Paul B. Stares - Böcker

America finds itself in an acute predicament: The international order it has helped construct over many decades is under increasing stress from various quarters. As the world's predominant military power and principal guarantor of global peace and security, the United States must fulfill its many responsibilities without becoming entangled in costly conflicts that threaten its security, deplete its national power, and weaken its international standing. Preventive Engagement proposes a long-term strategy for how the United States can manage the risks of a more turbulent world in a way that lessens the demand for--and potential drain on--U.S. power. Its novel approach adapts the basic techniques used to prevent many societal problems, such as infectious diseases, violent crime, and drug trafficking. Preventive engagement has three complementary components: the promotion of policies known to lower the risk of violent conflict and political instability; the anticipation of crises most likely to precipitate major U.S. military engagement; and a concerted effort to mitigate if not resolve conflicts that erupt in the short term before escalating into a threat to U.S. interests.This comprehensive approach stresses early detection and foresight to actively manage sources of conflict. Using examples from Syria, Ukraine, and the South China Sea, Preventive Engagement shows its strategy in practice and illuminates the role that international actors, including NGOs, the United Nations, regional organizations, and private businesses, can play to further U.S. preventive goals.

The United States faces an increasingly turbulent world. The risk of violent conflict and other threats to international order presents a vexing dilemma: should the United States remain the principal guarantor of global peace and security with all its considerable commitments and potential pitfalls––not least new and costly military entanglements––that over time diminish its capacity and commitment to play this vital role or, alternatively, should it pull back from the world in the interests of conserving U.S. power, but at the possible cost of even greater threats emerging in the future?Paul B. Stares proposes an innovative and timely strategy—“preventive engagement”—to resolve America’s predicament. This approach entails pursuing three complementary courses of action: promoting policies known to lessen the risk of violent conflict over the long term; anticipating and averting those crises likely to lead to costly military commitments in the medium term; and managing ongoing conflicts in the short term before they escalate further and exert pressure on the United States to intervene. In each of these efforts, forging “preventive partnerships” with a variety of international actors, including the United Nations, regional organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and the business community, is essential. The need to think and act ahead that lies at the heart of a preventive engagement strategy requires the United States to become less shortsighted and reactive. Drawing on successful strategies in other areas, Preventive Engagement provides a detailed and comprehensive blueprint for the United States to shape the future and reduce the potential dangers ahead.

This book, first published in 1985, analyses the factors that have shaped the militarization of space. By examining in great detail the determinants of U.S. policy, it explains why for over 25 years space did not become the scene of an arms race, and why this began to change in the late 1970s. Both superpowers did, however, develop a limited anti-satellite capability in the 1960s, and these programmes are also discussed.

This book, first published in 1985, analyses the factors that have shaped the militarization of space. By examining in great detail the determinants of U.S. policy, it explains why for over 25 years space did not become the scene of an arms race, and why this began to change in the late 1970s. Both superpowers did, however, develop a limited anti-satellite capability in the 1960s, and these programmes are also discussed.

Since the first heroic and largely spontaneous acts precipitated the end of the Cold War, Europe has been transformed in a truly remarkable and wholly unforeseen manner: Germany has been unified, the Warsaw Pact has collapsed, and the Soviet Union has disintegrated, leaving in its wake many new independent states.These momentous events have taken place so rapidly and often in such confused circumstances that their full meaning has barely been comprehended let alone assimilated. A clearer and deeper appreciation of the forces and processes unleashed by the recent changes is vitally important, however, to meet the challenges and exploit the opportunities that now present themselves in Europe. This volume, therefore, is intended to promote wider understanding of the key issues, and it represents the most comprehensive assessment to date of the new Germany and the new Europe.The volume begins with detailed accounts by U.S. and German scholars of how unification came about and the resulting changes to the political economy, security policy, and foreign relations. A complementary section discusses the implications for the rest of Europe as well as Japan. While the focus of the book is on the new Germany, two separate chapters provide specific designs for a new adoption of a general system of cooperative security.

The market for illicit drugs is expanding inexorably around the world. More kinds of drugs are becoming more available in more places than ever before. But the drug trade is not only growing, it is changing in character. It has ceased to be a marginal area of criminal activity and has now become a major global enterprise controlled by formidable interests that threaten much more than the health of drug users. Moreover, the immense wealth that has been amassed from selling drugs has given the principal trafficking organizations enormous power to corrupt and intimidate public officials and government institutions.In this major book, Paul Stares presents a compelling portrait of the global drug market and the consequences of this international plague. He explains that there are good reasons to fear that the global market for drugs will continue to expand in the coming years: profits to the traffickers are huge; the revolutionary advances in communications, transportation, and information technology facilitate smuggling, as do the lowering of border controls and trade tariffs and the trends toward privatization and deregulation. Meanwhile, the expanded volume of global trade, travel, and financial transactions makes it harder for customs and police authorities to detect and stop illicit activities. Added to the growing incentives and opportunities to supply illicit drugs, the level of demand is increasing in many new areas of the world, particularly in formerly communist countries and many areas of the developing world.What can done about this growing problem? One option is legalization, but Stares contends that its implementation would be problematic while its benefits remain unclear. Yet, continuing on the present course will not work either. Stares argues that reducing both the supply and demand for illicit drugs requires a fundamental shift away from the current overwhelming emphasis on negative sanctions to deter and deny their production, trafficking, and consumption. Instead, he calls for more positive control measures that primarily rely on persuasion and cooperation. He advocates the creation of a global drug monitoring and evaluation network, a global drug use prevention program, a global drug treatment training program, and an international drug crisis response program.According to Stares, the effectiveness of reorienting drug control policy to curb the global habit will ultimately depend on the international community's willingness to address much larger concerns to which the drug problem is inextricably linked-- including overpopulation, environmental degradation, poverty, illiteracy, ethnic strife, and disease. Only by recognizing the fundamental relationship between these larger issues and the global drug problem can meaningful progress be made. Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Book for 1996