November 2009
Emerging Multipolarity: Why Should We Care?
by Barry R. Posen
“Isolation is perhaps the most dangerous situation in multipolarity, so states will pay close and constant attention to the game of coalition building.”
Pax Americana and the Rising Powers
by Rajan Menon
“While unipolar triumphalists deny historic changes are under way, multipolar pessimists exaggerate the pace of these changes and are cocksure about what lies ahead.”
How To Govern a Multipolar World
by David P. Calleo
“Can Europe’s postwar experience with multinational institutions help bring order to the increasingly plural world system that is unfolding in the twenty-first century?”
The Washington Bubble: Why US Foreign Policy Is Oversized
by Stephen F. Szabo
“Given the growing limits on both American and Western power, the United States will have to learn to live with unpleasant states and avoid an infinitely elastic sense of its interests and power. ”
Power Shuffle: Will the Coming Transition Be Peaceful?
by Erik Gartzke
“If the transition to a new power structure is abrupt or uneven, or if it is difficult for leaders to ascertain what exactly has come to pass, then the risk of conflict will increase.”
Who Will Sustain Globalization?
by Adam S. Posen
“The very emerging markets whose populations have benefited most from global integration in recent years are the ones whose relative role in global affairs is being advanced as a result of the recent financial crisis.”
Perspective: The World Still Needs a Leader
by Leslie H. Gelb
Constraints on the exercise of power are growing. Even so, other nations continue to need Washington’s leadership to address global challenges.
Books: When Great Powers Get Together
by William W. Finan Jr.
A new book on the history of the UN Security Council celebrates the body that, for all its flaws and failures, has helped prevent military clashes between major powers.
The Month in Review
by The Editors of Current History
An international chronology of events in September 2009, country by country, day by day.
