This is a short book about the biggest questions in politics. To paraphrase a famous dictum of Trotsky; you might not be interested (yet!) in international relations, but international relations are always interested in you.The practices of international relations critically shape who gets what and who is who across the world, and its theories inform how we live together globally. Decisive things take place at the international level, and...

The 1999 conflict in Kosovo is seen as being as significant for international affairs as the pulling down of the Berlin Wall, because of the centrality of human rights in the build-up, conduct and aftermath of the war. This volume is an attempt to explore this human rights tragedy.

First published in 1977, this study offers a comprehensive, systematic and integrated survey of the important relationship between navies and the making and execution of foreign policy. Ken Booth explains the functions navies can perform in both war and peace, the influence they have on particular situations, and how the relevant organisations can affect the character of naval actions. Ultimately, navies are regarded as indispensable instruments of the state by a number of countries, whils...

Law, Force and Diplomacy at Sea, first published in 1985, is one of the few comprehensive treatments on the subject from a strategic perspective. It offers a detailed strategic analysis of the background and outcome of the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea, and its naval implications.The interplay between the interest of the naval powers in freedom of navigation and the interest of coastal states in control provides the setting for the strategic problems. The sea i...

Ken Booth’s study, first published in 1979, investigates the way in which cultural distortions have affected the theory and execution of strategy. Its aim is to illustrate the importance of ethnocentrism in all areas of the subject, to follow through its implications and to suggest approaches to the different problems it poses.Insights are offered into the character of a number of important issues in Cold War international politics, including the superpower arms race, détente, the ...

Written by two leading scholars, this book is an accessible overview of the global political consequences of the 9/11 terror attacks.The War on Terror has defined the first decade of this century. It has been marked by the deaths of thousands of people, political turmoil, massive destruction, and intense fear. Regardless of the name it goes under, the long war on terror will continue to affect lives across the world. Its catalyst, 9/11, did not have to happen, nor did the character...

This book, first published in 1975, is a comprehensive examination of specialised strategic studies, and deals with the theoretical and policy aspects of the topic. It argues that military power is an intrinsic part of the international system, with strategy being the means by which military power may be used to achieve political objectives. Hence, given the destructiveness of modern weapons it is the prime aim of the strategic doctrines of the major powers not to wage war, but to use thei...

Strategy and History comprises a selection of Professor Gray's key contributions to strategic debate over the past thirty years.These essays have been selected both because they had significant messages for contemporary controversies, and because they have some continuing relevance for today and the future. Each essay in this book is really about strategy in the modern world, and reflects the many dimensions of this complex subject.This book covers a wide ...

The Oxford Handbook of War is the definitive analysis of war in the twenty-first century. With over forty senior authors from academia, government and the armed forces world-wide the Handbook explores the history, theory, ethics and practice of war. The Handbook first considers the fundamental causes of war, before reflecting on the moral and legal aspects of war. Theories on the practice of war lead into an analysis of the strategic conduct of war and ...

Geopolitical conditions influence all strategic behaviour - even when cooperation among different kinds of military power is expected as the norm, action has to be planned and executed in specific physical environments. The geographical world cannot be avoided, and it happens to be 'organized' into land, sea, air and space - and possibly the electromagnetic spectrum including 'cyberspace'. Although the meaning of geography for strategy is a perpetual historical theme, explicit theory on th...

Published in 1991, Clausewitz and Escalation is a valuable contribution to the field of Military & Strategic Studies.

How do we plan under conditions of uncertainty? The perspective of military planners is a key organizing framework: do they see themselves as preparing to administer a peace, or preparing to fight a future war? Most interwar volumes examine only the 1920s and the 1930s. This new volume goes back, and forward in time, to draw on a greater expanse of history in order to tease out lessons for contemporary planners.These chapters are grouped into four periods: 1815-1856, 1871-1914, 191...