Brent J. Steele is the Francis D. Wormuth Presidential Chair and Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. He is the author of four books, including Alternative Accountabilities in Global Politics: The Scars of Violence (2012). He is the co-editor of six books, has edited four journal special issues or symposia, and has published numerous journal articles, most recently in the European Journal of International Relations and the Journal of Global Security Studies.

• Introduction; 1. Restraint appraised: restraint in international relations; 2. Restraint and actionism in global politics; 3. The historical (ab)uses of restraint: gender, race, class; 4. Democratic restraint, democratic libido; 5. Restraint, anti-climax, and insecurity; 6. Restraining those who can't restrain themselves: restraint, international political economy, and public health; Conclusion: towards a strategic narrative of restraint.

'If politics is about power in the world of social relations, then political inquiry must not only interrogate both power and the social world in which it operates, but must also utilize all relevant social science theories and tools to do so. Brent Steele's Restraint in International Politics does exactly this, and does so brilliantly.' Franke Wilmer, Montana State University