Overview

"Drawing in lessons from 400 years of Great-Power politics, this volume challenges both the ""declinist"" arguments and the overstretched hypothesis of Paul Kennedy to develop an alternative approach to the debate on the rise and fall of the Great Powers. The first half of the book compares the Spanish, Dutch and the First and Second British world orders. It identifies their common features in order to find the most salient causes for their rise as world powers, and the most probable reasons for their decline. The second half of the book addresses the American world order in the 20th century, from Pax Americana to the End of US Hegemony. The author sees the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the resurgence of the US as evidence of the role played by normative dimensions, commonly underestimated in International Relations analysis. Theoretically challenging, Knutsen's volume provides a fresh approach to debates in international relations aimed at both students and scholars. -- ."

Full Product Details

Author:   Torbjorn Knutsen
Publisher:   Manchester University Press
Imprint:   Manchester University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 1.90cm , Length: 23.40cm
Weight:   0.522kg
ISBN:  

9780719040580

ISBN 10:   0719040582
Pages:   336
Publication Date:   03 June 1999
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
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Table of Contents

The rise and fall of great powers. Part I Patterns of the past: the wave of great wars - wars and wealth, wars, wealth and foundation myths, wars, values and global expansion, dawns of the new world orders; the phrase of hegemony - on punitive pre-eminence, on remunerative pre-eminence, on normative pre-eminence, hegemony; the phrase of challenge -challenge, response and Indian summers, the cost of pre-eminence I: the home front, the cost of pre-eminence II: the world scene, conclusion; the phrase of disruptive competition - the changing international order, increasing defence costs, domestic unrest, unravelling of old orders, decline and fall of great powers; the rise and fall of world orders -cyclical patterns of modern world orders, secular trends in modern world history, cycles trends and the future of international relations. Part II Deja vu: wars to end all wars - domestic upheavals, foreign wars, war and material might, forging a new world order; pax Americana - on military pre-eminence, on economic pre-eminence, on normative pre-eminence, American Hegemony, Hegemony and Podsnappery; challenges, responses and nuclear weapons - world economic challenges, interstate challenges, normative challenges, conclusions challenges; the end of US Hegemony? -changes in the world economy and US stagnation, interstate challenges and increasing defence costs, moral fragmentation, American decline? And then there was one - the contemporary world-order cycle, secular trends or modern world politics, the uncertain revival.

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Author Information

Torbjorn L. Knutsen is a Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Political Science, University of Trondheim.

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