Randall L Schweller
Biographic Data
| ID | 1099050 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Randall L Schweller |
| GIVEN NAMES | Randall L |
| FAMILY NAME | Schweller |
| SIGNATURE | SCHWELLER R L |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Ohio State University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 44 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 718 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 44 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1992 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 14 |
The Power and Restraint of Waltzian Neorealism
Kenneth Waltz constructed a pure theory of international politics by isolating structural from unit-level causes. Today's return of great-power politics signals the persistent relevance of Waltz's notion of patterns and regularities driven by structural-systemic forces. We have entered an unbalanced bipolar world, in which America still exceeds China in every important category of national power but the gap is narrowing. The relative-power trajec…
Grand Strategy Under Nonpolarity
The random and indeterminate nature of the current nonpolar world suggests a condition of increasing entropy. Relative capability advantages in today’s system do not translate as easily as they once did into power and influence over others. Unlike past multipolar and bipolar systems, the current system exerts only weak, if any, systemic constraints on actors. Thus, polarity has become a largely meaningless concept. Instead, we see an increase in …
Opposite but Compatible Nationalisms: A Neoclassical Realist Approach to the Future of US–China Relations
China’s new assertiveness and the sudden inward turn of United States are a function of causes located in both the second and third images. The key second-image variable is nationalism, which combines with the power trajectories (a third-image variable) of both China and the United States to define how their relationship will unfold in the coming years. The interaction between nationalism and power trajectory produces entirely different foreign p…
Organised anarchy: Revisiting G. John Ikenberry’s After Victory
Keywords Donald Trump, hegemonic restraint, G. John Ikenberry, liberal international order, 'Time's Arrow
Domestic Politics and Nationalism in East Asian Security
This chapter works within the neoclassical realist tradition to examine the role of nationalism in foreign policymaking and the implication for the international politics of East Asia. Whereas the rise of China is an important structural factor necessarily affecting states' security policies throughout East Asia, China's rise does not determine these states' security policies. Rather, domestic politics ultimately determines how a state responds t…
The Balance of Power in World Politics
The balance of power—a notoriously slippery, murky, and protean term, endlessly debated and variously defined—is the core theory of international politics within the realist perspective. A “balance of power” system is one in which the power held and exercised by states within the system is checked and balanced by the power of others. Thus, as a nation’s power grows to the point that it menaces other powerful states, a counter-balancing coalition …
Statement from the New Editor-in-Chief
Jack London acerbically remarked that the “chief qualification of ninety-nine per cent of all editors is failure.” I prefer Betsy Lerner's description of them as “the eyes of the world.”1For both q
Status Signaling, Multiple Audiences, and China’s Blue-Water Naval Ambition
Relations among established and ascending powers tend to be troubled and often violent. According to power transition theory, the onset of war between a dominant and rising power grows more likely as the gap in relative strength between them narrows and as the latter's grievances with the existing order – grievances that expand in lockstep with its mounting capabilities – move beyond any hope of peaceful resolution. Little wonder, then, that risi…
After Unipolarity: China's Visions of International Order in an Era of U.S. Decline
The emerging transition from unipolarity to a more multipolar distribution of global power presents a unique and unappreciated problem that largely explains why, contrary to the expectations of balance of power theory, a counterbalancing reaction to U.S. primacy has not yet taken place. The problem is that, under unipolarity and only unipolarity, balancing is a revisionist, not a status quo, behavior: its purpose is to replace the existing unbala…
Emerging Powers in an Age of Disorder
Randall Schweller THE DRAMATIC RISE OF CHINA AND INDIA AMONG OTHERS HAS SET THE STAGE for a fundamental rethinking of world politics in an age of the waning dominance of US power as a force for remaking the world in its own image. While Pax Americana is not yet teetering on the edge of collapse, the consensus opinion is that the relative decline of the United States is probably irreversible and its unipolar moment will soon give way to something …
Rational Theory for a Bygone Era
Knowing the Unknown Unknowns: Misplaced Certainty and the Onset of War
