Research has shown that policymaking in numerous domestic policies, across a multitude of polities, systematically produces a pattern of change that matches Punctuated Equilibrium Theory (PET), characterized by many incremental and occasional dramatic changes. The field of International Relations (IR), however, has paid surprisingly little attention to PET, even though the same pattern of change is also found in international politics. This study attempts to fill this gap and explains stability and change in international politics based on PET. Specifically, we detail the dynamics behind this pattern of behavior, both at the domestic and the international level, as well as their interplay. The empirical section shows that different indicators of international politics, including troop deployments, foreign aid and international trade, follow a leptokurtic pattern of change, which characterizes Punctuated Equilibrium, and whereby changes in countries' behavior are generally incremental, representing periods of relative stability, and punctuated by large changes that dramatically overthrow existing policies. Moreover, our results indicate that policy outputs where greater friction is at play are more punctuated than those policies that cannot as easily or directly be managed. This study urges future research to further explore the dynamics of stability and change at the aggregate, international level.
K E Y W O R D Sforeign aid, international politics, international trade, punctuated equilibrium theory, troop deployments
Front Cover: In article number 2200167, Johannes C. Brendel, Anja Traeger, and co‐workers discuss the release of the green fluorescent dye calcein from endosomes, used to study one of the most important intracellular barriers for the uptake of biological substances like genetic material. It includes an overview of various applications as well as the challenges of readily available and commonly used methods.
Résumé Cet article s'interroge sur l'effort budgétaire de défense de la France. Dans un premier temps, nous rappellerons le contexte dans lequel les choix budgétaires sont opérés, en expliquant le rôle des lois de programmation militaire (LPM) dans la budgétisation de la politique de défense française. Ensuite, nous analyserons les évolutions budgétaires du ministère des Armées afin de montrer les difficultés chroniques du respect des LPM et l'impact de telles difficultés sur la politique réelle, à court, moyen et long termes. L'article montre que la Revue stratégique est l'occasion de réorienter la défense nationale et d'éclaircir sa place dans le budget de l'État, notamment au vu de l'élaboration de la LPM pour les années 2019-2025.
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