Equifinality of the promotion of a regime of force Much of the contemporary commentary on American policy towards Syria is reduced to a debate over or against regime change that many observers characterize as a standard U.S. goal linked to a belief in America. exceptionalism. President Obama attempted to disavow such a view during his 2009 speech in Cairo titled “A New Beginning.” His statement that "no system of government can or should be imposed on one nation by another" was a categorical rejection of what John M. Owen, IV describes as a "fairly common practice in statecraft." . In this article, I will summarize Owen's main ideas from The Clash of Ideas in World Politics: Transnational Networks, States, and Regime Change, 1510-2010, analyze his research design, evaluate the coherence of his central argument and I will evaluate its contribution to international research. Relationship exchange. Although Owen's work sheds light on the phenomenon of forced diet promotion, his explanation is only one of many plausible causes. Book Summary The Clash of Ideas in World Politics is an ambitious attempt to uncover the conditions that lead governments to use military force to promote specific regime types in other countries. Owen's review of history from 1510 to 2010 reveals 209 incidents of states using force to support or change a specific regime type (ex ante regime promotion by force) or changing the regime from one state to another. the conclusion of military operations (regime promotions by force ex post). These 209 promotions do not include the forcible imposition of a regime on conquered or occupied territory that has been absorbed by the conquering state; Owen only includes incidents in which conquered states retained at least quasi-independence. Owen also... middle of article ...... a diet type rationally equated with intention, then Walt's defensive realism can explain the phenomenon of forced diet promotion. States promote specific types of regimes to reduce threats. Accepting Owen's constructivist argument requires more detailed process tracing to show causal links between NIFs and forced diet promotion. Owen provided a detailed description of leaders' decisions to forcibly promote regime types in other countries and this description invites further research into the possible causes of this phenomenon. Others will have to rely on his work to better assess the true impact of TINs on management decisions. The influence of TINs and ideological polarization certainly affected the environment in which leaders and governments made decisions. However, there remain other plausible explanations for state actions that cannot be ruled out...