Maxwell's Demon and the Golden Apple

Global Discord in the New Millennium

Randall L. Schweller

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781421412788
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Globalisation
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Mixing myth, entropy, and Angry Birds, Randall Schweller brings a novel perspective to international studies.

Just what exactly will follow the American century? This is the question Randall L. Schweller explores in his provocative assessment of international politics in the twenty-first century.

Schweller considers the future of world politics, correlating our reliance on technology and our multitasking, distracted, disorganized lives with a fragmenting world order. He combines the Greek myth of the Golden Apple of Discord, which explains the start of the Trojan War, with a look at the second law of thermodynamics, or entropy.

"In the coming age, " Schweller writes, "disorder will reign supreme as the world succumbs to... entropy, an irreversible process of disorganization that governs the direction of all physical changes taking place in the universe." Interweaving his theory of global disorder with issues on the world stage—coupled with a disquisition on board games and the cell phone app "Angry Birds"—Schweller's thesis yields astonishing insights.

Maxwell's Demon and the Golden Apple will appeal to leaders of multinational corporations and government programs as well as instructors of undergraduate courses in international relations.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Understanding the Language of Energy
• 2 Entropy as Metaphor
• 3 The Multidimensions of Disorder
• 4 The Role of Emerging Powers in the Age of Entropy
• 5 How Power Diffusion Works to a State’s Advantage
• 6 Rising Entropy at the Macro Level
• 7 Rising Entropy at the Micro Level
• 8 Maxwell's Demon and Angry Birds
• Notes
• Index