Guerrillas, Terrorists, and Polarity
New Structural Models of World Politics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3597060 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Louis Rene Beres (Purdue University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1974 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 624-636 |
| Publication date | 1974-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Western Political Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0043-4078 • E-ISSN: 2325-8675 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/106591297402700405 |
| OpenAlex | W2087036138 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 6 |
IT IS commonplace for international relations scholars to characterize world politics in terms of the prevailing pattern of global power. This pattern typically determines the particular configuration of conflict axes (structure) in the world system. While the most prominent characterizations have centered about the bipolar-multipolar debate,1 a variety of more complex conceptualizations has been developed in recent years. Stemming from a growing dissatisfaction with the adequacy of bipolar and multipolar categories, alternative models have been described in terms of a multiplicity of blocs,2 the increasing interpenetration of global conflict axes with regional or subsystemic ones,3 and vertically layered combinations of bipolarity and multipolarity.4 In another well-known case, the basic bipolar structure is used to inform the creation of four sub-categories which allow for more sophisticated kinds of theorizing about global structure.5 This is accomplished by dividing the bipolar universe of cases into four new categories based upon the ratio of power between poles and the extent to which secondary national actors share in the power. All of these efforts represent creative attempts by scholars to render their structural models more accurate reflections of world politics. Typically well-reasoned and imaginative, they have generated an increased awareness of both the extraordinary complexity of global structure and the profoundly important implications of this structure for stability, power-management and system transformation. For these reasons, the growing body of international relations theory is appreciably more incisive, notably more congruent with the ever-changing configurations of the patterns and processes it seeks to understand. This does not mean, however, that structural modeling of world politics has reached its final and complete expression. As long as it is recognized that the prevailing pattern of global power is constantly in flux, the same condition must apply to the work of those who study it. Changes and prospective changes in the characteristic conflict axes of world politics must be paralleled by changes in their scholarly reconstructions
Computer security · Criminology · Polarity (international relations) · Political science · Politics · Chemistry · Computer Science · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,12 |
| Citation span | 1977 - 2005 (29) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |