Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Series
  3. Cambridge Studies in International Relations

Cambridge Studies in International Relations is a joint initiative of Cambridge University Press and the British International Studies Association (BISA). The series aims to publish the best new scholarship in international studies, irrespective of subject matter, methodological approach or theoretical perspective. The series seeks to bring the latest theoretical work in International Relations to bear on the most important problems and issues in global politics.

  • Managing Editors: Evelyn Goh, Christian Reus-Smit, Nicholas J. Wheeler
  • Advisory Boards: Jacqueline Best, University of Ottawa, Karin Fierke, University of St Andrews, William Grimes, Boston University, Yuen Foong Khong, National University of Singapore, Andrew Kydd, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Lily Ling, New School for Social Research, New York, Andrew Linklater, Aberystwyth University, Nicola Phillips, University of Sheffield, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University, Illinois, Jacquie TRUE, Monash University, Victoria, Leslie Vinjamuri, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Alexander Wendt, Ohio State University

Refine search

Refine search

Content type:
Publication date:
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

150 results in Cambridge Studies in International Relations

Page 7 of 8

Normative Theory in International Relations
  • A Pragmatic Approach
  • Molly Cochran
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    09 December 1999
  • Normative theory in international relations, as it is discussed at present in the framework of the cosmopolitan/communitarian debate, is in a condition of stasis. Cosmopolitan and communitarian positions are generally assumed to be irreconcilable, with no means available for reaching conclusions on ethical questions in world politics. This book pursues three lines of inquiry. First, it aims to examine the nature and the extent of the impasse within this debate. Second, it re-evaluates whether the cosmopolitan/communitarian dichotomy offers a complete picture of the most pressing issues at stake within normative international relations theory. The book suggests that a more refined focus on epistemology and questions of foundationalism and antifoundationalism is necessary. Third, it constructs an argument for a normative approach to international ethics which draws from the tradition of American pragmatism and is sensitive to the wider picture of concerns raised in the course of the book.

US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis
  • David Patrick Houghton
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    21 May 2001
  • Why did a handful of Iranian students seize the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979? Why did most members of the US government initially believe that the incident would be over quickly? Why did the Carter administration then decide to launch a rescue mission, and why did it fail so spectacularly? US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis examines these puzzles and others, using an analogical reasoning approach to decision-making, a theoretical perspective which highlights the role played by historical analogies in the genesis of foreign policy decisions. Using interviews with key decision-makers on both sides, Houghton provides an analysis of one of the United States' greatest foreign policy disasters, the events of which continue to poison relations between the two states. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy analysis and international relations.

Deterrence Now
  • Patrick M. Morgan
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    17 April 2003
  • Patrick Morgan's authoritative study revisits the place of deterrence after the Cold War. By assessing and questioning the state of modern deterrence theory, particularly under conditions of nuclear proliferation, Morgan argues that there are basic flaws in the design of the theory that ultimately limits its utility. Given the probable patterns of future international politics, he suggests that greater attention be paid to 'general' deterrence as opposed to 'immediate' deterrence and to examining the deterrent capabilities of collective actors such as NATO and the UN Security Council. Finally he contends that the revolution in military affairs can promote less reliance on deterrence by retaliatory threats, support better collective management of peace and security and permit us to outgrow nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction. This new major work builds upon Patrick Morgan's landmark book, Deterrence (1983).

Constructivism in International Relations
  • The Politics of Reality
  • Maja Zehfuss
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    25 July 2002
  • Maja Zehfuss' book offers a fundamental critique of constructivism, focusing on the work of Wendt, Onuf and Kratochwil. Using Germany's shift towards participation in international military operations as an illustration, she demonstrates why each version of constructivism fails in its own project and comes apart on the basis of its own assumptions. Inspired by Derridean thought, this book highlights the political consequences of constructivist representations of reality. Each critique concludes that constructivist notions of key concepts are impossible, and that this is not merely a question of theoretical inconsistency, but of politics. The book is premised on the notion that the 'empirical' and the 'theoretical' are less separate than is acknowledged in international relations, and must be read as intertwined. Zehfuss examines the scholars' role in international relations, worrying that, by looking to constructivism as the future, they will be severely curtailing their ability to act responsibly in this area.

