Richard Jordan (Baylor University)
“Rational Origins of Revisionist War” in International Studies Review (2022)
https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viac051

The rise of China has returned attention to the links between power transitions and war. In this literature, three different causal mechanisms can be confused. This essay disentangles them. Power transitions can lead to three kinds of war: preventive, accidental, and revisionist. Formal models tend to study the first, in which a declining state tries to delay or prevent a rival’s ascent. However, major wars during great power transitions are usually initiated by the rising state, not the declining one. To describe these historical cases, less formal theories, especially neorealism and neoclassical realism, focus on accidental and revisionist wars, but these theories tend to fall back on nonrational mechanisms to connect changing power to the risk of conflict. This leaves a theoretical gap: Why would a rising, rational actor deliberately choose conflict, i.e., start a revisionist war? To suggest an answer, this essay demonstrates how a simple change in standard bargaining models—incorporating a nonzero probability of indecisive war—can ground realist intuitions on rationalist foundations. It further shows how this change leads immediately to an intuitive, formal definition of stability that aligns naturally with existing informal work. Then, contrary to existing realist theory, it shows why the rigorous analysis of realist assumptions leads to a nonmonotonic relationship between the offense/defense balance and war. It thus uses realism to inform and potentially redirect formal scholarship; it also uses formal scholarship to sharpen the logical foundations of realism and, in so doing, derive novel empirical predictions. The essay concludes by applying this synthesis to the rise of China today and indicating directions for deepening the formal/realist synthesis.

Adam Knight (Notre Dame of Maryland) & Joshua Hastey (Regent University)
“The Danger of Emergent Opportunities: Perverse Incentives, Climate Change, and Arctic Shipping” in Global Perspectives (2022) https://doi.org/10.1525/gp.2022.35490

The receding perennial ice sheets over the polar north have fueled interest in the possibilities for new shipping routes through Arctic waters as well as concern over growing incentives for competition in the region. While these incentives are likely to become more prevalent as Arctic ice continues to melt, to date the existing institutions dedicated to promoting cooperation in the Arctic have largely proven themselves up to the task. We examine four broad developments—increased access to new sea lanes of communication and maritime resources, ongoing disputes over Arctic claims and growing militarization of the Arctic, weakening cohesion in Arctic institutions of governance, and growing extralegal patterns of behavior among Arctic states—which, taken together, challenge the capacity of existing Arctic and maritime institutions to promote cooperation in the region. Each of these trends is troubling in isolation, but when viewed together, their effects show that the behaviors incentivized by an increasingly accessible Arctic have counterintuitively worsened the prospects for cooperation and international commerce in the Far North.

Joshua Hastey (Regent University) & Adam Knight (Notre Dame of Maryland)
“New Under the Sun? Reframing the Gray Zone in International Security” in Journal of Strategic Security (2021) https://doi.org/10.5038/1944-0472.14.4.1966

The receding perennial ice sheets over the polar north have fueled interest in the possibilities for new shipping routes through Arctic waters as well as concern over growing incentives for competition in the region. While these incentives are likely to become more prevalent as Arctic ice continues to melt, to date the existing institutions dedicated to promoting cooperation in the Arctic have largely proven themselves up to the task. We examine four broad developments—increased access to new sea lanes of communication and maritime resources, ongoing disputes over Arctic claims and growing militarization of the Arctic, weakening cohesion in Arctic institutions of governance, and growing extralegal patterns of behavior among Arctic states—which, taken together, challenge the capacity of existing Arctic and maritime institutions to promote cooperation in the region. Each of these trends is troubling in isolation, but when viewed together, their effects show that the behaviors incentivized by an increasingly accessible Arctic have counterintuitively worsened the prospects for cooperation and international commerce in the Far North.

Joshua Bowman (Heidelberg University)
“Russell Kirk and Redemptive Conservation” in The Political Science Reviewer (2021)

Russell Kirk (1918–1994), was a foundational thinker for post–World War II intellectual conservatism. He was not an environmentalist, but Kirk cared deeply for the causes of conservation and preservation. Scattered throughout his major works, and especially in shorter newspaper columns, one finds moments of “greener” thinking that suggest fruitful opportunities for a conservative tradition of environmental thought and imagination. Focusing on Kirk’s nonfiction works, this article considers the environmental implications of his ubiquitous themes of a moral economy, the “immortal contract,” a suspicion of ideology, and a more critical reflection on issues of waste, energy, and technology. Kirk’s environmental thought provides an invaluable ground on which later environmentally conscious, religious conservatives might build.

