Acting Alone (eBook)

A Scientific Study of American Hegemony and Unilateral Use-of-Force Decision Making

Bradley F. Podliska (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2010
272 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-0-7391-4253-0 (ISBN)

Infos

Acting Alone offers an unprecedented scientifically-based answer to the question of why presidents, regardless of political party, make decisions to use unilateral military force. By using three methods to test U.S. crisis behavior since 1937, the author of Acting Alone makes the case that presidents are realists and make a unilateral decision based on a wide military gap with an opponent, an opponent located in the Western hemisphere, and a national security threat.

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Acting Alone: A Scientific Study of American Hegemony and Unilateral Use-of-Force Decision Making is a straight-forward analysis of unilateral U.S. military actions, which are dependent upon the power disparity between the U.S. and the rest of the world. In solving the puzzle as to why individual presidents have made the "e;wrong"e; decision to act alone, the author lays out a president's behavior, during a crisis, as a two-step decision process. Acting Alone reviews the well-studied first decision, deciding to use force, based on international conflict literature and organized along traditional lines. The author then details the second decision, deciding to use unilateral force, with an explanation of the criticisms of multilateralism and the reasons for unilateralism. To test a new theory of unilateral use of force decision making, Acting Alone devises a definition and coding rules for unilateral use of force, develops a sequential model of presidential use of force decision making, and constructs a new, alternative measure of military power, a Composite Indicator of Military Revolutions (CIMR). It then uses three methods - a statistical test with a heckman probit model, an experiment, and case studies - to test U.S. crisis behavior since 1937. By applying these three methods, the author finds that presidents are realists and make expected utility calculations to act unilaterally or multilaterally after their decision to use force. The unilateral decision, in particular, positively correlates with a wide military gap with an opponent, an opponent located in the Western hemisphere, and a national security threat.

Autor

Bradley F. Podliska is an instructor with the Department of Defense.

Inhalt

Chapter 1 1 IntroductionChapter 2 2 Unilateral Use-of-Force Decision MakingChapter 3 3 Statistical Tests: U.S. Unilateral Uses of Force Since 1937Chapter 4 4 Does the Type of Crisis Matter? An Experimental TestChapter 5 5 Opening Up the "Black Box" of a President's Unilateral Decision: Case Studies of the 1991 Gulf War, 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion, and 1989 Panama InvasionChapter 6 6 Conclusion

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.2.2010
• Reihe/Serie: Innovations in the Study of World Politics
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Politik / Gesellschaft
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Europäische / Internationale Politik
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Vergleichende Politikwissenschaften
• Schlagworte: American Government, Policy and Law • Decision Making • Political Science • US Foreign Policy
• ISBN-10: 0-7391-4253-4 / 0739142534
• ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-4253-0 / 9780739142530