New Forces Old Forces And The Future Of World Politics

This is an argument for reform of the traditional norms and structures of international relations. Brown's argument in this book, maintains that world politics is in a crisis of incongruence between the world's traditional structure of governance (the nation-state system) and the most important interactions of people. Symptoms of this systematic crisis include: the epidemic of violent inter-ethnic conflicts; secessionist and self-determination movements; waves of international terrorism; contraband in weapons and drugs and ecological threats to the health of living organisms. This text's analysis probes beneath the surface of these events to determine their underlying causes and to find new policies and institutions conducive to a more safe and just world order.

This provocative book assesses the implications of a disturbing trend in U.S. security policy: an increased willingness to use military force as an instrument of diplomacy. In The Illusion of Control, Seyom Brown shows how U.S. officials are relying on force to counter a wide range of threats to America's global interests—eclipsing previous strategies that restricted the use of military force to situations in which the country's vital interests were at stake. Brown points out that a disposition to employ military power broadly as an instrument of diplomacy was on the rise well before September 11, 2001— and it shows every sign of persisting into the future. While resorting to force may seem to be a reliable way to establish control over a disorderly world, Brown cautions that expecting to gain and maintain control through military prowess could turn out to be a dangerous illusion. In fact, employing new military technologies in an effort to control international terrorist activities, wars, and civil conflicts is likely to pull the United States into excessive commitments and imprudent action. Brown analyzes the growing willingness of U.S. government officials to use force, then critically assesses the strategic, political, and moral implications for the United States. Adapting traditional "just war" concepts to contemporary strategic, political, and technological realities, he offers a set of guidelines to help ensure that use-of-force decisions are approached with the judicious care and gravity they warrant.

Investigates the ways in which the US responded to the European Community's Single Market Program, launched in the 1980s, arguing that foreign economic policy is the product of interests and actions expressed by a wide range of groups and at many different levels. Analyzes changes faced by the US in the world political economy of the 1990s, and details the process by which Congress, state governments, and US executives and firms responded to the Single Market Program, looking especially at issues of public procurement, and standards, testing, and certification. Distributed by Books International. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book expands and deepens the analysis of a new approach to the study of international relations in a changing global system, elaborating the essential characteristics of the anarchic structure of the world polity.

Seyom Brown's authoritative account of U.S. foreign policy from the end of the Second World War to the present challenges common assumptions about American presidents and their struggle with power and purpose. Brown shows Truman to be more anguished than he publicly revealed about the use of the atomic bomb; Eisenhower and George W. Bush to be more immersed in the details of policy formulation and implementation than generally believed; Reagan to be more invested in changing his worldview while in office than any previous president; and Obama to have modeled his military exit from Iraq and Afghanistan more closely to Nixon and Kissinger's exit strategy from Vietnam than he would like to admit. Brown's analyses of Obama's policies for countering terrorist threats at home and abroad, dealing with unprecedented upheavals in the Middle East, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and containing new territorial expansion by China and Russia reinforce the book's "constancy and change" theme, which shows that serving the interests of the most powerful country in the world transforms the Oval Office's occupant more than its occupant can transform the world. Praise for previous editions: "Systematic and informative... [Brown] has a gift for clear analysis that makes his book a useful contribution to the Cold War literature."—The Journal of American History "Comprehensive and clear... thorough without ever becoming dull, providing detailed analysis of decisions while never neglecting the environment within which they are made."—International Affairs "An excellent reference for those interested in United States foreign policy.... Well-written and well-researched, it is appropriate for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses."—International Journal "An analysis with difference—an important difference. Seyom Brown discusses United States policy from the perspective of how decision makers in the United States viewed their adversaries and the alternatives as those decision makers saw them.... Well worth the effort of a careful reading."—American Political Science Review

Contrary to popular expectations, the end of the Cold War did not push aside the military components of U.S. foreign policy. In the last decade of the 20th century threats and applications of force often took center stage, ranging from the major war against Iraq to coercive bombing in the Balkans to peacekeeping operations for implementing diplomatic settlements to the delivery of humanitarian aid. Seyom Brown maintains that, despite popular reluctance , the use force as an instrument of foreign policy is likely to grow in the 21st Century, and that this prospect warrants concern and open debateThe increased willingness to consider force as a normal tool of diplomacy has been prompted by both a politically chaotic world in which the globally-dispersed interests of the United States are the targets of hostile threats, and by the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), which promises to bring an unprecedented degree of controllability into the conduct of war.Brown argues that the promise of controllable, precisely calibrated war to serve the countrys foreign policy objectives is a dangerous illusion. He offers a set of guidelines designed to make sure that a heavy burden of justification is always borne by those urging the resort to military force.

The first edition of this successful text helped to define a new approach to the study of international relations, one suited to the realities of the post?cold war world. It broke the confines of the dominant ?realist? paradigm to offer an intelligible theoretical discourse on how the world works.In this thoroughly revised and updated edition, Prof