Great Power Overreach and Retrenchment: Implementing Grand Strategic Choices

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Great power overreach and retrenchment is a research area of rising scholarly interest and policy importance. As the study of grand strategy increasingly focuses on factors driving great power policy choices and implementation to deepen our understanding of the implications of theories of grand strategy, these panelists explore the relationship between great powers and smaller states. They identify costs and benefits to closer relationships and identify under what conditions great powers identify an interest in drawing nearer to or away from geographically distant weaker states. Authors investigate the value of military support for state political objectives, the role of domestic politics within the smaller state, the costs of alliances, and the value of continued alliances in Northeast Asia for regional stability. Cases include Great Britain, the United States, Malaya, Oman, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, China, Japan, and North and South Korea.

Sub Unit

• Division 20: Foreign Policy

Cosponsor

• Division 19: International Security

Individual Presentations

• Military Cooperation Fosters Great Power Retrenchment - Jacqueline L. Hazelton, Naval War College

• The Electoral Logic of Foreign-Imposed Democracy - Jonathan Monten, University College London

• What About the Allies: Prospects for Peace in an Era of Great Power Retrenchment - Christopher Preble, Atlantic Council

• Seeking Northeast Asian Stability: The Role of Alliances and Accommodation - Robert Reardon, North Carolina State University

Chair

• Jennifer Spindel University of New Hampshire

Discussant

• Jennifer Spindel University of New Hampshire