Hanna Samir Kassab – författare

This book explains the development of the international system’s present-day balance of power by exploring three central questions: (1) Under what conditions has the international system order evolved from a unipolar system to the current multipolar system? (2) What are its major states? (3) How do weak powers affect great power competition?

It puts forward the following hypotheses: (1) if China and Russia are expanding their military, political, and economic influence into weaker states globally, then the unipolar American order is unraveling; and (2) if the international system is multipolar, then great power balancing may enhance international security. However, balancing may be made difficult because of weak state aid-seeking behavior. When weak states engage competing great powers, they become spheres of competition. This book delves into these states. Whether in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia, or Eastern Europe, great powers hope to establish some control over weaker units for security, economic, and at times, prestige purposes.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science and IR, security studies, and IPE, as well as members of the think tank community and policy analysts.

This book explains the development of the international system’s present-day balance of power by exploring three central questions: (1) Under what conditions has the international system order evolved from a unipolar system to the current multipolar system? (2) What are its major states? (3) How do weak powers affect great power competition?

It puts forward the following hypotheses: (1) if China and Russia are expanding their military, political, and economic influence into weaker states globally, then the unipolar American order is unraveling; and (2) if the international system is multipolar, then great power balancing may enhance international security. However, balancing may be made difficult because of weak state aid-seeking behavior. When weak states engage competing great powers, they become spheres of competition. This book delves into these states. Whether in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Central Asia, East Asia, or Eastern Europe, great powers hope to establish some control over weaker units for security, economic, and at times, prestige purposes.

This book will be of interest to students and scholars of political science and IR, security studies, and IPE, as well as members of the think tank community and policy analysts.

In this succinct text, Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna Samir Kassab explore the linkage between weak institutions and government policies designed to combat drug trafficking, organized crime, and violence in Latin America.

Using quantitative analysis to examine criminal violence and publicly available survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to conduct regression analysis, individual case studies on Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua highlight the major challenges that governments face and how they have responded to various security issues. Rosen and Kassab later turn their attention to the role of external criminal actors in the region and offer policy recommendations and lessons learned. Questions explored include:

Crime, Violence and the State in Latin America is suitable to both undergraduate and graduate courses in criminal justice, international relations, political science, comparative politics, international political economy, organized crime, drug trafficking, and violence.

In this succinct text, Jonathan D. Rosen and Hanna Samir Kassab explore the linkage between weak institutions and government policies designed to combat drug trafficking, organized crime, and violence in Latin America.

Using quantitative analysis to examine criminal violence and publicly available survey data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) to conduct regression analysis, individual case studies on Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, and Nicaragua highlight the major challenges that governments face and how they have responded to various security issues. Rosen and Kassab later turn their attention to the role of external criminal actors in the region and offer policy recommendations and lessons learned. Questions explored include:

Crime, Violence and the State in Latin America is suitable to both undergraduate and graduate courses in criminal justice, international relations, political science, comparative politics, international political economy, organized crime, drug trafficking, and violence.

In his new book, Hanna Samir Kassab examines changes and trends in international politics and the competition between great powers for control of the international system.

He argues that the increase in geopolitical, economic, nationalist, and resource competition between three great powers, the United States, China, and Russia, points to the changing structure of the international system. This competition is a systemic one, focusing more on the rules and norms that defined the system since the end of the Cold War. This American-led unipolar order is translating into a multipolar one. Kassab begins by tracing the decline of the United States after the Iraq War (2003) and the Great Recession (2008) as well as the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia. He describes major foreign policy changes from George H.W. Bush to Donald J. Trump and how the various administrations approached the international system. Russia and China will increase their international influence as the United States pulls back from the international system.

Written using simple jargon, Globalization, Multipolarity and Great Power Competition is equally accessible to academics and casual readers and laypeople interested in international politics.

In his new book, Hanna Samir Kassab examines changes and trends in international politics and the competition between great powers for control of the international system.

He argues that the increase in geopolitical, economic, nationalist, and resource competition between three great powers, the United States, China, and Russia, points to the changing structure of the international system. This competition is a systemic one, focusing more on the rules and norms that defined the system since the end of the Cold War. This American-led unipolar order is translating into a multipolar one. Kassab begins by tracing the decline of the United States after the Iraq War (2003) and the Great Recession (2008) as well as the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia. He describes major foreign policy changes from George H.W. Bush to Donald J. Trump and how the various administrations approached the international system. Russia and China will increase their international influence as the United States pulls back from the international system.

Written using simple jargon, Globalization, Multipolarity and Great Power Competition is equally accessible to academics and casual readers and laypeople interested in international politics.

In this book, Hanna Samir Kassab develops a theoretical framework that explains the formulation of power vacuums and examines their impact on the international system.

A power vacuum is the fundamental absence of legitimate state authority over a geographic territory, and it is a space free of governance. With no state authority governing a geographical region, opportunistic states and organized criminal and terrorist networks may attempt to control that space. Using a variety of historical examples and centering his analysis on ungoverned spaces rather than great powers, Kassab uncovers neglected areas of great power competition. Part 1 discusses state actors: specifically, the strategic space of the Arctic, the Middle East and Africa, and Afghanistan and Central Asia. Part 2 examines non-state actors, such as terrorist networks and organized criminal networks, and the formulation of paramilitaries.

Power Vacuums and Global Politics is the perfect volume for both undergraduate and graduate courses in international relations, security studies, political science, comparative politics, international political economy, and war and peace.

In this book, Hanna Samir Kassab develops a theoretical framework that explains the formulation of power vacuums and examines their impact on the international system.

