Wars and Pandemics
History, Lessons, and Analogies
Will be published approx. on 13. January 2027
Book
Hardback
336 pages
978-0-19-786054-0 (ISBN)
Description
History, Analogies, Lessons: Wars and Pandemics develops a set of propositions about why policy elites learn some kinds of lessons and not others, why some lessons become deeply embedded, how they influence thinking more generally when they do, and why and how they lose traction.
Lebow and Zhang evaluate their propositions in two foreign policy and two public health cases: the Munich lesson for the US and the Korean lesson for China, and the COVID pandemic for China and the West. The book examines the similarities and differences of foreign policy and public health learning, the problems of updating, revising, and rejecting lessons, and the reasons why and the ways in which lessons can become politicized, as the latter did during COVID. It makes a series of policy recommendations for the public health community and draws out the theoretical implications of the authors' findings for the study of international relations.
Lebow and Zhang evaluate their propositions in two foreign policy and two public health cases: the Munich lesson for the US and the Korean lesson for China, and the COVID pandemic for China and the West. The book examines the similarities and differences of foreign policy and public health learning, the problems of updating, revising, and rejecting lessons, and the reasons why and the ways in which lessons can become politicized, as the latter did during COVID. It makes a series of policy recommendations for the public health community and draws out the theoretical implications of the authors' findings for the study of international relations.
Reviews / Votes
Combining insights from political science, psychology, and history, this book advances our understanding of how decision-makers learn and mis-learn from history. Students of international relations and public health will find Lebow and Zhang's comparative analysis of how the U.S and China used the Munich, Korean War, and pre-Covid analogies illuminating, and I dare say, convincing. More than any other work, they help us understand the seductiveness and dangers of analogical reasoning. A significant and original contribution to the international relations literature. * Yuen Foong Khong, National University of Singapore *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-19-786054-0 (9780197860540)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Richard Ned Lebow is Professor Emeritus of International Political Theory in the War Studies Department of King's College London, Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge, and James O. Freedman Presidential Professor Emeritus at Dartmouth College. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a member of The Atheneum.
Feng Zhang is Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. A political scientist and interdisciplinary scholar, he specializes in China's foreign policy, Asian international relations, and international relations theory. He has held teaching positions at Tsinghua University, Murdoch University, Australian National University, and Yale University.
Feng Zhang is Senior Research Fellow at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore. A political scientist and interdisciplinary scholar, he specializes in China's foreign policy, Asian international relations, and international relations theory. He has held teaching positions at Tsinghua University, Murdoch University, Australian National University, and Yale University.
Content
- to come