Research on the physical expansion of the United States has a crucial subtext: the importance of geopolitics. The conquest of the North American continent and, later, the expansion into the Pacific and Caribbean facilitated the large growth of the United States, the great accumulation of wealth, and the addition of dozens of more states into…
Category: Roundtables
H-Diplo|RJISSF Rountable on Chung, Pride, Not Prejudice: National Identity as a Pacifying Force in East Asia
I was enormously curious over the claim coming out of the book’s title when asked to introduce this book in this H-Diplo Roundtable. As my fellow reviewers here noted as well, the book’s main claim runs opposite to a well-established view, at least in the discipline of political science and international relations, on the causal…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable 14-13 on McCourt, The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory
David M. McCourt’s book, The New Constructivism in International Relations Theory, is an important reflection on the place of constructivism within International Relations, as well as a provocative and productive statement of a way forward for this intellectually diverse research community. McCourt’s reflection is two-sided. He addresses what can sometimes seem like deep divides between…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable Review on Lupton, Reputation for Resolve
President John F. Kennedy famously worried that foreign policy failures early in his tenure—the Bay of Pigs fiasco and his poor performance at the summit in Vienna—displayed his lack of resolve and acumen, which Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would seek to exploit. These concerns seemed to materialize when Kennedy learned that Khrushchev had placed nuclear…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable Review 14-11 on Wolfe-Hunnicutt, The Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy
It is my great pleasure to introduce this roundtable review of Brandon Wolfe-Hunnicutt’s Paranoid Style in American Diplomacy: Oil and Arab Nationalism in Iraq. I began corresponding with the author almost two decades ago, when he was a new graduate student and thinking about dissertation topics. Since then, I watched as he turned a first-rate…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable on Innes, Streets Without Joy
We must act against the criminal menace of terrorism with the full weight of the law, both domestic and international. We will act to indict, apprehend, and prosecute those who commit the kind of atrocities the world has witnessed in recent weeks. We can act together as free peoples who wish not to see our…
H-Diplo|RJISSF Roundtable on Malkasian, The American War in Afghanistan & Whitlock, The Afghanistan Papers
Just over 21 years ago, the United States invaded Afghanistan. Just over one year ago, the United States withdrew from Afghanistan. Understanding the two decades in between, which became by almost any measure America’s longest war, will continue to occupy and often bedevil scholars and policymakers for years to come. The two books under review…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 14-8: Schrader, Badges Without Borders
Of the many significant achievements of Stuart Schrader’s excellent book Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing, one of the most substantive is that it asks readers to challenge a seemingly foundational geographic assumption underpinning diplomatic relations: the view that the foreign policy sphere is fundamentally distinct from the domestic one. In contrast,…
H-Diplo | ISSF Roundtable 14-6 on Stewart, Governing for Revolution: Social Transformation in Civil War
In Governing for Revolution, Megan A. Stewart examines variation in rebel governance, asking why some rebel movements undertake expansive and costly governance initiatives during war, while others refrain from doing so until the conflicts end. According to Stewart, governance can be both extensive and intensive. Intensive governance refers to intrusive projects that have the potential…
H-Diplo | ISSF Roundtable 14-5: Zegart, Spies, Lies and Algorithms: The History and Future of American Intelligence
Amy Zegart’s book Spies, Lies and Algorithms: The History of Future of American Intelligence, provides a well-written and easy to read overview of the multiplicities of American intelligence; everything from what intelligence is, to intelligence in classrooms and the effects of “spytainment,” and of course, intelligence of the digital age. Zegart describes the initial concept…