Bound by Struggle: The Strategic Evolution of Enduring International Rivalries. By Zeev Maoz and Ben D. Mor. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 368p. $60.00.

One of the most intriguing empirical facts about international conflict is that a vast majority of militarized disputes and wars occur within a very small subset of pairs of states. Scholars have noted the very intense nature of relations within these dyads—dubbed rivalries—and have provided numerous studies of what causes the frequent conflicts between them. In this book, Zeev Maoz and Ben D. Mor move away from this segment of the literature by treating rivalries, not the conflicts that occur within them, as the unit of analysis. They provide a study of how rivalries start, develop, and terminate, using an evolutionary model of interstate relations. This analytical orientation provides the basis for an ambitious, thorough, and complex portrayal of rivalry development.

Our Enemies and Us: America's Rivalries and the Making of Political Science. By Ido Oren. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. 256p. $29.95.

Political scientists periodically step back and reflect on the state of their discipline. Some explore the origins and development of a particular methodological approach to the study of politics, such as behavioralism or public choice. Others place developments in political science in a broader political and cultural context, such as progressivism or liberal reformism. Oftentimes such reflections are laudatory, championing the wisdom that has accrued in the discipline over time. Every so often, however, a critical voice is raised, not only questioning the empirical work being done in the field but challenging the assumptions upon which such work is based. Ido Oren's book is an important addition to this literature. It compels political scientists to stop and think about what they are doing in the discipline and what ideas from the past they may unintentionally be bringing into their empirical work.

A Certain Idea of Europe. By Craig Parsons. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 256p. $39.95.

This book offers perhaps the most carefully researched analytical study to date of French policymaking in European integration covering most of the post–World War II period. It seeks to show how certain ideas about Europe have shaped the French pursuit of European institutions and, by extension, European outcomes themselves. Ideas, Craig Parsons argues, have provided a measurable “constant cause” fueling the process of European integration. This process, however, was far from linear, as competing ideas battled for dominance in policy discourse and action at all key junctures of integration.

Distant Proximities: Dynamics Beyond Globalization. By James N. Rosenau. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 448p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

In this book, James N. Rosenau draws together in a helpful, systematic way much of his thinking on global governance and globalization from the past decade. As with other aspects of his work, it is conceptually creative, detailed, and normative. He believes that political science needs to move beyond conceptual frameworks where the nation-state provides the central focus. He justifies this position by arguing that the “the best way to grasp world affairs today requires viewing them as an endless series of distant proximities in which the forces pressing for greater globalization and those inducing greater localization interactively play themselves out” (p. 2). Putting these “distant proximities” at the center of our analysis will challenge distinctions like those between domestic and foreign affairs or comparative politics and international relations.

China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March. By Andrew Scobell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 316p. $65.00 cloth, $23.00 paper.

Like heavyweight boxers at the end of a round, the disputing sides in the debate over China's rise have retreated to their respective corners. In one corner are those who stress China's peaceful dispositions in development and consider the country a stable actor in regional security. In the other corner are those who claim that behind the façade of Chinese pacifism lies a strong desire for the fulfillment of “rich country and strong army” and “revolutionary political culture” embedded in the Chinese variant of Marxism-Leninism, and who therefore perceive the country as a potential challenger to the current pecking order of power. These dichotomous views are partially rooted in the two divergent interpretations of China's strategic culture in its use of military force—a nonviolent, defensive, accommodationist, idealized Confucian-Mencian paradigm symbolized by the Great Wall, and a zero-sum, offense-oriented, violent “hard realpolitik” (“parabellum”) paradigm as illuminated particularly in Alastair Iain Johnston's (1995) Cultural Realism. While each side's position seems well entrenched, Andrew Scobell attempts to combine both strategic strains in a crafty synthesis—“Chinese Cult of Defense, in which realist behavior dominates but is justified as defensive on the basis of a pacifist self-perception” (p. 38).

Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. By P. W. Singer. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 368p. $39.95.

Peter Singer has produced a highly commendable volume for the Cornell Studies in Security Affairs series on an area of study that has received relatively little attention within the academic world. Much of the existing literature focuses on the mercenary end of private military companies (PMCs) and ignores the breadth of the industry. Similarly, the debate on transformation has tended to focus on technology and changing approaches to the conduct of war; relatively little has concerned itself with the increasing role of the privatized military companies, yet, as Singer points out, 1 in 10 of those deployed by the United States in the most recent war in Iraq was a contractor. It is not just the scale of the industry at present (one estimate puts it at $100 billion per year) that makes it an important area for study. It is also that this industry covers the full spectrum of defense activities. It ranges from service provision at home to the provision of combat services and military units. This will become even more so as we move away from the linear battlefield and the idea of a front line melts away. Moreover, this is not just a Third World issue; virtually every state uses elements of the industry, with the United States being the largest user.

The IMF and Economic Development. By James Raymond Vreeland. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 216p. $70.00 cloth, $22.00 paper.

This insightful and carefully researched work by James Raymond Vreeland should end once and for all the debate on whether participation in an International Monetary Fund program tends to improve or depress economic growth. The answer is a resounding no in that, on average, economic growth is roughly 1.5% slower when countries are under an IMF program than otherwise, according to Vreeland. This finding is consistent with several studies—mostly written by authors on the Left—although he takes pains to leave ideology at the door. Rather, he puts together the most systematic and exhaustive study of the subject to date in order to show how the same finding can be arrived at with methods that are qualitative and quantitative, empirical and abstract. Although the result tends toward repetition, there is something here for everyone.

Getting It Done: Post-Agreement Negotiation and International Regimes. Edited by Bertram I. Spector and I. William Zartman. Washington, DC: United States Institute for Peace, 2003. 332p. $39.95 cloth, $17.50 paper.

The authors of this edited volume make a useful contribution to scholarship by bringing negotiation theory into the analysis of international regimes. As they note, the approach builds on earlier work on bargaining and regime formation. (See especially two seminal works by Oran Young, “Regime Dynamics,” in Stephen Krasner, ed., International Regimes, 1983; and “Politics of Regime Formation,” International Organization 37 [no. 3, 1989]: 349–76). Getting It Done further examines how regime participants continue to negotiate rules after the ink has dried on their foundational agreements. In doing so, the volume serves as a helpful reminder that regimes evolve in response to changes in the international and domestic environments. Gauging the effectiveness or strength of a regime, as these authors suggest, requires analyzing the negotiations that occur after a regime is established and evaluating whether, indeed, the collective action problem the regime was intended to resolve is being resolved.

The editors of Perspectives on Politics regret that the title of Kent Portney's Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously appeared incorrectly when reviewed in the previous issue. We apologize for the mistake.