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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

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  1. Cover
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  1. Title Page, Copyright Page
  2. pp. i-vi
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  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
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  1. Preface
  2. pp. ix-xii
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  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. xiii-xvi
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  1. Introduction. Navigating the Chaos of Contemporary World Politics: Network versus No-work
  2. pp. 1-27
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  1. 1. Understanding the Language of Energy: Why Entropy Does Not Herald Doomsday
  2. pp. 28-34
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  1. 2. Entropy as Metaphor: Pattern Recognition, Time’s Arrow, and the Big Chill
  2. pp. 35-43
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  1. 3. The Multidimensions of Disorder: Thermodynamics and World Politics
  2. pp. 44-60
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  1. 4. The Role of Emerging Powers in the Age of Entropy; or, What Happens When the Sheriff Leaves Town and Anonymous Moves In
  2. pp. 61-80
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  1. 5. How Power Diffusion Works to a State’s Advantage: This Is Not Your Great-Grandfather’s Multipolar World
  2. pp. 81-93
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  1. 6. Rising Entropy at the Macro Level: The World Is Not Flat in Purgatory
  2. pp. 94-121
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  1. 7. Rising Entropy at the Micro Level: Information Overload and the Advent of Truthiness
  2. pp. 122-134
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  1. 8. Maxwell’s Demon and Angry Birds: Big Data to the Rescue?
  2. pp. 135-160
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  1. Notes
  2. pp. 161-190
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  1. Index
  2. pp. 191-196
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