Private Power, Public Law
  • The Globalization of Intellectual Property Rights
  • Susan K. Sell
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    15 May 2003
  • Susan K. Sell's book shows how power in international politics is increasingly exercised by private interests rather than governments. In 1994 the WTO adopted the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which dictated to states how they should regulate the protection of intellectual property. This book argues that TRIPS resulted from lobbying by twelve powerful CEOs of multinational corporations who wished to mould international law to protect their markets. This book examines the politics leading up to TRIPS, the first seven years of its implementation, and the political backlash against TRIPS in the face of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Focusing on global capitalism, ideas, and economic coercion, this work explains the politics behind TRIPS and the controversies created in its wake. It is a fascinating study of the influence of private interests in government decision-making, and in the shaping of the global economy.

The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance
  • Edited by Rodney Bruce Hall, Thomas J. Biersteker
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    12 December 2002
  • The emergence of private authority has become increasingly a feature of the post-Cold War world. In The Emergence of Private Authority in Global Governance, leading scholars explore the sources, practices and implications of this erosion of the power of the state. They analyse and compare actors as diverse as financial institutions, multinational corporations, religious terrorists and organised criminals, and assess the potential for reversal of the situation. The themes of the book relate directly to debates concerning globalization and the role of international law, and will be of interest to scholars and students of international relations, politics, sociology and law.

The Refugee in International Society
  • Between Sovereigns
  • Emma Haddad
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    20 March 2008
  • With the unrelenting unrest in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and the Sudan, the plight of refugees has become an increasingly discussed topic in international relations. Why do we have refugees? When did the refugee 'problem' emerge? How can the refugee ever be reconciled with an international system that rests on sovereignty? Looking at three key periods - the inter-war period, the Cold War and the present day - Emma Haddad demonstrates how a specific image has defined the refugee since the international states system arose in its modern form and that refugees have thus been qualitatively the same over the course of history. This historical and normative approach suggests new ways to understand refugees and to formulate responses to them. By examining the issue from an international society perspective, this book highlights how refugees are an inevitable, if unanticipated, result of erecting political borders.

The Nuclear Taboo
  • The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945
  • Nina Tannenwald
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    20 December 2007
  • Why have nuclear weapons not been used since Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945? Nina Tannenwald disputes the conventional answer of 'deterrence' in favour of what she calls a nuclear taboo - a widespread inhibition on using nuclear weapons - which has arisen in global politics. Drawing on newly released archival sources, Tannenwald traces the rise of the nuclear taboo, the forces that produced it, and its influence, particularly on US leaders. She analyzes four critical instances where US leaders considered using nuclear weapons (Japan 1945, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Gulf War 1991) and examines how the nuclear taboo has repeatedly dissuaded US and other world leaders from resorting to these 'ultimate weapons'. Through a systematic analysis, Tannenwald challenges conventional conceptions of deterrence and offers a compelling argument on the moral bases of nuclear restraint as well as an important insight into how nuclear war can be avoided in the future.

The English School of International Relations
  • A Contemporary Reassessment
  • Andrew Linklater, Hidemi Suganami
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    25 May 2006
  • What is the English School of International Relations and why is there increasing interest in it? Linklater and Suganami provide a comprehensive account of this distinctive approach to the study of world politics which highlights coexistence and cooperation, as well as conflict, in the relations between sovereign states. In the first book-length volume of its kind, the authors present a comprehensive discussion of the rise and development of the English School, its principal research agenda, and its epistemological and methodological foundations. The authors further consider the English School's position on progress in world politics, its relationship with Kantian thought, its conception of a sociology of states-systems and its approach to good international citizenship as a means of reducing harm in world politics. Lucidly written and unprecedented in its coverage, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in international relations and politics worldwide.

The Dynamic of Secession
  • Viva Ona Bartkus
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    28 June 1999
  • This book, first published in 1999, offers a general explanation for the occurrence of the phenomenon of secessionist activity, arising from a comparative study of numerous historical examples of secession and separatist conflict. The book develops a comprehensive framework, specifying the elements necessary for a secession crisis, and discussing the moral issues underpinning such a decision. The author examines the political, economic and social costs and benefits of a community's two alternatives - continued integration in the existing state and secession - which enter into decision-making processes, and argues that secessionist activity arises only when government action or international developments change a community's view of the balance among these costs and benefits. Her conclusion is that a community's aspirations for independence change with circumstances, and that in some instances, sensitive government policy can substantially mitigate secessionist sentiment, while, in others, evolution in the prevailing international climate can outweigh domestic factors in the dynamic of secession.