Joseph Yi (Hanyang University)
“Prioritizing Free Speech or the Dignity of Victims: Competing Approaches to Public Discourse in Japan and South Korea” in Society (2021)

Japan’s volatile ties with democratic South Korea, and its relatively stable relations with autocratic China, seem to contradict theories of international cooperation, theories which posit cooperation between democracies, and non-cooperation between democracies and autocracies. Tokyo and Seoul exemplify a third type of relationship, that between different types of democracies. Given that even the most liberal societies demonstrate some gaps in the degree to which they uphold individual liberties, there is a potential for friction between these regimes, especially when differing collective memories of the same events trigger different features of their respective political cultures. With respect to human rights violations during the Japanese colonial era, the two democracies sharply diverge: Seoul espouses a victim-centered approach that prioritizes the dignity of victims over free speech, and Tokyo a free-speech approach that tolerates pluralist discourses. Unless one yields to the preferred mode of the other, each will criticize the other as illiberal, even though they are both liberal compared to China.

Jacob Wolf (Regent University)
“Ralph Waldo Emerson: America’s Prophet of Expressive Individualism,” in Perspectives on Political Science (2021)

Abstract: This essay argues that Ralph Waldo Emerson is America’s prophet of expressive individualism—foreseeing, and calling into being, a new understanding of the individual. Far from being a defender of the intellectual status quo, Emerson was a moral revolutionary—and his Self-Reliance is not a restatement of the Protestant ethic before him, but a repudiation of it. Emerson sought to replace the older, more-constrained forms of individualism with a new, “expressive” form of individualism, premised on the innate goodness of the individual (rather than on an individual’s sinful nature). Whereas his forebears thought the human person was elevated through participation in institutions and through submission to social and moral rules, Emerson believed such attachments nothing more than chains upon human individuality. Moreover, Emerson’s thought had a distinctly Nietzschean side to it, and his moral philosophy entailed something like Nietzsche’s transvaluation of values. Nothing—not religion, society, or tradition—could dictate how one ought to live. One should, Emerson believed, live wholly from within and not according to pre-established social or religious paradigms. This essay concludes with a reflection on the paradoxical relationship between Emerson’s individualism and his pantheism and ponders whether expressive individualism can truly serve as the cornerstone of society.

Stephen M. King (Regent University)
“Crisis Leadership: A Case Study of New York’s 2020 COVID-19 Nursing Home Executive Policy Action," in Public Integrity (2021)

Abstract: Successful crisis leadership hinges upon the expression of moral values and demonstration of leadership competencies. This case study explores New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s COVID-19 nursing home executive policy. Three key leaders’ roles are discussed and assessed in the context of the crisis event: Governor Cuomo, Commissioner of Health Howard Zucker, and Stephanie Gilmore, a nursing home care manager. This case study provides a discussion of the New York nursing home executive policy action, focusing largely on the roles and behavior of Cuomo, Zucker, and Gilmore. A brief literature review discusses the meaning and importance of crisis management, moral leadership, and leadership competencies, especially as they apply to this case study. Results demonstrate that effective crisis leadership has components of both moral leadership and various leadership competencies and skills. This case study concludes with limitations and strengths of this case study.

Daniel Bennett (John Brown University)
“Racial group affect and support for civil liberties in the United States,” in Politics, Groups, and Identities (2020)

Abstract: Civil liberties are a linchpin of liberal democracy, and are central to the practice and discourse of American politics. However, there is little research exploring whether or to what extent group attitudes influence public opinion on constitutionally guaranteed liberties. For this reason, we seek to shed light on whether the public actually views rights as fundamental, or whether attitudes toward groups – in this case, racial groups – moderate attitudes about civil liberties. We use a series of survey experiments to assess whether public support for constitutional protections – such as those found in the First, Second, and Fifth Amendments – is contingent on respondents’ attitudes toward the group identity of those benefiting from these protections. We show that while Americans do hold civil liberties in high esteem, attitudes toward a variety of constitutional rights are significantly conditioned by attitudes toward the group exercising a given right. Our findings indicate a gap between the ideal of civil liberties and what we see in reality, and suggest that racial attitudes may be endangering a core tenet of our political system.

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