Andrew Linklater has been one of the most innovative thinkers in international relations, introducing critical and ethical elements into the discipline which has forced it to rethink many of its basic assumptions. This book builds on this body of work to develop a radical new theory that calls for a cosmopolitan approach to international relations.

Key subjects covered in the book include:

• citizenship and humanity
• critical theory and political community
• the problem of harm
• the sociology of states-systems.

The need to control violent and non-violent harm has been central to human existence since societies first emerged. This book analyzes the problem of harm in world politics which stems from the fact that societies require the power to harm in order to defend themselves from internal and external threats, but must also control the capacity to harm so that people cannot kill, injure, humiliate or exploit others as they please. Andrew Linklater analyzes writings in moral and legal philosophy that define and classify forms of harm, and discusses the ways in which different theories of...

Drawing on international relations theory and process sociology, Andrew Linklater analyses connections between violence and civilization in the Western states-systems.