Articles

13 Items

Great Decisions Cover

Foreign Policy Association

Journal Article - Foreign Policy Association

The State of the State Department and American Diplomacy

| Jan. 03, 2019

During the Trump administration, the usual ways of conducting diplomacy have been upended. Many positions in the State Department have never been filled, and meetings with foreign leaders such as Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin have been undertaken with little advance planning. What effect are these changes having now, and how will they affect ongoing relationships between the United States and its allies and adversaries?

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

The Security Curve and the Structure of International Politics: A Neorealist Synthesis

    Author:
  • Davide Fiammenghi
| Spring 2011

Realist scholars have long debated the question of how much power states need to feel secure. Offensive realists claim that states should constantly seek to increase their power. Defensive realists argue that accumulating too much power can be self-defeating. Proponents of hegemonic stability theory contend that the accumulation of capabilities in one state can exert a stabilizing effect on the system. The three schools describe different points along the power con­tinuum. When a state is weak, accumulating power increases its security. This is approximately the situation described by offensive realists. A state that con­tinues to accumulate capabilities will eventually triggers a balancing reaction that puts its security at risk. This scenario accords with defensive realist as­sumptions. Finally, when the state becomes too powerful to balance, its oppo­nents bandwagon with it, and the state’s security begins to increase again. This is the situation described by hegemonic stability theory. These three stages delineate a modified parabolic relationship between power and secu­rity. As a state moves along the power continuum, its security increases up to a point, then decreases, and finally increases again. This modified parabolic re­lationship allows scholars to synthesize previous realist theories into a single framework.

This July 24, 2005, photo shows the meeting place of the 4th round of the 6-party talks on the North Korean nuclear issue at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

AP Photo

Journal Article - Conflict Resolution Quarterly

Culture of China's Mediation in Regional and International Affairs

| October 2010

Currently there seems to be an increasing interest in and demand for China's mediation in resolving conflict. To certain extent, such a phenomenon is associated with China's re-emerging power. But more importantly, it is probably the style and skills of China's mediation that matter, which represents the emerging of a unique mediation culture, with China being its messenger. The paper examines key elements of such a mediation culture, using examples of China's mediation in regional and international affairs. The shaping of such a culture offers good lessons for mediators around the world who strive for effective conflict resolution.

This night view shows the Norris Dam rising from the Clinch River in Norris, Tenn., July 22, 1935. Powerful spotlights placed on and above the dam enable construction work to continue night and day of the Tennessee Valley Authority's project.

AP Photo

Journal Article - International History Review

Meeting the Challenge from Totalitarianism: The Tennessee Valley Authority as a Global Model for Liberal Development, 1933–1945

| March 2010

"...[T]he rivalry between models of socio-economic development did not begin with the cold war. During the Depression, liberals sought to show that planned economic and social development was possible without the use of autocratic methods. Liberal internationalists, aware that their totalitarian ideological competitors offered their own attractive modernization programmes needed a liberal champion. In the TVA they found a global model that became nearly synonymous with liberal development because of its claim to harmonize potentially destabilizing forces. At a time when development models were features of the international discourse, the TVA distinguished itself by offering proof that large-scale, socially transformative, planning-based development was viable in a liberal democracy. The ease with which these ideas supplied an ideological strategy during the cold war illustrated the degree to which modernization had already proved its effectiveness as a weapon against ideological challenges to liberalism."

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Preventing Nuclear Entrepreneurship in Russia's Nuclear Cities

    Author:
  • Sharon Weiner
| Fall 2002

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, concern that Russian nuclear weapons scientists could sell their expertise to the highest bidder or steal nuclear weapons or their components has risen dramatically. Sharon Weiner considers several ways to discourage these potential “nuclear entrepreneurs” from undertaking such efforts.

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

International Security at Twenty-five: From One World to Another

| Summer 2001

Though the end of the Cold War raised questions in some minds about the status of the field and the survival of IS, the journal has flourished over the last decade. A substantially new agenda has emerged, one that raises fundamental questions about America’s role in the world, the character of great power relations, and the feasibility and desirability of various possible post–Cold War international orders.

Journal Article - Quarterly Journal: International Security

Imperial Wreckage: Property Rights, Sovereignty, and Security in the Post-Soviet Space

    Author:
  • Alexander Cooley
| Winter 2000/01

The author explores the efforts of Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union to address the region's "residual assets" problem in the wake of the Cold War through the development of a series of “unconventional governance structures” in the form of bilateral agreements.