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Background and superpower responses to the Rarotonga Treaty, signed Aug. 1985 by eight South Pacific Forum countries.

Introduction -- Exploring international institutions and power politics / Anders Wivel and T.V. Paul -- Theorizing power politics and international institutions -- Realist institutionalism and the institutional mechanisms of power politics / J. Samuel Barkin and Patricia Weitsman -- A neoclassical realist explanation of international institutions / Norrin M. Ripsman -- Pyrrhic victory : a world of liberal institutions, teeming with tensions / Georg Sørensen -- Making power politics great again? Discursive institutionalism and the political economy of world politics after globalization / Ben Rosamond -- The processes of power politics and international institutions -- Maximizing security through international institutions : soft balancing strategies reconsidered / Anders Wivel and T.V. Paul -- The power in opacity : rethinking information in international organizations / Austin Carson and Alexander Thompson -- Revisionists, networks, and the liberal institutional order / Stacie Goddard -- The power politics of global and regional institutions -- Structural modifiers, the non-proliferation treaty regime, and fostering a less competitive international environment / Steven E. Lobell and Brad Nicholson -- The power politics of United Nations peace operations / Sarah-Myriam Martin -- Brûlé, Lou Pingeot and Vincent Pouliot -- Variable geometry : power and institutions in the European Union / John A. Hall and Frédéric Mérand -- Conclusions -- The dynamic relations between power politics and institutionalization : a neo-Gramscian intervention / Annette Freyberg-Inan -- International order and power politics / Daniel H. Nexon.

AbstractAs part of the roundtable "International Institutions and Peaceful Change," this essay examines the role of institutional soft balancing in bringing forth peaceful change in international relations. Soft balancing is understood as attempts at restraining a threatening power through institutional delegitimization, as opposed to hard balancing, which relies on arms buildup and formal alignments. We argue that soft balancing through international institutions can be an effective means to peaceful change, spanning minimalist goals, which aim at incremental change without the use of military force and war, and maximalist goals, which seek more profound change and transformation in the form of continuous interstate cooperation aimed at a more peaceful and just world order. However, the success of soft-balancing strategies in fostering peaceful change varies widely, even in today's globalized and institutionalized international environment. We explore these variations and identify three conditions for success that can inform both academic analysis and political practice: inclusion, commitment, and status recognition. We draw lessons from two historical examples: the Concert of Europe in the early nineteenth century and the League of Nations in the early twentieth century, and discuss how current threats to the liberal international order challenge soft balancing for peaceful change.

For decades, globalization and the liberal international order evolved side by side. Recently, however, deglobalizing forces have been on the rise and the liberal international order has come to be increasingly beleaguered. The special issue 'Deglobalization? The future of the liberal international order' examines the interconnectedness of globalization and deglobalization processes on the one hand and the trajectory of the liberal international order on the other. This introduction provides a conceptual frame for the articles to follow. It discusses globalization and deglobalization processes, compares how they have been intertwined with the liberal international order in the past and presently, and explores how these differences are likely to affect the future of world politics. The special issue makes three important contributions. First, we examine globalization and deglobalization processes systematically. Second, we break new ground in studying the future of international order. Third, we generate novel insights into epochal change.

Abstract
The post-Cold War international system, dominated by the United States, has been shaken by the relative downturn of the US economy and the simultaneous rise of China. China is rapidly emerging as a serious contender for America's dominance of the Indo-Pacific. What is noticeable is the absence of intense balance of power politics in the form of formal military alliances among the states in the region, unlike state behaviour during the Cold War era. Countries are still hedging as their strategic responses towards each other evolve. We argue that the key factor explaining the absence of intense hard balancing is the dearth of existential threat that either China or its potential adversaries feel up till now. The presence of two related critical factors largely precludes existential threats, and thus hard balancing military coalitions formed by or against China. The first is the deepened economic interdependence China has built with the potential balancers, in particular, the United States, Japan, and India, in the globalisation era. The second is the grand strategy of China, in particular, the peaceful rise/development, and infrastructure-oriented Belt and Road Initiative. Any radical changes in these two conditions leading to existential threats by the key states could propel the emergence of hard-balancing coalitions.

This article offers a discussion of nuclear doctrines and their significance for war, peace and stability between nuclear-armed states. The cases of India and Pakistan are analysed to show the challenges these states have faced in articulating and implementing a proper nuclear doctrine, and the implications of this for nuclear stability in the region. We argue that both the Indian and Pakistani doctrines and postures are problematic from a regional security perspective because they are either ambiguous about how to address crucial deterrence related issues, and/or demonstrate a severe mismatch between the security problems and goals they are designed to deal with, and the doctrines that conceptualize and operationalize the role of nuclear weapons in grand strategy. Consequently, as both India's and Pakistan's nuclear doctrines and postures evolve, the risks of a spiralling nuclear arms race in the subcontinent are likely to increase without a reassessment of doctrinal issues in New Delhi and Islamabad. A case is made for more clarity and less ambition from both sides in reconceptualizing their nuclear doctrines. We conclude, however, that owing to the contrasting barriers to doctrinal reorientation in each country, the likelihood of such changes being made-and the ease with which they can be made-is greater in India than in Pakistan. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP)

In the past two decades, many have posited a correlation between the spread of globalization and the decline of the nation-state. They have maintained that the increasing interdependence between countries means that nations are no longer the sole providers of their territorial security. This text investigates.

Two highly regarded scholars come together to examine India's relationship with the world's major powers and its own search for a significant role in the international system. Central to the argument is India's belief that the acquisition of an independent nuclear capability is key to obtaining such status. The book details the major constraints at the international, domestic and perceptual levels that India has faced in this endeavor. It concludes, through a detailed comparison of India's power capabilities, that India is indeed a rising power, but that significant systemic and domestic changes will be necessary before it can achieve its goal. The book examines the prospects and implications of India's integration into the major-power system in the twenty-first century. This book's incisive analysis will be illuminating for students, policy makers, and for anyone wishing to understand the region in greater depth