{"title":"Randall L Schweller","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"unanswered-threats-book-randall-l-schweller-9780691136462","title":"Unanswered Threats","description":"Why have states throughout history regularly underestimated dangers to their survival? Why have some states been able to mobilize their material resources effectively to balance against threats, while others have not been able to do so? The phenomenon of \"underbalancing\" is a common but woefully underexamined behavior in international politics. Underbalancing occurs when states fail to recognize dangerous threats, choose not to react to them, or respond in paltry and imprudent ways. It is a response that directly contradicts the core prediction of structural realism's balance-of-power theory--that states motivated to survive as autonomous entities are coherent actors that, when confronted by dangerous threats, act to restore the disrupted balance by creating alliances or increasing their military capabilities, or, in some cases, a combination of both. Consistent with the new wave of neoclassical realist research, Unanswered Threats offers a theory of underbalancing based on four domestic-level variables--elite consensus, elite cohesion, social cohesion, and regime\/government vulnerability--that channel, mediate, and redirect policy responses to external pressures and incentives. The theory yields five causal schemes for underbalancing behavior, which are tested against the cases of interwar Britain and France, France from 1877 to 1913, and the War of the Triple Alliance (1864-1870) that pitted tiny Paraguay against Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Randall Schweller concludes that those most likely to underbalance are incoherent, fragmented states whose elites are constrained by political considerations.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50361232195857,"sku":"CIN0691136467G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51005676978449,"sku":"NIN9780691136462","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0691136467.jpg?v=1751394290"},{"product_id":"maxwell-s-demon-and-the-golden-apple-book-randall-l-schweller-9781421412771","title":"Maxwell's Demon and the Golden Apple","description":"Just what exactly will follow the American century? This is the question Randall L. Schweller explores in his provocative assessment of international politics in the twenty-first century. Schweller considers the future of world politics, correlating our reliance on technology and our multitasking, distracted, disorganized lives with a fragmenting world order. He combines the Greek myth of the Golden Apple of Discord, which explains the start of the Trojan War, with a look at the second law of thermodynamics, or entropy. \"In the coming age,\" Schweller writes, \"disorder will reign supreme as the world succumbs to entropy, an irreversible process of disorganization that governs the direction of all physical changes taking place in the universe.\" Interweaving his theory of global disorder with issues on the world stage-coupled with a disquisition on board games and the cell phone app Angry Birds-Schweller's thesis yields astonishing insights. Maxwell's Demon and the Golden Apple will appeal to leaders of multinational corporations and government programs as well as instructors of undergraduate courses in international relations.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50382839972113,"sku":"CIN1421412772G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51319021863185,"sku":"CIN1421412772VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1421412772.jpg?v=1751370538"},{"product_id":"broken-cycle-book-randall-l-schweller-9781009743389","title":"Broken Cycle","description":"Why is the Liberal International Order unraveling – and will this lead to global disorder? Broken Cycle explores this urgent question by viewing international politics through a dynamic lens focused on the rise and fall of great powers – whose periodic global wars determine who rules and which ideas and values prevail in the reordered international system. Randall L. Schweller uncovers recurring patterns of change, offering a framework to anticipate the contours of the emerging world. Rather than tracking short-term diplomatic shifts, this book seeks the deeper rhythms of history – cycles of growth, expansion, and decline – that shape international politics over centuries. These patterns are not inevitable, but they are powerful. By understanding them, we gain insight into the forces driving today's dissent – and tomorrow's possibilities. This is a study of the structural forces that govern change, the crises that break the old order, and the ideas that rise in its place.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52706888057105,"sku":"NGR9781009743389","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53103289368849,"sku":"NLS9781009743389","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53185986134289,"sku":"NIN9781009743389","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781009743389.jpg?v=1771408653"},{"product_id":"broken-cycle-book-randall-l-schweller-9781009743365","title":"Broken Cycle","description":"Why is the Liberal International Order unraveling – and will this lead to global disorder? Broken Cycle explores this urgent question by viewing international politics through a dynamic lens focused on the rise and fall of great powers – whose periodic global wars determine who rules and which ideas and values prevail in the reordered international system. Randall L. Schweller uncovers recurring patterns of change, offering a framework to anticipate the contours of the emerging world. Rather than tracking short-term diplomatic shifts, this book seeks the deeper rhythms of history – cycles of growth, expansion, and decline – that shape international politics over centuries. These patterns are not inevitable, but they are powerful. By understanding them, we gain insight into the forces driving today's dissent – and tomorrow's possibilities. This is a study of the structural forces that govern change, the crises that break the old order, and the ideas that rise in its place.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":52706888712465,"sku":"NGR9781009743365","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53103289729297,"sku":"NLS9781009743365","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53397618032913,"sku":"NIN9781009743365","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781009743365.jpg?v=1770718720"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-randall-l-schweller.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}