International Relations and Politics

Situated at the intersection of democratic theory and international studies, Accountability and Democracy provides an in-depth critical analysis of the concept “democratic accountability.” The book proceeds with separate chapters on accountability as found in the U.S. Ratification debates, agency theory, ancient Athenian democracy, theories of deliberative democracy, capitalist markets, and cosmopolitan democracy. Through an engagement with these different traditions and contexts, the book paints a picture of democratic accountability as a multidimensional concept harboring competing imperatives and diverse instantiations. It both engages conventional electoral models of accountability and moves beyond them by situating democratic accountability within more deliberative, participatory and agonistic contexts. Contrary to dominant views that emphasize discipline and control, the book describes democratic accountability as a source of mutuality, community, and political transformation. The book also challenges deep-seated understandings of democratic accountability as an expression of popular sovereignty. It instead argues that accountable governance is incompatible with all claims to ultimate authority, regardless of whether they refer to the demos, the state, or cosmopolitan public law. Rather than conceiving of democratic accountability as a way to legitimize a secure and sovereign political order, the book contends that destabilization and democratic insurgence are indispensable and often neglected facets of democratic accountability practices.

Following 9/11 the United States faced a situation of exceptional insecurity. In that period the Bush administration argued that certain international norms did not apply to US conduct. Its argument was underpinned by the claim that the United States was in a state of armed conflict or ‘war’ with ‘a new kind of enemy’. The purpose of this book is to examine whether this approach outlasted the moment of insecurity that gave rise to it. More than a decade on from those attacks, and following a change of administration, what influence do these arguments have on American policy? To answer this question it focuses on four areas of policy: the use of force and the prosecution, detention and interrogation of suspected terrorists. It demonstrates how the Bush policy programme was contested by liberals and realists from the outset. Any expectation that the war on terror would end following the election of President Obama has, however, proven unfounded. Obama consolidated the liberal pushback against aspects of the Bush programme but the US has continued to argue a state of armed conflict exists. The scope of the battlefield and the definition of the enemy has been a source of intense debate but the fact that the Guant00E1namo Bay detention facility remained open long after the President promised to close it is indicative of the underlying continuity. It is argued that this is driven in part by domestic politics and in part by an understanding of how the terrorist threat is evolving.

This book analyses the political and social problems that arise when American forces are stationed in other countries. The United States, although critical of the British Empire during World War II, found itself playing an imperial role in the postwar era in order to safeguard the security of the West. In building up a global security system, with American troops in Europe, the Far East, the Atlantic, and the Caribbean and the Pacific, the United States came to resemble the former colonial powers. But whereas the colonial empire had established garrisons on territory acquired by force, the United States was obliged to negotiate basing rights for its troops by negotiating with independent sovereign states. The result was a variety of arrangements with different host nations, in which the American position, and the use America could make of its troops overseas, was critically dependant on America's political and historical relationship with the country concerned. The United States has based more troops overseas than any of the colonial empires. However, the terms of the leasehold empire have imposed severe constraints on America's freedom of manoeuvre.

Democracy promotion has assumed greater importance since the end of the cold war, particularly in the US foreign policy. This book examines the American experience with the advancement of democracy worldwide. First, it explores to what extent classical political theory—particularly realism and liberalism—help us understand democracy promotion. Secondly, it looks at the strategic and political motivations behind this policy and how it relates to other key goals in US international relations. Finally, it considers the impact that American democracy promotion has had in different regions and countries. These issues are analysed from a wide range of theoretical perspectives sustained by 15 different contributors.

This new and original study focuses on the growing politicization and radicalization of the Arab minority within Israel — excluding the Israeli-administered territories — from 1967 to the present day. The author has studied both written and oral sources to produce a scholarly analysis of the diverse political views and attitudes of Muslims, Christians, and Druzes in Israel. As well as analysing the views of intellectuals and politicians, he examines trends among the general Arab population in Israel, looking in particular at political behaviour and struggles, organizations, problems of identity, electoral trends, education, language, and literature. His wide-ranging examination draws out the strategies developed by Israeli Arabs to deal with the conflicting demands of the State of Israel and Arab nationalism. The aim of this book is to encourage an objective and balanced approach to the issues, and concludes with some far-reaching proposals to improve Jewish—Arab relations.

This book tries to answer three questions: A ‘why’ question: the reason we have been surprised by the arrival of the ‘Arab Spring.’ Do we have the right conceptual lenses to understand the region and its different political interactions? A ‘who’ question: the number and type of different groups that launched the protests and occupied Al-Tahrir Square. A ‘how’ question: the way these spontaneous groups coalesced together, overpowered police forces and finally forced former President Mubarak to resign after almost 30 years in power. In addition to the introduction, the book's 13 chapters are regrouped into four parts. These deal with the resistance and limits of authoritarian rule, group dynamics in Tahrir, an attempt to go beyond the immediate and looking ahead. The book has a general bibliography and some appendices of several historical documents of the period as well as a sample of Tahrir slogans.

This book spans an entire epoch in the history of the contemporary Palestinian national movement, from the establishment of Israel in 1948, to the PLO-Israel accord of 1993. Contrary to the conventional view that national liberation movements proceed with state-building only after attaining independence, the case of the PLO shows that state-building may shape political institutionalization, even in the absence of an autonomous territorial, economic, and social base. This study traces the political, ideological, and organizational evolution of the PLO and its constituent of guerrilla groups. Taking the much-vaunted ‘armed struggle’ as its connecting there, it shows how conflict was used to mobilize the mass constituency, assert particular discourses of revolution and nationalism, construct statist institutions, and establish legitimacy of a new political class and bureaucratic elite. The book draws extensively on PLO archives, official publications, and internal documents of the various guerrilla groups, and over 400 interviews conducted by the author with the PLO rank-and-file.

State power has been a bedrock concept in international relations for centuries, but it has taken a backseat in recent years to other topics—information, interests, identity, audiences, to name a few. Back to Basics brings state power back to center stage and sets an agenda for new theorizing about its role in international relations. In this volume, some of the field’s top scholars tackle a wide array of “puzzles about power” and offer new ways of thinking about the role of both states and power in the contemporary world. They explore many “faces” of state power and diverse pathways by which it creates its effects. They theorize a rich environment in which states use their power and explore ways in which this thickly normed and institutionalized world can create surprising outcomes. They also reflect on how variation and change in the nature of sovereignty may influence not only the ways states exercise power but also the ways power is exercised upon them. Taken together, these essays open up new lines of thinking on the changing role of state power in both international relations theory and world politics. Includes essays by Stephen Krasner, Robert Keohane, David Lake, Thomas Risse, Etel Solingen, Peter Katzenstein, Benjamin Cohen, Richard Steinberg, Peter Gourevitch, Arthur Stein, Lloyd Gruber, Daniel Drezner, Robert Jervis, Martha Finnemore, Judith Goldstein.