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"Dynamics of Regional Politics" explores the patterns of international conflict and cooperation in four geographical subsystems: the Horn of Africa, the Persian/Arabian Gulf, the South Asian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. Wriggins's book argues that to understand how the end of the Cold War will affect these areas, it is necessary to look closely at their individual dynamics over time, to differentiate characteristics that are intrinsic to the regions from those caused by the Cold War involvement of the United States and the Soviet Union. The book is structured to test hypotheses about international alignment and conflict across a number of Third World cases. It highlights areas where Third World realities - arbitrary colonial borders, weak state structures, civil conflict, ethnic/sectarian/tribal ties across borders - produce international outcomes different from those predicted by standard theories generated from European and North American cases. Each case study is written by a distinguished regional specialist familiar with the history and international politics of the region.
