International Security

To what extent does the EZLN political economy framework offer a viable development alternative to its followers?

James Wilhelm • Jul 9 2010 • Essays

The EZLN is a Polanyian reaction to a specific type of market subordination, something which is central in understanding the extent to which the EZLN represents a viable political economy model for its followers. Furthermore, the Mexican Revolution triggered the emergence of these markets

Will the Cluster Munitions Convention prove ineffective?

Daniel Gray • Jun 16 2010 • Essays

Cluster munitions consist of a ‘container’ that contains a number of smaller sub-munitions or ‘bomblets’ which scatter over a large area and explode on impact. The Convention on Cluster Munitions 2008 is set to come in to force on the 1st of August 2010; hailed as an historic addition to International Humanitarian Law, it seeks to prohibit to use, production, stockpiling and transfer of cluster munitions.

The Viability of Deterring Terrorism

Davis Allsop • Jun 11 2010 • Essays

Deterring terrorism is too vague a concept. Deterrence as a counterterrorism strategy depends on a bottom-up approach; a top-down approach, at best, creates a negative trickle-down effect. States must deter problematic socio-economic systems in order to prevent the individual from seeking out extreme measures for self-worth, which will, by extension, ultimately deter the terrorist organization.

Operation Iraqi Freedom and the Obsolescence of War

Xavier Mathieu • Apr 23 2010 • Essays

One of the last major books about war in international relations is paradoxically a book forecasting the end of the object it analyses. Retreat from Doomsday: the Obsolescence of Major War by John Mueller was released in 1989 and has become a classic reading making the author one of the most influential authors on the topic of war.

Reconciling Realism: DPRK-ROK Co-operation and IR Implications

Patrick Fraser • Mar 18 2010 • Essays

The concept of security is changing. The critical approaches that have emerged to challenge traditional ones in recent decades have earned significant support. A definitive characteristic that binds these critical security schools is their rejection of realism. In security language, critical approaches agree that the state does not deserve the privilege of being the solitary referent object of security studies.

World Risk Society and the Response to Terrorism

Sebastiano Sali • Mar 15 2010 • Essays

This paper will analyse how the concepts in Ulrich Beck’s Risk Society are influencing the War on Terror. Moreover, it will examine their practical enforcement, the way in which they pose serious threats to the international law system and how this contributes to the shaping a new domestic order in those states where they have being applied.

Ballistic Missile Defence in the 21st Century

Oliver Jones • Mar 13 2010 • Essays

Ultimately for a State, the decision to employ a BDM complex does not stem solely from the desire to improve international stability. It instead comes from a desire to improve its own defensive and/or offensive capabilities. Stability has a severe effect on this, but it is up to the leadership of any such nation state to decide whether the costs that come from a destabilised environment outweigh the potential benefits such a capability could provide, both now and in the future.

Why was China Receptive to American Overtures during the Early 1970s?

Bleddyn E. Bowen • Mar 11 2010 • Essays

This essay is concerned with possible Chinese motives for accepting, responding to, and reciprocating American overtures and relatively friendly diplomatic moves in the early 1970s. It suggests that strategic understandings of motives carry the greatest weight and the more persuasive argument.

Deterring Terrorists and Deterring States: Fundamentally Different Tasks?

Sebastiano Sali • Feb 19 2010 • Essays

In this paper I will argue that the idea that there is a New Terrorism, which “requires bold new strategies because of its shadowy character and its incalculable dangers”, should be contested to avoid the possibility of ‘non-knowledge’ being taken as an excuse to justify extreme counter-terrorism policies.

A Cold War without Nuclear Weapons

Bleddyn E. Bowen • Feb 4 2010 • Essays

Nuclear weapons increased the state’s destructive power, particularly after the development of thermonuclear weapons, with effectively no limits. With greater destructive yields and shorter delivery times courtesy of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), it is commonly understood that had the cold war turned hot, it would have been the end of civilisation as we know it. But did nuclear weapons keep it cold?

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