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Culture and Military Doctrine: France between the Wars
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In this paper, the authors argue that the international system is indeterminate of choices between offensive and defensive military doctrines; civilians intervene infrequently in doctrinal develop--al.Abstract:
~ Offensive military doctrines threaten international stability.’ World War I vividly illustrates how a crisis can spark a major war that might have been avoided if the major players had had defensive rather than offensive doctrines. Similarly, throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Army’s offensive doctrine in Europe fueled the arms race and heightened threat perception. The choice between offensive and defensive military doctrines is at least as important now as during the Cold War. Although restructuring military doctrines along defensive orientations will not erase ethnic hostilities or suspend territorial appetites, it could remove one of the structural impediments to cooperation in the post-Cold War world. Yet an adequate explanation for why states choose offensive or defensive military doctrines remains elusive. Many scholars credit civilian policymakers with formulating doctrine wellsuited to the state’s strategic environment, and blame the armed services’ parochial interests for the sometimes disastrous choice of offensive doctrines.2 However, using illustrations from doctrinal developments in the French army during the 1920s and 1930s, this article challenges this portrait of the role of civilians and military in choices between offensive and defensive military doctrines. Even during times of increased international threat, I argue, the international system is indeterminate of choices between offensive and defensive military doctrines; civilians intervene infrequently in doctrinal develop-read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders
James G. March,Johan P. Olsen +1 more
TL;DR: The authors argue that the tendency of students of international political order to emphasize efficient histories and consequential bases for action leads them to underestimate the significance of rule-and identity-based action and inefficient histories.
Journal ArticleDOI
What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge
TL;DR: Social constructivism addresses many of the same issues addressed by neo-utilitarianism, though from a different vantage and, therefore, with different effect as discussed by the authors. But it also concerns itself with issues that neo-UTilitarianism treats by assumption, discounts, ignores, or simply cannot apprehend within its characteristic ontology and/or epistemology.
Book
The Evolution of International Security Studies
Barry Buzan,Lene Hansen +1 more
TL;DR: A survey of the literature and institutions of International Security Studies (ISS) can be found in this paper, along with a detailed institutional account of ISS in terms of its journals, departments, think tanks and funding sources.
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Which norms matter? Revisiting the "failure" of internationalism
TL;DR: In the post-cold war era, international relations theorists have shown an interest in international norms and rules not equaled since the interwar period, arguing that norms encouraging free trade, protecting the environment, enhancing human rights, and controlling the spread and use of heinous weapons may have a substantial impact on the conduct and structure of international relations.
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The Security Dilemma Revisited
TL;DR: In this paper, Jervis's article "Cooperation under the Security Dilemma" is among the most important works in international relations of the past few decades, which describes how the interaction between states that are seeking only security can fuel competition and strain political relations.
References
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Culture in action: symbols and strategies*
TL;DR: For example, the authors argues that culture influences action not by providing the ultimate values toward which action is oriented, but by shaping a repertoire or "tool kit" of habits, skills, and styles from which people construct "strategies of action."
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Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics
TL;DR: The debate between realists and liberals has reemerged as an axis of contention in international relations theory as mentioned in this paper, and the debate is more concerned today with the extent to which state action is influenced by "structure" versus "process" and institutions.
Journal ArticleDOI
On Studying Organizational Cultures
TL;DR: An overview of the longitudinal-processual theory of organizational formation can be found in this article, with a focus on the factors and elements of an organization's creation and formation rather than its existent structures or practices.
Book
Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma
TL;DR: The model of the Prisoner's Dilemma is used to demonstrate that cooperation is more likely when the costs of being exploited and the gains of exploiting others are low, when the gains from mutual cooperation and the cost of mutual noncooperation are high, and when each side expects the other to cooperate.
Book
Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities, 1877–1920
TL;DR: The state-building problem in American political development has been studied in this paper, with a focus on the early American state and its political development, including patching the army, the limits of reform in the party state, and the failure of administered capitalism.