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US President Donald Trump's foreign policy doctrine is the subject
of vast debate. Analysts and practitioners routinely disagree as to
what ideology and thinking informed his foreign policy approach -
and even whether Trump was politically capable of formulating a
doctrine at all. This book explores one specific line of analysis,
which deals with the concept of what has been termed the 'doctrine
of unpredictability'. Trump has repeatedly declared that being
unpredictable comprises the ideal approach to foreign policy for a
state leader. Never be predictable; never let others know what you
will do next. The contributors to this volume consider whether a
conception of unpredictability did inform Trump's foreign policy as
a coherent doctrine. Yet this book also takes the issue further to
problematize what the very concept of unpredictability means in
respect to International Relations. What is unpredictability - and
how does the concept apply in respect to Trump especially? What
impact does unpredictability have on international relationships?
How far does unpredictability deviate from previous approaches to
foreign policy, not least Madman Theory? And is it even possible to
understand the idea of unpredictability fully within a discipline
that is more typically committed to comprehending certainty in
respect to international politics? The chapters in this book were
originally published as a special issue of Cambridge Review of
International Affairs.
This book analyses the Syria crisis and the role of chemical
weapons in relation to US foreign policy. The Syrian government's
use of such weapons and their subsequent elimination has dominated
the US response to the conflict, where these are viewed as
particularly horrific arms - a repulsion known as the chemical
taboo. On the surface, this would seem to be an appropriate
reaction: these are nasty weapons and eradicating them would
ostensibly comprise a 'good' move. But this book reveals two new
aspects of the taboo that challenge this prevailing view. First,
actors use the taboo strategically to advance their own
self-interested policy objectives. Second, that applying the taboo
to Syria has actually exacerbated the crisis. As such, this book
not only provides a timely analysis of Syria, but also a major and
original rethink of the chemical taboo, as well as international
norms more widely. -- .
President Obama's first term in office was subject to intense
criticism; not only did many feel that he had failed to live up to
his leadership potential, but that he had actually continued the
foreign policy framework of the George W. Bush era he was supposed
to have abandoned. This edited volume examines whether these issues
of continuity have been equally as prevalent during the president's
second term as his first. Is Obama still acting within the foreign
policy shadow of Bush, or has he been able to establish his own
approach towards international affairs, distinct from his
predecessor? Within this context, the volume also addresses the
idea of legacy and whether Obama has succeeded in establishing his
own distinct foreign policy doctrine. In addressing these
questions, the chapters explore continuity and change from a range
of perspectives in International Relations and Foreign Policy
Analysis, which are broadly representative of a spectrum of
theoretical positions. With contributions from a range of US
foreign policy experts, this book will be of great interest to
students and scholars of US foreign policy, Foreign Policy Analysis
and American politics.
The Companion to Historiography represents an original analysis of the moods and trends in historical writing. Distinguished academics explore the ideas, traditions and institutions that lie behind different perspectives on history. The thematic structure of the Companion enables topics to be read selectively or sequentially. Key Features * A unique exploration of Western, Asian and Oriental historiography * Specialist contributions by distinguished academics from across the globe draw on the authority of working historians and leading experts in related disciplines such as philosophy, anthropology and archaeology * Original and profound insights into world history through an awareness of its past formulations and emerging patterns * Over forty-five far-ranging essays, exploring diverse subjects such as Roman history today, medieval nobility, revisionism and modern India * Detailed information is easily accessible through the use of the Companion's extensive indexes and bibliographies
This edited volume is an innovative analysis of President Barack
Obama's foreign policy, security and counter-terrorism policy,
specifically within the context of ending the now infamous War on
Terror. The book adopts a comparative approach, analysing change
and continuity in US foreign policy during Obama's first term in
office vis-a-vis the foreign policy of the War on Terror, initiated
by George W. Bush following the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001. Despite being heralded as an agent of change, since his
election in 2008 Obama has faced criticism that his foreign policy
is effectively the same as what went before and that the War on
Terror is still alive and well. Far from delivering wholesale
change, Obama has been accused of replicating and even reinforcing
the approach, language and policies that many anticipated he would
reject. With contributions from a range of US foreign policy
experts, this volume analyses the extent to which these criticisms
of continuity are correct, identifying how the failure to end the
War on Terror is manifest and explaining the reasons that have made
enacting change in foreign policy so difficult. In addressing these
issues, contributions to this volume will discuss continuity and
change from a range of perspectives in International Relations and
Foreign Policy Analysis. This work will be of great interest to
students and scholars of US foreign policy, security studies and
American politics.
