These contributions by international scholars reconsider the conceptualization of power in world politics. Arguing that the importance of power in international relations is underestimated, the book presents and employs a taxonomy of power that embraces agency, institutions, structure and discourse. It demonstrates how these different forms connect and intersect and how such an expanded concept can enrich our understanding of global governance.

Most questions commonly asked about international politics are ethical ones. Should the international community intervene in Bosnia? What do we owe the starving in Somalia? What should be done about the genocide in Rwanda? Yet, Mervyn Frost argues, ethics is accorded a marginal position within the academic study of international relations. In this book he examines the reasons given for this, and evaluates those ethical theories that do exist within the discipline. Finally, he elaborates his own ethical theory, which he derives from Hegel, and applies it to central ethical problems in...

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."

Governing Global Networks explores the mutual interests that have sustained the regulatory regimes for four major international service industries--shipping, air transport, telecommunications, and postal services. The authors argue that states have been concerned with two sometimes conflicting goals: facilitating the flow of international commerce; and maintaining the prerogatives of state sovereignty. This analysis of the impact of the breaking up of cartels and of deregulation is an important contribution to theoretical debates in the study of international organizations and international...

State sovereignty is an inherently social construct. The modern state system is not based on some timeless principle of sovereignty, but on the production of a normative conception that links authority, territory, population, and recognition in a unique way, and in a particular place (the state). The unique contribution of this book is to describe and illustrate the practices that have produced various sovereign ideals and resistances to them. The contributors analyze how the components of state sovereignty are socially constructed and combined in specific historical contexts.

Promoting Polyarchy is an exciting, detailed and controversial work on the apparent change in US foreign policy from supporting dictatorships to promoting "democratic" regimes. William I. Robinson argues that behind this facade, US policy upholds the undemocratic status quo of Third World countries. He addresses the theoretical and historical issues at stake, and uncovers a wealth of information from field work and hitherto unpublished government documents. Promoting Polyarchy is an essential book for anyone concerned with democracy, globalization and international affairs.

African independence launched into international politics a group of the world's poorest, weakest and most artificial states. How have such states managed to survive? To what extent is their survival now threatened? Christopher Clapham shows how an initially supportive international environment has become increasingly threatening to African rulers and the states over which they preside. The author reveals how international conventions designed to uphold state sovereignty have often been appropriated and subverted by rulers to enhance their domestic control, and how African states have been...

Why do we have Rwandas, Bosnias, and Somalias? This book explores the sources of such bitter, prolonged conflicts that result in immense human tragedies of civilian deaths and mass refugee flows. The author argues that such conflicts, and not wars between states, are the wars of the future. What can the United Nations and other international institutions do about them? Can organizations designed to manage conflicts between states successfully manage wars whose origins are domestic? The author develops some ideas about conflict resolution and peace derived from such recent experiences of war.

Seven original case studies show how the internationalization of environmental protection efforts is altering policy-making processes, policy outcomes, and the effectiveness of policy implementation. At the same time, the authors argue, the vital role of sub-state politics continues to influence the nature of national responses to international environmental problems. This book represents an important contribution to the debate on international environmental cooperation for students of international relations, comparative politics and environmental studies.

Republicanism has enjoyed a revival of scholarly interest in several fields. In this book, Nicholas Onuf provides a treatment of the republican way of thinking about law, politics and society in the context of international thought. He tells two stories about republicanism, starting with Aristotle and culminating in the 18th century, when international thought became a distinctive enterprise. These two stories surround the thought of Vattel and Kant, and by telling them side by side the author identifies a substantial but little-acknowledged legacy of republicanism in contemporary discussions...