Disagreements frequently arise over the dominant role played by realism in the study of international relations. Even though some scholars characterize the discipline by its rich theoretical diversity, others see realist concerns overshadowing all alternative theories. John Vasquez's The Power of Power Politics (1983) demonstrated how the realist paradigm had informed more than 90 percent of the data‐based articles published from the end of World War II to 1970. In this Forum, we reevaluate the centrality of realism in international relations scholarship. Reviewing 515 data‐based articles published from 1970 to 2000, we find that the proportion of articles informed by realism has been declining over the past three decades. From 1995 to 2000, liberalism surpassed realism as the leading guide to inquiry. This new theoretical pluralism calls into question the power of power politics thesis as a fitting description of contemporary research in international relations.

The popular uprising that started in Tunisia in December 2010 quickly spread across the Arab world, culminating in a historic regional realignment with far-reaching implications. This essay details the implications of the Arab Spring for Israeli security. After highlighting the history of Israel’s defense strategy and reviewing the Arab Spring revolts, the authors find that the recent uprisings exacerbate several issues faced by Israel, including geopolitical relations with other countries in the region, energy issues, and growing threats presented by nonstate actors.

In response to growing concerns over the production, deployment, and use of laser weapons that cause blinding, the international community in 1995 convened an international conference to restrict the use and transfer of blinding laser weapons. The result was the Fourth Additional Protocol to the 1980 United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. In doing so, a significant step was taken towards restricting the intentional blinding of combatants in time of war. This article provides a review of the process by which the Fourth Additional Protocol was drafted and an analysis of its legal impact on the use of laser weapon systems.

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This article examines the relationship between power fluctuations in the elite power system and the frequency of war. A theory is developed and tested using a new dataset of elite powers and elite power wars. The theory posits that fluctuations in the elite power system are related to war among elite powers due to an increase in uncertainty that accompanies such fluctuations. The theory is logically extended to contend that as elite power systems age (move temporally away from the point of fluctuation) the frequency of war will decrease, due to the decline of uncertainty. The theory is supported by analysis employing an existing dataset collected by Jack Levy, as well as a new elite war dataset. Additionally, in terms of the type of fluctuation and war, the study finds that as the system becomes more complex the incidence of war also increases.