This Companion presents a clear thematic overview of historiography explored through a series of stimulating and wide-ranging articles. Compiled by experts in the field, the Companion is fully indexed for ease of access.
Modern Historiography is the essential introduction to the history
of historical writing. It explains the broad philosophical
background to the different historians and historical schools of
the modern era, from James Boswell and Thomas Carlyle through to
Lucien Febure and Eric Hobsbawm and surveys: the Enlightenment and
Counter Enlightenment Romanticism the voice of Science and the
process of secularization within Western intellectual thought the
influence of, and broadening contact with, the New World the
Annales school in France Postmodernism. Modern Historiography
provides a clear and concise account of this modern period of
historical writing.
This book examines the use of concepts - specifically 'weapons of
mass destruction' (WMD) - in US foreign policy discourse. Current
analysis of WMD definition has made headway into identifying the
repercussions that the conceptual conflation of such diverse
weapons - typically understood as a reference to nuclear,
biological and chemical weapons - has for international security.
While the concept assumes these weapons are 'equal', the vast
disparity between them, and their disparity from the conventional
weapons from which they are supposedly distinct, means this
approach is seen as unreflective of reality, causing
miscalculations in security policy. Not least, this has highlighted
that the issue of WMD definition is a priority concern where this
has direct implications for strategy. In contrast, Weapons of Mass
Destruction and US Foreign Policy argues that this approach does
not accurately portray conceptual meaning, particularly where it
overlooks how political language is constructed. In demonstrating
this, the book presents a conceptual history of WMD detailing how
this has been defined and used since its emergence into political
discourse c.1945. Specifically, it argues that definition is an
inherently strategic act; policymakers have deliberately included
(or excluded) certain weapons and threats from the classification
in order to shape foreign policy dialogues. As such, understanding
the WMD concept is not a search for a single interpretation, but an
analysis that seeks to comprehend what the concept means at any
given time, especially where this relates to the political
circumstances of its use. By identifying a variety of ways in which
WMD has been defined, the book constructs a dynamic view of
conceptual meaning that recognises and, more importantly explains,
the inherent diversity in interpretation as the consequence of
epistemic and institutional context and the strategic response of
policymakers. This book will be of much interest to students of
Weapons of Mass Destruction, US foreign and security policy,
security studies, political narratives and IR.
This edited volume is an innovative analysis of President Barack
Obama's foreign policy, security and counter-terrorism policy,
specifically within the context of ending the now infamous War on
Terror. The book adopts a comparative approach, analysing change
and continuity in US foreign policy during Obama's first term in
office vis-a-vis the foreign policy of the War on Terror, initiated
by George W. Bush following the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001. Despite being heralded as an agent of change, since his
election in 2008 Obama has faced criticism that his foreign policy
is effectively the same as what went before and that the War on
Terror is still alive and well. Far from delivering wholesale
change, Obama has been accused of replicating and even reinforcing
the approach, language and policies that many anticipated he would
reject. With contributions from a range of US foreign policy
experts, this volume analyses the extent to which these criticisms
of continuity are correct, identifying how the failure to end the
War on Terror is manifest and explaining the reasons that have made
enacting change in foreign policy so difficult. In addressing these
issues, contributions to this volume will discuss continuity and
change from a range of perspectives in International Relations and
Foreign Policy Analysis. This work will be of great interest to
students and scholars of US foreign policy, security studies and
American politics.