International Relations (IR) theory grants a privileged place to uncertainty. In practice, however, the problem does not seem to be uncertainty but certainty: if only the decision makers would acknowledge uncertainty, conflict might somehow be avoided. We challenge the "uncertainty bias" of IR scholarship by developing misplaced certainty as a distinct and common pathway to war. By misplaced certainty we mean cases where decision makers are confi…
Unanswered Threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power
The logic and illogic of the security dilemma and contemporary realism: A response to Wagner’s critique
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The future is uncertain and the end is always near
The standard view of contemporary unipolar politics is that systemic constraints impede the translation of American power capabilities into influence over security outcomes, rendering the United States (US) much less capable than its material capabilities imply. Challenging this logic, William Wohlforth and Stephen Brooks argue that systemic constraints under unipolarity are largely inoperative with respect to the security policies of the unipola…
Entropy and the trajectory of world politics: Why polarity has become less meaningful
The random and indeterminate nature of the current unipolar world suggests a condition of increasing entropy. There are two reasons for this claim. First, relative capability advantages under unipolarity do not translate as easily as they once did into power and influence over others. Second, systemic constraint is a property that limits actors' freedom of action by imposing costs and benefits on certain kinds of actions. Unlike past multipolar a…
Neoclassical realism and state mobilization: Expansionist ideology in the age of mass politics
In chapter 1, Jeffrey Taliaferro, Steven Lobell, and Norrin Ripsman posed three questions about the politics of resource extraction and domestic mobilization in grand strategy: How do states mobilize the resources necessary to pursue their chosen security policies? How much power do domestic actors have to obstruct the state when it seeks to mobilize resources in different settings? Finally, what determines who is more successful in bargaining ga…
The Ethical and Political Construction of Action
Like others before him (see, for example, Ashley 1986; Smith 1986; Tellis 1995/1996), Michael Williams believes that three classical figures in the history of political thought—Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Hans Morgenthau—have been misappropriated and abused by many international relations scholars, especially when cast as the foundations for the so-called realist tradition. In The Realist Tradition and the Limits of International Re…
Unanswered threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power
"Why have states throughout history regularly underestimated dangers to their survival? Why have some states been able to mobilize their material resources effectively to balance against threats, while others have not been able to do so? The phenomenon of "underbalancing" is a common but woefully underexamined behavior in international politics. Underbalancing occurs when states fail to recognize dangerous threats, choose not to react to them, or…
The Paradox of Peace: Leaders, Decisions, and Conflict Resolution
Journal Article The Paradox of Peace: Leaders, Decisions, and Conflict Resolution Get access The Paradox of Peace: Leaders, Decisions, and Conflict Resolution by John D. Orme. New York, Palgrave, 2004. 208 pp. Cloth, $75.00; paper, $24.95. Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 120, Issue 1, Spring 2005, Pages 145–…
International Relations and Scientific Progress: Structural Realism Reconsidered
International Relations and Scientific Progress: Structural Realism Reconsidered
Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing
October 01 2004 Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Online ISSN: 1531-4804 Prin…
The Purpose of Intervention: Changing Beliefs about the Use of Force
Martha FinnemoreIthaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. x, 173pp, US$26.00 cloth (ISBN 0-8014-3845-4)All societies regulate the use of force among members. In international society, those states with the means to use force against others have enforced understandings of right and permissible conduct and punished actions branded as illegitimate through military intervention. Martha Finnemore argues that the reasons and meanings behind military …
The Progressiveness of Neoclassical Realism
Institutionalized Disagreement
July 01 2002 Institutionalized Disagreement Robert Jervis, Robert Jervis Professor of International Politics at Columbia University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Henry R. Nau, Henry R. Nau Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor of Pol…
Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In
Domestic Structure and Preventive War: Are Democracies More Pacific
