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"Knutsen, Torbjørn L"
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Twentieth-Century Stories
This essay examines four influential books on the trends and themes of the 20th century: The Age of Extremes, The Passing of an Illusion, Dark Continent and Triangulating Peace. All four books discuss the same historical events but incorporate them in very different stories. The main differences between the books are in the literary forms that they most closely conform to - tragedy, comedy, satire and romance, respectively. The essay concludes by asking why historians tend to bypass in silence the remarkable fact which constitutes the core of Triangulating Peace - and which might well be the most important feature of the 20th century - namely, that no democracy has gone to war against another democracy.
Journal Article
Democracy and Peace: A More Skeptical View
Gates et al contend that the Democracy-Peace argument is marked by theoretical paucity and a lack of attention to endogeneity and constituent preferences and that the operationalization of both variables needs to be refined. Democracy-Peace researchers are urged to address these problems in the context of the small war that erupted between Peru and Ecuador in Feb 1995.
Journal Article
A Lost Generation? IR Scholarship before World War I
The traditional understanding of the origins of international relations (IR) is on the ropes. The old vision of a discipline that was born under an idealist star and matured through a first ‘Great Debate’ is no longer credible. This article offers an alternative understanding: viz. that a scholarly study of IR emerged during the decades prior to World War I, that the emergence represents an international movement, and that it was occasioned by major changes in Great Power economic and political affairs. By posing a few simple questions — who were the first scholarly IR-authors? where and why they write? — this article identifies some of the formative forces that produced the first (now largely lost) generation of IR scholars. It proposes a historically grounded, alternative to our traditional (largely British and mythological) understanding of early IR scholarship.
Journal Article
Halford J. Mackinder, Geopolitics, and the Heartland Thesis
Around 1900 the young geographer, Halford J. Mackinder, grew concerned with the changing balance of international power. He argued that Russia's vast, central territories were outside of the reach of British sea power, that the vast Eurasian territory possessed an invulnerable 'Heartland', and that whoever controlled this Heartland would dominate the world. This idea became a powerful notion in early twentieth-century international politics. This article presents Mackinder's idea in context and traces its impact. First, it follows the evolution of the idea. It then shows how the idea developed during the First World War, buoyed Mackinder's criticisms of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, and drove him to expand on the nature of two rivalling approaches to questions of war and peace. Finally, it follows the impact of Mackinder's idea on the evolution of the geopolitical tradition: first in Great Britain, where its impact was slight, then in Germany, where its impact was enormous, then finally in the United States, where it provided a framework that helped President Roosevelt prioritise a war in Europe against Germany over a war in Asia against Japan.
Journal Article
Re-Reading Rousseau in the Post-Cold War World
While the study of world politics before and during the Cold War was dominated by the competing paradigms of 'idealism' and 'realism', the post-Cold War world requires different approaches. This essay suggests that Jean-Jacques Rousseau's writings on war and peace may serve as a vantage-point for a paradigm which goes beyond the two orthodox perspectives. It argues that Rousseau is not the unambiguous representative for the 'realist' approach that he is so routinely assumed to be. Rousseau developed a unique analysis which accentuates historical change, dialectical paradox and the tendency for interdependence to foster inequality and conflict. This analysis of interstate relations provides a useful starting-point for understanding both the global transformations which are now occurring before our eyes and the many challenges that lie ahead. First, this essay reconstructs from the many scattered pieces which Rousseau wrote about history and world politics a clear and consistent international relations theory. Then, it uses this theory to examine some of the most common assumptions about the nature of the post-Cold War world. It discusses whether the liberal-democratic values of the First World will emerge triumphant in the 21st century; whether the nations of the (former) Second World will experience prosperity and peace; and whether the struggle for liberation and justice in the Third World will finally be crowned with triumph.
Journal Article
Over the Hill? The Anatomy of Revolution at Fifty
Crane Brinton's famous Anatomy of Revolution marks a watershed in the study of revolution. This essay celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication. It discusses some of the reasons for the remarkable longevity of Brinton's study; it traces Brinton's influence through three generations of American students of revolution; and it suggests a new research agenda for the coming generation based on a re-examination of the concepts of 'failed' and 'successful' revolutions and of the locus of sovereignty. Here, too, Brinton can provide insight.
Book Review
Other Bricks in the Wall: A Reply
A reply to a symposium on The Rise and Fall of World Orders (1999) thanks the contributors for their praise as well as their constructive challenges. Georg Sorensen's comments on \"overstretch\" & \"social capital\" are addressed, contending that the notion of overstretch is neither new nor as universally applicable as claimed by Paul Kennedy in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1987). Two underlying assumptions of Kennedy's overstretch argument, the \"unequal-development\" & \"zero-sum\" theses, are critiqued, & it is proposed that the idea that the decline of Great Powers is a function of declining social capital is a better alternative to Kennedy's claim that the decline of the Great Powers is caused by declining capital investments. The concept of social capital is explored in depth, along with the relationship between hard power/soft power; Jurgen Habermas's (1987) ideas about the fractured modern state; & problems involved in the traditional theory of the Democratic Peace, primarily the ease with which it can be exploited by international leaders. 17 References. J. Lindroth
Journal Article
Answered Prayers: Fukuyama, Liberalism and the End-of-History Debate
THIS ARTICLE EXPLORES FRANCIS FUKUYAMA'S ARGUMENT IN HIS 'END OF HISTORY' THESIS, IN AN EFFORT TO UNDERSTAND WHY ALL THE ATTENTION HAS BEEN GIVEN TO HIS PAPER. IT CLARIFIES AND CRITIQUES HIS ARGUMENT. IT SUGGESTS THAT KOJEVE'S CONTROVERSIAL INTERPRETATION OF HEGEL HAS FORCED FUKUYAMA TO CONCLUDE UNWITTINGLY THAT THE ECLECTIC RECONSTRUCTION OF CLASSIC LIBERALISM IS FIT FOR THE GRAVE. IT MAY BE THIS UNWITTING DE(CON)STRUCTION OF LIBERALISM TRIUMPHANT WHICH, IN THE FINAL INSTANCE, ACCOUNTS FOR THE ASTONISHING ATTENTION THIS ARTICLE RECEIVED.
Journal Article