scholarly journals Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul K. MacDonald ◽  
Joseph M. Parent
Keyword(s):  
Power Transition ◽  
Special Interests ◽  
Preventive War ◽  
Strategic Adjustment ◽  
Hegemonic Stability

This chapter reviews the literature and lays out the debate on decline. It divides the rival views into two main camps: preventive war and domestic dysfunction. For preventive war theorists, who include power transition and hegemonic stability theorists, there are strong international incentives for falling states to stave off their declines through aggressive or inflexible policies that culminate in war. For scholars of domestic dysfunction, decentralization, paralysis, or hijacking by special interests are likely to block prompt and proportionate strategic adjustment. This chapter questions the logic and evidence of each.

Power Transitions and Great Power War from Westphalia to Waterloo

1992 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woosang Kim
Keyword(s):  
Stability Theory ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Transition Theory ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
Power Transition Theory ◽  
Hegemonic Stability ◽  
Empirical Record ◽  
Power Transitions

This study extends recent research on the power transition and hegemonic stability theory to the preindustrial era. It improves on the original power transition theory by relaxing an assumption and by extending the empirical domain. Unlike the original power transition theory, the revised version is not restricted to the period after the industrial revolution and can therefore be applied to the preindustrial era. This study examines the empirical record prior to the industrial revolution to see whether the power transition and hegemonic stability theory holds for that period. The data for 1648 to 1815 indicate strong support for the power transition contention that a rough equality of power between rival sides increases the likelihood of war. That is, when the challenging great power, with its allies' support, catches up with the dominant power, great power war is most likely.

Making Americans Feel Great Again? Personal Significance Predicts Political Intentions of Losers and Winners of the 2016 US Election

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Jasko ◽  
Joanna Grzymala-Moszczynska ◽  
Marta Maj ◽  
Marta Szastok ◽  
Arie W. Kruglanski
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
The Political ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Personal Significance ◽  
Before And After ◽  
The Times

Reactions of losers and winners of political elections have important consequences for the political system during the times of power transition. In four studies conducted immediately before and after the 2016 US presidential elections we investigated how personal significance induced by success or failure of one’s candidate is related to hostile vs. benevolent intentions toward political adversaries. We found that the less significant supporters of Hillary Clinton and supporters of Donald Trump felt after an imagined (Study 1A) or actual (Study 2) electoral failure the more they were willing to engage in peaceful actions against the elected president and the less they were willing to accept the results of the elections. However, while significance gain due to an imagined or actual electoral success was related to more benevolent intentions among Clinton supporters (Study 1B), it was related to more hostile intentions among Trump supporters (Studies 1B, 2, and 3).

Preventive War

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Luban
Keyword(s):  
Preventive War

Restraints on Conflict in the China-US Relationship

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Foot
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Power Transition ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Historical Awareness ◽  
Economic Trends ◽  
Military Budget

Like the study of China itself, theorists of power transition have lately experienced a resurgence of interest in their arguments. As China has emerged as the world’s second-largest economy, with the second-largest military budget, and has become more assertive internationally under a seemingly more powerful president, the picture painted is one of growing morbidity: war between China, the putative rising dissatisfied power, and the United States, the declining hegemon, has allegedly become highly probable. This chapter critiques these arguments and highlights the restraints on conflict that generally are given insufficient attention in power transition approaches that deal with the Sino-American relationship. The chapter argues that historical awareness among leaders, state agency, and complex economic trends that are central to the understanding of this hybrid world order, together with the domestic preoccupations of these two central protagonists, are factors that work to inhibit the outbreak of war.

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