Three-Way Street: Strategic Reciprocity in World Politics

ISBN: 0226301591

Author: Goldstein, Joshua S.

Condition: New

Product DescriptionHow can the world's most powerful nations cooperate despite their conflicting interests? In Three-Way Street, Joshua S. Goldstein and John R. Freeman analyze the complex intersection defined by relations among the United States, the Soviet Union, and China over the past forty years.The authors demonstrate that three major schools of international relations theory-all game-theoretic, psychological, and quantitative-empirical approaches-have all advocated a strategy that employs cooperative initiatives and reciprocal responses in order to elicit cooperation from other countries. Critics have questioned whether such approaches can model how countries actually behave, but Goldstein and Freeman provide a wealth of detailed empirical evidence showing the existence and effectiveness of strategic reciprocity among the three countries between 1948 and 1989. Specifically, they establish that relations among the three countries have improved in recent decades through a "two steps forward, one step back" pattern. Their innovative and remarkably accessible synthesis of leading theoretical perspectives brilliantly illuminates the nature and workings of international cooperation.From the Back CoverIn this book, we seek a deeper theoretical understanding of the strategic interactions among the world's most powerful countries and the prospects for cooperation between them. We look beyond the immediate causes of the particular actions that each country takes, to the broader patterns of action and response and to the strategies that guide them.About the AuthorJoshua S. Goldstein is associate professor of international relations at the University of Southern California. John R. Freeman is professor of political science at the University of Minnesota.