Search

Phelan, William. (2012) What Is Sui Generis About the European Union? Costly International Cooperation in a Self-Contained Regime. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01136.x It is widely agreed that the EU is a sui generis international organization, but current scholarship rarely specifies why. This paper identifies the EU as a 'self-contained regime', a treaty institution that imposes costly requirements on its member states but rejects the use of inter-state countermeasure and reciprocity mechanisms. As a self-contained regime, the EU is a puzzle because international relations theory emphasizes the importance of inter-state countermeasures as incentives for states to fulfill costly obligations, as is illustrated by scholarly debates on the politics of both trade and human rights regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kadercan, Burak. (2012) Military Competition and the Emergence of Nationalism: Putting the Logic of Political Survival into Historical Context. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01135.x This essay aims to make a contribution to the conversation between IR and nationalism literatures by considering a particular question: What is the relationship between interstate military competition and the emergence of nationalism as a potent force in world politics? The conventional wisdom among international security scholars, especially neorealists, holds that nationalism can be more or less treated like a 'technology' that allowed states to extract significant resources as well as manpower from their respective populations. This paper underlines some of the problems involved with this perspective and pushes forward an interpretation that is based on the logic of political survival. I argue that nationalism's emergence as a powerful force in world politics followed from the 'mutation' and absorption of the universalistic/cosmopolitan republican ideas that gained temporary primacy in Europe during the eighteenth century into particularistic nationalist ideologies. This transformation, in turn, can be best explained by the French Revolution's dramatic impacts on rulers' political survival calculi vis-à-vis both interstate and domestic political challenges. The analysis offered in this essay contributes to our understanding of the relationship between IR and nationalism while also highlighting the potential value of the political survival framework for exploring macrohistorical puzzles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christopher Endy. Cold War Holidays: American Tourism in France. Chapel Hill, NC and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 286 pp. $49.95 (cloth), $19.95 (paper). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andrew J. Deroche. Andrew Young: Civil Rights Ambassador. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2003. xxiii + 193 pp. Illustrations, bibliography, notes, index. $65.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the relationship between photography, sculpture and language in La Mort et les statues, a book co-published by Pierre Jahan and Jean Cocteau in 1946. The book comprises Jahan's photographs of the destruction of bronze statues that had been requisitioned for scrap metal during the Second World War. While the imagery commemorates violence done to the landscape, the addition of Cocteau's commentaries transforms documentary realism into surreal effect. The book is discussed in the context of the wider artistic output of its authors. It is argued that Cocteau's participation in the project constituted an important public statement about his immediate political past, including his support of Arno Breker. When viewed in the light of other documentary photography of the Second World War, the book stands as a unique construction of cultural memory and a powerful personal statement by a photographer and a poet with contrasting artistic styles and motives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grundig, Frank, Jon Hovi, Arild Underdal, and Stine Aakre. (2012) Self-Enforcing Peace and Environmental Agreements: Toward Scholarly Cross-Fertilization? International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/misr.12003 Enforcement of agreements can be a major challenge in international politics. However, the interest in mechanisms of self-enforcement seems significantly lower among scholars studying international peace agreements (IPAs) than among scholars studying international environmental agreements (IEAs). Moreover, practically no exchange of ideas and findings about enforcement can be found between these two fields of research. We argue that a combination of similarities and differences between the two issue-areas provides fertile ground for mutual learning. To facilitate communication we develop a unifying but differentiated definition of self-enforcing agreements (SEAs). We then use this conceptual framework to explore lessons about IEA design that might be learned by studying IPAs and lessons about IPA design that might be learned by studying IEAs. We submit that this kind of compare-and-contrast analysis may provide important input for the development of a more refined and general theory of SEAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Click to view article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whibley, James. (2012) Institutions of Empire: Domestic Politics and Patterns of Imperialism. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/misr.12008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wilson, Peter. (2012) The English School Meets the Chicago School: The Case for a Grounded Theory of International Institutions. