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Great Powers and World Order
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Great Powers and World Order
Patterns and Prospects



May 2020 | 264 pages | CQ Press
Great Powers and World Order encourages critical thinking about the nature of world order by presenting the historical information and theoretical concepts needed to make projections about the global future.  Charles W. Kegley and Gregory Raymond ask students to compare retrospective cases and formulate their own hypotheses about not only the causes of war, but also the consequences of peace settlements. Historical case studies open a window to see what strategies for constructing world order were tried before, why one course of action was chosen over another, and how things turned out. By moving back and forth in each case study between history and theory, rather than treating them as separate topics, the authors hope to situate the assumptions, causal claims, and policy prescriptions of different schools of thought within the temporal domains in which they took root, giving the reader a better sense of why policy makers embraced a particular view of world order instead of an alternative vision.


 
Preface
 
Acknowledgments
 
About the Authors
 
PART I: THE VIOLENT ORIGINS OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD ORDER
 
Chapter 1 Great-Power Struggles for Primacy in the Modern Era
The Westphalian Foundations of the Modern State System

 
What Are Great Powers?

 
Regularities in Great-Power Behavior

 
Contending Approaches to World Order

 
Building World Order in the Aftermath of Hegemonic War

 
Key Terms

 
 
Chapter 2 World War I and the Versailles Settlement
The Origins of the First World War

 
The Armistice and Arrangements for a Peace Conference

 
Balance-of-Power Theory and World Order

 
Woodrow Wilson and The Liberal Tradition in World Politics

 
National Self-Interest Confronts Wilsonian Idealism

 
The Versailles Settlement

 
A World in Disarray

 
Key Terms

 
 
Chapter 3 World War II and the Birth of the Liberal Order
The Origins of the Second World War

 
Planning for a Postwar World Order

 
Spheres-of-Influence versus Universalist Models of World Order

 
The Political Economy of World Order

 
A World Divided

 
Key Terms

 
 
PART II: THE FITFUL EVOLUTION OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD ORDER
 
Chapter 4 The Cold War and Its Consequences
The Origins of the Cold War

 
The Course of the Cold War

 
The Characteristics of the Cold War

 
The Cold War World Order

 
Beyond the Cold War

 
Key Terms

 
 
Chapter 5 America’s Unipolar Moment
American Primacy

 
Primacy and World Order

 
Democratic Peace Theory and American Foreign Policy

 
Rethinking State Sovereignty in an Era of Globalization

 
Anticipatory Self Defense and Preventive War

 
The Twilight of Unipolarity

 
Key Terms

 
 
Chapter 6 Unraveling the Liberal Order
Donald Trump and Conservative Thought on Foreign Policy

 
The Jacksonian Turn in American Foreign Policy

 
Power Without Principle

 
Key Terms

 
 
PART III: FORGING A NEW WORLD ORDER
 
Chapter 7 The Range of Great-Power Choice
Viewing System Transformation in Historical Context

 
Great-Power Options for Shaping World Order

 
Coordinated Consultation and World Order

 
Legitimacy and World Order

 
Key Terms

 
 
Chapter 8 Rethinking World Order
Change and Continuity in Contemporary World Politics

 
Critical Questions for World Order in the Twenty-First Century

 
The Quest for World Order

 
Key Terms

 
 
Suggested Readings
 
Glossary
 
Notes
 
Index

“The global political transformation underway will impact everyone. Study this compelling text to understand the form and consequences of past power rivalries and the critical choices before us now.”

Charles F. Hermann
Professor and Brent Scowcroft Chair in International Policy Studies Emeritus, The Bush School of Government & Public Service at Texas A&M University
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Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1.

Chapter 5.

Chapter 2.


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