Bruce Bueno de Mesquita’s groundbreaking text, now in its third edition, presents a comprehensive treatment of the international relations field while introducing students to the analytic power of the strategic perspective. Building gradually, and with great theoretical coherence, Principles of International Politics shows students how leaders translate their personal interests and ambitions into actions of the state—demonstrating how domestic politics must be factored into any study of the international arena.

With extensive class-testing and instructor feedback in hand, Bueno de Mesquita provides step-by-step explanations of game theoretic principles. Using both everyday and political examples to explain ideas and teach skills, now even novices will find Principles an accessible and exciting introduction to the study of international relations. The book’s users boast improved student evaluations, better prepared political science majors, and more adept scientific thinkers. New and improved learning aids help students master key concepts, enhancing accessibility in major ways:

• Chapter-opening learning objectives orient students to central principles and give them clear guidance for critical reading.
• Highlighted key terms help students identify and define major concepts and issues.
• Key term lists at the end of each chapter, complete with page references, help students review and study.
• An improved glossary defines all of the book’s core terminology.
• Endnote documentation replaces in-text citations and significantly enhances the book’s narrative flow.

A thorough update as well, the third edition features greatly expanded consideration of nation-building and democratization, terrorism, and foreign aid problems. Students can also count on analysis of important recent events, with a special focus on the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; changes in regimes and updates on peace negotiations in the Middle East; foreign aid concerns in North Korea and various countries in Africa; the increasing power of the EU as an international organization; and Russian attempts at re-privatization. New and fully integrated consideration of constructivism as one of the major alternative approaches to international relations gives students a more comprehensive picture of the various ways one can study international politics.

More for Students!
http://college.cqpress.com/bdm
Content by Leanne C. Powner, University of Michigan

Totally redesigned for this edition, the book's website features five separate areas per chapter that give students ample opportunity to assess and improve their understanding of the book's analytic tenets, and software created by the author with which they can see those principles play out in real life scenarios.

Study
Clear and comprehensive chapter summaries, followed by questions for review, nicely boil down chapter content, underscoring main ideas. New “response boxes” give students the option of emailing answers to their instructors for participation credit or grades.

Quiz
An average of 20 factual and conceptual multiple choice and true/false questions—automatically graded on the spot—help students test their mastery of major concepts and prepare for exams. Improved functionality allows students to report quiz results to instructors.

Exercises
Illustrating such problems as backwards induction, solving strategic form games, or identifying first mover advantage, students can work through key principles with engaging exercises—for instance, recognizing what advantage, if any, a first mover will have using the case of negotiations between England and France regarding which side of the “Chunnel” will be eastbound and which westbound given that the British drive on the left side of the road and the French on the right.

Flashcards
Viewable by definition or by term, students test their mastery of the book’s key terms with these handy online cards; students can also mark cards to go back to study, as well as shuffle and reset.

Walk-throughs
Breaking out game theoretic concepts into their component parts, these brief PowerPoint® slide shows give students a step-by-step “how to” for better comprehension, as well as problem solving.

The Policy Forecaster
Designed by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita
Available at no additional cost to students, the Policy Forecaster allows students the unique opportunity to employ Principles’ forecasting model in a dynamic medium. Taking scenarios from the past, present, and future, students use and manipulate new data sets especially created for the third edition—for example, new data on Al Qaeda and North Korea—or create their own data to take advantage of the software’s powerful capabilities.

Applying the Strategic Perspective: Problems and Models, 3rd Edition
Leanne C. Powner, University of Michigan
D. Scott Bennett, Pennsylvania State University

ISBN 1-933116-92-7. Package with text ISBN 1-933116-99-4.

New class-tested, user-friendly exercises for the workbook walk students through the building blocks of the strategic method, ensuring that even novice students have the opportunity to develop and hone their problem solving skills and can successfully apply what they have learned in the text. The third edition of this invaluable workbook introduces students to a wide range of problems so that they master basic principles as well as test their capabilities with more challenging material.

ALSO AVAILABLE AS A DISCOUNTED PACKAGE WITH APPLYING THE STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE, 3RD EDITION WORKBOOK!

Specify ISBN 1-933116-99-4 for the package.

