Chapter 4 shows that while one cannot deny Swift’s use of a Tory “conspiracy thesis” in foreign policy tracts like The Conduct of the Allies, Swift relied more heavily on legitimate arguments and sources of international politics and law that have been underrated: Aristotle, Hugo Grotius, and Samuel Pufendorf. Aristotle taught a concept of foreign policy centered on constitutionalism, geography, naval power, self-defense, and public reason. Grotius and Pufendorf provided a foundation of natural and international law, as well as just war theory, that was secular yet grounded on classical learning and Christian ethics. Grotius’s underappreciated influence undermines the idea that Swift’s politics were purely Hobbesian, realist, or authoritarian. Swift had a realist and an idealist strain but “Grotian rationalism” predominated in the controversy over the Utrecht Peace. Grotius also fed Swift’s growing skepticism about the Whig concept of the balance of power.

Chapter 5 examines Swift’s major foreign policy writings, particularly the Conduct of the Allies and the History of the Four Last Years of the Queen. It differentiates his neoclassical balance-of-power theory – which pointed toward the need to negotiate peace – from modern, nonnormative, militaristic, and pseudoscientific versions of the theory, which his contemporaries used to justify continuing the war. Swift condemned militarism even when exhibited by his own country. He opposed the attempted subjugation and domination of an enemy country as unwise policy that would lead to international power imbalances and unintended consequences, and thus threaten both domestic constitutionalism and international security. He adopted a mixed qualitative-quantitative method of argument and revealed the conceptual flaws of the quantitative or military-statistical approach adopted by the pro-war Whigs. While his arguments facilitated the Peace of Utrecht (1713), French delays in implementing the peace terms left Swift with little more than satire in his last Tory pamphlets.

Chapter 1 revives the traditional view that Sir William Temple had a profound influence on Swift against the recent tendency to underrate Temple. It does so by providing long overdue attention to the most neglected yet most substantial dimension of Temple’s career, literary work, and bequest to Swift: the international dimension. Temple’s teachings as diplomat and foreign policy essayist are primarily responsible for Swift’s heightened awareness of the intersection of domestic and international politics throughout his career. Hence also Swift’s recognition of the interdependence of domestic liberty and international security – the need to preserve liberty through not only constitutional balance but also international balance. This inextricable relationship is often overlooked by scholars focused on the domestic ideological binary of liberty versus authority. It reveals Temple’s and Swift’s shared opposition to domestic political polarization, even at the risk of being falsely accused of favoring absolutist, paternalistic, or arbitrary government.

Chapter 6 shifts the scene to Ireland, where Swift returned after his four years writing propaganda for the Tory government in London. It reasserts the allegorical reading of Part I of Gulliver’s Travels (1726), a defense of the Peace of Utrecht, and more importantly the underlying principles. In light of Swift’s international politics and thought, the war between the fictional lands of Lilliput and Blefuscu can be seen as a tripolar model of international relations – not bipolar, as widely believed, since Gulliver acts as arbiter. This model centers on Swift’s neoclassical balance-of-power theory, which also underscores a defensive blue-water foreign policy that contrasts starkly with offensive policy, “reason of state,” imperialism, and colonialism.

Swift learned about foreign affairs from one of England’s greatest diplomats, Sir William Temple, friend of William III and champion of balance-of-power foreign policy. But he became chief apologist for the notorious foreign policy maneuver by which Britain abandoned William's Grand Alliance to negotiate a ceasefire with archenemy France. The Whig opposition accused Swift and the Tories of ushering in foreign hegemony and domestic absolutism – and most critics today insist Swift was an authoritarian political thinker and devotee of Thomas Hobbes. Yet Britain and France negotiated the Peace of Utrecht (1713), a milestone of international cooperation, the first major treaty to include “balance of power” in its provisions, and the inspiration of Enlightenment philosophical projects of “perpetual peace,” ultimately including the European Union. This paradox reveals the need to study Swift’s views on international politics in both theory and practice. The key lies in his universalist conception of balance of power.

Chapter 3 reviews Swift’s rapid emergence as England’s chief foreign policy propagandist and analyzes his ethical, religious, political, geopolitical, and economic reasons for opposing the War of Spanish Succession. He became a Tory partisan after two recessions and adopted the ideology of the old propertied elite against the new capitalist elite. He revealed a nativist strain and opposed foreign influences, including national debt and continental military involvement. But he did not abandon basic Whiggish political principles like rule by consent or the right to resist tyranny. He defended emergency executive action not as a pretext for absolute power but as a limited constitutional device for resolving an immediate and objective crisis, notably abroad. Unilateral powers can easily be abused but Swift shows himself concerned about that risk in a way that is not characteristic of authoritarians. His opposition to Dutch national debt went along with opposition to French power politics, revealing middle ground.

