Trade Expectations and Great Power Conflict—A Review Essay

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 179-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Review Essay ◽  
International Politics ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Economic Interdependence ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
Considerable Evidence ◽  
Self Sufficiency

Whether economic interdependence is a cause of war or peace constitutes a central debate in international politics. Two major approaches advance diametrically opposed claims: liberal theory holds that interdependence between states promotes peace by increasing the costs of war; realist theory argues that interdependence is just another word for vulnerability, a condition that states may try to escape by seizing the resources and markets they need for self-sufficiency. Considerable evidence supports both of these claims. In Economic Interdependence and War, Dale Copeland proposes to resolve this stalemate by showing that interdependence promotes peace when states expect mutually beneficial trade to continue, but creates incentives for war when at least one of the states expects that trade trends will leave it dangerously vulnerable. Notwithstanding this book's major theoretical contributions and its impressive historical research, it leaves open several important questions about how to move forward with its agenda of theoretical development and testing.

The Ubiquity of Oil

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Rosemary A. Kelanic
Keyword(s):  
Great Powers ◽  
Great Power ◽  
International Affairs ◽  
Power Politics ◽  
Major Powers ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Great Power Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Systematic Framework

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the relationship between oil and great power politics. For over a hundred years, oil has been ubiquitous as both an object of political intrigue and a feature of everyday life, yet its effects on the behavior of major powers remain poorly understood. This book focuses on one particular aspect of oil: its coercive potential. Across time and space, great powers have feared that dependence on imported petroleum might make them vulnerable to coercion by hostile actors. They worry that an enemy could cut off oil to weaken them militarily or punish them economically, and then use this threat as a basis for political blackmail. Oil is so essential to great powers that taking a state's imports hostage could give an enemy significant leverage in a dispute. The book presents the first systematic framework to understand how fears of oil coercion shape international affairs. Great powers counter prospective threats with costly and risky policies that lessen vulnerability, ideally, before the country can be targeted. These measures, which can be called “anticipatory strategies,” vary enormously, from self-sufficiency efforts to actions as extreme as launching wars.

Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norrin M. Ripsman ◽  
Jeffrey W. Taliaferro ◽  
Steven E. Lobell
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
Realist Theory

Economic Interdependence and Conflict

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyo Joon Chang ◽  
Scott L. Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Economic Interdependence ◽  
Signaling Mechanism ◽  
Causal Processes ◽  
Economic Ties ◽  
Commitment Problems ◽  
Bargaining Model Of War ◽  
Source Of Information

Recent studies on commercial liberalism have paid more attention to microfoundations linking economic interdependence to peace. Using a bargaining model of war, these studies have specified and tested different causal mechanisms through which economic ties function as a constraint, a source of information, or a transformative agent. Recent scholarly efforts in theoretical development and some empirical testing of different causal processes suggest the need to consider scope conditions to see when an opportunity cost or a signaling mechanism is likely to be salient. Future research can be best benefited by focusing on how economic interdependence affects commitment problems and empirically assessing the relative explanatory power of different causal arguments.

Nuclear learning and U.S.–Soviet security regimes

1987 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph S. Nye
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Arms Race ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
Control Problems ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
Force Structure ◽  
Security Relationship ◽  
The U.S

The concepts of regimes and learning have been developed in the Liberal theory of international relations, but their application has been mostly in the area of international political economy. U.S.–Soviet relations are generally explained solely in terms of Realist theory. The dichotomy is unfortunate because both strands of theory have something to contribute. Although the injunctions of an overall regime do not govern the U.S.–Soviet security relationship, it is possible to identify the injunctions and constraining effects of regimes in subissues of the security relationship. In five areas of the nuclear relationship (destructive power, control problems, proliferation, arms race stability, and deterrent force structure), it is possible to identify different degrees of learning and to see how such learning affects and is affected by the development of regimes. Looking at the U.S.–Soviet security relationship in terms of learning and regimes raises new questions and opens a research agenda which helps us to think more broadly about the processes of political change in this area.

The politics of the EU

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanns W Maull
Keyword(s):  
International Politics ◽  
Liberal Theory ◽  
National Sovereignty ◽  
Bilateral Relationship ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu ◽  
The Way

The article looks at the politics of the European Union’s policies towards China, using the liberal theory of international politics of Andrew Moravcsik as a framework for analysis. It concludes that these policies are structurally fragmented, incoherent and inconsistent because of the way they are formulated and implemented. The preponderance of commercial preferences and the insistence on national sovereignty are crucial to understanding why this is the case. As a consequence, the European position in the bilateral relationship is weakened and the relationship itself is unbalanced.

scholarly journals Information and Computer Technologies as a Research Tool in the Works of Historians of Central Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 102-106
Author(s):  
R.T. Elemanova
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Historical Science ◽  
Computer Technologies ◽  
Information And Communication

The article considers the possibilities of using information and computer technologies in historical research in Central Asia. Today, when there are discussions among Asian historians about a differentiated approach to the study of history and a desire to preserve the traditional directions of historical science that were laid down in the last century, there is an urgent need to use an interdisciplinary approach. The development of historical geoinformatics at the present stage can be identified that is continuously associated with the level of informatization of society, when information and communication technologies have become an integral part of everyday life, a change in the theory and methodology of historical science. Revolutionary changes in the theoretical development of an understanding of the essence of historical processes naturally led to a change in the methodology of history. The problem of information and computer technologies efficiency, in particular geoinformation, in scientific historical research, from a theoretical and methodological point of view is being posed and solved. Since the mid-1990s, the main emphasis has been shifted to the use of multimedia tools and methods and the use of global communications - the Internet. For the preservation, presentation of cultural heritage is an urgent task, the solution of which in a century of rapidly developing information and communication technologies is impossible without the use of new information technology.

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