Politics Without Sovereignty : A Critique of Contemporary International Relations

Antony Anghie

"Imperialism, Sovereignty and the Making of International Law" is a thoughtful and eloquent but very esoteric book about the treatment of non-European peoples in international law. Readers should know that it's not a law book -- it doesn't analyze legal rules or unpack judicial opinions. It's not a history book, either -- the author, Antony Anghie, doesn't chronicle events and did no research in primary sources. Rather, his book is a meandering political and jurisprudential meditation on how the Euro-centric international legal system has been complicit in the subordination of non-Europeans. The text hops from Francisco Vitoria to the Berlin Conference to the League of Nations mandate system to the War on Terror, with little underlying continuity apart from the basic idea that international law has never been neutral. Much of Anghie's thesis is true, but there are gaps in his argument and he uses history selectively. He writes, for example, as if international human rights law was invented by the Bretton Woods institutions to force capitalism on developing countries. He reaches this conclusion only by ignoring the origins of human rights law in the calamity of World War II. He also fails to mention that the most effective human rights instrument in the world -- the European Convention on Human Rights -- is binding only on European countries. To use another example, he cavalierly ignores a huge body of social science showing that institutions and governance... Leer más…

Stephen D. Krasner

Stephen D. Krasner calls into question the nowadays widespread idea that sovereignty is being eroded by different factors (for example, globalization). He points out that, as a matter of fact, the term *sovereignty* has multiple meanings. Ignoring that can be remarkably problematic, because it doesn?t allow us to analyze adequately such an essential concept as sovereignty... The author says that the term sovereignty is used mainly in four ways. International legal sovereignty refers to the practices that have to do with mutual recognition, while Westphalian sovereignty has to do with *political organization based on the exclusion of external actors from authority structures within a given territory*. Domestic sovereignty refers to the *formal organization of political authority within the state* and the ability of rulers to exercise control within it. Lastly, Interdependence sovereignty takes into account the way in which public authorities regulate the flow of people, information, capital and ideas across the borders of the state. The different kinds of sovereignty don?t always go together, and can change at different paces. In this book Krasner concentrates on studying International legal sovereignty and Westphalian sovereignty, seeking to show us how they apply in the international system. According to him, those two kinds of sovereignty are good examples of organized hypocrisy, because they are recognized but not always respected. For instance,... Leer más…

Ellie Quigley With Marko Gargenta

Quickly master dynamic, database-driven Web development—no experience necessary! Even if you’re completely new to PHP, MySQL, and Web database development, this book will guide you through every step of building powerful, database-driven, dynamic Web sites. Direct from the world’s top scripting instructor, Ellie Quigley, **__PHP and MySQL by Example__** illuminates every concept with tested code examples, screen shots showing program output, and clear, line-by-line explanations. Classroom-tested in Ellie Quigley’s Silicon Valley training courses and at Marko Gargenta’s Marakana training company in San Francisco, this book takes you from the simplest PHP scripting and SQL querying techniques all the way to dynamic, database driven Web site construction with PHP and MySQL. From simple fill-in forms to program security and debugging, it’s the only PHP/MySQL book you’ll ever need! This book covers * Complete PHP fundamentals, including operators, strings, conditionals, loops, arrays, functions, and more * PHP QuickStart for more advanced readers—makes you productive with PHP in the space of just fifteen book pages * Essential Web development techniques, from file handling to validating user input with regular expressions * Powerful PHP features, including user-defined functions and self-processing PHP Forms * Day-to-day MySQL administration * A complete SQL tutorial for creating queries, retrieving data, and writing data with MySQL * Session management and cookies * Object... Leer más…

Robert Lichtenstein, David J. Schonfeld, Marsha Kline Pruett, Dee Speese-Linehan

Is your school ready to respond to a crisis? Are school staff ready to address physical safety issues, emotional needs, and mental health consequences that arise from crisis situations? What steps can you take now to prepare your school for a crisis? Use the steps and guidance offered in this book to answer these and other questions critical to surviving any crisis that touches a school. Tens of thousands of school and community professionals have used this model, and you can adapt it to your unique situation. Whether you need to address a crisis in the school building, across the district, or throughout a region, the field-tested model and practical guidelines in this book lead you to answers that form a framework critical to controlling crisis situations. With an emphasis on integrating safety and security plans with mental health services, the authors show you how to use the talents, training, and knowledge of school personnel to coordinate a comprehensive response to any crisis. This model empowers staff to initiate and sustain a response to crises that answers the physical safety, mental health, and emotional needs of students, community, and staff. Sample plans, forms, checklists, and resources jump start crisis training, preparation, and response. How to Prepare for and Respond to a Crisis, 2nd edition, is based on the work of the School Crisis Response Initiative of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, which is part of the Yale Child... Leer más…

