Description
Book SynopsisUnderbalancing occurs when states fail to recognize dangerous threats, choose not to react to them, or respond in paltry and imprudent ways. This book offers a theory of underbalancing based on four domestic-level variables - elite consensus, elite cohesion, social cohesion, and regime/government vulnerability.
Trade Review"In this groundbreaking book, Schweller observes that history is in fact full of what he calls 'underbalancing'--the failure of states to form alliances or build arms in the face of threatening accumulations of power."--G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "The book focuses largely on 'underbalancing', or on why certain types of states fail to employ balance-of-power strategies. The answer is domestic politics... The book is a clear blend of realism and idealism... A superb book worthy of a wide readership."--Charles F. Doran, International History Review "Unanswered Threats is a most valuable addition to the field... [Schweller] makes a giant leap forward by pairing variables that are reductive and idiosyncratic with well-constructed and empirically testable hypotheses of his own."--Ariel Ilan Roth, International Studies Review "[An] insightful and elegantly written book... [Unanswered Threats] is a formidable first cut on the salient topic of underbalancing."--Evan Resnick, Perspectives on Politics "In the net, two interesting conclusions can be drawn from Schweller's excellent work. The first is that domestic uncertainties can doom the presumed outcomes of realism--in either hyper-aggression or hypo-assertion. The second is that if democratic states can control the logroll, they frequently behave distinctly and differently from other states. They can develop fellow feeling toward other nations that rises above mere short-term policy behavior. If this were not true, how does one explain the relative acceptance of America abroad at a time when so many foreigners decry the policies of the president?"--Richard Rosecrance, Political Science Quarterly
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface xi INTORDUCTION: Balance of Power and the Puzzle of Underbalancing Behavior 1 CHAPTER ONE: Prudence in Managing Changes in the Balance of Power 22 CHAPTER TWO: A Theory of Underbalancing: A Neoclassical Realist Explanation 46 CHAPTER THREE: Great-Power Case Studies: Interwar France and B Bitain, and France, 1877-1913 69 CHAPTER FOUR: Small-Power Case Studies: Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, and the War of the Triple Alliance, 1864-1870 85 CHAPTER FIVE: Why Are States So Timid? State Coherence and Expansion in the Age of Mass Politics 103 Notes 131 Bibliography 153 Index 165
