Since the end of the Cold War, and especially since September 11, 2001, few issues have been more hotly debated than the United States' role in the world In this hard-nosed but sophisticated examination, Colin S Gray argues that America is the indispensable guardian of the world order Gray's constructive critique of recent trends in national security is comprehensive, rooting defense issues and prospective answers in both US national security policy and in the emerging international security environment

British rearmament and the Treasury, 1932-1939

The Sheriff: America's Defense of the New World Order

We report estimates of the fiscal multiplier for interwar Britain based on quarterly data, time-series econometrics, and ‘defense news’. We find that the government expenditure multiplier was in the range 0.3 to 0.8, much lower than previous estimates. The scope for a 
Keynesian solution to recession was less than is generally supposed. We find that rearmament gave a smaller boost to real GDP than previously claimed. Rearmament may, 
however, have had a larger impact than a temporary public works program of similar magnitude if private investment anticipated the need to add capacity to cope with future defense spending.

/pdf/rearmament-to-the-rescue-new-estimates-of-the-impact-of-otddec0v6z.pdf

Rearmament to the Rescue? New Estimates of the Impact of 'Keynesian' Policies in 1930s' Britain

List of Tables ix Preface and Acknowledgments xi Chapter One: Promoting Peace with Information 1 Chapter Two: Theory, Methods, and Case Selection 17 Chapter Three: The Concert of Europe: Forum Diplomacy and Crisis Management 55 Chapter Four: The United Nations Force in Cyprus 86 Chapter Five: The United Nations Disengagement Observer Force in the Golan Heights 118 Chapter Six: The United Nations Transition Assistance Group for Namibia 142 Chapter Seven: The United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia 155 Chapter Eight: Conclusion 180 Appendix A: Information Operations in Recent U.N. Peacekeeping Missions 197 Appendix B: Insights on Transparency from the Open Skies, Strategic Arms Control, and Non-Proliferation Regimes 215 Bibliography 237 Index 269

/pdf/promoting-peace-with-information-transparency-as-a-tool-of-42jytu85ou.pdf

Promoting Peace with Information: Transparency as a Tool of Security Regimes

To account for variance in great powers' responses to threats and the implications for the peacefulness of the international system since the late nineteenth century, this article elucidates a theory which refines and synthesizes economic liberal perspectives and realist balance of power theory. I argue that different patterns and levels of economic interdependence in the great power system generate societal-based economic constraints on, or incentives for, state leaders of status quo powers hoping to mobilize economic resources and political support to oppose perceived threats. This mobilization process influences strongly the preferences of status quo powers, other states beliefs about those preferences, and the interpretation of signals in balance of power politics. In this way, economic ties influence the strategies great powers pursue. Firm balancing policies conducive to peace in the international system are most likely, I then hypothesize, when there are extensive economic ties among status quo powers and few or no such links between them and perceived threatening powers. When economic interdependence is not significant between status quo powers or if status quo powers have strong economic links with threatening powers, weaker balancing postures and conciliatory policies by status quo powers, and aggression by aspiring revisionist powers, are more likely. I then illustrate how these hypotheses explain the development of the Franco-Russian alliance of the 1890s and its effectiveness as a deterrent of Germany up to 1905, British ambivalence toward Germany from 1906 to the First World War, the weakness of British, French, Soviet, and American behavior toward Germany in the 1930s and World War II, and the American and European responses to the Soviet threat, including the NATO alliance, and the "long peace" of the post-1945 era.

Economic Interdependence and the Balance of Power

Historical research since the opening of the British archives in the late 1960s has brought about a substantial revision of the image of appeasement that had generally been accepted after World War II. Yet the traditional image has scarcely been questioned in contemporary writing on international relations. This article examines some of the central themes in recent studies relating to appeasement: the “structural” approach, which offers a new overall interpretation; the economic, military, and intelligence “dimensions” of British foreign policy in the 1930s; and the breaking down of traditional stereotypes of the roles of Chamberlain and Churchill. This reappraisal has important implications for the discipline of international relations, its view of the origins of World War II, and theories of international structural change.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2010215.pdf

British rearmament and the Treasury, 1932-1939

Citations

The Sheriff: America's Defense of the New World Order

Rearmament to the Rescue? New Estimates of the Impact of 'Keynesian' Policies in 1930s' Britain

Promoting Peace with Information: Transparency as a Tool of Security Regimes

Economic Interdependence and the Balance of Power

New Perspectives on Appeasement: Some Implications for International Relations

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