Modern Historiography is the essential introduction to the history of historical writing. It explains the broad philosophical background to the different historians and historical schools of the modern era, from James Boswell and Thomas Carlyle through to Lucien Febure and Eric Hobsbawm and surveys: * the Enlightenment and Counter Enlightenment * Romanticism * the voice of Science and the process of secularization within Western intellectual thought * the influence of, and broadening contact with, the New World * the Annales school in France * Postmodernism
That Thomas Carlyle was influential in his own lifetime and
continues to be so over 130 years after his death is a proposition
with which few will disagree. His role as his generation's foremost
interpreter of German thought, his distinctive rhetorical style,
his approach to history via the "innumerable biographies" of great
men, and his almost unparalleled record of correspondence with
contemporaries both great and small, makes him a necessary figure
of study in multiple fields. Thomas Carlyle and the Idea of
Influence positions Carlyle as an ideal representative figure
through which to study that complex interplay between past and
present most commonly referred to as influence. Approached from a
theoretically ecumenical perspective by the volume's introduction
and eighteen essays, influence is itself refigured through a number
of complementary metaphorical frames: influence as organic
inheritance; influence as aesthetic infection; influence as
palimpsest; influence as mythology; influence as network; and more.
Individual essays connect Carlyle with the persons and publications
of Mathilde Blind, Orestes Brownson, John Bunyan, G. K. Chesterton,
Benjamin Disraeli, George Eliot, T. S. Eliot, Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, James Joyce, William Keenan, Windham
Lewis, Jules Michelet, John Stuart Mill, Robert Owen, Spencer
Stanhope, John Sterling, and others. Considered as a whole, Thomas
Carlyle and the Idea of Influence assembles a web of conceptual and
intertextual connections that both challenges received
understandings of influence itself and establishes a standard by
which to measure future assertions of Carlyle's enduring
intellectual legacy in the twenty-first century and beyond.
President Obama's first term in office was subject to intense
criticism; not only did many feel that he had failed to live up to
his leadership potential, but that he had actually continued the
foreign policy framework of the George W. Bush era he was supposed
to have abandoned. This edited volume examines whether these issues
of continuity have been equally as prevalent during the president's
second term as his first. Is Obama still acting within the foreign
policy shadow of Bush, or has he been able to establish his own
approach towards international affairs, distinct from his
predecessor? Within this context, the volume also addresses the
idea of legacy and whether Obama has succeeded in establishing his
own distinct foreign policy doctrine. In addressing these
questions, the chapters explore continuity and change from a range
of perspectives in International Relations and Foreign Policy
Analysis, which are broadly representative of a spectrum of
theoretical positions. With contributions from a range of US
foreign policy experts, this book will be of great interest to
students and scholars of US foreign policy, Foreign Policy Analysis
and American politics.
Once recalled only for The Whig Interpretation of History (1931)
and Christianity and History (1949), Sir Herbert Butterfield's
contribution to western culture has undergone an astonishing
revaluation over the past twenty years. What has been left out of
this reappraisal is the man himself. Yet the force of Butterfield's
writings is weakened without some knowledge of the man behind them:
his temperament, contexts and personal torments. Previous authors
have been unable to supply a rounded portrait for lack of available
material, particularly a dearth of sources for the crucial period
before the outbreak of war in 1939. Michael Bentley's original,
startling 2011 biography draws on sources never seen before. They
enable him to present a new Butterfield, one deeply troubled by
self-doubt, driven by an urgent sexuality and plagued by an
unending tension between history, science and God in a mind as hard
and cynical as it was loving and charitable.
The Rotherham area has undergone profound change in the last
century or so. There has been much demolition and rebuilding in the
town centre, the town has grown outwards in all directions and the
surrounding settlements - rural and industrial - have been
transformed in many cases. Many working patterns and workplaces
have disappeared, means of transport have changed beyond all
recognition and even how people used their leisure time in the
early twentieth century shows some striking differences from today.
This fascinating collection of old photographs, mostly from private
collections and many of them not published before, will take
long-established residents on an affectionate tour of their past,
and for relative newcomers it may be something of a revelation.
Once recalled only for The Whig Interpretation of History (1931)
and Christianity and History (1949), Sir Herbert Butterfield's
contribution to western culture has undergone an astonishing
revaluation over the past twenty years. What has been left out of
this reappraisal is the man himself. Yet the force of Butterfield's
writings is weakened without some knowledge of the man behind them:
his temperament, contexts and personal torments. Previous authors
have been unable to supply a rounded portrait for lack of available
material, particularly a dearth of sources for the crucial period
before the outbreak of war in 1939. Michael Bentley's original,
startling 2011 biography draws on sources never seen before. They
enable him to present a new Butterfield, one deeply troubled by
self-doubt, driven by an urgent sexuality and plagued by an
unending tension between history, science and God in a mind as hard
and cynical as it was loving and charitable.
