For a century now, the disputed frontier region of the upper Amazon-bordering Brazil, Peru, Colombia and Bolivia-has been the subject for one of the most persistent controversies in Irish history. In 1910 and 1911 the British Consul, Roger Casement (1864-1916) undertook two separate voyages up the Amazon to investigate crimes against humanity: the decimation of people and environment resulting from the extractive rubber industry. These investigations ultimately helped the South American rubber boom go bust and persuaded international investors to switch interests to the new Anglo-Dutch rubber plantation economy of Southeast Asia. But since Casement's execution in 1916 for his part in the Easter rising, a bitter controversy has raged over his reputation and the authenticity of the so-called Black Diaries. Three of these contested records configure with his Amazon voyages and are sources for analysing an important socioeconomic tipping point in Latin American history. In 1997 & 2003 I edited two volumes of documents relevant to his Amazon investigations which formed part of an ongoing methodological inquiry enabling a new and alternative textual reading of the Black Diaries and the re-evaluation of Casement as a critical voice in Irish and World history. 1 The publication of these edited volumes reawakened a long-standing argument suggesting that the diaries are forgeries. In 2008 a comprehensive new biography was published on Roger Casement, which went to some length to discredit my nascent argument. This article is the first part of my response to the biographer, Séamas Ó Síocháin's Roger Casement: Imperialist, Rebel, Revolutionary.

The Empire of Habsburg Austria faced more enemies than any other European great power. Flanked on four sides by rivals, it possessed few of the advantages that explain successful empires. Yet somehow Austria endured, outlasting Ottoman sieges, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon. This book tells the story of how this cash-strapped, polyglot empire survived for centuries in Europe’s most dangerous neighborhood without succumbing to the pressures of multisided warfare. It shows how the Habsburgs played the long game in geopolitics, corralling friend and foe alike into voluntarily managing the empire’s lengthy frontiers and extending a benign hegemony across the turbulent lands of middle Europe. The book offers lessons on how to navigate a messy geopolitical map, stand firm without the advantage of military predominance, and prevail against multiple rivals.

From the Baltic to the South China Sea, newly assertive authoritarian states sense an opportunity to resurrect old empires or build new ones at America's expense. Hoping that U.S. decline is real, nations such as Russia, Iran, and China are testing Washington's resolve by targeting vulnerable allies at the frontiers of American power. This book explains why the United States needs a new grand strategy that uses strong frontier alliance networks to raise the costs of military aggression in the new century. The book describes the aggressive methods which rival nations are using to test American power in strategically critical regions throughout the world. It shows how rising and revisionist powers are putting pressure on our frontier allies—countries like Poland, Israel, and Taiwan—to gauge our leaders' commitment to upholding the American-led global order. To cope with these dangerous dynamics, nervous U.S. allies are diversifying their national-security “menu cards” by beefing up their militaries or even aligning with their aggressors. The book reveals how numerous would-be great powers use an arsenal of asymmetric techniques to probe and sift American strength across several regions simultaneously, and how rivals and allies alike are learning from America's management of increasingly interlinked global crises to hone effective strategies of their own. The book demonstrates why the United States must strengthen the international order that has provided greater benefits to the world than any in history.

No abstract

This chapter traces the deterioration that has occurred in the foundations of America's relations with many of its longest-standing allies over the past few years, both through a weakening of the political bonds with Washington and through diplomatic and military probes at the hands of U.S. rivals. In recent years, the United States has been tempted to ignore the historic need for strong alliances. On closer examination, there are deeply rooted sources of the American temptation to deprioritize alliances. Geography, technology, and ideology tempt them to think that they do not need allies to compete effectively in global geopolitics. In addition, in recent years domestic political pressures have emerged that generate doubts about U.S. overseas commitments. The Obama administration's rhetoric and actions—partly a reflection of these pressures—have been perceived as downgrading the importance of allies.