Some pundits claim cyber weaponry is the most important military innovation in decades, a
transformative new technology that promises a paralyzing first-strike advantage difficult for …

Since 1990, China has used coercion in its maritime territorial disputes in the South China
Sea, despite adverse implications for its image. China is curiously selective in its timing …

Power is real, but it does not always prevail. This book explores how disparity structures
international relationships. Beginning at the bilateral level, the relationship between the …

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States enjoys unparalleled military power.
The international system is therefore unipolar. A quarter century later, however, we still …

Policy-makers and political scientists have long believed that states must make policy with
an eye to maintaining a good reputation, especially a good reputation for resolve. Recent …

Abstract The United States has been at war for thirteen of the twenty-two years since the
Cold War ended and the world became unipolar. Still, the consensual view among …

How can states signal their alliance commitments? Although scholars have developed
sophisticated theoretical models of costly signaling in international relations, we know little …

Why do states often refuse to yield to military threats from a more powerful actor, such as the
United States? Why do they frequently prefer war to compliance? International Relations …

Do democracies make more effective coercive threats? An influential literature in
international relations argues that democratic institutions allow leaders to credibly signal …

Do nuclear weapons offer coercive advantages in international crisis bargaining? Almost
seventy years into the nuclear age, we still lack a complete answer to this question. While …