Lord Salisbury (1830-1903) is now a subject of intense historical
attention. This important study moves away from conventional
biography and presents an original portrait of the mental world
inhabited by late Victorian Conservatives at the time when their
world-view was coming under severe strain. At the centre of the
picture is the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, but Lord Salisbury's
World does not simply tell the story of his life and politics.
Instead, it asks sensitive questions about how the political,
intellectual and religious environments of the late Victorian
period seemed to one of its sharpest intellects, and it situates
Salisbury and his immediate entourage in a wide landscape of
relationships, perceptions and problems. Professor Bentley takes
the reader into Conservative assumptions about time and space,
property and society, religion and the state, and the past and the
future - the very language in which they expressed themselves.
This study is an exercise in the history of political perception
and opinion. It broke new ground in considering the decline of
Liberalism through the eyes of Liberals themselves. By
concentrating on what Liberal politicians said to one another and
to their audience (public and private) a picture is built up of the
frame of mind in which those responsible for guiding Liberalism
faced a worsening world after 1914. The coming of the First World
War was a critical element in forming that frame of mind; and the
frame of mind was itself critical in deciding the fate of
Liberalism in the post-war years. What emerges from this study is
the paradox that the Liberal mind was the greatest single obstacle
in the way of a Liberal revival.
What came before 'postmodernism' in historical studies? By thinking
through the assumptions, methods and cast of mind of English
historians writing between about 1870 and 1970, Michael Bentley
reveals the intellectual world of the modernists and offers the
first full analysis of English historiography in this crucial
period. Modernist historiography set itself the objective of going
beyond the colourful narratives of 'whigs' and 'popularizers' in
order to establish history as the queen of the humanities and as a
rival to the sciences as a vehicle of knowledge. Professor Bentley
does not follow those who deride modernism as 'positivist' or
'empiricist' but instead shows how it set in train brilliant new
styles of investigation that transformed how historians understood
the English past. But he shows how these strengths were eventually
outweighed by inherent confusions and misapprehensions that
threatened to kill the very subject that the modernists had
intended to sustain.
What came before ???postmodernism??? in historical studies? By
thinking through the assumptions, methods and cast of mind of
English historians writing between about 1870 and 1970, Michael
Bentley reveals the intellectual world of the modernists and offers
the first full analysis of English historiography in this crucial
period. Modernist historiography set itself the objective of going
beyond the colourful narratives of ???whigs??? and
???popularizers??? in order to establish history as the queen of
the humanities and as a rival to the sciences as a vehicle of
knowledge. Professor Bentley does not follow those who deride
modernism as ???positivist??? or ???empiricist??? but instead shows
how it set in train brilliant new styles of investigation that
transformed how historians understood the English past. But he
shows how these strengths were eventually outweighed by inherent
confusions and misapprehensions that threatened to kill the very
subject that the modernists had intended to sustain.
Maurice Cowling's first two books appeared in 1963, the year in
which he also became a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. This volume
brings together a group of pupils, admirers and critics who have
contributed essays dealing with facets of what Cowling calls
'public doctrine' in modern British history, together with critical
assessments of his writing and his role as a major Cambridge
figure. This varied group of essays helps to situate Cowling's work
in its wider environment which will aid those who are coming to it
for the first time or who are trying to make sense of its complex
filiations. Above all, it seeks to be as unsycophantic, rebarbative
and diverting as its dedicatee, while offering something genuinely
worthwhile to all readers interested in recent historical and
current intellectual tendencies in England.
Lord Salisbury (1830-1903) is now a subject of intense historical attention. But while other scholars have chosen to present biographies of him, this important and accessible new study moves away from the conventional "life" and reconstructs the thought-world of late-Victorian Conservatives for the first time. In doing so it provides a new location within which Victorian politics and Salisbury himself can be evaluated. The book will therefore be essential reading for anyone interested in British political ideas.
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