A power vacuum is the fundamental absence of legitimate state authority over a geographic territory, and it is a space free of governance. With no state authority governing a geographical region, opportunistic states and organized criminal and terrorist networks may attempt to control that space. Using a variety of historical examples and centering his analysis on ungoverned spaces rather than great powers, Kassab uncovers neglected areas of great power competition. Part 1 discusses state actors: specifically, the strategic space of the Arctic, the Middle East and Africa, and Afghanistan and Central Asia. Part 2 examines non-state actors, such as terrorist networks and organized criminal networks, and the formulation of paramilitaries.

Power Vacuums and Global Politics is the perfect volume for both undergraduate and graduate courses in international relations, security studies, political science, comparative politics, international political economy, and war and peace.

Post- Cold War Predictions examines how the international order evolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union (and before the attacks on 9/11) by focusing on the ways we study and understand major powers’ security behavior within the evolving multipolar order. Beginning with an overview of Post-Cold War literature, Kassab summarizes and evaluates influential Post-Cold War texts to better understand scholarship’s need to predict. First, he discusses the central importance of power in international relations and drives home the central focus of international structures, linking findings to the broader structure-agent problem. He then reinterprets the purpose of theory, preferring explanatory theories to those that aim to predict outcomes. To understand the context by which political ideas were developed and followed as if they were political ideologies, Hanna Samir Kassab makes explicit the links between historicism and historiography, forwarding a new methodology for studying political science: Politicist analysis. Using simple jargon and defining terms where necessary, this succinct and enlightening text is required reading for all those interested in international politics.

Post- Cold War Predictions examines how the international order evolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union (and before the attacks on 9/11) by focusing on the ways we study and understand major powers’ security behavior within the evolving multipolar order. Beginning with an overview of Post-Cold War literature, Kassab summarizes and evaluates influential Post-Cold War texts to better understand scholarship’s need to predict. First, he discusses the central importance of power in international relations and drives home the central focus of international structures, linking findings to the broader structure-agent problem. He then reinterprets the purpose of theory, preferring explanatory theories to those that aim to predict outcomes. To understand the context by which political ideas were developed and followed as if they were political ideologies, Hanna Samir Kassab makes explicit the links between historicism and historiography, forwarding a new methodology for studying political science: Politicist analysis. Using simple jargon and defining terms where necessary, this succinct and enlightening text is required reading for all those interested in international politics.

Non-Western Middle Powers in the Multipolar Order explores the changing international order, articulating the critical and growing importance of non-western states to the emerging global order. It brings together international scholars to provide new insights on the evolution of international order, as global politics moves from an American-western dominated one to one where major players are from the Global South. They present evidence from Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and India help explain, analyze and understand the main political, security and economic challenges in these countries. Questions asked include:

· What factors explain the rise of new non-western middle powers?

· How would theories of international relations, specifically realism, liberalism, and Marxism change due to their rise?

· How would the rise of these non-western middle powers shape the emerging multipolar order?

An invaluable collection for scholars and students of International Relations and International Security, that will also be of great interest to scholars with a broader interest in the ever-evolving world order.

Non-Western Middle Powers in the Multipolar Order explores the changing international order, articulating the critical and growing importance of non-western states to the emerging global order. It brings together international scholars to provide new insights on the evolution of international order, as global politics moves from an American-western dominated one to one where major players are from the Global South. They present evidence from Brazil, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and India help explain, analyze and understand the main political, security and economic challenges in these countries. Questions asked include:

· What factors explain the rise of new non-western middle powers?

· How would theories of international relations, specifically realism, liberalism, and Marxism change due to their rise?

· How would the rise of these non-western middle powers shape the emerging multipolar order?

An invaluable collection for scholars and students of International Relations and International Security, that will also be of great interest to scholars with a broader interest in the ever-evolving world order.

In Post-Colonial Realism, Hanna Samir Kassab develops a theoretical framework to explain, understand, and predict international conflict, placing culture at the center of international political analysis.

Kassab contends that nationalism, a belief system, forms an intervening variable that shapes the foreign policy behavior of states. Studying food is central to understanding nationalist belief systems that shape international politics. By combining theories of nationalism with postcolonialist understandings of cultural revitalization, Kassab conceptualizes state motivation to understand how cultural symbols shape nationalist identities, to see the fault lines of civilization through food, and to appreciate the centrality of identity issues. Using ethnography to understand food ownership as part of nationalist conflict, Kassab examines neighboring states (Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey and Armenia) alongside India. In each country study chapter, he compares at least two nationalisms and views of cuisine ownership. He later maps out potential future flashpoints as the international system becomes increasingly competitive due to the changing structure of the international system: unipolarity to multipolarity.

Post-Colonial Realism offers a more robust and flexible theory of international relations, concentrating not on abstractions but on individuals and their collective beliefs.

In Post-Colonial Realism, Hanna Samir Kassab develops a theoretical framework to explain, understand, and predict international conflict, placing culture at the center of international political analysis.

Kassab contends that nationalism, a belief system, forms an intervening variable that shapes the foreign policy behavior of states. Studying food is central to understanding nationalist belief systems that shape international politics. By combining theories of nationalism with postcolonialist understandings of cultural revitalization, Kassab conceptualizes state motivation to understand how cultural symbols shape nationalist identities, to see the fault lines of civilization through food, and to appreciate the centrality of identity issues. Using ethnography to understand food ownership as part of nationalist conflict, Kassab examines neighboring states (Greece, North Macedonia, Turkey and Armenia) alongside India. In each country study chapter, he compares at least two nationalisms and views of cuisine ownership. He later maps out potential future flashpoints as the international system becomes increasingly competitive due to the changing structure of the international system: unipolarity to multipolarity.

Post-Colonial Realism offers a more robust and flexible theory of international relations, concentrating not on abstractions but on individuals and their collective beliefs.