Publications
The rise of regions: conflict and cooperation
edited by ronald l. tammen and Jacek Kugler
This timely book presents fresh, forward-looking analyses of key regions across the globe, organized around power transition theory. Tracking political and economic trajectories broadly, the contributors use cutting-edge data to forecast general trends in regional politics, economics, and diplomacy. Their collective insights into the likely directions of regional dynamics within a changing global order comprise an invaluable guidebook for forward-thinking readers considering where the world is headed in the coming decades and the implications for strategy, politics, and policy.
The performance of nations
edited by ronald l. tammen and Jacek Kugler
What is the economic cost of politics?
TRC's first book measures government performance in business, politics, and economics.
"The Performance of Nations," provides new and innovative insights into governmental political performance that can help key decision makers determine the economic, business and political growth potential of a nation, state, province, or municipality while shedding a broader light on reasons for past governmental failures.
The authors of "Performance of Nations" have devised tools that empirically test government productivity at the national, sub-national and local levels. These tests, termed relative political extraction, reach, and allocation, represent a political science counterpart to the long-valued, numbers-based GDP measure economists use to determine a nation's growth or decline.
"We're answering two fundamental questions," said Mark Abdollahian, clinical professor at the School of Politics and Economics in Claremont Graduate University, "What is the cost of politics, and what is the political cost of economic growth."
power transitions
tammen, alsharabati, Kugler, stam, abdollahian& a.f.k.organski
What is the current threat to world peace? What will the post Cold War-system look like in the 21st century? Who will follow the United States as the next world power?
Power Transitions answers these provocative questions revolutionizing academic analysis and merging it with hands on policy.
By succinctly integrating power transition theory and national policy, this outstanding team of scholars explores emerging issues in world politics in the 21st century, including proliferation and deterrence, the international political economy, regional hierarchies, and the role of alliances. Blending quantitative and traditional analyses, theory and practice, history and informed predictions, "Power Transitions" draws a map of the new world that will stimulate, provoke, and offer solutions.
Authors include: Mark Abdollohian, Carole Alsharabati, Brian Efird, Jacek Kugler, Douglas Lemke, Allan C. Stam III, Ronald L. Tammen, and A.F.K Organski.
Global Power Transition and the Future of the European Union (Routledge/UACES Contemporary European Studies) (July 2017)
This book is about the future of the European Union inthe light of global power transition taking place in the 21stCentury and against the backdrop of the multiple challenges the project is facing. It demonstrates how the future of the European Union rests on a delicate balance between policy challenge, member states’ interests, and convergence or divergence of societal values across its peoples and shows how global power transition is affecting the EU’s position as a global actor.
It examines factors behind the decline of the EU relative to the rise of China and India in the global hierarchy and what policy options are available for EU leaders to implement in order to compete with China, India, and the United State. It analyses key policy challenges EU faces in its quest for "ever deeper union" and identifies significant factors (i.e., power relations, economic relations, emergent social values across the EU) that can explain likelihood of further integration or conflict between EU member states.
This text will be essential reading to scholars, students and practitioners interested in European Union politics and IR Theory and more broadly to International Relations, Security studies and Comparative politics.
EU-Turkey Relations in the 21st Century
The possibility of Turkey’s accession to the European Union has been problematic. Initially, the EU’s pursuit of regional economic integration and enlargement of membership, at the exclusion of Turkey, strained relations between the two. It was not until 1999, and under pressure from the US, that Turkey was considered as a potential candidate for membership.
This book seeks to provide a comprehensive assessment of the fluctuating relations between the EU and Turkey in the twenty-first century. Applying complementary theoretical models to evaluate prospects for Turkey’s membership, analysis includes; Turkey’s report card on the Copenhagen criteria, public opinion in Europe and Turkey, and benefits and challenges based on projection estimates. The results show that whilst both sides stand to make significant gains from Turkey’s membership, the current state of affairs point in the direction of a failure.
Examining complex issues surrounding EU-Turkey relations and addressing the critical question of what will happen if Turkey is rejected by the EU, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of politics, Turkey and the wider Middle East.
Parity and War: Evaluations and Extensions of The War Ledger
by Jacek Kugler, Douglas Lemke
Parity and War is an impressive explanation of why peace predominates in the international arena and why, on occasion, wars do start. Useful for college students and scholars alike, the work scrutinzes and tests ideas about power preponderance, first discussed over a decade ago in the widely acclaimed book The War Ledger.
An alternative to traditional realism, power preponderence contends that peace is preserved when a preponderant nation supports the status quo. The theory convincingly accounts for war initiation, recovery, and peace by analyzing military arms buildups, alliances, territorial threats, economic cycles, and nuclear environment deterrence and proliferation. The contributors to this volume examine and analyze cases as diverse as the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union, the presence of interstate war in South America in the last century and the absence thereof--despite domestic war--in this century, the economic and political consequences of the American Civil War, and the observation of long-term patterns of conflict and peace in international relations.
Moreover, contributors to Parity and War utilize game theory, expected utility, and differential calculus techniques to model major war and to formalize the originally intuitive propositions of power preponderance. Their timely research shows that, in this era of nuclear weapons dominated by a single super power, effective regime guidance by the United States can insure peace for the next century.
Birth, Death and Taxes
It has long been suspected that birth rates and death rates are tied in some way to political change, but until now reliable evidence of such a relationship has eluded researchers. After their own extensive research, the authors of Births, Deaths, and Taxes present the first empirical evidence indicating that state growth and the centralization of political power have a direct effect on a country's mortality and fertility rates: as the capacity of government grows, a nation's vital rates will decline. Because mortality rates decline first, state growth in recent decades precipitated a population explosion. Continued state growth, along with social and economic development, is now causing a drop in fertility as well.