By Zhiqun Zhu

US-China Relations in the 21st Century addresses the bilateral relations of these two nations on an international, domestic, societal and individual level between 1990 and 2005. Peaceful power shifts remain a central dilemma in world politics, since historically power transition from a dominant nation to a challenger has been associated with international wars. This book examines whether China and the US can learn from history and manage a potential power transition peacefully. Zhiqun Zhu selects two important cases of power transitions in history as the background for this study: power rivalry between Great Britain and Germany that led to the First World War the peaceful power transition from Great Britain to the United States. US-China Relations in the 21 st Century contributes to the current International Relations theory by proposing a new analytical model on global power transition and providing recommendations for peacefully handling a potential power transition from the US to China in the future. This original and comprehensive study is essential reading for scholars of US and Chinese foreign policy, world politics and international relations. Leer más…

Nigel Eltringham

The 1994 Rwandan genocide was a monumental atrocity in which at least 500,000 Tutsi and tens of thousands of Hutu were murdered in less than four months. Since 1994, members of the Rwandan political class who recognize those events as genocide have struggled to account for it and bring coherence to what is often perceived as irrational, primordial savagery. Most people agree on the factors that contributed to the genocide -- colonialism, ethnicity, the struggle to control the state. However, many still disagree over the way these factors evolved, and the relationship between them. This continuing disagreement raises questions about how we come to understand historical events -- understandings that underpin the possibility of sustainable peace. Drawing on extensive research among Rwandese in Rwanda and Europe, and on his work with a conflict resolution NGO in post-genocide Rwanda, Nigel Eltringham argues that conventional modes of historical representation are inadequate in a case like Rwanda. Single, absolutist narratives and representations of genocide actually reinforce the modes of thinking that fuelled the genocide in the first place. Eltringham maintains that if we are to understand the genocide, we must explore the relationship between multiple explanations of what happened and interrogate how -- and why -- different groups within Rwandan society talk about the genocide in different ways. Leer más…

Jean Bodin; Abridged And Translated By M.j. Tooley

The Six Books of the Commonwealth was the first modern attempt to construct an elaborate system of political science. It is perhaps the most important work of its kind between Aristotle and modern writers. To the public finances, which he called "the sinews of the state," he devoted much attention, and insisted on the duties of the government in respect to the right adjustment of taxation. In general he deserves the praise of steadily keeping in view the higher aims and interests of society in connexion with the regulation and development of its material life. Jean Bodin (1530-1596) was born in Angers, France, and became a French jurist and political philosopher, member of the Parlement of Paris and professor of law in Toulouse. He is best known for his theory of sovereignty. Leer más…

Professor Stephen D. Krasner

Taking cognizance of the multiple, sometimes contradictory, components of the concept of sovereignty, this volume attempts to answer a fundamental question in international relations: to what extent does the concept of sovereignty inhibit the solution of some of the most pressing issues in the contemporary international order? Some of the most pressing issues in the contemporary international order revolve around a frequently invoked but highly contested concept: sovereignty. To what extent does the concept of sovereignty—as it plays out in institutional arrangements, rules, and principles—inhibit the solution of these issues? Can the rules of sovereignty be bent? Can they be ignored? Do they represent an insurmountable barrier to stable solutions or can alternative arrangements be created? __Problematic Sovereignty__ attempts to answer these and other fundamental questions by taking account of the multiple, sometimes contradictory, components of the concept of sovereignty in cases ranging from the struggle for sovereignty between China and Taiwan to the compromised sovereignty of Bosnia under the Dayton Accord. Countering the common view of sovereignty that treats it as one coherent set of principles, the chapters of __Problematic Sovereignty__ illustrate cases where the disaggregation of sovereignty has enabled political actors to create entities that are semiautonomous, semi-independent, and/or semilegal in order to solve specific problems stemming from competing... Leer más…

Stephen D. Krasner

Argues that the conflicts between the Third World and industrialized nations are the result of power struggles rather than economic conditions Leer más…

Monroe Edwin Price

Media have been central to government efforts to reinforce sovereignty and define national identity, but globalization is fundamentally altering media practices, institutions, and content. More than the activities of large conglomerates, globalization entails competition among states as well as private entities to dominate the world's consciousness. Changes in formal and informal rules, in addition to technological innovation, affect the growth and survival or decline of governments.In Media and Sovereignty, Monroe Price focuses on emerging foreign policies that govern media in a world where war has information as well as military fronts. Price asks how the state, in the face of institutional and technological change, controls the forms of information reaching its citizens. He also provides a framework for analyzing the techniques used by states to influence populations in other states. Price draws on an international array of examples of regulation of media for political ends, including "self-regulation," media regulation in conflict zones, the control of harmful and illegal content, and the use of foreign aid to alter media in target societies. Leer más…

Kofi A Annan; Allan Thompson; International Development Research Centre (Canada)

The news media played a crucial role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide: local media fuelled the killings, while the international media either ignored or seriously misconstrued what was happening. This is the first book to explore both sides of that media equation. The book examines how local radio and print media were used as a tool of hate by encouraging neighbours to turn against each other. It also presents a critique of international media coverage of the cataclysmic events in Rwanda. Bringing together local reporters and commentators from Rwanda, high-profile Western journalists and leading media theorists, this is the only book to identify and probe the extent of the media's accountability. It also examines deliberations by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda on the role of the media in the genocide. This book is a startling record of the dangerous negative influence that the media can have, when used as a political tool or when news organisations and journalists fail to live up to their responsibilities. The authors put forward suggestions for the future by outlining how we can avoid censorship and propaganda, and by arguing for a new responsibility in media reporting. Leer más…