Realists have long viewed uneven rates of growth among states as a major cause of wars. According to strict logic of realpolitik, a declining dominant power should launch a preventive war against a rising challenger as a prudent long-term security strategy. But historically, power shifts have only sometimes resulted in war. Although preventive war has been the preferred response of declining authoritarian leaders, no democracy has ever initiated …
Neorealism's status‐quo bias: What security dilemma
(1996). Neorealism's status‐quo bias: What security dilemma? Security Studies: Vol. 5, Realism: Restatements and Renewal, pp. 90-121
New Realist Research on Alliances: Refining, Not Refuting, Waltz's Balancing Proposition
Realism is both a scientific research program and, more traditionally, a political philosophy. All realists share a pessimistic worldview that posits perpetual struggle among groups for security, prestige, and power and that denies the capacity of human reason to create a world of peace and harmony. Recent research by so-called neotraditional realists does not disconfirm Waltz's balancing proposition. Instead, these works have tended to add unit-…
After Unipolarity: China's Visions of International Order in an Era of U.S. Decline
The emerging transition from unipolarity to a more multipolar distribution of global power presents a unique and unappreciated problem that largely explains why, contrary to the expectations of balance of power theory, a counterbalancing reaction to U.S. primacy has not yet taken place. The problem is that, under unipolarity and only unipolarity, balancing is a revisionist, not a status quo, behavior: its purpose is to replace the existing unbala…
Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing
October 01 2004 Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Online ISSN: 1531-4804 Prin…
Knowing the Unknown Unknowns: Misplaced Certainty and the Onset of War
International Relations (IR) theory grants a privileged place to uncertainty. In practice, however, the problem does not seem to be uncertainty but certainty: if only the decision makers would acknowledge uncertainty, conflict might somehow be avoided. We challenge the "uncertainty bias" of IR scholarship by developing misplaced certainty as a distinct and common pathway to war. By misplaced certainty we mean cases where decision makers are confi…
Unanswered threats: Political Constraints on the Balance of Power
"Why have states throughout history regularly underestimated dangers to their survival? Why have some states been able to mobilize their material resources effectively to balance against threats, while others have not been able to do so? The phenomenon of "underbalancing" is a common but woefully underexamined behavior in international politics. Underbalancing occurs when states fail to recognize dangerous threats, choose not to react to them, or…
Tripolarity and the Second World War
This essay seeks to offer a new structural account of the outbreak of World War II and a more determinate balance-of-power theory based on two modifications of Kenneth Waltz's theory of international politics. First, the distribution of power in the international system is more precisely specified. Instead of simply counting the number of Great Powers to determine system polarity, units are divided into poles and middle powers and weighted accord…
Power test: Evaluating realism in response to the end of the cold war
(2000). Power test: Evaluating realism in response to the end of the cold war. Security Studies: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 60-107
Emerging Powers in an Age of Disorder
Randall Schweller THE DRAMATIC RISE OF CHINA AND INDIA AMONG OTHERS HAS SET THE STAGE for a fundamental rethinking of world politics in an age of the waning dominance of US power as a force for remaking the world in its own image. While Pax Americana is not yet teetering on the edge of collapse, the consensus opinion is that the relative decline of the United States is probably irreversible and its unipolar moment will soon give way to something …
Linking the Levels: The Long Wave and Shifts in U.S. Foreign Policy, 1790- 1993
The end of the Cold War has rekindled the oldest debate in American foreign policy: the choice of intervention or isolation. Noting regular swings between Introversion and Extroversion in the orientation of U.S. policy, we offer an approach that links the systemic and domestic levels of analysis to understand this phenomenon. Specifically, the Long Wave in the global economy is linked to factors in a number of second image theories that have been…
Opposite but Compatible Nationalisms: A Neoclassical Realist Approach to the Future of US–China Relations
China’s new assertiveness and the sudden inward turn of United States are a function of causes located in both the second and third images. The key second-image variable is nationalism, which combines with the power trajectories (a third-image variable) of both China and the United States to define how their relationship will unfold in the coming years. The interaction between nationalism and power trajectory produces entirely different foreign p…
Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm? (Or Was Anybody Ever a Realist?)
