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"Jack Snyder"
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Myths of Empire
\" Myths of Empire offers the best-developed
theory to date of the domestic sources of international conflict
and security policy... Snyder has taken a major step toward ending
the theoretical impoverishment of the study of the domestic sources
of international conflict.\" ― American Political
Science Review
Overextension is the common pitfall of empires. Why does it
occur? What are the forces that cause the great powers of the
industrial era to pursue aggressive foreign policies? Jack Snyder
identifies recurrent myths of empire, describes the varieties of
overextension to which they lead, and criticizes the traditional
explanations offered by historians and political scientists. He
tests three competing theories-realism, misperception, and domestic
coalition politics-against five detailed case studies: early
twentieth-century Germany, Japan in the interwar period, Great
Britain in the Victorian era, the Soviet Union after World War II,
and the United States during the Cold War. The Resulting insights
run counter to much that has been written about these apparently
familiar instances of empire building.
Overextension is the common pitfall of empires. Why does it
occur? What are the forces that cause the great powers of the
industrial era to pursue aggressive foreign policies? Jack Snyder
identifies recurrent myths of empire, describes the varieties of
overextension to which they lead, and criticizes the traditional
explanations offered by historians and political scientists.He
tests three competing theories-realism, misperception, and domestic
coalition politics-against five detailed case studies: early
twentieth-century Germany, Japan in the interwar period, Great
Britain in the Victorian era, the Soviet Union after World War II,
and the United States during the Cold War. The resulting insights
run counter to much that has been written about these apparently
familiar instances of empire building.
eBook
Ranking the world : grading states as a tool of global governance
\"Over the last decade international rankings have emerged as a critical tool used by international actors engaged in global governance. State practices and performance are now judged by a number of high profile indexes, including assessments of their levels of corruption, quality of democracy, creditworthiness, media freedom, and business environment. However, these rankings always carry value judgments, methodological choices, and implicit political agendas. This volume expertly addresses the important analytical, normative and policy issues associated with the contemporary practice of 'grading states'. The chapters explore how rankings affect our perceptions about state performance, how states react to being ranked, why some rankings exert more global influence than others, and how states have come to strategize and respond to these public judgments. It also critically examines how treating state rankings like popular consumer choice indexes may actually lead policymakers to internalize questionable normative assumptions and lead to poorer, not improved, public policy outcomes\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Time to Kill: The Impact of Election Timing on Postconflict Stability
Elections constitute a fundamental element of postconflict peacebuilding efforts in the post–cold war era and are often held soon after conflicts end. Yet, the impact of early elections on postconflict stability is the subject of sharp debate. While some argue that early elections facilitate peace agreements, hasten democratization, and ensure postconflict stability, others suggest that they undermine genuine democracy and spark a renewal in fighting. In this study, we argue that holding elections soon after a civil war ends generally increases the likelihood of renewed fighting, but that favorable conditions, including decisive victories, demobilization, peacekeeping, power sharing, and strong political, administrative and judicial institutions, can mitigate this risk. We attempt to reconcile the extant qualitative debate on postconflict elections through a quantitative analysis of all civil wars ending in the post–World War II period.
Journal Article
Trials and Errors: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice
Advocacy groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have made a historic contribution to the cause of international human rights by publicizing the need to prevent mass atrocities such as war crimes, genocide, and widespread political killings and torture. However, a strategy that many such groups favor for achieving this goal risks causing more atrocities than it would prevent, because it pays insufficient attention to political realities.
Journal Article
Better Now Than Later: The Paradox of 1914 as Everyone's Favored Year for War
One reason why Europe went to war in 1914 is that all of the continental great powers judged it a favorable moment for them to fight, and all were more pessimistic about postponing the fight until later. Not only is this historical paradox an interesting puzzle in its own right, but it sheds light on what is arguably the reigning theory of the causes of wars in general: James Fearon's rational bargaining theory. None of Fearon's three main mechanisms—private information, commitment problems, or indivisibility of stakes—can explain the paradox of the universal, simultaneous view of 1914 as a favorable year for war. Two mechanisms that play a marginal role in his analysis, however—bounded rationality in multidimensional power assessments and attempts to mitigate power shifts through coercive diplomacy—help to explain how Europe's powers became trapped in a choice between war now and war later. These mechanisms were set in motion by background strategic assumptions rooted in the culture of militarism and nationalism that perversely structured the options facing Europe's political leaders in 1914. Whereas Fearon's theory assumes that states are paying equal attention to all relevant information, in 1914 each power's strategic calculations produced disproportionate levels of self-absorption in its own domestic concerns and alliance anxieties.
Journal Article
Buffer zones: Anachronism, power vacuum, or confidence builder?
Amidst calls for containing an assertive Russia, politicians and pundits have been debating whether Ukraine should serve as a ‘buffer zone’ between the Russian and Western spheres of influence. These debates provide an opportunity to revisit the long and varied history of major powers’ efforts to manage buffer zones. We draw on this history to learn the conditions under which buffer zones succeed or fail to stabilise regions, how buffers are most successfully managed, and when alternative arrangements for borderlands work better.
Journal Article
Rushing to the Polls: The Causes of Premature Postconflict Elections
In the post—cold war period, civil wars are increasingly likely to end with peace settlements brokered by international actors who press for early elections. However, elections held soon after wars end, when political institutions remain weak, are associated with an increased likelihood of a return to violence. International actors have a double-edged influence over election timing and the risk of war, often promoting precarious military stalemates and early elections but sometimes also working to prevent a return to war through peacekeeping, institution building, and powersharing. In this article, we develop and test quantitatively a model of the causes of early elections as a building block in evaluating the larger effect of election timing on the return to war.
Journal Article
Backlash against human rights shaming: emotions in groups
Human rights advocates continue to use shaming as a central tool despite recognizing its declining effectiveness. Shame is indeed a potent motivator, but its effects are often counterproductive for this purpose. Especially when wielded by cultural outsiders in ways that appear to condemn local social practices, shaming is likely to produce anger, resistance, backlash, and deviance from outgroup norms, or denial and evasion. Shaming can easily be interpreted as a show of contempt, which risks triggering fears for the autonomy and security of the group. In these circumstances, established religious and elite networks can employ traditional normative counter-narratives to recruit a popular base for resistance. If this counter-mobilization becomes entrenched in mass social movements, popular ideology, and enduring institutions, the unintended consequences of shaming may leave human rights advocates farther from their goal.
Journal Article