Arms and the State
  • Patterns of Military Production and Trade
  • Keith Krause
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    23 July 1992
  • This book analyses the structure and motive forces that shape the global arms transfer and production system. The author distinguishes three tiers of arms producers, defined by such factors as defence production base, military research and development capabilities, and dependence upon arms exports. These factors interact with underlying political, economic, and military motivations to drive states to produce and export arms, and provide the force which directs the international trade in arms. The author discusses the United States and the Soviet Union, the European arms suppliers, and the emerging arms producers of the developing world. Although it concentrates on the contemporary period, the book covers a wide historical span, from the development of military technologies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to twentieth-century revolutions in weaponry. By focusing on the processes of technological innovation and diffusion, the author shows the evolutionary nature of the spread of military technologies, and situates the current arms transfer system in a broad historical context.

Regions of War and Peace
  • Douglas Lemke
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    21 January 2002
  • In this contribution to the literature on the causes of war, Douglas Lemke asks whether the same factors affect minor powers as affect major ones. He investigates whether power parity and dissatisfaction with the status quo have an impact within Africa, the Far East, the Middle East and South America. Lemke argues that there are similarities across these regions and levels of power, and that parity and dissatisfaction are correlates of war around the world. The extent to which they increase the risk of war varies across regions, however, and the book looks at the possible sources of this cross-regional variation, concluding that differential progress toward development is the likely cause. This book will interest students and scholars of international relations and peace studies, as well as comparative politics and area studies.

Causation in International Relations
  • Reclaiming Causal Analysis
  • Milja Kurki
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    03 April 2008
  • World political processes, such as wars and globalisation, are engendered by complex sets of causes and conditions. Although the idea of causation is fundamental to the field of International Relations, what the concept of cause means or entails has remained an unresolved and contested matter. In recent decades ferocious debates have surrounded the idea of causal analysis, some scholars even questioning the legitimacy of applying the notion of cause in the study of International Relations. This book suggests that underlying the debates on causation in the field of International Relations is a set of problematic assumptions (deterministic, mechanistic and empiricist) and that we should reclaim causal analysis from the dominant discourse of causation. Milja Kurki argues that reinterpreting the meaning, aims and methods of social scientific causal analysis opens up multi-causal and methodologically pluralist avenues for future International Relations scholarship.

Taming the Sovereigns
  • Institutional Change in International Politics
  • K. J. Holsti
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    22 January 2004
  • Many analysts claim that international politics has recently entered a new era, following the end of the Cold War and then the events of September 11th. In this book, Kalevi Holsti asks what we mean by 'change' in international politics. How do we identify it? How do we distinguish between significant and unimportant changes? Do we really live in a new era or do we see more continuity than transformation in the texture of international politics? Combining theoretical and empirical argument, Holsti investigates eight major international institutions including the state, sovereignty, territoriality, international law, diplomacy, trade and war. Having identified the types of change these institutions have undergone during the last three centuries, Holsti analyses the sources of those changes and speculates on their consequences. This is a major book, likely to have lasting influence in the study of international politics.

Contesting Global Governance
  • Multilateral Economic Institutions and Global Social Movements
  • Robert O'Brien, Anne Marie Goetz, Jan Aart Scholte, Marc Williams
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    20 April 2000
  • This book argues that increasing engagement between international institutions and sectors of civil society is producing a new form of global governance. The authors investigate 'complex multilateralism' by studying the relationship between three multilateral economic institutions (the IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization), and three global social movements (environmental, labour and women's movements). They provide a rich comparative analysis of the institutional response to social movement pressure, tracing institutional change, policy modification and social movement tactics as they struggle to influence the rules and practices governing trade, finance and development regimes. The contest to shape global governance is increasingly being conducted upon a number of levels and amongst a diverse set of actors. Analysing a unique breadth of institutions and movements, this book charts an important part of that contest.