Robert H. Jackson

Sovereignty is at the very centre of the political and legal arrangements of the modern world. The idea originated in the controversies and wars, both religious and political, of 16th and 17th century Europe and since that time it has continued to spread and evolve. Today sovereignty is a global system of authority: it extends across all religions, civilizations, languages, cultures, ethnic and racial groupings, and other collectivities into which humanity is divided. In this highly accessible book, Robert Jackson provides a concise and comprehensive introduction to the history and meaning of sovereignty. Drawing on a wide range of examples from the US Declaration of Independence to terrorist attacks of 9/11 he shows how sovereignty operates in our daily lives and analyses the issues raised by its universality and centrality in the organization of the world. The book covers core topics such as the discourse of sovereignty, the global expansion of sovereignty, the rise of popular sovereignty, and the relationship between sovereignty and human rights. It concludes by examining future challenges facing sovereignty in an era of globalization. This interdisciplinary study will be of interest to a wide range of students, academics and general readers who seek to understand this fundamental concept of the modern world. Leer más…

Edited By Thomas J. Biersteker And Cynthia Weber

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 which links authority, territory, population (society, nation), and recognition in a unique way, and in a particular place (the state). Attempting to realize this ideal entails a great deal of hard work on the part of statespersons, diplomats, and intellectuals. The ideal of state sovereignty is a product of the actions of powerful agents and the resistances to those actions by those located at the margins of power. The unique contribution of this book is to describe, theorize, and illustrate the practices which have socially constructed, reproduced, reconstructed, and deconstructed various sovereign ideals and resistances to them. The contributors analyse how all the components of state sovereignty - not only recognition, but also territory, population, and authority - are socially constructed and combined in specific historical contexts. Leer más…

Christopher J. Bickerton, Dermot Hodson, Uwe Puetter

The twenty years since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty have been marked by an integration paradox: although the scope of European Union (EU) activity has increased at an unprecedented pace, this increase has largely taken place in the absence of significant new transfers of power to supranational institutions along traditional lines. Conventional theories of European integration struggle to explain this paradox because they equate integration with the empowerment of specific supranational institutions under the traditional Community method. New governance scholars, meanwhile, have not filled this intellectual void, preferring instead to focus on specific deviations from the Community method rather than theorizing about the evolving nature of the European project. __The New Intergovernmentalism__ challenges established assumptions about how member states behave, what supranational institutions want, and where the dividing line between high and low politics is located, and develops a new theoretical framework known as the new intergovernmentalism. The fifteen chapters in this volume by leading political scientists, political economists, and legal scholars explore the scope and limits of the new intergovernmentalism as a theory of post-Maastricht integration and draw conclusions about the profound state of political disequilibrium in which the EU operates. This book is of relevance to EU specialists seeking new ways of thinking about European integration and... Leer más…

Jens Bartelson

The concept of sovereignty is central to international relations theory and theories of the state and provides the foundation of the conventional separation of modern politics into domestic and international spheres. In this book Jens Bartelson provides a critical analysis and conceptual history of sovereignty, dealing with philosophical and political texts during three periods: the Renaissance, the Classical Age, and Modernity. He argues that sovereignty should be regarded as a concept contingent upon, rather than fundamental to, political science and its history. Leer más…

Alexander Gourevitch

This book reconstructs how a group of nineteenth-century labor reformers appropriated and radicalized the republican tradition. These 'labor republicans' derived their definition of freedom from a long tradition of political theory dating back to the classical republics. In this tradition, to be free is to be independent of anyone else's will - to be dependent is to be a slave. Borrowing these ideas, labor republicans argued that wage laborers were unfree because of their abject dependence on their employers. Workers in a cooperative, on the other hand, were considered free because they equally and collectively controlled their work. Although these labor republicans are relatively unknown, this book details their unique, contemporary, and valuable perspective on both American history and the organization of the economy-- Provided by publisher Leer más…

Jean Bodin; Translated By Randy A. Scott; Abridged With An Introduction By Jonathan L. Pearl; Notes By Randy A. Scott And Jonathan L. Pearl

Jean Bodin's On the Demon-Mania of Witches (De la démonomanie des sorciers) was published in 1580 and quickly became one of the most widely read and translated works on witchcraft in Europe. Bodin (1529/30-1596), a lawyer and scholar, was greatly admired by his contemporaries. His works on politics, history and religion, especially his encyclopaedic Les six livres de la république (1576), contributed ideas and theories that have continued to attract the attention of researchers in a wide range of disciplines. The Demon-Mania is a passionately argued treatise on the reality and dangers of magic and witchcraft, which Bodin saw as a growing threat to the state. His treatise also makes detailed recommendations to judges for the effective prosecution of witchcraft cases. Professor Pearl's introduction to the text situates it in the full context of Bodin's thought and the historical experience of his age. The notes by the editors give the reader access to Bodin's vast network of theological, classical, historical and legal sources. The Demon-Mania, appearing here in its first English translation, provides sharp insights into the mentality of a complex and bitterly divided age. Leer más…