Chapter 2 discusses Swift’s statement of political principles, A Discourse of the Contests and Dissensions (1701), and shows how international relations proved essential both to his fully developed, neoclassical balance-of-power theory as well as his practical political objectives in contemporary debates about the constitution and emerging War of Spanish Succession. Swift wrote against the Tory majority in the House of Commons and thus attacked the tyranny of the majority – but he also took a more realistic and permissive view of popular political participation than has been acknowledged. That view reflected his belief in the voice of the people and consensual government, including when discovering the national interest within the international context. The masses helped to rescue England from French imperialism, just as threats of French hegemony put the domestic political need for power-sharing into perspective. Swift defends executive action for the sake of national security but does not abandon constitutional constraints.

Chapter 8 addresses the conclusion of Gulliver’s Travels, Part IV, and examines Swift’s definition of humans as animals merely capable of reason, not inherently rational. This definition is influenced by, and influences, international politics and thought. The parable of angelic horses and bestial humans remains the interpretive crux of Gulliver and Swift’s entire body of work. The international dimension contradicts the scholarly consensus that Swift’s Hobbesian view of human nature led him to seek refuge in a political ideology of absolutism and authoritarianism. Swift insists on the indispensable role of liberty and reason even in nature, thus differentiating the state of nature from the state of war. While he deflates revolutionary idealism and utopianism, and implicitly undermines schemes of “perpetual peace” and world government, he also hints at the benefits of social institutions that promote peace, good governance, and productivity.

Chapter 7 examines Gulliver’s Travels Parts II and III, with particular focus on the role of ideology, namely religion and sectarianism, in the context of global politics and trade. Swift saw modern Europe as a once-unified constitutional and ideological system (Christendom) that fell into a state of decay – a process accelerated by ideologies and policies motivated by hubris and aggression, such as absolutism, militarism, colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. In doing so he illustrated essential dynamics of modernity, science, technology, and globalization and implied that their unrestrained development would lead to conflict rather than cooperation. He painted a picture of Asian governments, namely Japan, as foils to European governments: while they were despotic at home, they followed rational self-interest abroad, enabling cordial trade relations and a balance of power. By contrast, modern European colonial powers are satirized as being blinded by the pursuit of commercial monopolies and hence objects of foreign manipulation.

Entering a teaching position for the first time is a professionally significant milestone; one that requires attentive preparation, strategic planning, and active engagement. With this in mind, a diverse range of strategies in this chapter are explored with the aim of supporting early career teachers in effectively transitioning into a new educational setting. Understanding the teaching role expectations, actively engaging in orientation and/or induction, and undertaking initial classroom setup, are all necessary requirements that early career teachers must tend to in order to be best placed for a successful start.

So what should we seek in order to avoid or at least reliably reduce the availability of such arbitrary exercise of power? The commonest forms of answer – limiting, constraining, curbing – cast the role of the rule of law as defensive and negative, often exclusively so. These terms typically miss the positive, often constitutive, and anyway indispensable role of power in social affairs and in what we should hope for if the rule of law is to attain its proper ends. I recall the term ‘tempering’ as long used, but largely forgotten, to express the ambitions of those pursuing values then and long since associated with the rule of law. In part a description, in part metaphor, the idea of ‘tempering’ gives more food to thought and possibility than the defensive, diminishing terms in common use. I demonstrate that in its various uses – personal, institutional, metallurgical – the term evokes a salutary combination of balance, thoughtfulness, moderation, and strength appropriate to the rule of law ideal.

This chapter establishes the terminology and notation necessary for the study of signed graphs and introduces their two fundamental concepts, balance and switching equivalence. It provides formal definitions of the key matrices associated with signed graphs, including the adjacency matrix, Laplacian matrix, and net Laplacian matrix, and discusses their basic properties in detail. The chapter also examines foundational results concerning the characteristic polynomials and eigenvalues of these matrices, highlighting their role in analysing the structural and spectral properties of signed graphs. In addition, the standard structural balance criteria are extended and generalized through spectral criteria, which can be computed efficiently in polynomial time, providing a practical framework for assessing balance in larger and more complex networks.

As the Framers anticipated, factions remain a powerful force in American politics. The founding generation disagreed about much, but there was a broad consensus that factions, the inevitable companions of democracy, lead to democratic excess and the abuse of power. Ironically, the factor most responsible for the continued influence of factions and particularly for the dominant influence of majority faction has been the steady democratization of the American constitutional system. The Framers would not be surprised. The best prospects of constraining the negative influences of faction are restoration of the balance between state and national powers and acceptance of the need for constraints on simple majority-rules democracy.

How to interrogate and improve your writing. Correcting errors; removing redundant phrases; trimming or augmenting attribution in speech; integrating action and speech; checking dialogue for authenticity; monitoring sentence length; balancing the extent of detail and description; scrutinising the chronology of description; checking narrative viewpoint is secure.

In this section we discuss fluid balance, acid-base physiology and some principles of renal physiology. Fluid balance encompasses the distribution of fluid compartments in the body as well as intravenous fluid therapy used in anaesthesia and critical care. Acid-base balance covers the core principles behind calculation of pH, buffer systems and physiological consequences of acid-base disturbance. The discussion around renal physiology focuses on glomerular filtration and renal blood flow. All of the topics in this chapter can be difficult to describe clearly in the exam and hence is extremely valuable to readers.