Tables, Figures, and Maps
Preface

Introduction: Foundations of International Politics
Governing Principles
Organizational Features of this Book
The Core Concerns of International Relations
Solving International Relations Puzzles
Summary
Suggested Reading
Key Concepts

1. Modern Political History and International Politics
The Fourteen Hundreds
The Fifteen Hundreds
The Sixteen Hundreds
The Seventeen Hundreds
The Eighteen Hundreds
The Twentieth Century
Key Concepts

2. Evaluating Arguments about International Politics
Theories as Simplifications of Reality
Judging Theories
The First Principle of Wing-Walking
The Case Study Method and Testing Theories
A Standard for Comparing Theories
Why Do We Need Theories?
The Scientific Method as a Guide to Arguments and Evidence
When a Theory Is Wrong
Scientific Theories Must Be Falsifiable
Summary
Key Concepts

3. Christopher Columbus and International Relations
Columbus’s Proposal, or Ferdinand and Isabella’s Ambition
Factors That Shape Foreign Policy Choices
Discovering America: An Evaluation of Political Economy and National Security
Lessons Suggested by Columbus’s Experience
Tools and Solutions: An Illustration of the Use of Decision Theory in the Study of International Relations
Game Theory, or Why You Can’t Always Get What You Want
Summary
Key Concepts

4. International Politics from a Structural Perspective
Evaluating Alternative Principles
Defining the Puzzles of Cooperation and Conflict
Structural Perspectives
Summary
Key Concepts

5. International Politics from Group and Decision-Making Perspectives
The Bureaucratic, or Interest Group, Perspective
Strategic Perspective
Constructivism
Comparing the Core Perspectives
The Three Perspectives Illustratively Applied to Columbus
Summary
Key Concepts

6. Domestic Politics and International Interactions: The Central Units of Analysis
The Origins of the State
International Relations Without the State
Domestic Politics as an Alternative to the State
How Domestic Politics Changes the National Interest
End of the Cold War: Win Sets as a Tool for Understanding Policy
Alternative Interpretations of the Domestic Politics Example
Summary
Key Concepts

7. What Is Power?
Defining Power
Methods of Exercising Power
Measuring Power
The Fungibility of Power
Projecting Power over Larger Distances
Summary
Key Concepts

8. Limits to Power
Power and Military Victory
Power Can Be Cyclical
Coordination and Power
Distribution Problems, Coordination Problems, and Power
International Organizations: An Alternative to or Reflection of Power
Power and Motivation
Asymmetric Motivation and Costs
The Exercise of Power
Summary
Key Concepts

9. Preferences in International Politics
Preferred Values and American Foreign Policy: An Illustration
What Are Preferences?
Rationality and Preferences
Preferences and Constrained Choices
Foreign Aid, Preferences, and Decisions
Constrained Choice in International Relations: Some Examples
Social Choice Problems: Is There a National Interest?
Common Circumstances Without the Social Choice Problem
Summary
Key Concepts

10. Perceptions in International Affairs
Perceptions and Reality
Perceptions and Trade Sanctions: An Illustration
Summary
Key Concepts

11. Perceptions, Deterrence, and Terrorism
Perceptions and Deterrence
North Korea’s Artful Use of Misconduct
Perceptions and Deterrence: The Wars in Iraq, 1991 and 2003
Beliefs about Terrorism
Terrorism, Credible Commitments, and Strategic Dilemmas
Land for Peace: A Credible Commitment Problem
Summary
Key Concepts

12. Domestic Institutions and National Performance
Universal Political Institutions
Tools to Remain in Power
Winning Coalition Size and Trade Policy
Evidence: Winning Coalition Size and Economic Performance
Winning Coalition Size and National Survival
Domestic Institutions and Foreign Aid
Domestic Institutions and Democratization: Nation Building
Summary
Key Concepts

13. The International Political Economy of Trade
Globalization in Historical Perspective
An Economics Primer: Comparative Advantage, Supply, and Demand
Trade as a Public or Private Good
Currency, Exchange Rates, and International Political Economy
Political Economy and Trade
Factors of Production
Mobility of Factors of Production
Summary
Key Concepts

14. International Organizations and International Law
International Law, Organizations, and Regimes: Definitions and Distinctions
Can We Evaluate the Effects of International Regimes?
Sovereignty: A Successful International Institution
The Purpose of International Rules and Institutions
Member Inclusiveness: Trade-offs between Regime Efficiency and Effectiveness
Organizational Decision-Making Rules
Compliance and Effectiveness
Summary
Key Concepts

15. Alliances
What Is a Military Alliance?
The Purpose of Alliances
When Are Alliances Reliable?
Predicting the Reliability of Alliances
Alliances, Coordination, and Competition
Conflict among Allies
Summary
Key Concepts

16. The Causes of War: Structural Accounts
War vs. Negotiation: Indivisibility, Uncertainty, and Commitment
Realist Theories of War
How Well Does Neorealism Do in Explaining War and Instability?
History and Neorealist Empirical Claims
Other Neorealist Hypotheses and the Historical Record
The Power Transition: A Structural Alternative to Neorealism
Summary
Key Concepts

17. Strategic Theories of War
The International Interaction Game and War
Arms Races, Deterrence, and War
Other Hypotheses about War
Summary
Key Concepts

18. A Predictive Model of International Affairs
Logical Foundation of the Model
Perceptual Analysis
Estimating the Model
Why Does This Model Help?
Intuition Behind the Model’s Dynamics
Developing the Data
Model Output
Prediction and International Relations
Using the Model
Key Concepts

Notes
Glossary of Key Terms
Subject Index
Citations of Authors

“Principles of International Politics is a great textbook. The ‘power, preferences, and perceptions’ framework is one of the smartest ways to approach the study and teaching of international relations. Written by one of the field’s top scholars, this text illustrates the importance of thinking theoretically and squaring theory with empirical evidence.”

