Al Qaeda, Military Commissions, and American Self-Defense
Ruth Wedgwood critically examines the U.S. detainment of al Qaeda prisoners and others accused of visa violations or of being enemy combatants. She explains that “In a world where terrorist action flirts with catastrophic weapons, the competing paradigms of crime and war may provide no more than analogies. Fitting the law to this unwanted new world thus will require tact, judgment, and the weight of a heavy heart.”

Encircled Again: Russia's Military Assesses Threats in a Post-Soviet World
William D. Jackson examines the nature and evolution of threat discourse within the Russian military command. He finds that while Russia’s civilian leadership has generally pursued policies that have downplayed serious external threats, Russia’s military leadership has increasingly embraced a new world view that describes a range of objectively-determined aggressive threats encircling Russia.

Capitalist Development, Entrepreneurial Class, and Democratization in China
An Chen examines China’s capitalist development in the reform era as an “artifact” invented by the communist state. He argues that in a somewhat spurious capitalist context, China’s entrepreneurial class and other middle classes must rely heavily upon arbitrary political power for survival and thriving.

Kosovo and the Metaphor War
Roland Paris uses historical metaphors in the speeches and statements of American policy makers during the Kosovo crisis of 1999 to argue that American policy makers used competing historical analogies as a proxy for debating the merits of different responses to the crisis.

American Foreign Policy and the Limits of Military Might: A Review Essay
Seyom Brown reviews the RAND Corporation study of military coercion by Daniel Byman and Matthew Waxman. Brown commends the authors’ comprehensive mining of the record and conceptual literature for the factors that need to be taken into account when the United States attempts to forcibly influence an adversary’s behavior. But he criticizes the cogency of their theoretical argument that “escalation dominance” is the key to successful coercion.

Electoral Consequences of Porkbusting in the U. S. House of Representatives
Gregory L. Bovitz examines the electoral consequences of seemingly risky political decisions by members of the U.S. House of Representatives to support termination of other legislators’ pork-barrel programs. He finds that strategic choices to defect from the pork-barrel game, thereby establishing or enhancing a reputation for fiscal responsibility, can help—and never hurt—legislators’ reelection bids.

Issue Positions of Democrats and Republicans in the U. S. House, 1998: A Research Note
Scot Schraufnagel and Jeffery J. Mondak use survey data from Project Vote Smart to compare the issue positions of Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House. Results reveal significant differences in eighteen of nineteen issues. The divide between the parties most often is moderate in magnitude and consistent with a depiction of the parties as center-left and center-right.

Presidential Decisions for War: Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf, Gary R. Hess
Reviewed by David A. Crockett

The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming, David Victor
Reviewed by Lamont C. Hempel

The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone, Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Reviewed by Lisa Anderson

The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation, Sidney Verba, Kay Lehman Schlozman and Nancy Burns
Reviewed by Robert Y. Shapiro

At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy, Henry R. Nau
Reviewed by Stephen R. Rock

The Battle for Congress: Consultants, Candidates, and Voters, James A. Thurber, ed.
Reviewed by Gary J. Andres

The Role of the Supreme Court in American Politics: The Least Dangerous Branch?, Richard L. Pacelle, Jr.
Reviewed by Timothy R. Johnson

Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires, Alexander J. Motyl
Reviewed by James Kurth

Warfare and the Third World, Robert E. Harkavy and Stephanie G. Neuman
Reviewed by Steven R. David

Eyewitness to a Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda, Michael Barnett
Reviewed by Jack Snyder

Washington, Meg Greenfield
Reviewed by Doris Graber

The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda, Alan Kuperman
Reviewed by Michael Barnett

The Making and Breaking of the Soviet System: An Interpretation, Christopher Read
Reviewed by Archie Brown

Judging the Past in Unified Germany, A. James McAdams
Reviewed by Marc Morjé Howard

Same Bed, Different Dreams: Managing U. S.-China Relations, 1989-2000, David M. Lampton
Reviewed by John W. Garver

Chinese Democracy after Tiananmen, Yijiang Ding
Reviewed by Joseph Fewsmith

Realpolitik in the Eastern Mediterranean: From Kissinger and the Cyprus Crisis to Carter and the Lifting of the Turkish Arms Embargo, Chris P. Ioannides
Reviewed by Bruce Kuniholm

Egypt during the Sadat Years, Kirk J. Beattie
Reviewed by Ellis Goldberg

Mandates and Democracies: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America, Susan C. Stokes
Reviewed by Frances Hagopian

Politics after Neoliberalism: Reregulation in Mexico, Richard Snyder
Reviewed by Kathleen O'Neill

The Limits of Convergence: Globalization and Organizational Change in Argentina, South Korea, and Spain, Marco F. Guillén
Reviewed by Anthony W. Pereira

Justice and Fairness in International Negotiation, Cecilia Albin
Reviewed by David A. Welch

The New Politics of the Welfare State, Paul Pierson, ed.
Reviewed by Robert C. Lieberman

Public Administration and the State: A Postmodern Perspective, Michael W. Spicer
Reviewed by Steven Cohen

Spin This! All the Ways We Don't Tell the Truth, Bill Press
Reviewed by Kathleen Knight

Missed Opportunity: Gore, Incumbency, and Television in Election 2000, E. D. Dover
Reviewed by Gerald M. Pomper

Rethinking Democratic Accountability, Robert D. Behn
Reviewed by O. P. Dwivedi

Gun Violence in America: The Struggle for Control, Alexander DeConde
Reviewed by Kristin A. Goss

The War against the New Deal, Brian Waddell
Reviewed by Robert A. Divine

Harry Truman and Civil Rights: Moral Courage and Political Risks, Michael R. Gardner
Reviewed by Kevin J. McMahon

Semblances of Sovereignty: The Constitution, the State, and American Citizenship, T. Alexander Aleinikoff
Reviewed by Peter H. Schuck

"Belonging to the World": Women's Rights and American Constitutional Culture, Sandra F. VanBurkleo
Reviewed by Dorothy McBride Stetson

Communities and the Environment: Ethnicity, Gender, and the State in Community-Based Conservation, Arun Agrawal and Clark C. Gibson, eds.
Reviewed by Judith A. Layzer

Corporate Power and the Environment: The Political Economy of U. S. Environmental Policy, George A. Gonzalez
Reviewed by Michael E. Kraft

Environmental Policymaking in Congress: The Role of Issue Definition in Wetlands, Great Lakes and Wildlife Policies, Kelly Tzoumis
Reviewed by Christopher J. Bosso

Environmental Injustice in the United States: Myths and Realities, James P. Lester, David W. Allen and Kelly M. Hill
Reviewed by Evan J. Ringquist

The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go it Alone, Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
Reviewed by Lisa Anderson