■ Rajain, Arpit, 2005. Nuclear Deterrence in Southern Asia: China, India and Pakistan. New Delhi: Sage. 496 pp. ISBN 0761932844
| Author | Christin M. Ormhaug |
| Date | 01 March 2007 |
| Published date | 01 March 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00223433070440020716 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
䊏Neff, Stephen C., 2005. War and the Law of
Nations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
443 pp. ISBN 0521662052.
This is one of the very few books on the market to
offer a comprehensive history of normative think-
ing about war, and it does an excellent job of filling
this niche. Although the author purports to be
writing this history ‘through the lens of interna-
tional law’ (p. 1), his treatment is not limited to legal
developments. He also covers the philosophical and
theological literature on the ethics of war, both
Eastern and Western, in the ancient, medieval, and
early modern periods. These pre- or extra-legal
developments are given quite ample treatment,
taking up roughly one-third of the volume. More
than a mere cursory prelude (as is often the case in
legal histories of war), this section of the book
makes for engaging reading and highlights import-
ant ideas, for instance just war as law enforcement
and peace as the normal condition of human affairs.
The bulk of the book is naturally taken up with
describing the emergence and maturation of inter-
national law. Largely a creature of positivism, which
proceeded from a repudiation of the earlier just war
point of view, this was the international law of the
19th century, wherein war was viewed principally as
an instrument of state policy. By contrast, in the
period after the First World War, the author shows
the just war approach made a decisive comeback,
beginning with the League of Nations and then cul-
minating in the UN Charter. A final chapter brings
the story up to the present, with a discussion of the
legal aspects of insurgency warfare, terrorism, and
other ‘new fields of battle’.
Gregory Reichberg
䊏Paul, T. V.; James J. Wirtz & Michael
Fortmann, eds, 2004. Balance of Power: Theory
and Practice in the 21st Century. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press. vii + 375 pp. ISBN
0804750173.
Balance of Power is an edited volume that tries to
assess whether balance of power as a policy and
concept remains relevant in the 21st century. In the
introduction, the editors argue that globalization
has produced violent non-state actors at a global
level, while the United States remains the undis-
puted military and economic superpower. The
post-Cold War situation has produced a paradox,
as no major powers appear to balance the United
States. Thus, the book asks leading experts to
reflect on a set of questions about the relevance of
balance of power in contemporary international
relations. The consensus is that, in its traditional
form, balance of power, and subsequently realism,
is insufficient to explain state interaction in the
21st century. The authors attempt to develop a
more nuanced concept of balance of power that
allows for a soft form of balancing. Thus, they
argue that traditional balance of power currently
occurs only at the regional level. This book is a
good example of how to produce an edited volume.
It has a clear topic around which it builds a set of
research questions. All the included articles address
these questions. The cumulative effect is a com-
prehensive analysis of the current position and
relevance of balance of power in international
relations. This volume is an insightful revision of
balance of power politics and poses challenging
questions for researchers in international relations.
Nevertheless, it is unclear if the diluted version of
balance of power, emphasized in this volume, is
analytically either meaningful or useful. Regardless,
this volume is highly recommended for both schol-
ars and students of international relations.
Ismene Gizelis
䊏Rajain, Arpit, 2005. Nuclear Deterrence in
Southern Asia: China, India and Pakistan. New
Delhi: Sage. 496 pp. ISBN 0761932844.
Arpit Rajain is a Senior Policy Analyst at the New
Delhi office of the Centre for Global Studies,
Mumbai, and has previously co-edited three
books on issues regarding nuclear and biological
weapons. In this book, Rajain has two main goals:
a conceptual investigation of deterrence, and an
investigation of the theory and practice of limited
war. He examines the trilateral relationship
between China, India and Pakistan, arguing that
this is different from the bilateral nuclear rela-
tionships often studied during the Cold War.
Deterrence is complicated. Rajain starts out by
describing it as ‘premised on the belief that ratio-
nally calculating decision makers would refrain
from a first strike, fearing a massive retaliatory
strike’ (p. 60). He then goes on to show that this
logic may be flawed because possible irrationality,
misperceptions and uncertain information con-
tribute to make the picture more complicated –
and calculations involving three states are also
very complex. The language in the book is
neutral, but the author sees the world from a pre-
dominantly Indian perspective (evident in e.g. the
sections on how India and Pakistan made the
decisions to acquire nuclear weapons). This opens
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 44 / number 2 / march 2007
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