- Alan E. Kessler, University of Texas at Austin

“Principles of International Politics is an excellent textbook for students of international and comparative politics. Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is one of the very few scholars able to combine historical insight with theoretical in-depth explanations in a convincing and accessible manner. For teachers, Principles of International Politics provides a marvelous opportunity—and a coherent guideline—for aiding students in their search for the best tools for analyzing problems in the international arena. This book will have an enormous positive impact on students’ understanding of international politics.”

- Thomas König, German University for Administrative Sciences Speyer

“Principles of International Politics is extremely well written and integrates the latest research in the field of international relations. It does an excellent job conveying the complexities of scientific analysis and strategic method in comprehensible language. Its discussion of methods is the greatest strength of the book. Students learn to approach real world information systematically, while at the same time understanding how the growth of theory and method in one area expands understanding in others.”

- John H.P. Williams, East Carolina University

“The strength of this book comes from its careful emphasis on theory and analytical thinking, as opposed to memorizing facts or lists. It certainly is more enjoyable to teach a book that tries to explain ‘why.’ If I’m having fun teaching, the students are more likely to have fun learning. And, by getting the students to think, they actually do learn about international politics.”

- Scott Gates, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo and Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita is Silver Professor and Chair of Politics and Director of the Center for Conflict Resolution and Multilateral Cooperation at New York University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He is an expert on international conflict, foreign policy formation, the peace process, and nationbuilding. He is the author of many books including The Logic of Political Survival with Alastair Smith, Randolph M. Siverson, and James D. Morrow; War and Reason with David Lalman; Predicting Politics; and The War Trap, as well as one novel, The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Bueno de Mesquita is the Managing Partner of Mesquita & Roundell, LLC, a consultancy. In 1985, he won the Karl W. Deutsch Award in International Relations and Peace Research, given biannually to the scholar under the age of forty judged to have made, through a body of publications, the most significant contribution to the study of international relations and peace research. In 1992, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 1999, he received an honorary degree from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He was president of the International Studies Association in 2001-2002.

More for Instructors!
ENHANCED! FREE TO ADOPTERS
Instructor’s Resources on CD-ROM

Test Bank
Stephen Quackenbush, University of Missouri
This test bank provides instructors with over 400 test items—factual and conceptual multiple-choice questions, true/false statements, as well as essay questions—in Word documents and in our test creation software, below.

CQP Test Writer
Instructors can create multiple forms of a test to prevent cheating, print out matching answer keys, and customize questions to meet individual needs.

PowerPoint® Lecture Slides
Leanne C. Powner, University of Michigan
These slide shows highlight key concepts and provide a springboard for lectures. With an average of 30 per chapter, and including a wealth of tables and figures from the book, these slides will significantly reduce prep time.

NEW! Walk-throughs in PowerPoint®
Leanne C. Powner, University of Michigan
Also on the student companion website, these PowerPoint® slide shows break out the text’s game theoretic concepts into their component parts, allowing instructors to show students, step-by-step, how to manipulate and solve problems. Includes notes for instructors.

Instructor’s Manual
D. Scott Bennett, Pennsylvania State University
Now on CD-ROM, this detailed resource helps instructors clarify and further illustrate the book’s distinctive approach. Instructors will find useful outlines for lectures and recommendations for discussion questions.

Graphics from the Text and Workbook
All of the tables, figures, and maps from both the text and workbook are available for downloading in either .pdf format or as PowerPoint® slides. These easy-to use graphics are ideal for lectures, discussion sections, and for importing into tests.

The Isle of Ted Simulation
G. Dale Thomas, University of West Florida
This class-tested simulation about collective action problems teaches students first hand the power of cooperation, coordination, and strategic decision making. Complete with instructions and downloadable game templates and handouts.

Selected Syllabi
Instructors can view an assortment of syllabi to see how Principles is used in a variety of ways and at a range of colleges and universities.

Solutions Manual
Leanne C. Powner, University of Michigan
D. Scott Bennett, Pennsylvania State University
This brief manual includes all of the answers to the workbook’s technical problems and exercises. Special PowerPoint® slides and .pdf files of the “solved” tables and figures help instructors guide their students, step-by-step, through the answers.

Applying the Strategic Perspective: Problems and Models, 3rd Edition Workbook

Principles of International Politics, 3rd Edition, Pkg (text and workbook)