Political Science Abstracts

Political Science Abstracts
Author: IFI/Plenum Data Company staff
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 841
Release: 2013-11-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1461517893

Political Science Abstracts is an annual supplement to the Political Science, Government, and Public Policy Series of The Universal Reference System, which was first published in 1967. All back issues are still available.

African Conflicts and Informal Power

African Conflicts and Informal Power
Author: Mats Utas
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 442
Release: 2012-09-13
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1848138857

In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

National Will to Fight

National Will to Fight
Author: McNerney
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 155
Release: 2018-09-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1977400566

In this report, RAND researchers explore the factors, contexts, and mechanisms that shape a national government’s decision to continue or end military and other operations during a conflict (i.e., national will to fight). To help U.S. leaders better understand and influence will to fight, the researchers propose an exploratory model of 15 variables that can be tailored and applied to a wide set of conflict scenarios.

Becoming Rivals

Becoming Rivals
Author: Brandon Valeriano
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2013-03-05
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1136245308

Rivalries are a fundamental aspect of all international interactions. The concept of rivalry suggests that historic animosity may be the most fundamental variable in explaining and understanding why states commit international violence against each other. By understanding the historic factors behind the emergence of rivalry, the strategies employed by states to deal with potential threats, and the issues endemic to enemies, this book seeks to understand and predict why states become rivals. The recent increase in the quantitative study of rivalry has largely identified who the rivals are, but not how they form and escalate. Questions about the escalation of rivalry are important if we are to understand the nature of conflictual interactions. This book addresses an important research gap in the field by directly tackling the question of rivalry formation. In addition to making new contributions to the literature, this book will summarize a cohesive model of how all interstate rivalries form by using both quantitative and qualitative methods and sources.

Speculative Everything

Speculative Everything
Author: Anthony Dunne
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2013-12-06
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0262019841

How to use design as a tool to create not only things but ideas, to speculate about possible futures. Today designers often focus on making technology easy to use, sexy, and consumable. In Speculative Everything, Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby propose a kind of design that is used as a tool to create not only things but ideas. For them, design is a means of speculating about how things could be—to imagine possible futures. This is not the usual sort of predicting or forecasting, spotting trends and extrapolating; these kinds of predictions have been proven wrong, again and again. Instead, Dunne and Raby pose “what if” questions that are intended to open debate and discussion about the kind of future people want (and do not want). Speculative Everything offers a tour through an emerging cultural landscape of design ideas, ideals, and approaches. Dunne and Raby cite examples from their own design and teaching and from other projects from fine art, design, architecture, cinema, and photography. They also draw on futurology, political theory, the philosophy of technology, and literary fiction. They show us, for example, ideas for a solar kitchen restaurant; a flypaper robotic clock; a menstruation machine; a cloud-seeding truck; a phantom-limb sensation recorder; and devices for food foraging that use the tools of synthetic biology. Dunne and Raby contend that if we speculate more—about everything—reality will become more malleable. The ideas freed by speculative design increase the odds of achieving desirable futures.

The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence

The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence
Author: Darla K. Deardorff
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 560
Release: 2009-08-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1412960452

Containing chapters by some of the world's leading experts and scholars on the subject, this book provides a broad context for intercultural competence. Including the latest research on intercultural models and theories, it presents guidance on assessing intercultural competence through the exploration of key assessment principles.

The Diffusion of War

The Diffusion of War
Author: Randolph M. Siverson
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 168
Release: 1991
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780472102471

A study of wars and what causes them to expand

Diplomacy's Value

Diplomacy's Value
Author: Brian C. Rathbun
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2014-10-31
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0801455057

What is the value of diplomacy? How does it affect the course of foreign affairs independent of the distribution of power and foreign policy interests? Theories of international relations too often implicitly reduce the dynamics and outcomes of diplomacy to structural factors rather than the subtle qualities of negotiation. If diplomacy is an independent effect on the conduct of world politics, it has to add value, and we have to be able to show what that value is. In Diplomacy's Value, Brian C. Rathbun sets forth a comprehensive theory of diplomacy, based on his understanding that political leaders have distinct diplomatic styles—coercive bargaining, reasoned dialogue, and pragmatic statecraft.Drawing on work in the psychology of negotiation, Rathbun explains how diplomatic styles are a function of the psychological attributes of leaders and the party coalitions they represent. The combination of these styles creates a certain spirit of negotiation that facilitates or obstructs agreement. Rathbun applies the argument to relations among France, Germany, and Great Britain during the 1920s as well as Palestinian-Israeli negotiations since the 1990s. His analysis, based on an intensive analysis of primary documents, shows how different diplomatic styles can successfully resolve apparently intractable dilemmas and equally, how they can thwart agreements that were seemingly within reach.

Weak States in the International System

Weak States in the International System
Author: Michael I. Handel
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 354
Release: 1990
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780714640730

This work defines weak states and their strengths and weaknesses. It examines why they are weak and their position in different international systems as well as their economic positions.