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  • © 2018

Political Mistakes and Policy Failures in International Relations

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Includes both chapters which consider mistakes to be objective facts as well as chapters which consider mistakes to be social constructions
  • Essential reading for students of International Relations, as well as practitioners and policy makers
  • Includes contributions from leading researchers in the field

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. Introduction: Mistakes and Failures in International Relations

    • Andreas Kruck, Kai Oppermann, Alexander Spencer
    Pages 1-29
  3. Foreign and Security Policy

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31
    2. From Precaution to Prejudice: Mistakes in Counter-terrorism

      • Timothy Legrand, Michael Lister
      Pages 33-53
    3. Where Berlin Got It Terribly Wrong: German Foreign Policy Fiascos in the News Media

      • Mischa Hansel, Henrike Viehrig, Danae Ankel
      Pages 79-99
  4. Back Matter

    Pages 305-318

About this book

This edited volume analyzes mistakes in different areas of international relations including the realms of security, foreign policy, finance, health, development, environmental policy and migration. By starting out from a broad concept of mistakes as “something [considered to have] gone wrong” the edited volume enables comparisons of various kinds of mistakes from a range of analytical perspectives, including objectivist and interpretivist approaches, in order to draw out answers to the following guiding questions:

• How does one identify and research a mistake?

• Why do mistakes happen?

• How are actors made responsible?

• When and how do actors learn from mistakes?

This book will be of great interest to scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as practitioners in International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Security Studies, International Political Economy, and Diplomatic History.



Editors and Affiliations

  • Geschwister-Scholl-Institute of Political Science, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany

    Andreas Kruck

  • Department of Politics, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom

    Kai Oppermann

  • Institute of Social Sciences and History, Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany

    Alexander Spencer

About the editors

Andreas Kruck is Assistant Professor of Global Governance at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany.

Kai Oppermann is Reader in Politics at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

Alexander Spencer is Professor for International Relations at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany. 

Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access