Token forces – tiny national troop contributions in much larger coalitions – have become ubiquitous in UN peacekeeping. This Element examines how and why this contribution type has become the most common form of participation in UN peace operations despite its limited relevance for the missions’ operational success. It conceptualizes token forces as a path-dependent unintended consequence of the norm of multilateralism in international uses of military force. The norm extends states’ participation options by giving coalition builders an incentive to accept token forces. UN-specific types of token forces emerged as states learned about this option and secretariat officials adapted to state demand for it. The Element documents the growing incidence of token forces in UN peacekeeping, identifies the factors disposing states to contribute token forces, and discusses how UN officials channel token participation. The Element contributes to literatures on UN peacekeeping, military coalitions, and the impacts of norms in international organizations.

Publication Date: December 26, 2022

Pre-order from Cambridge University Press

BOOK REVIEWS

“[A]n essential read for everyone who wants to understand why states have an interest in participating in peace operations with a tiny military deployment and why the UN welcomes such token contributions even though they might affect the effectiveness of the mission.”  — Martin Welz, International Peacekeeping

BOOK TALKS

• April 2023: Shanghai Jiaotong University

• April 2023: University of Macau

• March, 2023: Zhejiang University

• October 26, 2022: Columbia University 

• Ocboter 12, 2022: University of British Columbia Okanagan

The rapid increase in intermediate trade through global value chain (GVC) linkages means that foreign value added constitutes an increasingly larger share of final goods in many countries and sectors. This book asks: What are the implications of growing GVC linkages for individual firms in today’s global trading system, which is increasingly fragmented by the rise of preferential trade agreements (PTAs)? Drawing on extensive fieldwork, firm-level surveys, and case studies of the patterns of corporate support for regional trade liberalization in both China and the United States, as well as analyses of the pattern of PTA formation among WTO members, this book documents how the fragmentation of global production, trade, and investment activities is reshaping business preferences and political strategies and, as a result, shifting the political economy of trade liberalization away from the traditional divide between export-oriented and import-competing industries. 

Order: https://www.press.umich.edu/10147077/fragmenting_globalization

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BOOK REVIEWS

"This is an important work that makes significant theoretical and empirical contributions to the literature of international political economy" — M. F. Farrell, Choice

"This book ... links the macro-level trade policy to the firm-level response with first-hand fieldwork [and] significantly improves the understanding of the role of GVC in trade politics.  [B]y using some state of the art methods in the research design and data analysis exploiting some new data sources, the book provides a rigorous framework to understand the dynamics of trade politics in China and the US." — Jiwei Qian, Journal of Chinese Political Science

This book intends to make sense of how Chinese leaders perceive China’s rise in the world through the eyes of China’s international relations (IR) scholars. Drawing on a unique, four-year opinion survey of these scholars carried out at the annual conference of the Chinese Community of Political Science and International Studies (CCPSIS) in Beijing from 2014–2017, the authors examine Chinese IR scholars’ perceptions and their changes over time of key issues related to China’s power, its relationship with the United States and other major countries, and China’s position in the international system. Furthermore, the authors complement the surveys with a textual analysis of the academic publications in China’s top five IR journals. By comparing and contrasting the opinion surveys and textual analyses, this book sheds new light on how Chinese IR scholars view the world as well as how they might influence China’s foreign policy.

• First book that systematically examines Chinese scholars’ perceptions of international relations

• Includes findings from a four-year survey research study (2014-2017) in Beijing, designed as a semi-longitudinal study in order to gauge the changing attitudes and perceptions of Chinese scholars

• Part of a multi-year project, “Understanding China’s Rise through the Eyes of Chinese IR Scholars,” funded by the MacArthur Foundation

BOOK REVIEWS

“This short, well-crafted volume takes a significant step forward in providing a systematic review of how Chinese international affairs specialists assess contemporary issues in Chinese foreign relations and particularly Chinese relations with the United States.” — Robert Sutter, Pacific Affairs

"Feng, He and Li’s study will join David Shambaugh’s and other fine contributions to our understanding of Chinese views of China’s place in the world, appealing to academics, students of and researchers on Chinese foreign policy, as well as members of the policymaking community." — Gregory Moore, Journal of Chinese Political Science

"The book contains in-depth research, careful analysis, and a good presentation, enabling IR students and scholars to understand how Chinese experts express their opinions on salient pressing issues concerning US-China relations and the world more generally. To the extent that their views may represent or influence government perspectives, it creates a window for scholars and policy makers to appreciate how China thinks and what China wants." — Isaac Nunoo, The China Journal