Bruce Jones

How Do Rising Powers Rise

The idea that a single group of emerging powers, principally the BRIC states, are reshaping global politics is now prevalent. However, the basis of their newfound power is not well understood. Their influence is primarily a function of their regional clout, and their outsized weight in multilateral institutions; but also because the goals of US policy frequently play to emerging-power advantages. Investigation of how the emerging powers are choosing to wield this influence in the economic, financial, and security realms finds that, although they have some blocking power, the most prevalent strategies thus far have been to bargain hard to protect their own interests and national space, and to balance the growing influence of their BRIC counterparts.

Libya and the Responsibilities of Power

Libya is a small test for the international order. When harder tests come, rough norms not underpinned by an underlying, shared security concept will not suffice.

Keeping Middle East Peace

US policy on peacekeeping in the Middle East is not unitary but derives from the intersection between US strategic policy in the Middle East and US attitudes to peacekeeping in general. During the cold war, the United States supported UN and multinational peacekeeping and observer missions as a means of stabilizing conflicts and avoiding superpower confrontation. In the period between the end of the cold war and 9/11, peacekeeping was minimally relevant in the region. Since 9/11, counter-terrorism concerns and broader efforts to stabilize the region have led the United States to support ambitious NATO, UN and European Union peace operations in the region.

Civil Wars & the Post–Cold War International Order

By the standards of prosperity and peace, the post–Cold War international order has been an unparalleled success. Over the last thirty years, there has been more creation of wealth and a greater reduction of poverty, disease, and food insecurity than in all of previous history. During the same period, the numbers and lethality of wars have decreased. These facts have not deterred an alternative assessment that civil violence, terrorism, failed states, and numbers of refugees are at unprecedentedly high levels. But there is no global crisis of failed states and endemic civil war, no global crisis of refugees and migration, and no global crisis of disorder. Instead, what we have seen is a particular historical crisis unfold in the greater Middle East, which has collapsed order within that region and has fed the biggest threat to international order: populism in the United States and Europe.