July 01 2000 Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm? (Or Was Anybody Ever a Realist?) Peter D. Feaver, Peter D. Feaver Associate Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Gunther Hellmann, Gunther Hellmann Professor of Political Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Randall L. Schwel…
Not Whether But When: The U.S. Decision to Enlarge Nato
Entropy and the trajectory of world politics: Why polarity has become less meaningful
The random and indeterminate nature of the current unipolar world suggests a condition of increasing entropy. There are two reasons for this claim. First, relative capability advantages under unipolarity do not translate as easily as they once did into power and influence over others. Second, systemic constraint is a property that limits actors' freedom of action by imposing costs and benefits on certain kinds of actions. Unlike past multipolar a…
The future is uncertain and the end is always near
The standard view of contemporary unipolar politics is that systemic constraints impede the translation of American power capabilities into influence over security outcomes, rendering the United States (US) much less capable than its material capabilities imply. Challenging this logic, William Wohlforth and Stephen Brooks argue that systemic constraints under unipolarity are largely inoperative with respect to the security policies of the unipola…
Forum: Fantasy theory
I applaud Linklater for dreaming the impossible dream: a triple transformation of political community, whereby social relations become more universalistic, less unequal, and more sensitive to cultural differences. The primary mechanism posited for this change is the expansion of dialogic communities, in which insiders and outsiders recognise one another as moral equals and the special ties and ‘harmony of dispositions’ inherent in bounded communi…
The Power and Restraint of Waltzian Neorealism
Kenneth Waltz constructed a pure theory of international politics by isolating structural from unit-level causes. Today's return of great-power politics signals the persistent relevance of Waltz's notion of patterns and regularities driven by structural-systemic forces. We have entered an unbalanced bipolar world, in which America still exceeds China in every important category of national power but the gap is narrowing. The relative-power trajec…
Statement from the New Editor-in-Chief
Jack London acerbically remarked that the “chief qualification of ninety-nine per cent of all editors is failure.” I prefer Betsy Lerner's description of them as “the eyes of the world.”1For both q
Rational Theory for a Bygone Era
The logic and illogic of the security dilemma and contemporary realism: A response to Wagner’s critique
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Domestic Structure and Preventive War: Are Democracies More Pacific
Realists have long viewed uneven rates of growth among states as a major cause of wars. According to strict logic of realpolitik, a declining dominant power should launch a preventive war against a rising challenger as a prudent long-term security strategy. But historically, power shifts have only sometimes resulted in war. Although preventive war has been the preferred response of declining authoritarian leaders, no democracy has ever initiated …
Tripolarity and the Second World War
This essay seeks to offer a new structural account of the outbreak of World War II and a more determinate balance-of-power theory based on two modifications of Kenneth Waltz's theory of international politics. First, the distribution of power in the international system is more precisely specified. Instead of simply counting the number of Great Powers to determine system polarity, units are divided into poles and middle powers and weighted accord…
Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In
When Opponents Cooperate: Great Power Conflict and Collaboration in World Politics. Benjamin Miller After Bipolarity: The Vanishing Threat, Theories of Cooperation, and . Fred Chernoff
Neorealism's status‐quo bias: What security dilemma
(1996). Neorealism's status‐quo bias: What security dilemma? Security Studies: Vol. 5, Realism: Restatements and Renewal, pp. 90-121
A Tale of Two Realisms: Expanding the Institutions Debate
Recent developments in the study of international institutions have created a need and opportunity for restating the traditional realist view of the role of institutions in international relations. Advancing what he claimed was realism's perspective on this issue, John Mearsheimer (1994/95) forcefully staked out an extreme position that institutions are essentially epiphenomenal. Mearsheimer's arguments, however, derived from Waltzian neorealism,…
Crucible of Beliefs: Learning, Alliances, and World Wars, by Dan Reiter
New Realist Research on Alliances: Refining, Not Refuting, Waltz's Balancing Proposition
Realism is both a scientific research program and, more traditionally, a political philosophy. All realists share a pessimistic worldview that posits perpetual struggle among groups for security, prestige, and power and that denies the capacity of human reason to create a world of peace and harmony. Recent research by so-called neotraditional realists does not disconfirm Waltz's balancing proposition. Instead, these works have tended to add unit-…