Remapping Global Politics
  • History's Revenge and Future Shock
  • Yale H. Ferguson, Richard W. Mansbach
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    11 November 2004
  • This book seeks to redraw our mental maps of global politics and to explain the shifting and accelerating forces that are shaping those maps. The authors build on the concept of 'post-internationalism', focusing primarily on 'political space' and 'political identity' which, they argue, are the new frontiers of global political theory. They suggest that the state is losing capacity, legitimacy and authority to remain the primary actor in world affairs and is giving way to a more complex post-international universe characterized by diverse and overlapping polities. This book is the result of the authors' long-standing joint research into the nature and dynamics of global politics, a collaboration that has spanned over three decades. It makes an important contribution to the literatures on globalization and the future of international relations theory.

Agents, Structures and International Relations
  • Politics as Ontology
  • Colin Wight
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    12 October 2006
  • The agent-structure problem is a much discussed issue in the field of international relations. In his comprehensive 2006 analysis of this problem, Colin Wight deconstructs the accounts of structure and agency embedded within differing IR theories and, on the basis of this analysis, explores the implications of ontology - the metaphysical study of existence and reality. Wight argues that there are many gaps in IR theory that can only be understood by focusing on the ontological differences that construct the theoretical landscape. By integrating the treatment of the agent-structure problem in IR theory with that in social theory, Wight makes a positive contribution to the problem as an issue of concern to the wider human sciences. At the most fundamental level politics is concerned with competing visions of how the world is and how it should be, thus politics is ontology.

Justice, Community and Dialogue in International Relations
  • Richard Shapcott
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    08 November 2001
  • Shapcott investigates the question of justice in a culturally diverse world, asking if it is possible to conceive of a universal or cosmopolitan community in which justice to difference is achieved. Justice to difference is possible, according to Shapcott, by recognising the particular manner in which different humans identify themselves. Such recognition is most successfully accomplished through acts of communication, and in particular, conversation. The accounts of understanding developed by H. G. Gadamer provide a valuable way forward in this field. The philosophical hermeneutic account of conversation allows for the development of a level of cosmopolitan solidarity that is both 'thin' and universal, and which helps to provide a more just resolution of the tension between the values of community and difference. Students and scholars of international relations, international ethics and philosophy will be interested in this original study.

State Identities and the Homogenisation of Peoples
  • Heather Rae
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    15 August 2002
  • Why are forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and genocide an enduring feature of state systems? In this book, Heather Rae locates these practices of 'pathological homogenisation' in the processes of state building. Political elites have repeatedly used cultural resources to redefine bounded political communities as exclusive moral communities, from which outsiders must be expelled. Showing that these practices predate the age of nationalism, Rae examines cases from both pre-nationalist and nationalist eras: the expulsion of the Jews from fifteenth century Spain, the persecution of the Huguenots under Louis XIV, and in the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide, and ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia. She argues that those atrocities prompted the development of international norms of legitimate state behaviour that increasingly define sovereignty as conditional. Rae concludes by examining two 'threshold' cases - the Czech Republic and Macedonia - to identify the factors that may inhibit pathological homogenization as a method of state-building.

The Power of Power Politics
  • From Classical Realism to Neotraditionalism
  • John A. Vasquez
  • Published online:
    22 September 2009
    Print publication:
    13 January 1999
  • In this much-expanded edition of his classic study, John Vasquez examines the power of the power politics perspective to dominate inquiry, and evaluates its ability to provide accurate explanations of the fundamental forces underlying world politics. Part I of the book reprints the original 1983 text of The Power of Power Politics. It examines classical realism and quantitative international politics, providing an intellectual history of the discipline and an evaluation of statistical research guided by the realist paradigm. The second part provides six new chapters covering neorealism, post-modernism, the neotraditional research program on balancing, Mearsheimer's analysis of multipolarity and institutionalism, the debate on the end of the Cold War, and neoliberalism. Through the use of comparative case studies these chapters analyse the extent to which the realist paradigm has been progressive (or degenerating), empirically accurate, and remains a relevant and explanatorily powerful theoretical approach for our current era.

Page 7 of 8