This book develops a binary role theory of world politics extending from the micro-analysis of foreign policy to the macro-analysis of world politics. The effort employs analytical tools outside of role theory to extend role concepts from agents spatially to finitely generated systems and temporally to different phases and sequences of social interaction between pairs of agents as ego and alter. There is an initial emphasis on “thinking small” about the interactions of agents as the buildi...

Appeasement is a controversial strategy of conflict management and resolution in world politics. Its reputation is sullied by foreign policy failures ending in war or defeat in which the appeasing state suffers diplomatic and military losses by making costly concessions to other states. Britain’s appeasement policies toward Germany, Italy, and Japan in the 1930s are perhaps the most notorious examples of the patterns of failure associated with this strategy. Is appeasement’s reputation des...

Mistakes, in the form of bad decisions, are a common feature of every presidential administration, and their consequences run the gamut from unnecessary military spending, to missed opportunities for foreign policy advantage, to needless bloodshed. This book analyzes a range of presidential decisions made in the realm of US foreign policy—with a special focus on national security—over the past half century in order to create a roadmap of the decision process and a guide to better foreign p...

Mistakes, in the form of bad decisions, are a common feature of every presidential administration, and their consequences run the gamut from unnecessary military spending, to missed opportunities for foreign policy advantage, to needless bloodshed. This book analyzes a range of presidential decisions made in the realm of US foreign policy—with a special focus on national security—over the past half century in order to create a roadmap of the decision process and a guide to better foreign p...

Woodrow Wilson’s presidential campaign in 1912 marked the beginning of a remarkable personal and political collaboration between Wilson and Colonel Edward M. House. The book traces the complexities of Wilson’s life and career along with his relationship with House, who for almost a decade was his closest behind-the-scenes advisor and confidant.Through the early years of Wilson’s boyhood, his rise to prominence in the academic world, to the presidency of Princeton University and the...

Multiple Paths to Knowledge in International Relations provides a uniquely valuable view of current approaches and findings in conflict studies. This volume showcases work informed by four powerful research tools: rational choice theory and game theory; simulation, experimentation, and artificial intelligence; quantitative studies; and case studies. Each research method is introduced and evaluated for its specific potential, including both strengths and weaknesses. Throughout, the...

Students cultivate learning techniques in school that emphasize procedural problem solving and rote memorization. This leads to efficient problem solving for familiar problems. However, conducting novel research is an exercise in creative problem solving that is at odds with a procedural approach; it requires thinking deeply about the topic and crafting solutions to unique problems. It is not easy to move from a topic-based, carefully curated curriculum to the daunting world of independent...

U.S.-Iran relations continue to be an international security problem in the Middle East. These two countries could have been friends, but instead they have become enemies. Stating this thesis raises the following questions: Why are the United States and Iran enemies? How and when did this relationship come to be? When the relationship began to deteriorate, could it have been reversed? What lessons can be learned from an analysis of past U.S.-Iranian relations and what are the implications ...

Everything you ever wanted to know about the classic era of the cult BBC television series Doctor Who (1963-1996) is contained in the two-volume set The Television Companion. Volume 1 covers the stories of the first three Doctors, portrayed by William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee.The essential companion for every trip you will ever take into the TV universe of classic Doctor Who.

Irish Sunday Times BestsellerA true story of war, peace and friendship: a Nazi colonel and an Irish priestThe story begins in Rome at the outbreak of WWII, when ardent Nazi Herbert Kappler, SS Obersturmbanführer, and Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty would become adversaries in a real-life game of 'cat and mouse' of epic proportions. Hide and Seek chronicles the intimate and intensely personal war between them. A fiercely fought rivalry that would culminate in failed attempts by Ka...

A history of the 1961 space race between the US & USSR and Yuri Gagarin's flight into space—"High definition history: tight, thrilling and beautifully researched" ( Sunday Times (London))." Beyond has the exhilaration of a fine thriller, but it is vividly embedded in the historic tensions of the Cold War, and peopled by men and women brought sympathetically, and sometime...

Everything you ever wanted to know about the classic era of the cult BBC television series Doctor Who (1963-1996) is contained in the two volume set The Television Companion. Volume 2 covers the stories of Doctors four to eight, portrayed by Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy and Paul McGann.The essential companion for every trip you will ever take into the TV universe of classic Doctor Who.