Maxwell's Demon and the Golden Apple: Global Discord in the New Millennium

by Randall L. Schweller

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.

Genres: International Relations

216 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2014

Reviews

[Rodger Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure I agree with much of what Schweller argues about international relations (IR), but I found this book provocative and interesting. Schweller is a well-known realist -- and he was one of the few IR scholars to openly embrace Donald Trump's foreign policy agenda in 2016-2017.

This book could have been written with someone like Trump in mind as Schweller discusses the many forces of entropy that are creating disorder in international politics. Historically, decisive hegemonic wars tended to provide order for IR. However, for a number of (good) reasons, major power war is virtually impossible to imagine these days. Thus, the international system is condemned to become less and less orderly as all kinds of new power centers emerge, both national and non-state, and the ability of the US to maintain hegemonic order has diminished over time since the end of the cold war.

Schweller does not advocate for major power war, but the book generally offers a pessimistic take on what to expect from international relations going forward. The author is certainly not a liberal institutionalist as he downplays the prospects of meaningful international cooperation. He also discusses the possibility of some other global catastrophe successfully reordering IR (like a pandemic, seen as the most likely alternative), but he ultimately rejects that because unlike hegemonic war, such an events would occur without national purpose. The aftermath of a catastrophe like global pandemic would not create a legitimately and widely recognized power center that could (re)order the world.

Weirdly, however, the closing paragraphs hedge on this pessimism, as Schweller mentions the possibility of embracing unpredictability. He also references the well-known quote from Camus about imagining Sisyphus happy despite his predicament -- and he quotes the REM song "It's the end of the world and I know it. And I feel fine."

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

By no means perfect, but a valiant attempt to make realism and IR theory more broadly relevant to the 21st century international system. The central metaphor of entropy in thermodynamics was interesting but could have been presented in a more condensed form. Also, the section on the microfoundations of the new order - information overload, etc. at the individual level - was a bit too newsy and could have worked more to make the links between the microfoundations and state behavior clearer. Still, this is an important book, and I hope others follow in Schweller's footsteps.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 4 out of 5]

...it is more than simply provocative, it demands attention
Jonathan Kirshner, Political Science Quarterly

This is the most original and thought-provoking forecast of future world politics to be published in recent years.
G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

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amazon review

Must read for students and citizens alike

This book is a must read for anyone interested in international affairs (and even those who are not). His views of international relations are innovate and deviate from many other traditional scholars like Waltz or Mearsheimer.

He writes about the diffusion of international actors being unlike any previous international order. He also places more emphasis on the development of technology and the fast rate of globalization than many other scholars. He problematizes the classical realism by arguing that while theories of the sort might have held true in the 1800's it would be ill-advised to apply the same logic to the current makeup of the international system. This being said, he does not completely abandon realism (this is consistent with much of his earlier work where he characterizes himself as a neoclassical realist). His writing originates from the foundations of realism meaning that he believes the there is no global policeman in the international order and because of that states act out of their own self interest. However, he says that the power struggles that come out of this will not take the form of war and conflict because of how the world has developed.

He draws on the laws of thermodynamics to explain international relations, something that I had never seen before. He does so by defining and explaining the concept of entropy and then applying it to international politics. While there are parts of his explanations of thermodynamics that get dense, he does a good job keeping the pace of the book moving and never gets to scientific.

This book explains complex concepts in a way that anyone can understand. Overall, it was a great book that gave me a new perspective on international politics.

Robert Shaw

[Pablo Damasceno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Author has a very equivocated view of thermodynamics, applying concepts of use within closed systems to macro, open system where the laws of thermodynamic should not apply anymore.