Renegade Regimes: Confronting Deviant Behavior in World Politics / Edition 1

by Miroslav Nincic

Overview

Rogue states pursue weapons of mass destruction, support terrorism, violate human rights, engage in acts of territorial aggression, and pose a threat to the international community. Recent debates and policy shifts regarding Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan reflect the uneven attempts to contend with regimes that pursue deviant behavior. In this timely new work, Miroslav Nincic illuminates the complex issues and policy choices surrounding clashes between international society and states that challenge the majority's espoused interests and values. As conventional approaches to international relations lose their relevance in a changing world, Nincic's work provides new and necessary frameworks and perspectives.

Nincic explores recent events and develops theoretical models of contemporary asymmetrical power relations among states to offer a systematic account of the genesis, trajectory, and motivations of renegade regimes. He discusses how the pursuit of policies that defy international norms is often motivated by a regime's desire for greater domestic control. From this starting point, Nincic considers states' deviant behavior through two stages: the first is the initial decision to defy key aspects of the international normative order, and the second is the manner in which subsequent behavior is shaped by the international community's responses.

In addressing attempts to control pariah states, Nincic assesses the effectiveness of sanctions and military responses. He provocatively argues that comprehensive economic sanctions can lead to a restructuring of the renegade regime's ideology and economy that ultimately strengthens its grip on power. In his chapter on military intervention, Nincic argues that force or the threat of force against a rogue state frequently triggers a protective reflex among its citizens, inspiring them to rally around the government's goals and values. Military threats, Nincic concludes, produce several kinds of consequences and their impact needs to be better understood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231137034
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	11/15/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Miroslav Nincic is professor of political science at the University of California, Davis. He is the author or coauthor of eight books, including Beyond the Ivory Tower: International Relations Theory and the Issue of Policy Relevance.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Acknowledgments
1. From Power Politics to International Deviance
2. The Logic of Renegade Regimes: A Theoretical Framework
3. Recognizing Renegades
4. Primary Renegades and the Genesis of Deviance
5. Secondary Renegades and Nonmilitary Responses
6. The Value of Military Coercion
7. Closing Thoughts
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Eric V. Larson

This is a marvelous book. Nincic places the field of international relations at an intellectual crossroads: the field can either come to terms with recent changes in world politics and one of the challenges of our time -- managing renegade regimes whose actions challenge the majority's interests and values -- or it can slide into policy irrelevance. A tour de force from one of the international relations field's more perceptive analysts.

— Eric V. Larson, senior policy analyst, the Rand Corporation

Jack S. Levy

A new era requires new concepts. Nincic provides an innovative framework for analyzing new problems in a fundamentally transformed world. It is indispensable both for understanding contemporary security threats and for constructing policies to deal with them.

— Jack S. Levy, Rutgers University, author of War in the Modern Great Power System, 1495-1975

Editorial Reviews

[A] timely and important work.

The Review of Politics

This illuminating book explores the origins and politics of these new problem states and the policy choices available.

Foreign Affairs

Nincic has produced an outstanding volume that takes deviance in world politics seriously. -Millennium Book Review.

— Isaac Kamola

Millenium Book Reviews

This book is an outstanding contribution to the development of 21st-century theories that account for the behavior of renegade states.

Choice

"Nincic has produced an outstanding volume that takes deviance in world politics seriously." -Millennium Book Review.

Millenium Book Reviews - Isaac Kamola