War and Change in World Politics

War and Change in World Politics PDF Author: Robert Gilpin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521273763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
rofessor Gilpin uses history, sociology, and economic theory to identify the forces causing change in the world order.

War and Change in World Politics

War and Change in World Politics PDF Author: Robert Gilpin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521273763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
rofessor Gilpin uses history, sociology, and economic theory to identify the forces causing change in the world order.

Darwin and International Relations

Darwin and International Relations PDF Author: Bradley A. Thayer
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
ISBN: 0813181445
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 692

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Book Description
“Shows a mastery of research and theory in both biology and international relations and weaves the two fields together in a compelling fashion.” —Dr. Steven A. Peterson, Director, School of Public Affairs, Penn State Pathbreaking and controversial, Darwin and International Relations offers the first comprehensive analysis of international affairs of state through the lens of evolutionary theory. Using ethnological and statistical studies of warfare among tribal societies, Bradley A. Thayer argues that humans wage war for reasons predicted by evolutionary theory?to gain and protect vital resources but also for the physically and emotionally stimulating effects of combat. Thayer demonstrates that an evolutionary understanding of disease will become a more important part of the study of international relations as new strains of diseases emerge and advances in genetics make biological warfare a more effective weapon for states and terrorists. He also explains the deep causes of ethnic conflict by illuminating how xenophobia and ethnocentrism evolved in humans. He notes that these behaviors once contributed to our ancestors’ success in radically different environments, but they remain a part of us. Darwin and International Relations makes a major contribution to our understanding of human history and the future of international relations. “Obligatory reading for social and life scientists alike, and deserves to become a standard work in political science.” —International History Review “A thoughtful book that can challenge some of our comfortable assumptions.” —Journal of Military History “Outstanding! This book will become a standard work in political science.” —Roger D. Masters, Dartmouth College

The Worth of War

The Worth of War PDF Author: Benjamin Ginsberg
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616149515
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
Although war is terrible and brutal, history shows that it has been a great driver of human progress. So argues political scientist Benjamin Ginsberg in this incisive, well-researched study of the benefits to civilization derived from armed conflict. Ginsberg makes a convincing case that war selects for and promotes certain features of societies that are generally held to represent progress. These include rationality, technological and economic development, and liberal forms of government. Contrary to common perceptions that war is the height of irrationality, Ginsberg persuasively demonstrates that in fact it is the ultimate test of rationality. He points out that those societies best able to assess threats from enemies rationally and objectively are usually the survivors of warfare. History also clearly reveals the technological benefits that result from war—ranging from the sundial to nuclear power. And in regard to economics, preparation for war often spurs on economic development; by the same token, nations with economic clout in peacetime usually have a huge advantage in times of war. Finally, war and the threat of war have encouraged governments to become more congenial to the needs and wants of their citizens because of the increasing reliance of governments on their citizens’ full cooperation in times of war. However deplorable the realities of war are, the many fascinating examples and astute analysis in this thought-provoking book will make readers reconsider the unmistakable connection between war and progress.

World Politics and the Evolution of War

World Politics and the Evolution of War PDF Author: John J. Weltman
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801849497
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
In this comprehensive study, international relations scholar John Weltman explores the many roles of war in world politics. With topics ranging from the development of strategic thought to the effects on war of political and technological change, from the uses of force—and threats of force—to the uses of arms control, from the prominence of war in history to its likely fate in the post-Cold War world, Weltman's analysis offers a detailed, thoroughgoing, and rigorous overview of the subject. Throughout, Weltman questions a number of widely held assumptions. To the conventional argument that the number of players in the international system determines the incidence and character of war, he responds with evidence that suggesting that the social, material, and intellectual context within which conflicts occur is far more influential. Weltman also questions the prevailing wisdom that democracies are inherently peaceful and autocracies inherently warlike, arguing instead that the propensity to wage war—and the effects of war—are largely the products of prevailing expectations: whether or not war offers a means for the cheap, easy, and decisive accomplishment of a government's objectives. And he criticizes the dominant view that conflict—even violent conflict—is psychologically "abnormal." Drawing upon the traditional distinction between wars of "attrition" and wars of "annihilation," Weltman sees the trend toward the former—despite the anomalous Persian Gulf conflict—aslikely to continue. While this trend does not suggest the end of warfare (much less the "end of history"), it does imply the localization of conflict and the minimization of the danger of global conflagration. The "new world order," Weltman concludes, will be far from peaceful, but the conflicts that do arise will be slow-burning and difficult to spread. Outside intervention in these conflicts will be costly.

War from the Ground Up

War from the Ground Up PDF Author: Emile Simpson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199327882
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
This is a philosophical treatise on war written by an Oxford grad who served in Afghanistan.

The Evolution of Strategy

The Evolution of Strategy PDF Author: Beatrice Heuser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113949256X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Is there a 'Western way of war' which pursues battles of annihilation and single-minded military victory? Is warfare on a path to ever greater destructive force? This magisterial account answers these questions by tracing the history of Western thinking about strategy - the employment of military force as a political instrument - from antiquity to the present day. Assessing sources from Vegetius to contemporary America, and with a particular focus on strategy since the Napoleonic Wars, Beatrice Heuser explores the evolution of strategic thought, the social institutions, norms and patterns of behaviour within which it operates, the policies that guide it and the cultures that influence it. Ranging across technology and warfare, total warfare and small wars as well as land, sea, air and nuclear warfare, she demonstrates that warfare and strategic thinking have fluctuated wildly in their aims, intensity, limitations and excesses over the past two millennia.

Law and Sentiment in International Politics

Law and Sentiment in International Politics PDF Author: David Traven
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108845002
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
Traven argues that universal moral beliefs and emotions shaped the evolution of international laws that protect civilians in war.

A Political History of the World

A Political History of the World PDF Author: Jonathan Holslag
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241352053
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
A three-thousand year history of the world that examines the causes of war and the search for peace In three thousand years of history, China has spent at least eleven centuries at war. The Roman Empire was in conflict during at least 50 per cent of its lifetime. Since 1776, the United States has spent over one hundred years at war. The dream of peace has been universal in the history of humanity. So why have we so rarely been able to achieve it? In A Political History of the World, Jonathan Holslag has produced a sweeping history of the world, from the Iron Age to the present, that investigates the causes of conflict between empires, nations and peoples and the attempts at diplomacy and cosmopolitanism. A birds-eye view of three thousand years of history, the book illuminates the forces shaping world politics from Ancient Egypt to the Han Dynasty, the Pax Romana to the rise of Islam, the Peace of Westphalia to the creation of the United Nations. This truly global approach enables Holslag to search for patterns across different eras and regions, and explore larger questions about war, diplomacy, and power. Has trade fostered peace? What are the limits of diplomacy? How does environmental change affect stability? Is war a universal sin of power? At a time when the threat of nuclear war looms again, this is a much-needed history intended for students of international politics, and anyone looking for a background on current events.

Strategy, Evolution, and War

Strategy, Evolution, and War PDF Author: Kenneth Payne
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
ISBN: 1626165807
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Humans have always made decisions about war, but now machines are close to changing things - with implications for international affairs. Payne explores the origins of human strategy, and makes the argument that Artificial Intelligence will radically transform the nature of war by changing the psychological basis of decision-making about violence.

Inspectors for Peace

Inspectors for Peace PDF Author: Elisabeth Roehrlich
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421443333
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
"Based on unique access to the IAEA Archives in Vienna and numerous interviews with leading diplomats and scientists, this book provides the first comprehensive, empirically grounded, and independent study on the history of the International Atomic Energy Agency"--