The Literature of Decline

1989 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 303-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth W. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Economic Change ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Military Conflict ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Exceptional Value

This article compares reflections from four sources on the state of the American democracy in the international community (The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000, by Paul Kennedy; 1999: Victory Without War, by Richard Nixon; “Communism at Bay,”The Economist; Long Cycles in World Politics, by George Modelski) within the framework of the 1980s, which was portrayed by leaders as “an era of good feelings.” Yet drastically different positions on American rise or decline are propounded by historians and officeholders, former presidents and scholars, journalists and aspiring candidates for political office. These four writings reveal the complexity of the analysis of the American decline. Yet, it is crucial for leaders to maintain public devotion to their nation, not through passion, but rather, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, through “the solid quarry of sober reason,”. America's capacity to preserve a strong and healthy resilience, the author concludes, is the exceptional value it continues to offer the world.

Political Approaches

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-78
Author(s):  
Michael N. Barnett ◽  
Martha Finnemore
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Real World ◽  
Social World ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Interstate Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
World Organization

This chapter examines how prominent theories capture the various ways that the UN affects world politics. Different theories of international relations (IR) cast the UN in distinctive roles, which logically lead scholars to identify distinctive kinds of effects. We identify five roles that the UN might have: as an agent of great powers doing their bidding; as a mechanism for interstate cooperation; as a governor of an international society of states; as a constructor of the social world; and as a legitimation forum. Each role has roots in a well-known theory of international politics. In many, perhaps most, real-world political situations, the UN plays more than one of these roles, but these stylized theoretical arguments about the world body’s influence help discipline our thinking. They force us to be explicit about which effects of the world organization we think are important, what is causing them, and why.

International Politics and History

1923 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry E. Spencer
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Recent Book ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
World War ◽  
Political Event ◽  
World Power ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Our present task is one of definition. We are students of political science in its international phase, and we use history as a means. We operate in a marginal area that overlaps two fields, government as that term is usually understood, and the history of international affairs. How shall we bound this marginal area, what are its relations to those other two, more familiar conceptions?We are forced to this study by the World War. Modern history has had an immemse expansion for the reason that a tremendous political event has taken place and the world must know why it happened, the causes as well as the occasions and events. A voluminous literature is appearing on the doings and motives of Great Powers, on the rise of nationalities and their crude strivings, on the remapping of state boundaries, and the development of spheres of economic influence. We welcome, for instance, Mr. Gibbons' recent book on World Politics, a clear and useful summary of the recent history of certain political entities called world powers and their policies. It is the story as he calls it of “the struggle of European nations for world power.” The struggle is there. More power to him in his description of the contestants and the contest. But we view all this as only preparatory for our task.

scholarly journals From Yeltsin to Putin

2013 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 30-39
Author(s):  
Wonhee Lee
Keyword(s):  
East Asia ◽  
World Order ◽  
National Interest ◽  
World Politics ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
Great Power ◽  
The World ◽  
Nuclear Crisis

Russia has developed multipolar paradigm in its effort to reobtain the position of the Great Power since it realized that it could not exert influence strong enough to stake its claim in the world politics. The advocacy of a multipolar world order, referred to as the “Primakov Doctrine,” shifted Moscow’s attitude toward the two Koreas as well. In its pursuit of multipolarity in East Asia, Russia has designed its strategy toward Korea’s nuclear crisis and unification to best suit its national interest. Considering the competition among the Great Powers in East Asia, Russia’s Korea policy can better be understood under such a multilateral framework.

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