The elusive balance: power and perceptions during the Cold War
In: Cornell studies in security affairs
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In: Cornell studies in security affairs
World Affairs Online
In: International relations: the journal of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, Band 34, Heft 4, S. 459-481
ISSN: 1741-2862
I present a realist theory of subversion among great powers, an understudied phenomenon in the burgeoning literature on subversive statecraft. I show that a simple, rational cost-benefit calculus accounts for comparatively low-levels of subversion among non-belligerent great powers, much higher levels among belligerent great powers, and more frequent, violent and larger-scale subversion against weaker targets. Brief case studies of mid-twentieth century subversion featuring the Soviet Union and the United States illustrate the theory and provide preliminary support. Theory and evidence show that the conditions that are conducive to highly consequential subversion among great powers are quite limited and reversible. This gives rise to skepticism concerning claims that today's strategic environment has fundamentally transformed the nature of great power rivalry so as to accord a newly central place to subversion.
World Affairs Online
In: Vestnik MGIMO-Universiteta: naučnyj recenziruemyj žurnal = MGIMO review of international relations : scientific peer-reviewed journal, Band 64, Heft 1, S. 7-18
ISSN: 2541-9099
The article examines the major events of the two previous centuries of international relations through main concepts of political realism. The author argues that in order to understand the present dilemmas and challenges of international politics, we need to know the past. Every current major global problem has historical antecedents. History from the late 19th century constitutes the empirical foundation of much theoretical scholarship on international politics. The breakdown of the Concert of Europe and the outbreak of the devastating global conflagration of World War I are the events that sparked the modern study of international relations. The great war of 1914 to 1918 underlined the tragic wastefulness of the institution of war. It caused scholars to confront one of the most enduring puzzles of the study of international relations, why humans continue to resort to this self-destructive method of conflict resolution? The article shows that the main explanation is the anarchical system of international relations. It produces security dilemma, incentives to free ride and uncertainty of intentions among great powers making war a rational tool to secure their national interests.
In: The journal of politics: JOP, Band 77, Heft 4, S. e3-e4
ISSN: 1468-2508
In: The journal of politics: JOP, Band 77, Heft 4, S. e3-e4
ISSN: 0022-3816
In: Political science quarterly: a nonpartisan journal devoted to the study and analysis of government, politics and international affairs ; PSQ, Band 128, Heft 1, S. 165-166
ISSN: 1538-165X
In: Political science quarterly: PSQ ; the journal public and international affairs, Band 128, Heft 1, S. 165-166
ISSN: 0032-3195
In: International journal / CIC, Canadian International Council: ij ; Canada's journal of global policy analysis, Band 67, Heft 2, S. 415-421
In: International Studies Quarterly, Band 56, Heft 1, S. 219-222
In: International studies quarterly: the journal of the International Studies Association, Band 56, Heft 1, S. 219-222
ISSN: 1468-2478
The recent decline in the United States' economic fortunes does not vindicate any prediction made by any balance-of-power realist, has no implications for any theoretical proposition about the functioning of a unipolar system, and has not caused a structural shift to bi- or multipolarity. Things can be made to seem otherwise only when scholars use inconsistent measures of capabilities, do not define terms with precision, forward inherently unfalsifiable arguments, and fail to clarify causal mechanisms. Adapted from the source document.
In: International journal / Canadian International Council: Canada's journal of global policy analysis, Band 67, Heft 2, S. 415-422
ISSN: 0020-7020
It has become commonplace to bemoan the gap between today's institutional order and the nature and scope of the global problems that fall under its purview. For the order to change, however, one of two things must occur. Either the current powerful backers of the current institutional order need to reform it, or they need to stand aside and let the others do the job. For either of those things to occur, the system's still most-powerful actor would need to conceive an interest in institutional change. Below I outline the core propositions of US grand strategy as it relates to international security institutions. I argue that the current institutional architecture is well suited to US interests, at least as Washington currently understands them. The US has and will likely continue to seek to adapt institutions and rules to suit its interests, but generally does so indirectly in ways that are hard to observe and assess. Still, the case can be made that the United States has met with more success than many analysts are willing to grant. Adapted from the source document.
In: International studies quarterly: the journal of the International Studies Association, Band 56, Heft 1, S. 219-223
ISSN: 0020-8833, 1079-1760
In: Status and World Order, T. V. Paul, Deborah Larson, and William C. Wohlforth, eds., Forthcoming
SSRN
In: International relations: the journal of the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies, Band 25, Heft 4, S. 499-511
ISSN: 1741-2862
I argue that realism in particular and IR more generally erred by assigning Kenneth Waltz's Theory of International Relations pride of place in revivifying realist thought. Had Robert Gilpin's War and Change in World Politics been given equal billing, international relations research would have unfolded quite differently over the past three decades. Scholars would not have been bewildered by change, bewitched by the balance of power, blind to numerous potentially powerful realist theories, and bothered by endless and unproductive zero-sum debates among representatives of competing paradigms. And had all those pathologies been absent, we would be far better prepared today for the intellectual and policy challenges of a world in which underlying power balances appear to be changing quickly, and the status quo inter-state order is ever more contested.