Deadly imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's strategy of world conquest
Alliance Politics
Journal Article Alliance Politics Get access Alliance Politics by Glenn H. Snyder. Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 1997. 414 pp. $39.95. Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller The Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 113, Issue 3, Fall 1998, Pages 513–514, https://doi.org/10.2307/2658079 Published: 15 February 2013
Forum: Fantasy theory
I applaud Linklater for dreaming the impossible dream: a triple transformation of political community, whereby social relations become more universalistic, less unequal, and more sensitive to cultural differences. The primary mechanism posited for this change is the expansion of dialogic communities, in which insiders and outsiders recognise one another as moral equals and the special ties and ‘harmony of dispositions’ inherent in bounded communi…
Linking the Levels: The Long Wave and Shifts in U.S. Foreign Policy, 1790- 1993
The end of the Cold War has rekindled the oldest debate in American foreign policy: the choice of intervention or isolation. Noting regular swings between Introversion and Extroversion in the orientation of U.S. policy, we offer an approach that links the systemic and domestic levels of analysis to understand this phenomenon. Specifically, the Long Wave in the global economy is linked to factors in a number of second image theories that have been…
The Nazis' March to Chaos: The Hitler Era through the Lenses of Chaos-Complexity Theory
Preface Chaos-Complexity and History: Perspectives and Paradoxes The Third Reich as a Dialogue of Chaos and Order Facades Over Chaos: The Mystique of Nazi Technology Riding the Tide of Chaos: Auftragstaktik and the Law of the Situation Chaos versus Chaos: The Nationalsocialistiche Fuehrungsoffizier (NSFO) Program Grisly Fractals: Tracing the Holocaust's Roots and Branches Chaos versus Chaos II: Using Military Power Against the Holocaust Searching…
Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest
Power test: Evaluating realism in response to the end of the cold war
(2000). Power test: Evaluating realism in response to the end of the cold war. Security Studies: Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 60-107
Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm? (Or Was Anybody Ever a Realist?)
July 01 2000 Brother, Can You Spare a Paradigm? (Or Was Anybody Ever a Realist?) Peter D. Feaver, Peter D. Feaver Associate Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Gunther Hellmann, Gunther Hellmann Professor of Political Science at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Randall L. Schwel…
Not Whether But When: The U.S. Decision to Enlarge Nato
The Problem of International Order Revisited: A Review Essay
July 01 2001 The Problem of International Order Revisited: A Review Essay Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor of Political Science at Ohio State University and author of Deadly Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of World Conquest (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998) Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor …
After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars . G. John Ikenberry
Institutionalized Disagreement
July 01 2002 Institutionalized Disagreement Robert Jervis, Robert Jervis Professor of International Politics at Columbia University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Henry R. Nau, Henry R. Nau Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor of Pol…
The Progressiveness of Neoclassical Realism
International Relations and Scientific Progress: Structural Realism Reconsidered
International Relations and Scientific Progress: Structural Realism Reconsidered
Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing
October 01 2004 Unanswered Threats: A Neoclassical Realist Theory of Underbalancing Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Randall L. Schweller Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University. Online ISSN: 1531-4804 Prin…
The Purpose of Intervention: Changing Beliefs about the Use of Force
Martha FinnemoreIthaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. x, 173pp, US$26.00 cloth (ISBN 0-8014-3845-4)All societies regulate the use of force among members. In international society, those states with the means to use force against others have enforced understandings of right and permissible conduct and punished actions branded as illegitimate through military intervention. Martha Finnemore argues that the reasons and meanings behind military …
The Paradox of Peace: Leaders, Decisions, and Conflict Resolution
Journal Article The Paradox of Peace: Leaders, Decisions, and Conflict Resolution Get access The Paradox of Peace: Leaders, Decisions, and Conflict Resolution by John D. Orme. New York, Palgrave, 2004. 208 pp. Cloth, $75.00; paper, $24.95. Randall L. Schweller Randall L. Schweller Ohio State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 120, Issue 1, Spring 2005, Pages 145–…
Political science (35 works) · Law (32 works) · Politics (29 works) · International Relations and Foreign Policy (28 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Law (23 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Economics (16 works) · Political economy (13 works) · History (12 works)