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Theory of International Politics

01 Jan 1979-
About: The article was published on 1979-01-01 and is currently open access. It has received 7932 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Global politics & International relations.
Citations
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Book
16 Aug 2016
TL;DR: The authors argue that resolve is an interaction between situational stakes and dispositional traits; by pointing to a series of dispositional characteristics frequently studied in a growing body of research on willpower in behavioral economics and social psychology (time and risk preferences, honor orientations, and trait self-control), they disaggregate the costs of war and explain why certain types of actors are more sensitive to the costs in fighting, while others are more tolerant of backing down.
Abstract: Why do some leaders and publics display remarkable persistence in war, while others “cut and run” at the first sign of trouble? Why did the French remain in the First World War despite having suffered nearly a third of a million soldiers killed, missing, or wounded in the Battle of Verdun alone, while the United States immediately halted its military operations in Somalia after 18 of its soldiers were killed during the Battle of Mogadishu? Although resolve is one of the most frequently used independent variables in International Relations, used to explain everything from developments on the battlefield to deliberations at the bargaining table to decisions at the ballot box, we have very little sense of why some actors are more resolved than others. I argue that resolve is an interaction between situational stakes and dispositional traits; by pointing to a series of dispositional characteristics frequently studied in a growing body of research on willpower in behavioral economics and social psychology (time and risk preferences, honor orientations, and trait self-control), I disaggregate the costs of war and explain why certain types of actors are more sensitive to the costs of fighting, while others are more sensitive to the costs of backing down. I test this argument at the micro-level with laboratory and survey experiments, and at the macro-level with Boolean statistical analyses of great power military interventions from 1946-2003. The macro-level analyses suggest that resolve indeed boosts the probability of victory, finding evidence in favor of country-level situational and leader-level dispositional sources of resolve.

93 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article reviewed four recent volumes describing Africa's international relations for clues about how to close the gap between Africa's experiences and prevailing research practice and discussed specific ways Africa is omitted from standard international relations research.
Abstract: Unquestioned assumptions of universal patterns coupled with unwillingness to conceive of political entities existing at different levels of empirical statehood render international relations research poorly equipped to understand Africa's international relations. Consequently, Africa is effectively missing from prevailing international relations theorizing and data set construction. After discussing specific ways Africa is omitted from standard international relations research, the author reviews four recent volumes describing Africa's international relations for clues about how to close the gap between Africa's experiences and prevailing research practice.

93 citations

01 Aug 2009
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the problem-solving capacity of the African Union (AU) and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), and examine the hypothesis that a regional hegemon, and a measure of shared values and norms, are necessary requirements for an effective regional security organisation.
Abstract: This paper focuses on the problem-solving capacity of the African Union (AU) and its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). It forms a companion paper to WP56.2 which looks specifically at the ability of African sub-regional organisations to play their part in dealing with Africa's conflicts and security issues. Both papers examine the hypothesis that a regional hegemon, and a measure of shared values and norms, are necessary requirements for an effective regional security organisation. The paper commences with a brief account of the concept of hegemony, followed by an analysis of the empirical question as to whether there are any potential hegemons in Africa. The author goes on to analyse the OAU's record in dealing with conflict and traces the genesis of the AU, its ambitions, organisational structure and actual accomplishments in the realm of peace and security.

93 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Michael Mousseau1
TL;DR: In this article, an interdisciplinary theory is presented that links the rise of contractual forms of exchange within a society with the proliferation of liberal values, democratic legitimacy, and peace among democratic nations.
Abstract: Drawing on literature from Anthropology, Economics, Political Science and Sociology, an interdisciplinary theory is presented that links the rise of contractual forms of exchange within a society with the proliferation of liberal values, democratic legitimacy, and peace among democratic nations. The theory accommodates old facts and yields a large number of new and testable ones, including the fact that the peace among democracies is limited to market-oriented states, and that market democracies—but not the other democracies—perceive common interests. Previous research confirms the first hypothesis; examination herein of UN roll call votes confirms the latter: the market democracies agree on global issues. The theory and evidence demonstrate that (a) the peace among democratic states may be a function of common interests derived from common economic structure; (b) all of the empirical research into the democratic peace is underspecified, as no study has considered an interaction of democracy with economic structure; (c) interests can be treated endogenously in social research; and (d) several of the premier puzzles in global politics are causally related—including the peace among democracies and the association of democratic stability and liberal political culture with market-oriented economic development.

