Global Security in the Twenty-First Century

The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace, Third Edition

Sean Kay

This thoroughly updated edition of Global Security in the Twenty-First Century offers a balanced introduction to contemporary security dilemmas throughout the world. Sean Kay assesses the impact of the global economic crisis on international security and considers how the range of thinking about power and peace has evolved in relation to major flashpoints including in the Middle East, Asia, and Eurasia. Kay builds on the first and second edition’s emphasis on the roles of trade and technology, the militarization of space, the privatization of security, the use of sanctions, ethnic conflict, and transnational crime. This edition goes even farther to incorporate traditional thinking about national security in the context of human rights, democracy, population, health, environment, energy, and especially education. The author includes full updates on emerging challenges out of Iraq, Russia, and viral diseases in the context of larger strategic questions like the rise of China and America’s “pivot” to rebalance its priorities toward Asia. Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 426 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4422-4801-4 • Hardback • March 2015 • $118.00 • (£91.00)

978-1-4422-4802-1 • Paperback • March 2015 • $63.00 • (£48.00)

978-1-4422-4803-8 • eBook • March 2015 • $59.50 • (£46.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Security (National & International), Political Science / Globalization, Political Science / International Relations / General

Global Security in the Twenty-First Century

The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace, Third Edition

Hardback

Paperback

eBook

Summary

This thoroughly updated edition of Global Security in the Twenty-First Century offers a balanced introduction to contemporary security dilemmas throughout the world. Sean Kay assesses the impact of the global economic crisis on international security and considers how the range of thinking about power and peace has evolved in relation to major flashpoints including in the Middle East, Asia, and Eurasia. Kay builds on the first and second edition’s emphasis on the roles of trade and technology, the militarization of space, the privatization of security, the use of sanctions, ethnic conflict, and transnational crime. This edition goes even farther to incorporate traditional thinking about national security in the context of human rights, democracy, population, health, environment, energy, and especially education. The author includes full updates on emerging challenges out of Iraq, Russia, and viral diseases in the context of larger strategic questions like the rise of China and America’s “pivot” to rebalance its priorities toward Asia. Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 426 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-1-4422-4801-4 • Hardback • March 2015 • $118.00 • (£91.00)

978-1-4422-4802-1 • Paperback • March 2015 • $63.00 • (£48.00)

978-1-4422-4803-8 • eBook • March 2015 • $59.50 • (£46.00)

Subjects: Political Science / Security (National & International), Political Science / Globalization, Political Science / International Relations / General

Author

Sean Kay is Robson Professor of Politics and Government at Ohio Wesleyan University, where he is also director of the Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and chair of the International Studies Program. He is also an associate of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at the Ohio State University and a fellow at the Eisenhower Institute in Washington, D.C.

Reviews

Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.
— International Journal of Nuclear Security

Sean Kay has written one of those rare studies that is truly as important as its subject. With clear-eyed prose, sober intelligence, and scholarly depth, he examines a comprehensive array of today's new global security challenges—illuminating every important issue of the day related to international peace and stability, from crucial new areas such as the security consequences of global warming and energy scarcity to perennial problems in the search for international peace and prosperity. Anyone looking to make an impact on international affairs should start here (Previous Edition Praise)
— Robert Pape, University of Chicago

I would rank Global Security in the Twenty-first Century as one of the finest textbooks on the market today for international security courses. It presents an innovative and effective balance of classic and contemporary dimensions of security. Another great asset is Kay's deft ability to combine theoretical approaches and policy-oriented questions and frameworks. His book offers an authoritative, thoughtful, and highly engaging discussion of critical issues in global security. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Jeffrey S. Lantis, The College of Wooster

I would rank Global Security in the Twenty-first Century as one of the finest textbooks on the market today for international security courses. It presents an innovative and effective balance of classic and contemporary dimensions of security. Another great asset is Kay's deft ability to combine theoretical approaches and policy-oriented questions and frameworks. His book offers an authoritative, thoughtful, and highly engaging discussion of critical issues in global security. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Jeffrey S. Lantis, The College of Wooster

Sean Kay's comprehensive book provides an important guide to power and peace in the era of globalization. It places traditional international relations theories into the modern context, analyzes great power relations, assesses regional flashpoints, discusses human and environmental security, and evaluates the impact of technology on security policy. This is essential reading for any student of national security affairs. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Hans Binnendijk, National Defense University

This book addresses the dialectic between the quest for power and the search for peace, one of the most important issues of our time. A work of exceptional clarity and depth, it ought to set the agenda for how the international community understands and provides security for the rest of us. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Christopher Coker, Professor of International Relations, Director of IDEAS, London School of Economics

Sean Kay has written a brilliant and sweeping strategic survey of today's world environment. It is a must-read for all those who want to understand the security complexities and challenges we face and the policy implications this changing world presents. (Previous Edition Praise)
— Anthony C. Zinni, General USMC (Retired)

The book is so well organized and written that it provides students with a solid foundation upon which to build their understanding of the evolving geopolitics of security.

— Bruce P. Barnes, University of Oklahoma

In this fully updated edition of Global Security, Kay responds to national and transnational challenges confronting Americans after lackluster economic growth, enormous increases in the national debt, and emergence of new militarized threats, doubling down on the well-founded optimism of his earlier work. Here, students learn that great power struggle over the future of Europe and the developed world’s response to continuing poverty and public health catastrophes in the Global South are of a piece. In this democratic age, Kay teaches how ordinary individuals prepare important contributions to improve global security through determined pursuit of a liberal education, one that is imbued with scientific reasoning, empathy for the human condition, and a passion for testing theories as much as delivering the ideological goods.

— Damon Coletta, U.S. Air Force Academy