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Christopher Darnton
Princeton University
February 22, 2008
Jointly presented by the University of Washington International Security Colloquium (UWISC), UW Institute for National Security Education and Research (UW INSER), Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development and Global Citizenship (MLC), Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Center of Global Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies and the Department of Political Science.
Presenter
Christopher Darnton is a Ph.D. candidate from the Department of Politics at Princeton University.
Theme
Under what conditions do countries engaged in a security rivalry with one another set aside their legacy of hostility and begin to cooperate? Conventional wisdom in international relations theory holds that a common foe is the most likely source of cooperation between adversaries, but we know little about the mechanisms through which this factor is likely to matter, the degree and stability of cooperation it is likely to produce, or the circumstances under which its effects will most strongly be felt. Darnton derives alternative hypotheses from realism and constructivism and tests these against an argument emphasizing the parochial interest of state security agencies in a position to veto cooperation. Darnton argues that the global and bipolar nature of the Cold War provides a potential common threat for rival countries that line up against the same superpower, and he examines the evolution of rivalries among Western Bloc countries from 1945 to 1989. After discussing the relevant theories and an overview of rivalries during the Cold War, Darnton presented a structured, focused comparison of four attempts at bilateral cooperation between Argentina and Brazil, rivals from the colonial era until finally achieving rapprochement in 1980. This analysis draws on interviews with foreign policy analysts and practitioners in both Argentina and Brazil as well as on published primary and secondary sources in English, Spanish, and Portuguese obtained from more than five months of fieldwork in South America.
Audience
The audience consisted of approximately 20 people. Audience members came from multiple academic units across campus including the Department of Political Science, the Jackson School of International Studies, and the Evans School of Public Affairs. Faculty and graduate students were represented.
Implications for National Security
The effects of common foes on rapprochement among adversaries is an important issue for contemporary security policy. With the post–Cold War focus on “new security threats,” including transnational terrorism, the prospect that international cooperation against these threats might mitigate existing international rivalries is an open and relevant question. China and Russia, for instance, are staunch advocates of eliminating violent non-state actors in their territories. It is also conceivable that a renewed focus by Islamist groups on combating the “near enemy” of insufficiently religious Arab governments could foster rapprochement between those governments and Israel (as well as one another).
Report by Stephan Hamberg
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