doctrine for its use in war is another." "This is one of the most cogent, in-depth analyses of an important international historical controversy. Biddle's insight into the persistence of cognitive structures and processes serves as a model for future historical inquiry." "Tami Davis Biddle . . . has set air power into its widest historical contexts yet and, while many of her arguments are not entirely new, has advanced the field considerably with a well-researched and carefully thought-out book."---Michael S. Neiberg, American Historical Review "An extremely well-crafted history. . . . [It] can now be recommended as the best treatment of its subject matter in a single volume."---John Gooch, International History Review "By synthesizing so many complex issues, Biddle offers a landmark piece of scholarship that should appeal to both experts and history enthusiasts through its balance, lucidity, and