About The Book

Mainstream international relations continues to assume that the world is governed by calculable risk based on estimates of power, despite repeatedly being surprised by unexpected change. This ground breaking work departs from existing definitions of power that focus on the actors' evolving ability to exercise control in situations of calculable risk. It introduces the concept of 'protean power', which focuses on the actors' agility as they adapt to situations of uncertainty. Protean Power uses twelve real world case studies to examine how the dynamics of protean and control power can be tracked in the relations among different state and non-state actors, operating in diverse sites, stretching from local to global, in both times of relative normalcy and moments of crisis.

Speaker

Professor Katzenstein is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. His research and teaching lie at the intersection of the fields of international relations and comparative politics. Katzenstein's work addresses issues of political economy, and security and culture in world politics. His current research interests focus on power, the politics of regions and civilizations, America's role in the world, and German politics.  

Since 1973, he has taught at the Cornell University School of Government's Department of International Relations, received the Helen Dwight Reid International Relations Excellent Paper Award from the American Institute of Political Science in 1974, and Woodrow Wilson's Best Political Science Award from the American Institute of Political Science in 1986. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in the United States in 1987, Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize of the American Political Science Research Association in 1993, and a member of the American Philosophy Association and President of the American Political Science Research Association in 2009.