This succinct yet comprehensive introduction is the first text to gear foreign policy analysis (FPA) theory toward advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Cogently written, clearly organized, and filled with illuminating examples, the second edition has now been thoroughly revised and updated. Beginning with an overview of this broad field of study, Valerie M. Hudson then considers theory and research at multiple levels of analysis, including personality and psychology of foreign policy decision makers and decision making, small group dynamics, the organizational process, bureaucratic politics, domestic politics, cultural and societal influences on foreign policy, national attributes, and system-level effects on foreign policy. In a new chapter, the author also examines the promise and frustration of theoretical integration in FPA and overviews promising new work by non–North American scholars. She concludes with an analysis of where the next generation of foreign policy scholars can make important contributions to the field.

Product Description: Sex and World Peace unsettles a variety of assumptions in political and security discourse, demonstrating that the security of women is a vital factor in the security of the state and its incidence of conflict and war. The authors compare micro-level gender violence and macro-level state peacefulness in global settings, supporting their findings with detailed analyses and color maps...read more

What happens to a society that has too many men? In this provocative book, Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer argue that, historically, high male-to-female ratios often trigger domestic and international violence. Most violent crime is committed by young unmarried males who lack stable social bonds. Although there is not always a direct cause-and-effect relationship, these surplus men often play a crucial role in making violence prevalent within society. Governments sometimes respond to this problem by enlisting young surplus males in military campaigns and high-risk public works projects. Countries with high male-to-female ratios also tend to develop authoritarian political systems.Hudson and den Boer suggest that the sex ratios of many Asian countries, particularly China and India -- which represent almost 40 percent of the world's population -- are being skewed in favor of males on a scale that may be unprecedented in human history. Through offspring sex selection (often in the form of sex-selective abortion and female infanticide), these countries are acquiring a disproportionate number of low-status young adult males, called "bare branches" by the Chinese.Hudson and den Boer argue that this surplus male population in Asia's largest countries threatens domestic stability and international security. The prospects for peace and democracy are dimmed by the growth of bare branches in China and India, and, they maintain, the sex ratios of these countries will have global implications in the twenty-first century.

This classic work has helped shape the field of international relations and especially influenced scholars interested in how foreign policy is made. At a time when conventional wisdom and traditional approaches are being questioned, and when there is increased interest in the importance of process, the insights of Snyder, Bruck and Sapin have continuing and increased relevance. Prescient in its focus on the effects on foreign policy of individuals and their preconceptions, organizations and their procedures, and cultures and their values, Foreign Policy Decision-Making is of continued relevance for anyone seeking to understand the ways foreign policy is made. Their seminal framework is here complemented by two new chapters examining its influence on generations of scholars, the current state of the field, and areas for future research. (view table of contents)

Product Description: For over a decade researchers in international relations have sought ways to combine the rigor of quantitative techniques with the richness of qualitative data. Many have discovered that artificial intelligence computer models allow them to do just that...read more