Contemporary research on political orders in International Relations and Comparative Politics generally focusses on specific international or national orders, and in political theory, on ideal orders.[1] My work addresses the problem of order more generally. It asks what political order is, explores its relationship to social order, the relationship between change and stability, the extent…
Category: Commentary
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary III-3 on Marc Trachtenberg, “Is There Life after NATO?”
H-Diplo | Robert Jervis International Security Studies Forum Commentary III-3 Forum on Marc Trachtenberg, “Is There Life after NATO?” 16 January 2025 | PDF: https://issforum.org/to/CIII-3 | Website: rjissf.org | Twitter: @HDiplo Editor: Diane Labrosse | Commissioning Editor: Diane Labrosse | Production Editor: Christopher Ball Contents Introduction by Jack Snyder, Columbia University. 2 “Is There Life after NATO?” by Marc Trachtenberg, UCLA. 5…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary III-2 on Marc Trachtenberg, “Operation Farewell and the Siberian Pipeline Explosion”
It is a treat to read something, anything, that Marc Trachtenberg writes. The reasons go beyond the originality and authority of his substantive contributions to international history and international relations. Trachtenberg focused on European foreign relations before shifting to the United States, and, as is well known, trained in history and a titan in the…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary III-1: Did Boris Johnson Prevent an Early End to the War in Ukraine?
Winston Churchill was his hero and becoming British prime minister himself was Boris Johnson’s ultimate dream.[1] Yet once he became prime minister in July 2019, Johnson’s performance was rather disappointing. Relations with the European Union (EU) over Brexit became ever more poisonous and Johnson’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic was highly inept, eventually leading to…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary II-7 on the UK’s Response to Russia’s War against Ukraine
February 24th 2022 marks the beginning of a new dark era in European and international security. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is the latest manifestation of Russia as a threat to both international security and the liberal word order that began with the Russian-Georgian war in August 2008 and continued with Russia’s annexation of Crimea…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary II-6 on Belarus in the UK’s Policy on the War in Ukraine
Although the political crisis in Belarus dominated global media headlines for much of 2020 and continued to attract international attention intermittently in 2021, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has pushed Belarus further down the priority list of Western policymakers, including those in the United Kingdom. Certainly, Belarus’ authoritarian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko has been condemned as…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Commentary II-5 on the Israel-Hamas War
On 7 October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel in an unprecedented and unexpected manner. The attack, which included taking 240 hostages, killing more than 1,100 citizens, and engaging in “widespread sexual assaults against Israeli women” shocked the Israeli national psyche.[1] Israel responded with unprecedented force which (as of mid-April 2024) has led to more almost 38,000…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Commentary II-4: “Henry Kissinger and the Angel of Applied History”
The news alerts declaring the death of former Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger flashed across my iPhone in a feverish pitch matching my flu-induced fever. I felt utterly speechless—it did not seem real. Kissinger had most recently celebrated his centenary in May. The obituaries and the post-mortems similarly appeared in a feverish pace shortly…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Commentary: “The Long Shadow of World War II and the Holocaust”
In the immediate aftermath of the 7 October 2023 attack by Hamas terrorists that led to the slaughter of over 1,200 Israelis (mostly Jewish, but also Arab, plus foreign nationals) and the capture of over 240 hostages (with over 100 still in captivity three months later), politicians, journalists, and scholars alike began searching their memory…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Commentary: “From Disengagement to Unprecedented Engagement: the US, the War in Gaza and the New World Order”
Is it just a coincidence that at the same time as President Joe Biden’s wartime visit to Israel, the Chinese and Russian leaders met in Beijing in the framework of the Belt and Road Conference? While the timing might be a coincidence, the contrast between the two events indicates some of the links between the…