To establish this relationship between political development and vital rates, the authors constructed an innovative index to measure political development and capacity. They argue that the growth of government power can be reasonably and accurately gauged by measuring increases in taxation.
The War Ledger
By A.F.K. Organski and Jacek Kugler
The War Ledger provides fresh, sophisticated answers to fundamental questions about major modern wars: Why do major wars begin? What accounts for victory or defeat in war? How do victory and defeat influence the recovery of the combatants? Are the rules governing conflict behavior between nations the same since the advent of the nuclear era?
Democracy, Governance and Economic Performance
By Yi Feng
In this book, Yi Feng combines political and economic analyses to study the effects of political institutions on economic performance. Traditionally, political scientists disregard details of economic conditions, while economists may not take into consideration a systematic explanation of political regimes. The growing interest in the interplay of political and economic systems, spurred by the political democratization and economic liberalization evident in many countries over the last twenty years, merits this new perspective.
The book examines the political determinants of economic growth, and, specifically, the controversial question of the relationship between democracy and quality of life. Feng systematically studies three variables of a political system -- political freedom, political stability, and policy certainty – and relates them to economic development. He examines the political factors that may affect patterns of growth directly or indirectly.Combining theory and country-specific case studies, Democracy, Governance, and Economic Performance demonstrates that political institutions and conditions do matter in economic growth. After establishing a theoretical foundation, Feng tests it by examining the direct effects of the three key political variables on economic growth and the indirect effects of democracy in terms of other variables (political instability, inflation, investment, education, income distribution, property rights, and population growth). He concludes by considering the policy implications of these results.
Power, Space, and time
By patrick rhamey jr. and tadeusz kugler
Undergraduate students in most preliminary courses in international politics are introduced to realist, liberal, and constructivist approaches, supplementing this theoretical introduction with conceptual discussions of the state, international system, and/or decision-making and policy formation. By the end of their college experience, undergraduate IR majors will engage coursework more narrowly focused on an empirical outcome, such as war, economic integration, development, or migration. These advanced courses are directly linked to modern research agendas and graduate level course material, usually with few references to the theoretical paradigms taught in introductory classes. This volume seeks to bridge the gap between what is taught in early undergraduate education and what is created by scholars, uniting abstract theoretical principles with practical contemporary policy and testable empirical questions.
HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH METHODS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
By R. JOSEPH HUDDLESTON, THOMAS JAMIESON, PATRICK JAMES
Drawing together international experts on research methods in International Relations (IR), this Handbook answers the complex practical questions for those approaching a new research topic for the first time. Innovative in its approach, it considers the art of IR research as well as the science, offering diverse perspectives on current research methods and emerging developments in the field.
Empirical chapters are split into five distinct parts guiding the reader through the research process, covering the key topics including scope and methods, concepts, data and techniques and tools and applications. Highlighting the wide-ranging differences in the topic, the illustrative case studies and research models also provide guidance on how and when to use these tools, including how to evaluate research at the start and end of projects. Furthermore, it examines how to publish research and provides advice on how to manage a research team.
This informative read will provide an excellent resource for established researchers taking on new projects, rethinking their approach to IR or those interested in learning new methods. Students and scholars of international politics and public policy as well as social scientists will also find this illuminating and instructive.
REALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: a GRAPHIC TURN TOWARD SCIENTIFIC PROGRESS
By PATRICK JAMES
Realism is one of the core theories within the field of international relations, and it generally posits a state system characterized by anarchy where states act in what they perceive to be their own self interests. It is a controversial theory, and it has many opponents. Yet effective debate among realists and those who identify with other schools of thought has diminished dramatically over time. As Patrick James argues in Realism and International Relations, scholars in the field have become dissatisfied with results from exchanges in words alone. He contends that translation of the vast amount of information in the field into knowledge requires a greater emphasis on communication beyond the use of text. Given the challenges posed by existing and intensifying information overload, he develops a new model that relies on the graphic representation of analytical arguments.
As James explains, realist scholarship in the post-World War II era is the natural domain for the application of systemism, a graphic form of expression with straightforward rules for portrayal of analytical arguments, notably cause and effect within theories. Systemism goes beyond prior iterations of systems theory to offer a visualization technique borrowed and adapted from the philosophy of science. Systemist graphics reveal the shortcomings, contributions and potential of realism. These visualizations, which focus on realist theories about war, are intended to bring order out of what critics tend to describe, with some justification, as chaos. In sum, a graphic turn for realism in particular and international relations in general is essential in order to achieve the scientific progress that otherwise is likely to remain elusive. A major theoretical work by an eminent scholar, this will be of interest to all theorists focusing how the international system of states actually functions.
systemist INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
By PATRICK JAMES
Designed to provide readers with an accessible introduction to international relations, Systemist International Relations introduces the systemist method, a visual approach that equips individuals with the ability to transform the key points of any work of scholarship into an easy-to-understand and salient graphic representation of the data. The opening chapters speak to how the world has changed in the new millennium, especially regarding the pace of everyday life, and how the international relations discipline has expanded considerably in step. With this growth comes the increased size and complexity of research in the field. The text posits that the systemist method is an effective way to render the influx of information and study in international relations more accessible to all.
Additional chapters introduce systemism and its associated method for graphic representation of analytical arguments. The method is then applied to three key areas of study within international relations: international security studies; foreign policy analysis; and ethnicity, nationalism, and migration. The final chapter reviews what has been accomplished and looks ahead to what might be done in the future to advance research and teaching about international relations.
Systemist International Relations is an ideal textbook for undergraduate and graduate-level courses and programs in international relations.