Search results for ""Author Robert H. Lieshout""

Between Anarchy and Hierarchy offers a stimulating new perspective on conflict and collaboration in international politics. Robert Lieshout's new book shows how decision-making within individual states influences foreign policy and, in turn, international politics. Using a sliding scale between anarchy and hierarchy, he shows how each political system can be defined, including the distinctly anarchic international system itself. By showing the impact which internal decision-making processes have on the structure of the international system, Professor Lieshout integrates a theory of foreign policy making into a theory of international politics. After developing the epistemological foundations of this theory, Professor Lieshout applies his principles to results drawn from the use of game theory in international relations, examines the role of force in both hierarchical and anarchic systems, and shows how the adaptability of collective decision-making processes in states influences their behaviour in the international system.Between Anarchy and Hierarchy is remarkable both for the use of a general empirical behavioural theory to explain international politics, and for integrating theories of bureaucratic decision making into 'realist' theories of international relations. It will be of particular interest to international relations specialists as well as economists, political scientists and sociologists within the rational choice tradition.

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This book offers a new view suggesting that European integration has been driven by political rather than economic considerations. The author makes it clear that from the end of the Second World War any plan of economic or monetary cooperation in Europe was almost exclusively motivated by politics. He argues that the very foundation of the organization of Western Europe was based on preventing further conflict between France and the newly partitioned Germany. Specifically, Robert Lieshout analyzes the initial stages of European cooperation between 1947 and 1957. He demonstrates that European institutions usually associated with economic integration, such as the European Economic Community, were actually laid to achieve the political aim of reconciliation between France and Germany. The fact that the very reasons for establishing a more formal organization of Europe have changed, i.e. the re-unification of Germany in 1990, makes for an interesting conclusion on future developments in European integration.This book will be warmly welcomed by both academics and students interested in European integration, international political economy, history, international relations, European Studies and economics.

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