Scott A. Silverstone's Books

Divided Union

The Politics of War in the Early American Republic

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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Divided Union

The Politics of War in the Early American Republic

By: Scott A. Silverstone

Between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, the United States was embroiled in competitive inter-state politics. Although it did not directly involve itself in European affairs, the United States did engage regularly in dangerous struggles with other states and with colonial powers with territory on the American periphery. Aside from the War of 1812, the Oregon Crisis, and the Mexican War, other "near misses" included here—disputes of 1807 and 1809 with Britain, with Spain over East Florida in 1811–13, with Mexico in 1853, and disputes with Spain over Cuba in 1853–55 and with Mexico in 1858–1860—have been ignored in the democratic peace literature. Scott A. Silverstone finds these cases particularly useful for testing alternative explanations of constraints on armed conflict, because the United States backed down each time, allowing each crisis to pass short of its full potential for violence.Silverstone builds on a nascent theory of institutional constraints on the use of force presented in the Federalist Papers to explain American attitudes toward participation in conflicts. He argues that the federal character of American democracy that emerged from the founding and the large size of the new American republic provide the keys to understanding its decision-making processes. Divided Union shows how the institutional features of federal union and the diverse social, economic, and security interests within this geographically extended republic created political conditions that impeded the use of force by the United States before the Civil War.

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290

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

150172665X

ISBN 13

9781501726651

From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

The Enduring False Promise of Preventive War

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

The Enduring False Promise of Preventive War

By: Scott A. Silverstone

This book boldly challenges conventional wisdom about the value of preventive war. Beginning with the rise of German power and the French and British response to the Rhineland crisis leading to World War II, Scott Silverstone overturns the common impulse to point an accusing finger at British leadership for its alleged naïveté, willful blindness, or outright cowardice. Arguing against the belief that Britain could have contained Germany and avoided war if it had used force when Hitler remilitarized the Rhineland, the author uses this dramatic event to wrestle with a general strategic problem that has broad relevance for our current foreign policy dilemmas. Silverstone argues that the Rhineland crisis is a critical case for studying a central dynamic of world history—power shifts among states—and the preventive war temptation that power shifts frequently produce. There has been surging interest in the idea of preventive war, an interest stimulated by the Bush administration’s articulation of the “preemption doctrine” in 2002 and the disastrous invasion of Iraq in 2003, and by frustration over the difficulty of preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons by such states as North Korea and Iran. Clarifying the way we think about preventive war, the author analyzes the enduring strategic flaws in preventive war that must inform how political leaders and the public think about this option as a means of dealing with shifting threats in the modern world. Offering a radically conservative argument for when to wage war, this persuasive book will be essential reading for policy makers and concerned citizens alike.

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Page Count

335

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442274468

ISBN 13

9781442274464

Preventive War and American Democracy

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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Preventive War and American Democracy

By: Scott A. Silverstone

This volume explores the preventive war option in American foreign policy, from the early Cold War strategic problems created by the growth of Soviet and Chinese power, to the post-Cold War fears of a nuclear-armed North Korea, Iraq and Iran. For several decades after the Second World War, American politicians and citizens shared the belief that a war launched in the absence of a truly imminent threat or in response to another's attack was raw aggression. Preventive war was seen as contrary to the American character and its traditions, a violation of deeply held normative beliefs about the conditions that justify the use of military force. This 'anti-preventive war norm' had a decisive restraining effect on how the US faced the shifting threat in this period. But by the early 1990s the Clinton administration considered the preventive war option against North Korea and the Bush administration launched a preventive war against Iraq without a trace of the anti-preventive war norm that was central to the security ethos of an earlier era. While avoiding the sharp partisan and ideological tone of much of the recent discussion of preventive war, Preventive War and American Democracy explains this change in beliefs and explores its implications for the future of American foreign policy.

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Page Count

264

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

0415952301

ISBN 13

9780415952309

Preventive War and American Democracy

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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Preventive War and American Democracy

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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264

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Routledge

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ISBN 10

0415952301

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9780415952309

Divided Union

The Politics of War in the Early American Republic

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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Divided Union

The Politics of War in the Early American Republic

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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290

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Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

150172665X

ISBN 13

9781501726651

From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

The Enduring False Promise of Preventive War

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

The Enduring False Promise of Preventive War

By: Scott A. Silverstone

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335

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442274468

ISBN 13

9781442274464

Journals

Captain Scott's Last Expedition

By: Robert Falcon Scott

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Journals

Captain Scott's Last Expedition

By: Robert Falcon Scott

Captain Scott's own account of his tragic race with Roald Amundsen for the South Pole thrilled the world in 1913. This new edition of his Journals publishes for the first time a complete list of the changes made to Scott's original text before publication.

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Page Count

592

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199536805

ISBN 13

9780199536801

Book's by Scott A. Silverstone

Divided Union

Divided Union

From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

Preventive War and American Democracy

Preventive War and American Democracy

Preventive War and American Democracy

Preventive War and American Democracy

Divided Union

Divided Union

From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

From Hitler's Germany to Saddam's Iraq

Journals

Journals

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