Customer Reviews

World Politics: The Menu for Choice

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is one of two texts used in Rice's International Relations class. While the bulk of our reading comes from this text, after a month, I figured out this book was definitely not meant to be a stand-alone. Thus, the second text (Case Histories in International Politics by Kendall W. Stiles). Allow me to explain.

This book essentially talks extensively about various key concepts in international politics. Let's use power as an example. This book devotes an entire chapter to a discussion of power in international politics. It goes on to discuss how, for example, various elements of a state leads to the perception of the state's relative power. Then it talks about how the state uses its image in the world (based on this perception of power) to get what it wants. Bottom line, the book is mostly conceptual. It is true that it has included countless examples from the real world to illustrate its points, but this is the reason why it cannot be a stand-alone.

Case Histories in International Politics by Kendall W. Stiles makes a great complement to this book in that it involves more extensive case studies of various international conflicts in a more or less unbiased tone (the author's intention, as stated in the foreword, is to remain as unbiased as humanly possible). At the end of each case study is a list of exploration/discussion questions. This is where the concepts from Russett, Starr, and Kinsella come in handy. The idea is that you learn about concepts in international relations from World Politics, and apply them to international conflicts to try and explore why certain conflicts took place.

I believe the whole point of this book is to remain as conceptually-minded as possible, which is also its weakness. If you are looking for a way to appreciate international politics better, this is probably not the best book for you. But if you are looking to find a way to run a more extensive study on international politics and are willing to go for a supplemental text to achieve that goal, this book can be helpful in strengthening the conceptual side of international politics.

I had the misfortune of taking International Relations taught by one of the writers of this book, Harvey Starr. Normally, I get a textbook and may never even have to open, since most teachers only test on material from the lectures. However, since the author was my teacher, I read this book and am thankful that I did.
The book does a good job of explaining many concepts related to international relations. At times the material is pretty boring, but what can you expect from a textbook? One thing that I didn't like about the book was that there isn't really a chapter summary at the end of each chapter. Also, the terms that are presented in bold face throughout the book, aren't all found in either the glossary or the ends of the chapters. You have to read every page of every chapter if you want to find all of the important terms. Unless you check out the companion website. This is where both chapter summaries and key terms can be found without all the extra verbiage that the chapters contain. The companion website basically made the textbook pointless.
Overall, I would give the textbook a rating of two and the companion website a rating of four, so I'll go with the middle ground and give this product a three. Before you buy the book you might want to do a web search for the companion website, since you don't need any key to access it. You could probably just save your hundred (or more) dollars and still get all of the important information that this book presents.

I have used this book in the World Politics class that I have been teaching at the local community college. In many ways, it seems more in line with an advanced undergraduate or even graduate level introductory text on various conceptual issues and frameworks possible for the analysis of international relations.

The idea of the `menu' of choices is introduced early, and this menu draws upon the different levels of analysis available from schemes such as that by James Rosenau (which identifies six levels: individual decisionmakers, decisionmaker roles, government structures, society, relations between state and international actors, and world system). These are options within the menu, but then there are elements of opportunity and willingness that are coupled with other elements for a more complex analysis.

From this beginning, different paradigms are given, including realist (realpolitick), idealist/liberal (idealpolitick), and radical (Marxist and other) paradigms. The same events, actors and issues can be explored in each of these paradigms, yielding different results. There are a few other paradigms referenced, but these are not generally used through the text.

The overall structure of the book then goes to looking at world politics and international relations both from a world systems view to comparative and foreign policy standpoints. Following this is a section on international conflict and cooperation, including international law and issues of war and peace. Next is a section on international political economy, which looks at issues of defense, resources, developmental gaps, integration and globalization issues. The final section address future possibilities in three modes, as well as pressing problems facing the world on a major scale at present.

The authors use game theory quite extensively throughout the text (which was sometimes confusing for my first-year and second-year undergraduate students - this is where the idea that this should be a graduate student text arises for me). As the authors state, this book uses game theory `more, indeed, than most other books of this sort. Rational choice analysis is an increasingly common approach to the study of world politics.' Game theory is an effective way of doing this, but presupposes a certain level of comfort with the concepts (often mathematically or logically based) that some of my students did not have.

I do appreciate the extra resources available for students via their website. There is also a good number of maps, charts, graphs and other pieces beyond the simple narrative text that are helpful to students. However, this book does presume some level of familiarity with the international system, governments in general, and some degree of history that many beginning undergraduates do not possess. I would gladly use this text again for an advanced undergraduate text, possibly for a course that follows a comparative politics course.

I got sent a completely different book. The book I recieved is called Social Work and Social Welfare( An introduction). What the hell bookbytes123 cant get your books right I ordered World Politics: The Menu for choice, not that other book!!!!! I am extremely dissappointed!!! DO NOT BUY FROM BOOKBYTES 123!!!

Item was delivered just as promised, and was a great price compared to other online sources. Shipping was reasonable, and the book arrived in a reasonable timeframe

I buy books from three sources: Amazon online (80%), airport bookstores (15%), and selected university bookstores (5%). This one came to me from a visit to the University of Colorado bookstore, where I was quite impressed by the breadth and depth of the selection across all topics.

I bought this book because the table of contents is one of the very best I have seen, and even if only the table of contents were memoized, one would be well-prepared for a senior undergraduate or master's degree final examination.

While grotesquely over-priced, as most textbooks are (it cost the publisher $5.70, at most, to print this book, a penny a page), I will leave that to the side, but it is a factor in the loss of one star.

This book could and should be completely re-designed to add more white space, dramatically improve the coverage of the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight challenges, dramatically improve the coverage of decision-support both secret and non-secret, and introduce a complete new section on national, regional, and global budgets as they represent our actual priorities, together with a completely new section on sub-state (vice non-governmental) tribes, clans, families, and neighborhoods. In my view, this book has the potential to be a "keeper" for every student that buys it, and I would design it--and price it--accordingly.

The books lacks a more revisionist appreciation of the damage that the United Kingdom and the USA have done in their combined two centuries of colonialism, unilateral militarism including horrendous war crimes against most indigenous cultures, and predatory capitalism (not ignoring the same crimes by Spain and Portugal, France, Germany, and Russia).

Were I teaching today, I would lean toward assigning this as the text to one third of the class, with the two books below being assigned to the other two thirds of the class, and everyone having to also buy the third book. See my comment for a URL where anyone can receive, for free, a weekly report, "GLOBAL REALITY: The Week in Review," covering in less than 8 pages, the ten threats, twelve policies, and eight major players other than the EU and US.

The two books below are better than this book, but this book is most definitely in my top three. See my lists for many other books regarding the information society, intelligence, emerging threats, strategy & force structure, anti-Americanism, blowback, and dissent, and the negative impact of domestic politics on sound foreign policy.

Security Studies for the 21st Century
Understanding International Conflicts (6th Edition) (Longman Classics in Political Science)
The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political--Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption

This particular book happens to be a very good textbook, but in tradtional textbook fashion, i'm not keeping myself up at night reading it for fun til the wee hours of the mornin. If your school requires you to have this book, then you will get it. If not, you won't. It is really that simple. My opinion of it is irrelevant. That said, It is a tolerable book on a moderately interesting subject, so if you are forced to read it, then don't despare.

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When I bought this book I thought it would develop my interest in politics. Instead I found that this book does not make sense at all sometimes and assumes that the reader knows all the events it is talking about. I don't recommend this book at all !!

Have not started the class yet, but very wary of how the information will be diseminated.