Essential readings on international politics 12

Well, in this opportunity I am pleased to share with you the complete monumental work (two volumes) by Quincy Wright on war.

Quincy Wright, 1890-1970. 

"War, to be abolished, must be understood. To be understood, it must be studied. No one man worked with more sustained care, compassion, and level-headedness on the study of war, its causes, and its possible prevention than Quincy Wright. He did so for nearly half a century, not only as a defender of man's survival, but as a scientist. He valued accuracy, facts, and truth more than any more appealing or preferred conclusions; and in his great book, A Study of War, he gathered, together with his collaborators, a larger body of relevant facts, insights, and far-ranging questions about war than anyone else has done. Quincy Wright did more than pile up information about war. He developed a basic theory of war." - Karl Deutsch on Quincy Wright's work.

A Study of War (Volume 1) - Quincy Wright [30.28 MB, PDF]

A Study of War (Vol.2) - Quincy Wright [38.94 MB, PDF]

Essential readings on international politics 11

Today I wanted to share with you an interesting new project by Charles Glaser. In a way, this book is an extension of his famous article "Realists as Optimists," published in the journals Security Studies and also reprinted later in International Security.

 

File Type: PDF
File Size: 2.83 MB
With Cover and Bookmarks.


Within the realist school of international relations, a prevailing view holds that the anarchic structure of the international system invariably forces the great powers to seek security at one another's expense, dooming even peaceful nations to an unrelenting struggle for power and dominance. Rational Theory of International Politics offers a more nuanced alternative to this view, one that provides answers to the most fundamental and pressing questions of international relations.
       Why do states sometimes compete and wage war while at other times they cooperate and pursue peace? Does competition reflect pressures generated by the anarchic international system or rather states' own expansionist goals? Are the United States and China on a collision course to war, or is continued coexistence possible? Is peace in the Middle East even feasible? Charles Glaser puts forward a major new theory of international politics that identifies three kinds of variables that influence a state's strategy: the state's motives, specifically whether it is motivated by security concerns or "greed"; material variables, which determine its military capabilities; and information variables, most importantly what the state knows about its adversary's motives.
       Rational Theory of International Politics demonstrates that variation in motives can be key to the choice of strategy; that the international environment sometimes favors cooperation over competition; and that information variables can be as important as material variables in determining the strategy a state should choose.

Charles L. Glaser is professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of Analyzing Strategic Nuclear Policy (Princeton).

Table of Contents:
Preface ix
Chapter One: Introduction 1
Chapter Two: Setting Up the Theory 23
Chapter Three: The Theory 51
Chapter Four: Extensions of the Theory 93
Chapter Five: Counterarguments 127
Chapter Six: Placing the Theory in the IR Theory Landscape 148
Chapter Seven: Evaluating the Theory from Within 172
Chapter Eight: Evaluating the Theory--Important Cases and Useful Comparisons 206
Chapter Nine: Applying the Theory to Arms Races; Testing It with Counterfactuals 228
Chapter Ten: Summary and Policy Implications 269
Bibliography 283
Index 305 

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Roundtable on Rational Theory of International Politics at the
2010 APSA Meeting

 

[You can watch the VIDEOS here.]

 

International Security

Roundtable on Charles L. Glaser, Rational Theory of International Politics

 Friday, Sep 3, 2010, 2:00 PM-3:45 PM

Chair:

 John J. Mearsheimer (University of Chicago)

Participants:

James D. Fearon (Stanford University)

 Robert Jervis (Columbia University)

John J. Mearsheimer (University of Chicago)

Randall Schweller (Ohio State University)

Discussant:

Charles L. Glaser (George Washington University)

[You can watch the VIDEOS here.] 

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The journal Security Studies presented in his latest issue (Vol. 20, No. 3, 2011) a debate on Glaser's book.

Debating Charles Glaser's Rational Theory of Internationa Politics

[370KB, PDF]

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See also G. John Ikenberry's short review of the book in Foreign Affairs.