Written by leading scholars, this volume challenges the recent trend in international relations scholarship - the common antipathy to sovereignty.

The classical doctrine of sovereignty is widely seen as totalitarian, producing external aggression and internal repression. Political leaders and opinion-makers throughout the world claim that the sovereign state is a barrier to efficient global governance and the protection of human rights.

Two central claims are advanced in this book. First, that the sovereign state is being undermined not by the pressures of globalization but...