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This book constitutes an extremely valuable contribution to the field. It significantly adds to the body of literature concerning the motivating factors underpinning the decisions by policy makers to resort to or refrain from the use of armed force. - Howard M. Hensel, Professor, Air War College, USA. This book offers a fresh perspective on timeless questions concerning anarchy and order, power and principle, and public and private morality, by taking a novel approach to the study of the onset of war. Rather than looking at the distribution of wealth, military might, or other material capabilities to explain the onset of war, this book focuses instead on how international norms affect the use of military force. Critical of the realist assumption that international legal norms are unable to curb hostilities without a powerful central authority to enforce their injunctions, it contends that the normative context within which national leaders act sets the tone for world politics by communicating commonly accepted understandings about the limits of permissible action. Using quantitative analyses of the relationships between war initiation norms and various types of armed conflict, the author calls into question realist beliefs regarding international norms, demonstrating that restrictive normative orders reduce the likelihood of war. Gregory A. Raymond is Distinguished Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Boise State University, USA

The material dimensions of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which encompass multibillion-dollar investments in transport infrastructure and industrial estates, are expected to make China a key player in the development and increasing integration of mainland Southeast Asia. This article, however, looks beyond trade and hard infrastructure to examine China's emerging efforts to build influence at the ideational level through the use of Buddhism as a cultural resource. It documents government-sponsored outreach to Southeast Asia's Buddhist leaders and communities in Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. It finds that there has been a surge in outreach from a range of Chinese provinces since the advent of the BRI in 2013. These outreach efforts warrant categorization as influence operations because they are orchestrated through the offices of the United Front Work Department, are being used to promote China's political goals, and are sanctioned by a party that remains staunchly atheist and forbids its members to practise religion. In broader terms, China's use of Buddhism as an adjunct to the BRI in mainland Southeast Asia suggests it is seeking to dampen disquiet about the BRI, including by fostering a sense of shared values with mainland Southeast Asian states.

Der Artikel geht der Frage nach, inwiefern außenpolitische Entscheidungen abhängen von der Notwendigkeit des Handelns und seiner Rechtfertigung. Dabei werden außenpolitische Entscheidungen häufig getroffen, weil die Notwendigkeit vorliegt, das nationale Interesse zu verteidigen, moralische Bedenken werden zurückgestellt. Als Beispiel dafür dient die Rede des deutschen Kanzlers von Bethmann Hollweg 1914 vor dem Reichstag. Der Autor kritisiert, daß Regierungen allzu oft dazu neigen, außenpolitische Entscheidungen zu rechtfertigen, die aufgrund einer diffusen Notwendigkeit getroffen werden, und sich somit der Verantwortung entziehen, auch moralische Faktoren in ihr Handeln mit einzubeziehen(SWP-Drh)