"Proposes an analytical foundation for national security that challenges long-held assumptions or outdated suppositions about foreign affairs. Presents case studies of American foreign policy toward developing countries, efforts at state building, and nations growing in importance. Concludes...

The upheavals of recent decades show us that traditional models of understanding processes of social and economic change are failing to capture real-world risk and volatility. This has resulted in flawed policy that seeks to capture change in terms of the rise or decline of regimes or regions....