Global Security in the Twenty-First Century: The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace

About the Book

This thoroughly updated edition of Global Security in the Twenty-First Century offers a balanced introduction to contemporary security dilemmas throughout the world. Sean Kay assesses the impact of the global economic crisis on international security and considers how the range of thinking about power and peace has evolved in relation to major flashpoints including in the Middle East, Asia, and Eurasia. Kay builds on the first and second edition’s emphasis on the roles of trade and technology, the militarization of space, the privatization of security, the use of sanctions, ethnic conflict, and transnational crime. This edition goes even farther to incorporate traditional thinking about national security in the context of human rights, democracy, population, health, environment, energy, and especially education. The author includes full updates on emerging challenges out of Iraq, Russia, and viral diseases in the context of larger strategic questions like the rise of China and America’s “pivot” to rebalance its priorities toward Asia. Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.

Table of Contents:

Contents

Preface
1. Dynamics of Global Security
Globalization of Security
The New Distribution of Power
The Nation-State
Soft Power
Asymmetric Power
The Power of Nature
Overview of the Book
Suggested Reading

2. The Quest for Power
The Traditions of Realism
The Security Dilemma and Incentives for War
Misperception, Coercion, and Credibility
Offensive Realism
The Realist Path to Security
Deterrence
Alliances and Concerts
Hegemonic Stability and Offshore Balancing
Realism Revised
Global Security
Primacy and the New Balancing
Alliances, Dissuasion, and Strategic Partnerships
Asymmetric Threats, Ethnic Conflict, and Identity Realism
Clash of Civilizations
Economic Realism
Realists as Optimists
Summary
Suggested Reading

3. The Search for Peace
Liberalism
Neoliberal Institutionalism
Cooperative Security
Peace through Commerce
Democratic Peace and Security Communities
Emerging Security Paradigms
Constructivism
Transnational Civil Society
Pacifism and Peace Movements
Postmodernism
Feminism and Gender
Revolutionary Approaches
Summary
Suggested Reading

4. Great Powers and Grand Strategy
The United States
Russia
China
The European Union
Summary
Suggested Reading

5. Regional Flash Points
India and Pakistan
The Balance of Power and Nuclear Weapons
Limited Deterrence
Nuclear Dangers
The Korean Peninsula
The North Korean Threat
The Nuclear Environment
Averting Conflict—or a Nuclear Chain Reaction?
Taiwan
One China or Two?
Unconventional War and Strategic Consequences
Taiwan’s Security Dilemma
Interdependence and the Case against War
The Persian Gulf and the Middle East
American Primacy and the Iraq Conundrum
Iran, Israel, and the Geopolitical Balance
The Saudi Question
An Uncertain Future
Eurasia
Russian Hegemony and Balancing
Great Power Alignments
Beyond the Status Quo
Summary
Suggested Reading

6. Technology and the Business of Security
Revolution in Military Affairs
The Limits of Technology in War
From Science Fiction to Modern War
The Dilemma of Advanced Technology
Information and Security
Information Power
Knowledge and Power
The Military Use of Space
Spacepower
Space Dominance
The Space Race
Strategic Dilemmas in Space: Missile Defense and Antisatellite Weapons
The Business of Security
The A. Q. Khan Nuclear Shopping Center
Security Privatization
Private Security Companies
Outsourcing War
The New Agenda Setters
Sanctioning Security
The Sanctions Dilemma
Are Sanctions Better Than Nothing?
Summary
Suggested Reading

7. Asymmetric Conflict
Strategy and Tactics of Asymmetric Conflict
Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing
The Balkans
Rwanda
Never Again?
Terrorism and Insurgency
The Meaning and Use of Terror
The Evolution of Modern Terrorism
Al Qaeda
The Globalization of Terror
Terrorism and Weapons of Mass Destruction
Defensive Dilemmas
Summary
Suggested Reading

8. Human Security
What is Human Security?
Human Rights and Democracy
Contemporary Challenges to Human Rights
Degrees of Democracy
Population and Demographic Change
Population Trends and Demographic Developments
Migration and Refugees
Food and Health
The Human Costs of War
The Impact of War on Individuals
The Social Effects of War
The Impact of War on the Environment
Summary
Suggested Reading

9. The Environment and Energy Security
What is Environmental Security?
The Environment as a Source of Conflict
An Evolving Environmental Security Paradigm
Beyond Environmental Security
Conceptualizing Energy Security
Security Energy Resources and Flows
Economic Development and Energy Security
Environmental Dangers
Climate Change
Deforestation and Land Use
Water Security
Energy Scarcity and Safety
Nuclear Energy
Summary
Suggested Reading

10. Meeting the Challenges of Power and Peace
Applying Global Security Concepts
The Quest for Power
The Search for Peace
From Theory to Practice: Education and Global Security
Education and Global Security
Education and National Power
Education in Peace and Conflict
What Can You Do?
Conclusion
Suggested Reading

About the Author :
Sean Kay is Robson Professor of Politics and Government at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he is also director of the Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and chair of the International Studies Program. He is also an associate of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at the Ohio State University and a fellow at the Eisenhower Institute in Washington, D.C.

Review :
Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security. Sean Kay has written one of those rare studies that is truly as important as its subject. With clear-eyed prose, sober intelligence, and scholarly depth, he examines a comprehensive array of today's new global security challenges—illuminating every important issue of the day related to international peace and stability, from crucial new areas such as the security consequences of global warming and energy scarcity to perennial problems in the search for international peace and prosperity. Anyone looking to make an impact on international affairs should start here I would rank Global Security in the Twenty-first Century as one of the finest textbooks on the market today for international security courses. It presents an innovative and effective balance of classic and contemporary dimensions of security. Another great asset is Kay's deft ability to combine theoretical approaches and policy-oriented questions and frameworks. His book offers an authoritative, thoughtful, and highly engaging discussion of critical issues in global security. Sean Kay's comprehensive book provides an important guide to power and peace in the era of globalization. It places traditional international relations theories into the modern context, analyzes great power relations, assesses regional flashpoints, discusses human and environmental security, and evaluates the impact of technology on security policy. This is essential reading for any student of national security affairs. This book addresses the dialectic between the quest for power and the search for peace, one of the most important issues of our time. A work of exceptional clarity and depth, it ought to set the agenda for how the international community understands and provides security for the rest of us. Sean Kay has written a brilliant and sweeping strategic survey of today's world environment. It is a must-read for all those who want to understand the security complexities and challenges we face and the policy implications this changing world presents. The book is so well organized and written that it provides students with a solid foundation upon which to build their understanding of the evolving geopolitics of security. In this fully updated edition of Global Security, Kay responds to national and transnational challenges confronting Americans after lackluster economic growth, enormous increases in the national debt, and emergence of new militarized threats, doubling down on the well-founded optimism of his earlier work. Here, students learn that great power struggle over the future of Europe and the developed world’s response to continuing poverty and public health catastrophes in the Global South are of a piece. In this democratic age, Kay teaches how ordinary individuals prepare important contributions to improve global security through determined pursuit of a liberal education, one that is imbued with scientific reasoning, empathy for the human condition, and a passion for testing theories as much as delivering the ideological goods.