News & Media

Ohio Wesleyan Professor Examines ‘Global Security in the Twenty-First Century’

Sean Kay, Ph.D., Updates Book to Analyze Latest International Occurrences, Potential Impacts

DELAWARE, Ohio – How has the global economic crisis impacted international security and how have attitudes about power and peace evolved in response to major flashpoints including incidents in the Middle East, Asia, and Eurasia?

Ohio Wesleyan University professor Sean Kay, Ph.D., examines these issues and more in the newly released third edition of his influential book, “Global Security in the Twenty-first Century: The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace.”

Of the book, Damon Coletta, Ph.D., professor of politics and government at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, states: “In this fully updated edition of ‘Global Security,’ Kay responds to national and transnational challenges confronting Americans after lackluster economic growth, enormous increases in the national debt, and emergence of new militarized threats, doubling down on the well-founded optimism of his earlier work. … Kay teaches how ordinary individuals prepare important contributions to improve global security through determined pursuit of a liberal education, one that is imbued with scientific reasoning, empathy for the human condition, and a passion for testing theories as much as delivering the ideological goods.”

In addition, publisher Rowman & Littlefield notes that Kay’s updated book “offers a balanced introduction to contemporary security dilemmas throughout the world. … Kay builds on the first and second edition’s emphasis on the roles of trade and technology, the militarization of space, the privatization of security, the use of sanctions, ethnic conflict, and transnational crime. This edition goes even farther to incorporate traditional thinking about national security in the context of human rights, democracy, population, health, environment, energy, and especially education.

“The author includes full updates on emerging challenges out of Iraq, Russia, and viral diseases in the context of larger strategic questions like the rise of China and America’s ‘pivot’ to rebalance its priorities toward Asia,” Rowman & Littlefield states. “Writing in an engaging style, Kay integrates traditional and emerging challenges in one easily accessible study that gives readers the tools they need to develop a thoughtful and nuanced understanding of global security.”

At Ohio Wesleyan, Kay has been a member of the Department of Politics and Government since 1999. He currently is chair of the university’s International Studies Program and director of its Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Public Affairs, which oversees the Wesleyan in Washington internship program.

Kay also is an associate of the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University and a fellow at the Eisenhower Institute in Washington, D.C. He previously has worked at the Institute for National Strategic Studies in the U.S. Department of Defense. He earned his doctorate in international relations from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Kay has published widely on American foreign and defense policy and international security issues, and he is quoted frequently in major national and international news sources. His additional books include “NATO and the Future of European Security” (Rowman & Littlefield, 1998); “Celtic Revival: The Rise, Fall, and Renewal of Global Ireland” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2011); and “America’s Search for Security: The Triumph of Idealism and the Return of Realism” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014).

Kay’s forthcoming book will document how rock ’n’ roll has advanced major social change both nationally and internationally. The book will include interviews with members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, other artists and industry representatives, and related foundations that work to advance humanitarian causes at home and abroad.

Founded in 1842, Ohio Wesleyan University is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts universities. Located in Delaware, Ohio, the private university offers 86 undergraduate majors and competes in 23 NCAA Division III varsity sports. Ohio Wesleyan combines a challenging, internationally focused curriculum with off-campus learning and leadership opportunities to connect classroom theory with real-world experience. OWU’s 1,750 students represent 46 U.S. states and territories and 43 countries. Ohio Wesleyan is featured in the book “Colleges That Change Lives,” listed on the latest President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with Distinction, and included in the U.S. News & World Report and Princeton Review “best colleges” lists. Learn more at www.owu.edu.