This work provides a novel analysis of the evolution of the states system of Europe since the mid-seventeenth century. The author looks at the four major European congresses: Munster and Osnabruck, Utrecht, Vienna, and Paris, and shows how a prevailing consensus on certain structural concepts, such as the balance of power or national self-determination, has influenced the evolution of the system and determined its stability (or imbalance). The author argues that the structure of the international system is neither a given quantity nor determined primarily by conflict between international...
This work provides a novel analysis of the evolution of the states system of Europe since the mid-seventeenth century. The author looks at the four ma...
The idea that society, or civilization, is predicated on the "state" is a projection of present-day political ideology into the past. Nothing akin to what we call the "state" existed before the 19th century: it is a recent invention and the assumption that it is timeless, necessary for society, is simply part of its legitimating myth. The development, over the past three millennia, of the political structures of western civilization is shown here to have been a succession of individual, unrepeatable stages: what links them is not that every period re-enacts the "state" in a different...
The idea that society, or civilization, is predicated on the "state" is a projection of present-day political ideology into the past. Nothing akin to ...
