This ambitious book rewrites the terms of debate about globalization. Focusing on two major new concepts--the unfinished global-democratic revolution and the global-Western state--Martin Shaw evaluates global change, considering the radical implications for social, political and international theory, and offering a fundamental critique of modern social thought and mainstream global theory. Required reading for sociology, politics and international relations, Theory of the Global State offers a historical, theoretical and political framework for understanding state and society in the emerging...

Randall Germain explores the changing political economy of finance at the global level. He relates changes in global finance to wider changes in the organization of the international economy, and considers how commercial and investment banks have responded institutionally to these changes. Changes in the institutional organization of credit have rendered traditional policy instruments for controlling credit less useful today than in the past. Germain thus argues that the international organization of credit is likely to be relatively unstable into the twenty-first century, and the role of...

The Wealth of States is the first sustained analysis of the overlap between historical sociology and international relations. Through a detailed examination of nineteenth century trade regimes, and the Great Powers' efforts to increase their military capabilities, the author reveals the importance of the state as an autonomous actor in international politics and economics, which is not dependent upon dominant economic classes. The book thus represents a distinctive approach that goes beyond the existing paradigms of Marxism, liberalism and realism.

This book provides the first general analysis of deterrence since the end of the Cold War, offering a new approach to its assumptions, and analyzing them using non-cooperative game theory. Drawing on numerous historical examples, the authors focus on the relationship among capability, preferences, credibility, and outcomes to achieve a new understanding of threats and responses. The book's distinctive approach yields some surprising conclusions, indicating that credible threats to respond to attack can sometimes make an attack more likely, and that incredible response threats can sometimes...

Douglas Lemke inquires as to whether the factors that lead to war among great powers also apply to other countries, considering different regional circumstances and historical experiences. The book examines Africa, the Far East, the Middle East and South America, and argues that the causes of war are similar across these regions, but that there are differences based on varying patterns of development. This book will interest students and scholars of international relations, peace studies, comparative politics and area studies.

The emergence of private authority is now a feature of the post-Cold War world. The contributors to this volume examine the implications of the erosion of the state's power in global governance. They analyze financial institutions, multinational corporations, religious terrorists and organized crime operations. Relating directly to debates concerning globalization and the role of international law, this study is of interest to scholars and students of international relations, politics, sociology and law.

James N. Rosenau explores the enormous changes that are currently transforming world affairs. He argues that the dynamics of economic globalization, new technologies, and evolving global norms are clashing with equally powerful localizing dynamics. The resulting encounters between diverse interests and actors are rendering domestic and foreign affairs ever more porous and creating a political space, designated as the "Frontier," wherein the quest for control in world politics is joined. He contends that it is along the Frontier, and not in the international arena, that issues are contested...

The worlds' oceans have been extremely important in the development and interaction of societies throughout history. This unique book uses the tools of political geography and international relations to examine the ways in which nations and peoples have viewed and used the oceans. Most social scientists have looked on the seas as a resource, but Steinberg sees them as a space defined by society, arguing that political and economic forces have shaped the governance and representation of the sea as much as they have the land.

International negotiations have become an increasingly widespread feature of international affairs. Cecilia Albin argues that negotiators do not simply pursue their narrow interests or those of their countries, but regularly take principles of justice and fairness into account. Her analysis is based on cases in four important areas: the environment, international trade, ethnic conflict, and arms control. Drawing on a mass of empirical data, including a large number of interviews, she relates the abstract debate over international norms and ethics to the realities of international relations.

The discipline of international relations is a fragmented one. In this book, Roger Spegele analyzes this fragmentation and suggests that the subject should be seen as engaged in a struggle among three competing conceptions: positivism-empiricism, emancipatory international relations, and political realism. He argues that scholars following these different conceptions have had different ways of understanding theory, practice and the relation between them. By focusing on this relation, Professor Spegele develops a new version of political realism, called "Evaluative Political Realism."