America's Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power. By Nicholas John Spykman, Sterling Professor of International Relations, Yale University. [Institute of International Studies, Yale University.] (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1942. Pp. 500. $3.75.)

1942 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Yale University

The Contribution of Nicholas John Spykman to the Study of International Politics

1952 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 382-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edgar S. Furniss
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Front Page ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Political Realism

Ten years ago Harcourt, Brace and Company published America's Strategy in World Politics. It was written by Nicholas John Spykman, Professor of International Relations at Yale University from 1928 until his death in 1943, and first director of the Institute of International Studies at Yale. Critics recognized that the book was important, but agreed on little else. One reviewer hailed it as “brilliant, incisive, provocative, well-reasoned, well-written, and altogether admirable as an analysis of American foreign policy from a point of view all too long neglected in the United States.” On the other hand, a second reviewer bitterly asked, “What were those eminent scholars at Yale thinking about when they let such an idea loose [that the United States might need German and Japanese power after the war]? … Such guessing and surmising is not objective political science, it is not anything but the expression of mental discomfort that the learned gentleman feels in a world that, despite his own cold-blooded cult of political realism, does not appear to be moving in the direction suggested by his own wishful thinking.” And there was more, much more, both pro and con. Despite a laudatory, front-page review, complete with picture, in the New York Times Book Review, Professor Spykman probably, if the score were totaled, did no better than break even.

US Dominance in International Relations and Security Scholarship in Leading Journals

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 310-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cullen S Hendrix ◽  
Jon Vreede
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
International Relations ◽  
English Language ◽  
Large Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Language Bias ◽  
Scholarly Attention

AbstractThis article investigates the factors that affect scholarly attention on particular countries in four major international relations (IR) journals: International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, International Security, and World Politics for the period 1970 to the present. The analysis supports three basic conclusions. First, the United States receives the most scholarly attention in leading IR journals by a large margin. Second, a baseline model of scholarly attention, including just population, gross domestic product (GDP), and a dummy for the United States fits the data rather well. Additional factors such as membership in prominent international organizations or involvement in armed conflicts improve model fit, but only marginally, with little evidence of regional or English-language bias. And third, there is only weak evidence that countries with stronger economic and security linkages with the United States receive more attention. However, Israel and Taiwan—two countries with unique security relationships with the United States—receive more scholarly attention than either the baseline or augmented models would predict. Our analysis of bibliometric data from leading IR journals indicates the United States is the three-hundred-thousand-pound blue whale of IR scholarship. However, this emphasis is not particularly outsized when its large population, economy, and its extensive history of participation in interstate wars are taken into account.

The Study of International Relations in Great Britain: Further Connections

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 626-645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gene M. Lyons
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Great Britain ◽  
World War I ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Political Experience

Aside from language, students of international relations in the United States and Great Britain have several things in common: parallel developments in the emergence of international relations as a field of study after World War I, and more recent efforts to broaden the field by drawing security issues and changes in the international political economy under the broad umbrella of “international studies.” But a review of four recent books edited by British scholars demonstrates that there is also a “distance” between British and American scholarship. Compared with dominant trends in the United States, the former, though hardly monolithic and producing a rich and varied literature, is still very much attached to historical analysis and the concept of an “international society” that derives from the period in modern history in which Britain played a more prominent role in international politics. Because trends in scholarship do, in fact, reflect national political experience, the need continues for transnational cooperation among scholars in the quest for strong theories in international relations.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document