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Trump's accidental presidency is an ideal test of the strength and robustness of the international-relations canon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although Trump and China will test the international order, books by Paul K. MacDonald & Joseph M. Parent and Aaron M. Zack suggest systemic stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

His eponymous wall notwithstanding, Hadrian was a prudent realist who put reason ahead of fear and interest ahead of glory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a few persistent, high-profile conflicts in the Middle East, the world is experiencing an era of unprecedented peace and stability. Many scholars have offered explanations for this “New Peace,” to borrow Steven Pinker's phrase, but few have devoted much time to the possibility that US hegemony has brought stability to the system. This paper examines the theoretical, empirical, and psychological foundations of the hegemonic-stability explanation for the decline in armed conflict. Those foundations are rather thin, as it turns out, and a review of relevant insights from political psychology suggests that unipolarity and stability are probably epiphenomenal. The New Peace can in all likelihood continue without US dominance and should persist long after unipolarity comes to an end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pathological exaggeration of the enemy is more common than complacency, and has inspired overreaction, blunder and national ruin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anarchy was coming to Africa, Robert Kaplan warned in 1994, and a surge in conflict initially seemed to confirm that prediction. With less fanfare, however, after the year 2000, conflict in Africa declined, probably to the lowest levels ever. Recent fighting in Libya, Mali, South Sudan and elsewhere has prompted a new wave of ‘Africa falling apart’ concerns. This article reviews the history and data of conflict in Africa, from pre-colonial times to the present. Historical comparison and quantitative analysis based on the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) and Major Episodes of Political Violence (MEPV) datasets on the 1961–2013 period show that Africa has experienced a remarkable decline in warfare, whether measured in number of conflicts or fatalities. Warfare is a relatively low risk to the lives of most Africans. The years 2010–2013 saw an increase of 35 per cent in African battle deaths over 2005–2010, but they still are 87 per cent lower than the 1990–1999 average. Changes in external support and intervention, and the spread of global norms regarding armed conflict, have been most decisive in reducing the levels of warfare in the continent. Consequently, there is no Africa exception to the systemic shift towards lower levels of armed conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American ability to think clearly about strategy did not survive the Cold War. As a result, the US worries more, and spends more, than is necessary to achieve its goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]