Reputation and international politics /

By approaching an important foreign policy issue from a new angle, Jonathan Mercer comes to a startling, controversial discovery: a nation's reputation is not worth fighting for. He presents the most comprehensive examination to date of what defines a reputation when it is likely to emerge in i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Mercer, Jonathan (Jonathan Loveridge), 1959-
Format: Licensed eBooks
Language:English
Published: Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press 1996.
Series:Cornell studies in security affairs.
Online Access:https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv5rf1n9
Description
Summary:By approaching an important foreign policy issue from a new angle, Jonathan Mercer comes to a startling, controversial discovery: a nation's reputation is not worth fighting for. He presents the most comprehensive examination to date of what defines a reputation when it is likely to emerge in international politics, and with what consequences. Mercer examines reputation formation in a series of crises before World War I. He tests competing arguments, one from deterrence theory, the other from social psychology, to see which better predicts and explains how reputations form. He extends his findings to address contemporary crises such as the Gulf War, and considers how culture, gender and nuclear weapons affect reputation. Throughout history, wars have been fought in the name of reputation. Mercer rebuts this politically powerful argument, shows that reputations form differently than we thought, and offers policy advice to decision-makers.
Physical Description:1 online resource (x, 236 pages).
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9781501724473
1501724479
0801430550