Allies of Convenience

Allies of Convenience
Author: Sean Benjamin
Publisher: Page Publishing Inc
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2024-10-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

In the Badlands, everyone has their own agenda. System governments, planetary authorities, and large corporations want to expand their power, wealth, and authority. They use killing, robbing, and intimidating as methods of persuasion and governance. Slavery has big profits and low overhead. The Goldenes Tor Imperial Empire borders the Badlands and play by the same rules while working to annex this wild region. The Aurora Empire opposes the Goldenes Tor policy and maintains a small Royal Navy Badlands squadron under the command of Captain Skyler Mallory to dispute their claim. Raferty Hawkins, captain of the pirate vessel Predator, also has an agenda. He wants to drive out the hated Goldenes Tor, rein in the local governments and big corporations, and give local natives control of their own destiny. He is quite willing to kill people to achieve these ends. With crew members such as Tactical and Baby Doll and the support of Captain Shane Delacruz of Vindictive and the crazy Captain Killian O'Hare of Nemesis, Hawkins had been fighting the oppressive Badlands forces for years. But now the status quo is about to be turned upside down. The Orion Confederation is far away with no interest in the Badlands. However, an Orion squadron has entered the region to destroy Mallory's command as part of a campaign of surprise attacks on the Aurora Empire. The Orion squadron and their Goth escort ships make one fatal mistake. They destroy a pirate settlement of women and children. Now Hawkins and the ships of Pirate Flotilla One ally themselves with Captain Mallory against a common enemy. Two forces of unlikely allies maneuver for advantage across a cold, dark battlefield. The outcome of this campaign will shape the Badlands for decades to come.

Allies of Convenience

Allies of Convenience
Author: Evan N. Resnick
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 277
Release: 2019-08-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0231549024

Since its founding, the United States has allied with unsavory dictatorships to thwart even more urgent security threats. How well has the United States managed such alliances, and what have been their consequences for its national security? In this book, Evan N. Resnick examines the negotiating tables between the United States and its allies of convenience since World War II and sets forth a novel theory of alliance bargaining. Resnick’s neoclassical realist theory explains why U.S. leaders negotiate less effectively with unfriendly autocratic states than with friendly liberal ones. Since policy makers struggle to mobilize domestic support for controversial alliances, they seek to cast those allies in the most benign possible light. Yet this strategy has the perverse result of weakening leverage in intra-alliance disputes. Resnick tests his theory on America’s Cold War era alliances with China, Pakistan, and Iraq. In all three cases, otherwise hardline presidents bargained anemically on such pivotal issues as China’s sales of ballistic missiles, Pakistan’s development of nuclear weapons, and Iraq’s sponsorship of international terrorism. In contrast, U.S. leaders are more inclined to bargain aggressively with democratic allies who do not provoke domestic opposition, as occurred with the United Kingdom during the Korean War. An innovative work on a crucial and timely international relations topic, Allies of Convenience explains why the United States has mismanaged these “deals with the devil”—with deadly consequences.

Coalitions of Convenience

Coalitions of Convenience
Author: Sarah E. Kreps
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2011-01-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199842337

Why does the United States sometimes seek multilateral support for its military interventions? When does it instead sidestep international institutions and intervene unilaterally? In Coalitions of Convenience, a comprehensive study of US military interventions in the post-Cold War era, Sarah Kreps shows that contrary to conventional wisdom, even superpowers have strong incentives to intervene multilaterally: coalitions confer legitimacy and provide ways to share the costly burdens of war. Despite these advantages, multilateralism comes with costs: multilateral responses are often diplomatic battles of attrition in which reluctant allies hold out for side payments in exchange for their consent. A powerful state's willingness to work multilaterally, then, depends on its time horizons--how it values the future versus the present. States with long-term--those that do not face immediate threats--see multilateralism as a power-conserving strategy over time. States with shorter-term horizons will find the expediency of unilateralism more attractive. A systematic account of how multilateral coalitions function, Coalitions of Convenience also considers the broader effects of power on international institutions and what the rise of China may mean for international cooperation and conflict.

The Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations

The Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations
Author: Jonathan Leader Maynard
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 654
Release: 2022-10-25
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000632385

The Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations reviews, consolidates, and advances the study of ideology in international politics. The volume unifies fragmented scholarship on ideology’s impact on international relations into a wide-ranging and go-to volume. Declarations of the ‘end of ideology’ have once again been proven premature: nationalisms of various stripes are thriving; ideological polarization and conflicts both within and among states are growing; and environmentalist, feminist and anti-globalization activists are intensifying their demands on international institutions and states. This timely volume presents ideology as a way of explaining these major developments of world politics, rejecting the simplistic association of ideology with passionate convictions in favor of more complex theories of ideology’s influence. The chapters summarize cutting edge knowledge on major topics, suggest key implications for broader theoretical debates and frameworks, and point the way forwards to future avenues of inquiry. Contributors adopt puzzle-orientated causal, constitutive and/or critical approaches with a central focus on the determinants and effects of ideological phenomena and their interaction with other aspects of politics. This handbook is of key interest to students and scholars of ideologies, international relations, foreign policy analysis, political science, political theory and more broadly to sociology, psychology, and history. The Routledge Handbook of Ideology and International Relations is part of the mini-series Routledge Handbooks on Political Ideologies, Practices and Interpretations, edited by Michael Freeden.

