This book offers an original analysis of the relationship between twentieth-century theories of international relations, and the political theory of civil society. The author views theories of international relations both as an ideological expression of the modern state, and as a clear indication of the difficulties of thinking about a world politics distinct from relations among states. Theories are examined in the light of recent debates about modernity and post-modernity, the rearticulation of political space/time, and the limits of modern social political theory.

What special vulnerabilities does the world of the 21st century have to terrorist attacks? What kind of role does the United States see itself playing as the world's only superpower in the coming decades? How should we now characterize the conduct of the US foreign policy? Answers to such questions are perhaps not much clearer now than they were immediately after the attacks, but one of the more positive effects of these attacks has been to stimulate much serious discussion about them, and thus about the place of violence about changing forms of warfare, about different forms of terror, and...