Arms and Influence

Arms and Influence
Author: Thomas C. Schelling
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2020-03-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0300253486

“This is a brilliant and hardheaded book. It will frighten those who prefer not to dwell on the unthinkable and infuriate those who have taken refuge in stereotypes and moral attitudinizing.”—Gordon A. Craig, New York Times Book Review Originally published more than fifty years ago, this landmark book explores the ways in which military capabilities—real or imagined—are used, skillfully or clumsily, as bargaining power. Anne-Marie Slaughter’s new introduction to the work shows how Schelling’s framework—conceived of in a time of superpowers and mutually assured destruction—still applies to our multipolar world, where wars are fought as much online as on the ground.

Arms and Influence

Arms and Influence
Author: Jeffrey S. Lantis
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 323
Release: 2016-07-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0804799849

Arms and Influence explores the complex relationship between technology, policymaking, and international norms. Modern technological innovations such as the atomic bomb, armed unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and advanced reconnaissance satellites have fostered debates about the boundaries of international norms and legitimate standards of behavior. These advances allow governments new opportunities for action around the world and have, in turn, prompted a broader effort to redefine international standards in areas such as self-defense, sovereignty, and preemptive strikes. In this book, Jeffrey S. Lantis develops a new theory of norm change and identifies its stages, including redefinition (involving domestic political deliberations) and constructive norm substitution (in multilateral institutions). He deftly takes some of the most controversial new developments in military technologies and embeds them in international relations theory. The case evidence he presents suggests that periods of change are underway across numerous different issue areas.

The Strategy of Conflict

The Strategy of Conflict
Author: Thomas C. Schelling
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1980
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780674840317

Analyzes the nature of international disagreements and conflict resolution in terms of game theory and non-zero-sum games.

Choice and Consequence

Choice and Consequence
Author: Thomas C. Schelling
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1985-10-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0674255976

Thomas Schelling is a political economist “conspicuous for wandering”—an errant economist. In Choice and Consequence, he ventures into the area where rationality is ambiguous in order to look at the tricks people use to try to quit smoking or lose weight. He explores topics as awesome as nuclear terrorism, as sordid as blackmail, as ineffable as daydreaming, as intimidating as euthanasia. He examines ethical issues wrapped up in economics, unwrapping the economics to disclose ethical issues that are misplaced or misidentified. With an ingenious, often startling approach, Schelling brings new perspectives to problems ranging from drug abuse, abortion, and the value people put on their lives to organized crime, airplane hijacking, and automobile safety. One chapter is a clear and elegant exposition of game theory as a framework for analyzing social problems. Another plays with the hypothesis that our minds are not only our problem-solving equipment but also the organ in which much of our consumption takes place. What binds together the different subjects is the author’s belief in the possibility of simultaneously being humane and analytical, of dealing with both the momentous and the familiar. Choice and Consequence was written for the curious, the puzzled, the worried, and all those who appreciate intellectual adventure.

Micromotives and Macrobehavior

Micromotives and Macrobehavior
Author: Thomas C. Schelling
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2006-10-17
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 039306977X

Before Freakonomics and The Tipping Point there was this classic by the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Economics. "Schelling here offers an early analysis of 'tipping' in social situations involving a large number of individuals." —official citation for the 2005 Nobel Prize Micromotives and Macrobehavior was originally published over twenty-five years ago, yet the stories it tells feel just as fresh today. And the subject of these stories—how small and seemingly meaningless decisions and actions by individuals often lead to significant unintended consequences for a large group—is more important than ever. In one famous example, Thomas C. Schelling shows that a slight-but-not-malicious preference to have neighbors of the same race eventually leads to completely segregated populations. The updated edition of this landmark book contains a new preface and the author's Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy

Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy
Author: Todd S. Sechser
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2017-02-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 110710694X

Are nuclear weapons useful for coercive diplomacy? This book argues that they are useful for deterrence but not for offensive purposes.

Living with Nuclear Weapons

Living with Nuclear Weapons
Author: Albert Carnesale
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 1983
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780674536654

Describes the history of the nuclear arms race, examines the dangers of nuclear war, and discusses strategies for stopping the spread of nuclear weapons.

Strategy and Arms

Strategy and Arms
Author: Thomas C. Schelling
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2014-12-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781614277583

2014 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This study is an attempt to identify the meaning of arms control in the post war period. It presents an analysis of arms control with particular emphasis on the military policy involved. The general objectives of the study is to advance some aspects of the intellectual state of the art in arms control and to provide some concrete data on the technical and strategic problems of importance. Schelling remains relevant today for his work on game theory.

The Control Agenda

The Control Agenda
Author: Matthew J. Ambrose
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2018-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501709372

The Control Agenda is a sweeping account of the history of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), their rise in the Nixon and Ford administrations, their downfall under President Carter, and their powerful legacies in the Reagan years and beyond. Matthew Ambrose pays close attention to the interplay of diplomacy, domestic politics, and technology, and finds that the SALT process was a key point of reference for arguments regarding all forms of Cold War decision making. Ambrose argues elite U.S. decision makers used SALT to better manage their restive domestic populations and to exert greater control over the shape, structure, and direction of their nuclear arsenals. Ambrose also asserts that prolonged engagement with arms control issues introduced dynamic effects into nuclear policy. Arms control considerations came to influence most areas of defense decision making, while the measure of stability SALT provided allowed the examination of new and potentially dangerous nuclear doctrines. The Control Agenda makes clear that verification and compliance concerns by the United States prompted continuous reassessments of Soviet capabilities and intentions; assessments that later undergirded key U.S. policy changes toward the Soviet Union. Through SALT’s many twists and turns, accusations and countercharges, secret backchannels and propaganda campaigns the specter of nuclear conflict loomed large.