Defending Frenemies

Jeffrey W. Taliaferro is Associate Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. His research and teaching focus on security studies, international relations theory, international history and politics, US foreign policy, intelligence, and national security. He earned a PhD in government from Harvard University and an AB from Duke University. He is the author of Balancing Risks: Great Power Intervention in the Periphery, which won the American Political Science Association's Robert L. Jervis and Paul W. Schroeder Award for the Best Book in International History and Politics, and the co-author, with Norrin M. Ripsman and Steven E. Lobell, of Neoclassical Realist Theory of International Politics.

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviations and Acronyms used in the Texts and NotesChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Neoclassical Realist Theory, Alliance Politics, and NonproliferationChapter 3: The United States and Israel's Nuclear Weapons Program, 1961-1973Chapter 4: The United States and Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Program, 1975-1990Chapter 5: The United States and South Korea's Nuclear Weapons Program, 1971-1981Chapter 6: The United States and Taiwan's Nuclear Weapons Program, 1967-1978Chapter 7: Conclusions

The great strength of this book lies in the well-written and well-sourced narratives detailing relations between each frenemy state and the US. Taliaferro places these narratives in the context of four theoretical frameworks, concluding that neoclassical realism offers the most compelling explanation of US behavior.