Protean Power

Exploring the Uncertain and Unexpected in World Politics

Mainstream international relations continues to assume that the world is governed by calculable risk based on estimates of power, despite repeatedly being surprised by unexpected change. This groundbreaking work departs from existing definitions of power that focus on the actors’ evolving ability to exercise control in situations of calculable risk. It introduces the concept of “protean power,” which focuses on the actors’ agility as they adapt to situations of uncertainty. Protean Power uses twelve real-world case studies to examine how the dynamics of protean and control power can be tracked in the relations among different state and non-state actors, operating in diverse sites, stretching from local to global, in both times of relative normalcy and moments of crisis. Katzenstein and Seybert argue for a new approach to international relations, where the inclusion of protean power in our analytical models helps in accounting for unforeseen changes in world politics.

Peter J. Katzenstein has served as President of the American Political Science Association and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Science, the American Philosophical Society, and the British Academy. He has been the recipient of the Helen Dwight Reid Award, the Woodrow Wilson prize for the best book published in the United States on international affairs, and the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize as well as five honorary degrees of European and Chinese universities. He has taught at Cornell for over forty years.

Lucia A. Seybert is a Professorial Lecturer at American University, School of International Service. She is a former Title VIII Research Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a recipient of a number of research grants and fellowships, including from the American Council of Learned Societies.