Acting Alone

Acting Alone: A Scientific Study of American Hegemony and Unilateral Use-of-Force Decision Making is a straight-forward analysis of unilateral U.S. military actions, which are dependent upon the power disparity between the U.S. and the rest of the world. In solving the puzzle as to why individual presidents have made the 'wrong' decision to act alone, the author lays out a president's behavior, during a crisis, as a two-step decision process. Acting Alone reviews the well-studied first decision, deciding to use force, based on international conflict literature and organized along traditional lines. The author then details the second decision, deciding to use unilateral force, with an explanation of the criticisms of multilateralism and the reasons for unilateralism. To test a new theory of unilateral use of force decision making, Acting Alone devises a definition and coding rules for unilateral use of force, develops a sequential model of presidential use of force decision making, and constructs a new, alternative measure of military power, a Composite Indicator of Military Revolutions (CIMR). It then uses three methods - a statistical test with a heckman probit model, an experiment, and case studies - to test U.S. crisis behavior since 1937. By applying these three methods, the author finds that presidents are realists and make expected utility calculations to act unilaterally or multilaterally after their decision to use force. The unilateral decision, in particular, positively correlates with a wide military gap with an opponent, an opponent located in the Western hemisphere, and a national security threat.

Acting Alone is a major contribution to the study of foreign policy analysis and security studies. Rare is the book that combines theory, case work and statistical analysis so well to make its point. The book includes many specific contributions, such as introduction of expected value modeling into this area of research and a new measure of military power linked to military revolutions. This book is essential reading for specialists in international relations and foreign policy analysis as well as those with a general interest in the US's activities in the world abroad., A welcome reality check on the American way of war. Acting Alone acts as an antidote to soft-headed soft-power thinking with a clear-eyed analytical assessment of presidential decision making. A must read for understanding the power of statistical analysis to enrich our comprehension of modern statecraft., The decision to use force is always charged with emotion, particularly in the American political setting. In Acting Alone, Bradley Podliska cuts through this to dissect such decisions with an innovative combination of analytical techniques. His book helps explain why the United States normally opts for unilateral force and undoubtedly will pave the way for future scholarship on this important topic.

Bradley F. Podliska is an instructor with the Department of Defense.