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The end of the Cold War demonstrated the historical possibility of peaceful change and seemingly showed the superiority of non-realist approaches in International Relations. Yet in the post-Cold War period many European countries have experienced a resurgence of a distinctively realist tradition: geopolitics. Geopolitics is an approach which emphasizes the relationship between politics and power on the one hand; and territory, location and environment on the other. This comparative study shows how the revival of geopolitics came not despite, but because of, the end of the Cold War. Disoriented in their self-understandings and conception of external roles by the events of 1989, many European foreign policy actors used the determinism of geopolitical thought to find their place in world politics quickly. The book develops a constructivist methodology to study causal mechanisms and its comparative approach allows for a broad assessment of some of the fundamental dynamics of European security.
Published on occasion of the 100 year anniversary of the Åland Islands’ autonomy, this book brings up and discusses a number of challenging issues, from constitutional and international law perspectives, concerning both the Åland situation and autonomy in general. Among the questions raised are: Is autonomy part of international law and which international organisations may have jurisdiction? Is autonomy a human right or is it about the prevention of violent conflicts? Does the Åland Autonomy constitute a useful model for other minority groups? Do the Åland Islands stand to benefit from anything in international law, be it substantive or procedural?
The scope of Security and International Affairs research has expanded tremendously since the end of the Cold War to include topics beyond the realm of war studies or military statecraft. The field—once devoted solely to the study of conventional military and nuclear security issues—has diversified to include foci often considered nontraditional, including peace and conflict, political, economic, environmental, and human security. In this exciting new volume, McGann has undertaken a quantitative and qualitative study of SIA think tanks, looking at global and regional trends in their research. He argues that the end of the Cold War marked a fundamental shift within the field of defense and...
History and collective memories influence a nation, its culture, and institutions; hence, its domestic politics and foreign policy. That is the case in the Intermarium, the land between the Baltic and Black Seas in Eastern Europe. The area is the last unabashed rampart of Western Civilization in the East, and a point of convergence of disparate cultures. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz focuses on the Intermarium for several reasons. Most importantly because, as the inheritor of the freedom and rights stemming from the legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian/Ruthenian Commonwealth, it is culturally and ideologically compatible with American national interests. It is also a gateway to both East and West. Since...
Focused on the role of Central Europe in international politics at the turn of the 20th century, the authors take stock of the knowledge about the discipline of IR, enhance the visibility of scholars from Central Europe, and fill the void which has emerged after several researches on Central Europe were completed in the 1990s.
Theories on the origins of war are often based on the premise that the rational actor is in pursuit of material satisfaction, such as the quest for power or for wealth. These perspectives disregard the need for homo symbolicus – the preservation of a positive self-image for both emotional and instrumental reasons. A good reputation ensures authority and material resources. Non-recognition can be as much as an explanation of war as that of other explicative 'variables'. Two empirical studies examining the role of non-recognition in great power conflicts and in international crises will demonstrate the value of this symbolic approach.
For much of the last 25 years, NATO has focused on crisis managementin places such as Kosovo and Afghanistan,resulting in major changes to alliance strategy, resourcing,force structure, and training. Re-embracing collective defense —which lies at the heart of the Treaty of Washington’s Article 5 commitment— is no easy feat, and not something NATO can do through rhetoric and official pronouncements. Nonetheless,this shift is vitally necessary if the alliance is to remain the bulwark of Western defense and security. Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and its invasion of Ukraine have fundamentally upended the security environment in Europe, thrusting NATO into the spotlight as the pr...
En France, l'État semble régulièrement soucieux de développer les études stratégiques. Mais il hésite très souvent à leur accorder la liberté nécessaire pour qu'elles puissent se déployer dans les structures académiques civiles et militaires. Le pouvoir politique questionne leur utilité tandis que l'université interroge la légitimité des think tanks. De surcroît, la difficulté de dialogue entre universitaires et militaires, d'une part, et la particularité de l'objet de recherche d'autre part, ajoutent encore plus de complexité à cette problématique. Cet ouvrage passe en revue les nombreux organismes, instituts et périodiques qui travaillent et publient, de près ou de loin, dans le domaine des études stratégiques. Il explique les raisons pour lesquelles elles peinent à trouver leurs marques.