The Great Powers And The International System

Do great leaders make history? Or are they compelled to act by historical circumstance? This debate has remained unresolved since Thomas Carlyle and Karl Marx framed it in the mid-nineteenth century, yet implicit answers inform our policies and our views of history. In this book, Professor Bear F. Braumoeller argues persuasively that both perspectives are correct: leaders shape the main material and ideological forces of history that subsequently constrain and compel them. His studies of the Congress of Vienna, the interwar period, and the end of the Cold War illustrate this dynamic, and the data he marshals provide systematic evidence that leaders both shape and are constrained by the structure of the international system.

Illuminates the interplay between regional concerns and the international context, which together define the hierarchy of states. Building on case studies, this book demonstrates that this status cannot be attained solely by building a military or economic power base.

Hierarchical relationships—rules that structure both international and domestic politics—are pervasive. Yet we know little about how these relationships are constructed, maintained, and dismantled. This book fills this lacuna through a two-pronged research approach: first, it discusses how great power negotiations over international political settlements both respond to domestic politics within weak states and structure the specific forms that hierarchy takes. Second, it deduces three sets of hypotheses about hierarchy maintenance, construction, and collapse during the post-war era. By offering a coherent theoretical model of hierarchical politics within weaker states, the author is able to answer a number of important questions, including: Why does the United States often ally with autocratic states even though its most enduring relationships are with democracies? Why do autocratic hierarchical relationships require interstate coercion? Why do some hierarchies end violently and others peacefully? Why does hierarchical competition sometimes lead to interstate conflict and sometimes to civil conflict?

This book explores the effects and consequences of major global power and major regional power status attribution on the foreign policies of states striving for such status and the consequences of status differentiation for the international system and the post-Cold War international order.

Drawing on Iran’s history and its relations with great powers and regional neighbours, this book addresses the question of how much continuity and/or change there is in Iranian international relations since the Iranian revolution. Iran has often been at the centre of the political debate on both the Gulf region and the transatlantic relations. Following the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Viennese nuclear agreement in May 2018 signed by the five permanent members of the UN-Security Council, the relationship between Iran and the world entered a new phase. With high expectations within Iran for improved relations with Europe, the this book calls for a new and innovative approach to be undertaken by the Iranian leadership towards the US, Europe and Asia if Iran is to find a role for itself within regional and international structures. Exploring power relations, negotiations, the role of international institutions and international law, the contributors consider the relations among central powers that influence Iran’s internal and external affairs; and examine Iran’s domestic motives and role in the local and regional context. This book will be of interest to scholars and students of Politics, International Relations, Iranian Politics, Iranian Foreign Policy. It may also provide insights for policymakers, journalists, and the military.

Arguing that we live in a world where great powers - such as China and the EU - are not helpless in the face of the United States, this text contends that the other major nations of the world must work alongside the US in order to counter-balance America's current dominance of the international political scene.

Invaluable to students and those approaching the subject for the first time, An Introduction to International Relations, Second Edition provides a comprehensive and stimulating introduction to international relations, its traditions and its changing nature in an era of globalisation. Thoroughly revised and updated, it features chapters written by a range of experts from around the world. It presents a global perspective on the theories, history, developments and debates that shape this dynamic discipline and contemporary world politics. Now in full-colour and accompanied by a password-protected companion website featuring additional chapters and case studies, this is the indispensable guide to the study of international relations.