Robert S. Jordan – författare

This new edition of a classic text, comprehensively revised throughout, appraises the emerging challenges to the centrality of the nation-state international system, such as humanitarianism, environmentalism, new international legal standards, and concepts such as civil society and globalism. As inter-governmental and international non-governmental activities are increasingly being blended, for example in the area of peace-keeping, this poses a challenge to the sanctity of the territorial state as the primary political unit. Similarly, technological and social changes such as the emergence of the Internet, encourages borderless activities (both legal and illegal) by non-state actors. This book provides the basis for students to consider a thorough rethinking of our international system and its prospects for the future in the face of these fundamental and unprecedented developments.While the book as a whole is built around the unifying theme of the management of cooperation, illustrative cases enhance the individual chapters and provide the basis for comparative analysis and discussion. These take the reader through the tangled webs of international cooperation in such areas as the European Union, NATO, humanitarian intervention, arms control, transnational criminal organizations, and global environmental issues. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter add to the usefulness of this text for students.

This new edition of a classic text, comprehensively revised throughout, appraises the emerging challenges to the centrality of the nation-state international system, such as humanitarianism, environmentalism, new international legal standards, and concepts such as civil society and globalism. As inter-governmental and international non-governmental activities are increasingly being blended, for example in the area of peace-keeping, this poses a challenge to the sanctity of the territorial state as the primary political unit. Similarly, technological and social changes such as the emergence of the Internet, encourages borderless activities (both legal and illegal) by non-state actors. This book provides the basis for students to consider a thorough rethinking of our international system and its prospects for the future in the face of these fundamental and unprecedented developments.While the book as a whole is built around the unifying theme of the management of cooperation, illustrative cases enhance the individual chapters and provide the basis for comparative analysis and discussion. These take the reader through the tangled webs of international cooperation in such areas as the European Union, NATO, humanitarian intervention, arms control, transnational criminal organizations, and global environmental issues. Discussion questions at the end of each chapter add to the usefulness of this text for students.

This unusual history of the first four secretaries-general of NATO and their importance in the post-war politics of Western defense is a study of diplomacy–of individuals and the impact of their personalities on international events. It can perhaps best be described in terms of what it is not. It is not, for example, exclusively a book on NATO, nor is it a text on international organization. It is neither a history of European politics nor an analysis of East-West relations. It is not a specialized study of nuclear politics, and it does not pretend to be a record of the political interplay between the United States and its European allies. Yet all of these themes appear in the work. In the course of preparing this book, Dr. Jordan came to know the four secretaries-general, as well as many other individuals involved in NATO since its inception. While his analysis is objective and he has thoroughly documented his observations, there is also a valuable personal element in his assessment of the impact the persons who occupied this relatively little known but very important office had on the institution they headed and the international political environment in which they operated.

This unusual history of the first four secretaries-general of NATO and their importance in the post-war politics of Western defense is a study of diplomacy–of individuals and the impact of their personalities on international events. It can perhaps best be described in terms of what it is not. It is not, for example, exclusively a book on NATO, nor is it a text on international organization. It is neither a history of European politics nor an analysis of East-West relations. It is not a specialized study of nuclear politics, and it does not pretend to be a record of the political interplay between the United States and its European allies. Yet all of these themes appear in the work. In the course of preparing this book, Dr. Jordan came to know the four secretaries-general, as well as many other individuals involved in NATO since its inception. While his analysis is objective and he has thoroughly documented his observations, there is also a valuable personal element in his assessment of the impact the persons who occupied this relatively little known but very important office had on the institution they headed and the international political environment in which they operated.