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/misr.12001 © 2012 International Studies Association The concept of primary international institutions is a core idea of the English School and central to those scholars from Bull to Buzan who have sought to take it in a more sociological direction. Yet the English School has traditionally found it difficult to define and identify with consistency the institutions of international society. A group of scholars, here called the 'new institutionalists,' have recently sought to address this problem by devising tighter definitions and applying them more rigorously. But different understandings and lists of institutions continue to proliferate. The source of the problem is the reliance on 'stipulative' definitions, drawn from an increasingly abstract theoretical literature. The problem is compounded by the new institutionalists' employment of social structural and other 'outsider' methods of social research. This article argues that it is only possible to empirically ground institutions, a task on which all agree, by returning to the interpretive 'insider' approach traditionally associated with the school-but employing it in a much more rigorous way. To this end it makes the case for a 'grounded theory' of international institutions inspired by Chicago School sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bauhr, Monika and Naghmeh Nasiritousi. (2012) How Do International Organizations Promote Quality of Government? Contestation, Integration, and the Limits of IO Power. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/misr.12009 © 2012 International Studies Association How do international organizations (IOs) promote quality of government (QoG) and reduce corruption? IOs play a central role in most accounts of power in international relations. However, our understanding of how IOs exercise power seldom moves beyond the traditional material-normative dimensions of power. We suggest that an important dimension to understand IO power is the contestation-integration dimension, where IOs can exercise power either by integrating countries into networks of cultural exchange or by contesting existing orders. By analyzing multilateral aid data and building on recent advances in our understanding of the effectiveness of IO anti-corruption work, we apply this framework to show how the contestation-integration dimension helps us understand the success or failure of anti-corruption strategies. We show that when IOs contest existing orders using governance rankings and aid conditionality, they suffer from ideational shortcomings, including lack of objective data and contested policy advice. In contrast, measures based on integration, such as the membership process of IOs or interaction with IOs, are more likely to suffer from internal procedural shortcomings, such as IOs failing to internalize and mainstream the norms that they seek to promote. Our findings have implications for both understanding conditions that limit the diffusion of the international anti-corruption agenda and advancing our knowledge of IO power and its limits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glasius, Marlies. (2012) Gramsci for the Twenty-first Century: Dialectics and Translatability. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/misr.12011 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Harknett, Richard J. and Hasan B. Yalcin. (2012) The Struggle for Autonomy: A Realist Structural Theory of International Relations. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/misr.12010 Structural theories have advanced our understanding of International Relations (IR). This article contends that the two leading structural realist frameworks, however, rely too heavily on an ascribed unit motivation and core dynamic that are not derived from structure. This ultimately weakens both theories' explanatory potential. This article offers a refinement called structural autonomy that explains IR through a focus on a self-reliant pursuit of autonomy and the particular distribution of capabilities found across the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Das, Runa. (2012) Issues from South Asian Politics: Some Postcolonial Reflections. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01132.x [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taylor, Lucy. (2012) Decolonizing International Relations: Perspectives from Latin America. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01125.x This article joins a growing chorus of voices aiming to decolonize International Relations (IR). It argues that the location of Latin America is ideally placed to bring a significant critique of IR because of its intimate relationship to one of the conventional IR's key protagonists: the USA. The analysis involves thinking about the USA from a historical and theoretical position in Latin America, exploring the always intimate relationship between the two. It draws its inspiration particularly from Latin American theorization of the 'coloniality of power' and explores two decolonial strategies: thinking about the emergence of a globally powerful USA through coloniality theorizing and examining the political possibilities of 'border thinking' and 'diversality' within the 'colonial difference' for a decolonial IR. The article seeks to open a field of discussion which positions Latin America as a site for critical thinking and action, and a heartland of decolonial struggle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Asal, Victor et al. (2012) Killing Civilians or Holding Territory? How to Think about Terrorism. International Studies Review, doi:10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01127.x [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haslam, Paul Alexander. (2012) Globalization in Latin America and Its Critics. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01107.x [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nacos, Brigitte L. (2012) Greater and Lesser Evils in the War on Terrorism and Beyond. International Studies Review, doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2486.2012.01108.x [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews both periodicals and books focused on the theory and philosophy of history including the Volume XLVIII, the four 2009 issues of the journal "History and Theory: Studies in the Philosophy of History," as well as the books "What if? Counterfactualism and the Problem of History," by Jeremy Black, and "At the Limits of History: Essays on Theory and Practice," by Keith Jenkins.