Goldstein, Joshua S. 1952-
GOLDSTEIN, Joshua S. 1952-
PERSONAL: Born December 27, 1952, in Boston, MA. Education: Stanford University, B.A. (political science), 1981; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S., 1984, Ph.D. (political science), 1986.
ADDRESSES: Office—American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, DC 20016. E-mail—[email protected].
CAREER: Professor of international relations. University of Southern California School of International Relations, assistant professor, 1986-89, associate professor, 1989-93; Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, associate, and Yale University, New Haven, CT, fellow, 1991-93; American University, Washington, DC, associate professor, 1993-95, professor of international relations, 1995—; Brown University, Providence, RI, adjunct professor, 2002-03; Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Amherst, MA, director, 2002—. Guest expert on nationally syndicated radio and television programs and on radio programs originating in United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Hong Kong, and Germany.
AWARDS, HONORS: National Science Foundation fellowship, 1983-86; University of Southern California awards, 1987 (grant), 1988, 1989, 1990; Karl Deutsch Award, International Studies Association, 1990; MacArthur Foundation grant, 1991-93; American Jewish Congress award, 1994; National Science Foundation research grant, 1997-98; faculty awards, American University, 1998, 2002; Victoria Schuck Award for best book on women and politics, 2002, for War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa.
WRITINGS:
Long Cycles: Prosperity and War in the Modern Age, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1988.
(With John R. Freeman) Three-Way Street: Strategic Reciprocity in World Politics, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1990.
International Relations (textbook), HarperCollins College Publishers (New York, NY), 1994, fifth edition, Longman (New York, NY), 2003.
War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2001.
Contributor to periodicals, including Journal of Conflict Resolution, American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times; contributor to books, including Constituting International Political Economy, edited by Kurt Burch and others, Lynne Rienner (Boulder, CO), 1997, and The Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, edited by Joel Mokyr, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.
WORK IN PROGRESS: Putting out Fires: U.S. Involvement in Regional Conflicts, 1990-99 (National Science Foundation project).
SIDELIGHTS: Joshua S. Goldstein's books reflect his areas of expertise, which include international relations, war, conflict, great-power relations, international political economy, and gender. His Long Cycles: Prosperity and War in the Modern Age, based on his Ph.D. dissertation, is a study of wars, national hegemony, and economics as factors in long cycles.
Ethan B. Kapstein reviewed Three-Way Street: Strategic Reciprocity in World Politics, which Goldstein wrote with John R. Freeman, in Political Science Quarterly, saying that "it provides a unique attempt at applying prominent theories of international relations to a novel database on Sino-U.S.-Soviet relations, and does so in a remarkably lucid fashion."
Journal of Politics contributor Philip A. Schrodt said that this study "shows that when properly done, statistical analysis can yield useful, theoretically informed insights."
In War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa, Goldstein offers an interdisciplinary study of women's nonparticipation in combat, as well as a history of women who have fought in conflicts around the world over several centuries. A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that "his analysis of female military imagery and women's frequent participation in revolutionary movements is imaginative and convincing."
Goldstein specifically questions why women—who he notes can be good soldiers—have been traditionally excluded and comes up with five reasons: sex discrimination based on women's historical success as fighters; gender differences in anatomy and physiology; differences in group dynamics; cultural perceptions of tender women and tough men; and the sexual and economic domination of women by men. He concludes that biological differences are relatively unimportant and that males are no more predisposed to aggression than are females.
Michael Neiberg noted in the Journal of Social History that "modern warfare has tended to diminish, though not eliminate, the importance of brawn in favor of brains. Logically, then, women should have become more involved in warfare over time, yet this process has occurred only very sparsely and slowly." Neiberg noted that Goldstein argues that "more important than biology … cultural molding has been remarkably consistent in using warfare to make boys into men." At the same time, he notes, women have been formed into supporters of war as sweethearts, wives, and mothers.
Times Literary Supplement reviewer Ben Shephard said that Goldstein doesn't discuss the societies that go to war or explain how wars happen, and wrote that "having admitted that the relevance of animal studies is highly contentious … and that the whole field of primate studies is beset by subjective anthropomorphic distortions, he nonetheless reviews the primate evidence at great length." Shephard did note the "large amount of fascinating information. There are two good chapters summarizing modern thinking on the biology of individual gender and the ways in which gender differences manifest themselves in patterns of bonding, hierarchy, and social identity. The development of male and female brains, childhood pecking orders, the roles of mothers and fathers—and many, many other subjects—are interestingly discussed."
Iris Marcia Cowher wrote in the Journal of Military History that "the strength of this work lies in its truly heroic scope by pulling together evidence from several disciplines to build a thought-provoking argument. His overview of the various feminist schools of thought involving gender and war is well-written and illustrates that he possesses a good command of the material."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
American Political Science Review, December, 1989, William J. Dixon, review of Long Cycles: Prosperity and War in the Modern Age, pp. 1444-1445; December, 1991, James Lee Ray, review of Three-Way Street: Strategic Reciprocity in World Politics, pp. 1493-1494.
Barron's, October 17, 1988, interview with Goldstein, pp. 14-15.
Canadian Journal of Political Science, March, 1993, Ernie Keenes, review of Long Cycles, p. 145.
Choice, September, 1988, W. W. Howard, review of Long Cycles, p. 1988; May, 2002, M. J. Slaughter, review of War and Gender: How Gender Shapes the War System and Vice Versa, p. 1624.
Contemporary Sociology, January, 1989, Nathan Keyfitz, review of Long Cycles, pp. 34-36.
Journal of Military History, April, 2002, Iris Marcia Cowher, review of War and Gender, pp. 538-539.
Journal of Peace Research, August, 1995, Dan Smith, review of International Relations, p. 376.
Journal of Politics, November, 1989, Manus I. Midlarsky, review of Long Cycles, pp. 1065-1069; November, 1991, Philip A. Schrodt, review of Three-Way Street, pp. 1221-1223.
Journal of Social History, winter, 2002, Michael Neiberg, review of War and Gender, p. 504.
Political Science Quarterly, autumn, 1991, Ethan B. Kapstein, review of Three-Way Street, p. 576.
Publishers Weekly, September 24, 2001, review of War and Gender, p. 86.
Times Literary Supplement, May 24, 2002, Ben Shephard, review of War and Gender, pp. 7-8.
ONLINE
International Relations online,http://www.internationalrelations.net/ (March 28, 2003).
Joshua Goldstein Home Page,http://www.joshuagoldstein.com (March 28, 2003).
War and Gender.com,http://www.warandgender.com/ (March 28, 2003).*