BGSU prof co-edits book on international relations

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Dr. Neal Jesse,
Associate Professor of Political Science at Bowling Green State University. (Photo provided)

It isn’t easy being the “little guy” among giants, whether you’re Romania or Sri Lanka. A new book
co-edited by Dr. Neal Jesse, an associate professor of political science at Bowling Green State
University, examines international relations from the point of view of the world’s smaller states.
“Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons: Why Secondary States Support, Follow or Challenge,” published in March
by Stanford University Press, is a turnabout from the usual study of how larger states manage their
relations with their peers. “We are interested in small-state reaction to large-state foreign policy,”
Jesse said.
This is a “still understudied topic of immense contemporary importance,” according to Dr. David Lake of
the University of California, San Diego.
Jesse, co-editors Drs. Steven Lobell, from the University of Utah, and Kristen Williams, from Clark
University, and the other contributors bring their diverse research expertise to the question of what
motivates smaller powers to either align themselves with, challenge or remain neutral in navigating
their relationships with the hegemon.
The book has already drawn interest internationally and had strong pre-orders on Amazon before its March
release. The three co-editors recently participated in an International Studies Association roundtable
in San Francisco with the publisher and participants from Europe.
Part of its value is that it moves beyond the “typical Eurocentric debate” and analyzes historical and
contemporary cases of predominant influence, in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South
Asia.
“We wanted to refocus people’s viewpoints on the idiosyncratic reasons why countries choose their
responses to other countries’ foreign policy goals and strategies,” Jesse said. An expert on Ireland, he
has studied its committed neutral stance, which at times has frustrated the bigger powers, from Great
Britain to the U.S. “There are domestic sources of Irish neutrality,” Jesse noted.
And while it is tempting for smaller states to take the “goodies” that can come from alignment with
larger powers’ wishes and policies—and many do—some feel the need to assert their independence or
refrain from siding with one adversary over another.
Contributor Dr. Christopher Layne, a professor and Robert M. Gates Chair in Intelligence and National
Security at the George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University,
argues that as the U.S. sees its relative status as the predominant world power waning, it will become
increasingly important for it to develop an understanding of why countries craft their foreign policy as
they do if we are to be successful.
And although the U.S. continues to shape the global balance of power, we must understand that countries
also need to get along with their neighbors, Jesse said.
In the case of South America, for instance, even though the Monroe Doctrine encompasses the continent
within the U.S. realm of protection, the smaller or weaker states must still contend with powerful
states such as Brazil.
“The ‘American Moment,’ from about 1991-95, between when the Soviet Union fell and China had not yet
risen, was when the United States had overwhelming cultural and military power,” Jesse said, “but that
moment is over and it’s now in our self-interest to not use our foreign policy as a bludgeon but to
foster better international relations.”

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