Empire, Great Powers, and Methods of External Control

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel investigates how and why great powers establish and retain control of areas and actors outside their own borders – or attempt to. Authors using quantitative and qualitative methods draw on the legacy of imperial efforts to establish control over peripheral and other areas of interest, or, in contemporary terms, establish and retain spheres of influence. They also consider the ways in which weaker actors leverage great power interests to their own advantage. Causes and methods considered include intra-alliance competition, beliefs about the universality of liberal values, military intervention, arms transfers, and pinpoint special forces operations. Cases include U.S. and U.K. counterinsurgency campaigns; U.S. security assistance to Taiwan; and the kinetic operations of U.S. special operations forces globally. One paper explains the consequences of intra-alliance disagreements over imperial policy based on a new dataset covering disagreements from 1815-1989. The second asks under what conditions democratic great powers urge liberalizing reforms upon counterinsurgent clients. The third argues that junior partners can exercise leverage over their great power partners, pushing back or even dictating policy positions to major powers. The fourth argues that a new concept called zone warfare is not just a tactical innovation; it is a new way for special operations forces to envision the battlespace, based on 17 years of refinement in Iraq and Afghanistan, that enables pinprick global operations.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 20: Foreign Policy

Individual Presentations

• The Consequences of Intra-Alliance Disagreements Over Imperial Policy - Abby M Fanlo, Stanford University

• No Such Thing As A Little War: Liberal Military Intervention - Jacqueline L. Hazelton, Naval War College

• Locking in Leverage: Security Assistance and Power in Alliances - Jennifer Spindel, University of Oklahoma

• SOF’s Zone Warfare: A New Way Of Envisioning The Battlespace in Limited War - Anne I. Harrington, Cardiff University

Chair

• Monica Duffy Toft Tufts University

Discussant

• Audrey Kurth Cronin American University