Redrawing the Map of Europe


Book Description

Michael Emerson draws on a rare experience of Europe's new political and economic structures - from Brussels to Moscow - to explain Europe's contradictory tendencies towards both integration and conflict. He confronts the two strategic issues for the Europe of the early 21st century: how to ensure success for the Euro and how to stabilise the wider Europe with a strong structure for EU-Russian relations. He draws distinctions between the different Europes - geographic Europe, the European Union, 'Security Europe' (based around NATO) and the emerging 'Civil Europe'. The author argues that 'Civil Europe' could be the basis of a new European golden age, and outlines the far-reaching institutional and cultural changes required to achieve this.




The Puzzle of Peace


Book Description

The Puzzle of Peace moves beyond defining peace as the absence of war and develops a broader conceptualization and explanation for the increasing peacefulness of the international system. The authors track the rise of peace as a new phenomenon in international history starting after 1945. International peace has increased because international society has developed a set of norms dealing with territorial conflict, by far the greatest source of international war over previous centuries. These norms prohibit the use of military force in resolving territorial disputes and acquiring territory, thereby promoting border stability. This includes the prohibition of the acquisition of territory by military means as well as attempts by secessionist groups to form states through military force. International norms for managing international conflict have been accompanied by increased mediation and adjudication as means of managing existing territorial conflicts.




The Steps to War


Book Description

The question of what causes war has concerned statesmen since the time of Thucydides. The Steps to War utilizes new data on militarized interstate disputes from 1816 to 2001 to identify the factors that increase the probability that a crisis will escalate to war. In this book, Paul Senese and John Vasquez test one of the major behavioral explanations of war--the steps to war--by identifying the various factors that put two states at risk for war. Focusing on the era of classic international politics from 1816 to 1945, the Cold War, and the post-Cold War period, they look at the roles of territorial disputes, alliances, rivalry, and arms races and show how the likelihood of war increases significantly as these risk factors are combined. Senese and Vasquez argue that war is more likely in the presence of these factors because they increase threat perception and put both sides into a security dilemma. The Steps to War calls into question certain prevailing realist beliefs, like peace through strength, demonstrating how threatening to use force and engaging in power politics is more likely to lead to war than to peace.




Territorial Disputes and State Sovereignty


Book Description

Adopting a multi-disciplinary approach, this book opens new ground for research on territorial disputes. Many sovereignty conflicts remain unresolved around the world. Current solutions in law, political science and international relations generally prove problematic to at least one of the agents part of these differences. Arguing that disputes are complex, multi-layered and multi-faceted, this book brings together a global, inter-disciplinary view of territorial disputes. The book reviews the key conceptual elements central to legal and political sciences with regards to territorial disputes: state, sovereignty and self-determination. Looking at some of the current long-standing disputes worldwide, it compares and contrasts the many issues at stake and the potential remedies currently available in order to assess why some territorial disputes remain unresolved. Finally, it offers a set of guidelines for dispute settlement and conflict resolution that current remedies fail to provide. It will appeal to students and scholars working in international relations, legal theory and jurisprudence, public international law and political sciences.




The Defining the Crossword of Sovereignty and Security


Book Description

In general summary, on the basis of the perspective of realism, this book has thoroughly and critically assessed the international legal topic of the application of the UNCSS in territorial disputes. Firstly, from the discussion of the initial two chapters, it can be learnt that territorial disputes and the UNCSS are mutually important to each other. Meanwhile, as the corresponding background, there is a lack of relevant legal studies on the present research topic. Secondly, from the discussion of the middle two chapters, it can be learnt that both territorial disputes and the UNCSS have their specific nature and characters. As the result, it also can be recognized that although the general environment of the international community is pursuing peace and security, but the engagement between territorial dispute and the UNCSS is still inevitable. Thirdly, from the discussion of the final two chapters, it can be learnt that due to their diversified advantages and shortages, the various measures of the UNCSS can exert different effect on territorial disputes. Nevertheless, there are well-directed ways for the reform of the UNCSS in this field, and thereupon an applicable reform scheme can be drafted.




Guide to the Scientific Study of International Processes


Book Description

Dedicated to the empirical analysis of data from the world of international relations, SSIP scholars tend to focus on interstate conflicts, civil wars, and conflict management. The range of perspectives in this edited volume provide a comprehensive introduction to SSIP theory and methodology. Fresh approach traces intellectual development of research approaches rather than merely summarizing results Features original SSIP material not found in other books Includes a number of essays with a broader assessment of SSIP methods - ideal for younger scholars interested in the approach Includes recent SSIP analyses exploring issues such as civil wars




Enduring Territorial Disputes


Book Description

Of all the issues in international relations, disputes over territory are the most salient and most likely to lead to armed conflict. In this study, Krista E. Wiegand examines why some states are willing and able to settle territorial disputes while others are not.




What Do We Know about War?


Book Description

This invaluable text assesses the current research on the causes of both war and peace. In this revised third edition—now with a brand new chapter on the Russian-Ukraine War—leading international relations scholars explore the role of territorial disputes, power, alliances, arms races, rivalry, and nuclear weapons in bringing about war; the outcomes and consequences of war; and the factors that promote peace, including democracy, norms, capitalist economies, and stable borders. The revised third edition includes a section on emerging trends in research on cyber war, the environment and climate change, leaders, war financing, and trends in interstate conflict. Reviewing fifty years of scientific research, the contributors provide an accessible and up-to-date overview of current knowledge and a road map for future research.




Dynamics of Asymmetric Territorial Conflict


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive study of asymmetric territorial conflict combining game theory, statistical empirical analysis and historiographic analysis. Using the Israeli-Palestine conflict as a case study, it tests the model on a database of almost four hundred territorial conflicts.




The Russian Minorities in the Former Soviet Republics


Book Description

This book explores the differing treatment of Russian minorities in the non-Russian republics which seceded from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Providing detailed case studies, it explains why intervention by Russia occurred in the case of Ukraine, despite Ukraine’s benevolent and inclusive treatment of the large Russian minority, whereas in other republics with less benevolent approaches to minorities intervention did not occur, for example Kazakhstan, where discrimination against the Russian minority increased over time, and Latvia, where the country on its accession to the European Union was deemed to have good minority rights protection, despite a record of discrimination against the Russian minority. Throughout the book emphasises the importance of the perceptions of the republic government regarding the interaction between the minority’s kin-state and the minority, the role that minorities played within the nation-building process and after secession, and the dual threat coming from both the domestic and international spheres.