Dictionary of Politics

Dictionary of Politics
Author: Walter John Raymond
Publisher: Brunswick Publishing Corp
Total Pages: 760
Release: 1992
Genre: Law
ISBN: 9781556180088

Defending Frenemies

Defending Frenemies
Author: Jeffrey W. Taliaferro
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2019-08-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0190939338

The United States maintains defense ties with as many as 60 countries, which not only enables its armed forces to maintain command globally and to project its force widely, but also enables its government to exert leverage over allies' foreign policies and military strategies. In Defending Frenemies, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro presents a historical and comparative analysis of how successive US presidential administrations have employed inducements and coercive diplomacy toward Israel, Pakistan, South Korea, and Taiwan over nuclear proliferation. Taliaferro shows that the ultimate goals in each administration, from John F. Kennedy to George H. W. Bush, have been to contain the Soviet Union's influence in the Middle East and South Asia and to enlist China as an ally of convenience against the Soviets in East Asia. Policymakers' inclinations to pursue either accommodative strategies or coercive nonproliferation strategies toward allies have therefore been directly linked to these primary objectives. Defending Frenemies is sharp examination of how regional power dynamics and US domestic politics have shaped the nonproliferation strategies the US has pursued toward vulnerable and often obstreperous allies.

Coalitions of Convenience

Coalitions of Convenience
Author: Sarah E. Kreps
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2011-01-14
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199753792

Why does the United States sometimes seek multilateral support for its military interventions? When does it instead sidestep international institutions and intervene unilaterally? In Coalitions of Convenience, a comprehensive study of US military interventions in the post-Cold War era, Sarah Kreps shows that contrary to conventional wisdom, even superpowers have strong incentives to intervene multilaterally: coalitions confer legitimacy and provide ways to share the costly burdens of war. Despite these advantages, multilateralism comes with costs: multilateral responses are often diplomatic battles of attrition in which reluctant allies hold out for side payments in exchange for their consent. A powerful state's willingness to work multilaterally, then, depends on its time horizons--how it values the future versus the present. States with long-term--those that do not face immediate threats--see multilateralism as a power-conserving strategy over time. States with shorter-term horizons will find the expediency of unilateralism more attractive. A systematic account of how multilateral coalitions function, Coalitions of Convenience also considers the broader effects of power on international institutions and what the rise of China may mean for international cooperation and conflict.

Adversaries and Allies

Adversaries and Allies
Author: Alan Axelrod
Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2009
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781402754111

Playing the game of businessand lifeinvolves creating strategic alliances, and developing, managing, and ending those relationships as required. Skilled gamers quickly recognize both present and potential adversaries and allies, and they calculate tactics for converting useful opponents into partnerseven, occasionally, to transform cronies into challengers. Why? Because, by definition, an enemy cannot betray you; only a friend can, so it s important to choose them well. Whether in industry or on the world stage, good leaders know how to pinpoint the people who should be by their side; they re also willing to make enemies who can be trusted to oppose them. Deciding who s who is what matters, offering the potential of risk and reward. That s how the game goesand here s how to win it. RISK is a trademark of Hasbro and is used with permission. (C) 2008 Hasbro. All Rights Reserved. Licensed by Hasbro."

Defending Frenemies

Defending Frenemies
Author: Jeffrey W. Taliaferro
Publisher:
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190939303

The United States maintains defense ties with as many as 60 countries, which not only enables its armed forces to maintain command globally and to project its force widely, but also enables its government to exert leverage over allies' foreign policies and military strategies. In Defending Frenemies, Jeffrey W. Taliaferro presents a historical and comparative analysis of how successive US presidential administrations have employed inducements and coercive diplomacy toward Israel, Pakistan, South Korea, and Taiwan over nuclear proliferation. Taliaferro shows that the ultimate goals in each administration, from John F. Kennedy to George H. W. Bush, have been to contain the Soviet Union's influence in the Middle East and South Asia and to enlist China as an ally of convenience against the Soviets in East Asia. Policymakers' inclinations to pursue either accommodative strategies or coercive nonproliferation strategies toward allies have therefore been directly linked to these primary objectives. Defending Frenemies is sharp examination of how regional power dynamics and US domestic politics have shaped the nonproliferation strategies the US has pursued toward vulnerable and often obstreperous allies.

Frenemies

Frenemies
Author: Mark L. Haas
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 307
Release: 2022-01-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501761242

In Frenemies Mark L. Haas addresses policy-guiding puzzles such as: Why do international ideological enemies sometimes overcome their differences and ally against shared threats? Why, just as often, do such alliances fail? Alliances among ideological enemies confronting a common foe, or "frenemy" alliances, are unlike coalitions among ideologically-similar states facing comparable threats. Members of frenemy alliances are perpetually torn by two powerful opposing forces. Haas shows that shared material threats push these states together while ideological differences pull them apart. Each of these competing forces has dominated the other at critical times. This difference has resulted in stable alliances among ideological enemies in some cases but the delay, dissolution, or failure of these alliances in others. Haas examines how states' susceptibility to major domestic ideological changes and the nature of the ideological differences among countries provide the key to alliance formation or failure. This sophisticated framework is applied to a diverse range of critical historical and contemporary cases, from the failure of British and French leaders to ally with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany in the 1930s to the likely evolution of the United States' alliance system against a rising China in the early 21st century. In Frenemies, Haas develops a groundbreaking argument that explains the origins and durability of alliances among ideological enemies and offers policy-guiding perspectives on a subject at the core of international relations.