93 citations


Cites background from "Theory of International Politics"

  • ...The standard theses of Morgenthau (1985[1948]) and Waltz (1979), for instance, presume actors to value, respectively, power or securityFand predict war (and peace) as a consequence of these assumed preferences and varying balances of power....

    [...]

  • ...Drawing on literature from Anthropology, Economics, Political Science and Sociology, an interdisciplinary theory is presented that links the rise of contractual forms of exchange within a society with the proliferation of liberal values, democratic legitimacy, and peace among democratic nations....

    [...]

  • ...…seeming pursuit of ‘‘democracy, human rights and the rule of law’’ by the market democracies is not because these states prefer democracy, human rights, and the rule of lawFbut because these pursuits are tactics aimed at achieving some other interest that remains assumed, constant, and…...

    [...]

  • ...…structural versions of Realism are compatible with the ontology, as structural Realism is at its core an institutional theory: it is the condition of institutional anarchyFnot human natureFthat is assumed to drive states to be primarily concerned with security and thus power (Waltz, 1979:88–101)....

    [...]

  • ...For example, Realists assume that actors seek wealth or security, and thus power (Waltz, 1979; Morgenthau, 1985[1948]); institutionalists assume institutions constrain, and typically hold preferences constant (e.g., Bueno de Mesquita et al., 1999; Russett and Oneal, 2001).5 In Anthropology exists a…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors proposed a theory that explains how dissidents and states interact to jointly produce civil war and showed that states that repress their citizens are the most likely to kill citizens and to generate dissident violence.
Abstract: The prevailing scholarly wisdom is that weak states, or resource-poor states, are the most prone to civil war. Yet many weak states never experience civil war. Why then are some weak states prone to civil war while others are not? The author offers a theory that explains how dissidents and states interact to jointly produce civil war. In sum, states that repress their citizens are the most likely to kill citizens and to generate dissident violence. This insight resolves an academic puzzle and when tested provides a model with better predictive ability than previous models.

93 citations

References
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Book ChapterDOI
01 Jan 1976
TL;DR: For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge, proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses as discussed by the authors. But the notion of proven knowledge was questioned by the sceptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics.
Abstract: For centuries knowledge meant proven knowledge — proven either by the power of the intellect or by the evidence of the senses. Wisdom and intellectual integrity demanded that one must desist from unproven utterances and minimize, even in thought, the gap between speculation and established knowledge. The proving power of the intellect or the senses was questioned by the sceptics more than two thousand years ago; but they were browbeaten into confusion by the glory of Newtonian physics. Einstein’s results again turned the tables and now very few philosophers or scientists still think that scientific knowledge is, or can be, proven knowledge. But few realize that with this the whole classical structure of intellectual values falls in ruins and has to be replaced: one cannot simply water down the ideal of proven truth - as some logical empiricists do — to the ideal of’probable truth’1 or — as some sociologists of knowledge do — to ‘truth by [changing] consensus’.2

4,969 citations

ReportDOI
17 Feb 1966
TL;DR: This book contains the collected and unified material necessary for the presentation of such branches of modern cybernetics as the theory of electronic digital computers, Theory of discrete automata, theory of discrete self-organizing systems, automation of thought processes, theoryof image recognition, etc.
Abstract: : This book contains the collected and unified material necessary for the presentation of such branches of modern cybernetics as the theory of electronic digital computers, theory of discrete automata, theory of discrete self-organizing systems, automation of thought processes, theory of image recognition, etc. Discussions are given of the fundamentals of the theory of boolean functions, algorithm theory, principles of the design of electronic digital computers and universal algorithmical languages, fundamentals of perceptron theory, some theoretical questions of the theory of self-organizing systems. Many fundamental results in mathematical logic and algorithm theory are presented in summary form, without detailed proofs, and in some cases without any proof. The book is intended for a broad audience of mathematicians and scientists of many specialties who wish to acquaint themselves with the problems of modern cybernetics.

2,922 citations

Journal ArticleDOI

2,873 citations