Abstract
Cambridge: Polity, 2003, 200, £14.99, ISBN 0 7456 2758 7
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates
Rating: **
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 293, £47.50, ISBN 1 4039 0314 X
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: ****
Reviewer: SHANE P. MULLIGAN (University of Cambridge)
Global Civil Society (GCS) is a tantalizing concept within contemporary political discourse, yet the term sometimes seems to offer a catch-all for all kinds of opposition groups and proffered alternatives. Mary Kaldor recognizes this conceptual uncertainty, but insists that the idea of GCS ‘expresses a very real phenomenon, even if the boundaries of the phenomenon vary according to different definitions’ (p. 3). The book offers a useful historical survey of the concept, from Plato to post-modernism, to help explain its re-emergence, and its potential, in the context of globalization. Drawing heavily on the revolutions of 1989 – which she sees as the birth-place of the concept – Kaldor describes a moment in which the medium is (at least in part) the message: the revolutions were the manifestation of principles of non-violence and self-organization that enabled the joining of peace, human rights, and disarmament groups. Kaldor sees a unity among the diverse voices of GCS, the makings of a form of ‘global governance’ that will involve ‘the transformations of … unilateralist war-making states’ into ‘multilateralist law-making states’ (p. 110). While recognizing a serious challenge post-September 11, she nonetheless holds forth the vision of ‘a global security system based on humanitarian law’ (p. 110), what she later calls ‘a global social contract … in the service of humanity’ (p. 158). Kaldor admits this vision is utopian, ‘but it may be that only a utopian answer can offer a way out of this cycle of destruction’ (p. 156). Regrettably, she seems to see no contradiction in the fact that, even in her own argument, this ‘way out’ requires a degree of societal security that must legitimize the very state system that drives this cycle. The book gives remarkably little space over to considering those forces that oppose, infect, co-opt and (when necessary) crush GCS. Thus Kaldor's ‘way out’ seems based on a marginalization of political realities, relying too much on ideas and not enough on their actualization.
That is not to say that GCS, whatever it is, is irrelevant to global politics, but that a more balanced and critical perspective is due. Kaldor's view is strongly challenged in the thrust of Laxer and Halperin's edited collection, which insists that, even in its global form, civil society is both conceptually and practically dependent upon the state. The volume argues that, not only is the novelty of globalization exaggerated, but the very ideology of ‘globalism’ – which the discourse of GCS itself promulgates – serves to deflect energies from the most effective site of pressure and change: the state. That is, in viewing GCS as ‘the primary site of resistance to rule by multinational corporations and globalized finance capital’ (p. 3), those who speak the discourse of ‘globalism’ tend to undermine the potential for change. The opening essays critique GCS on normative, historical and effectiveness grounds, respectively. These conceptual critiques are supported (and further critiques are developed) in subsequent chapters. Essays on the Zapatistas, Western aid in Russia, and the collapse of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment represent particularly detailed and convincing cases to show how the state remains the primary site of effective organization, struggle, and change. This collection offers a powerful counterweight to Kaldor's idealism, yet one wonders if perhaps it goes too far in downplaying the effectiveness of the call of GCS as a symbol of global resistance. Indeed, while the somewhat ‘economic’ orientation of the collection might explain the omission, it is unfortunate that one important case goes virtually unmentioned: the revolutions of 1989.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, 564, $33, ISBN 0 521 89111 6
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: *****
Reviewer: ALEX J. BELLAMY (University of Queensland)
This volume argues that since the end of the Cold War, the regional level of security has become both more important and more autonomous. To understand regional security dynamics, the authors propose a new ‘regional security complex theory’ (RSCT). The central proposition of RSCT is that because security threats diminish over longer distances, security interdependence is most pronounced at the regional level. RSCT insists that the world is divided into mutually exclusive regional security complexes and identifies two factors that determine the nature of each complex: the distribution of power within the complex and patterns of amity and enmity. The distribution of power is understood in broadly neorealist terms, though polarity is reckoned to exist at the regional level with global powers considered external to the complex but ‘overlaying’ them. Regional security complexes are separated from each other by ‘insulator’ states (examples being Turkey and Burma) but may be internally divided into ‘subcomplexes’ (such as east Asia and south east Asia). After providing a comprehensive outline of RSCT, the authors investigate each of the world's regional security complexes. Doing so, the authors argue, demonstrates the distinctiveness of each security complex in that, in any given region, ‘security’ can be found at different levels of analysis and thematic structures.
This is undoubtedly an important volume that makes a significant and innovative contribution to security studies. Most significant is the compelling argument that the regional level, often either overlooked or treated in isolation, has become central. This insight is likely to be the volume's enduring contribution. However, securitisation theory plays less of a role than neorealism in shaping the case studies and, although area security specialists will welcome the discussion of the link between the global and regional levels, they will find no new insights into security politics in their region.
Westport CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003, 279, £42, ISBN 0 275 95942 2
Readership: Postgraduates
Rating: ***
Reviewer: AIDAN HEHIR (University Of Limerick)
The issue of intervention, be it military or humanitarian, has become one of the defining features of post-Cold War international relations. This book by Karen Feste, Associate Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver, analyses the evolution of intervention in United States foreign policy in the post-Cold War world and offers a theoretical explanation for the development of the concept. Feste suggests that whilst international relations are now unipolar in nature, the international relations system impacts on, and constrains, US foreign policy. She therefore argues, ‘The US is currently in a position of unipolarity without hegemony’ (p. xiii).
The author argues that the biggest threat to the stability of the international system in the contemporary era has been the detachment of populations from their host state and the subsequent consequences of intra-state violence. This has meant that the US has had to formulate a policy on how to intervene in intra-state conflicts, which it has done with varying degrees of success. The spectre of Vietnam has induced a cautionary approach in the US Defence Department that has sought both a national interest compulsion and a clear military goal before it has been willing to mobilise.
Ultimately, Feste's ‘theory of adaptation’ argues that US policy on intervention has been ad hoc and shaped by external factors rather than any grand design for global hegemony. The US's interventionist policies are borne out of attempts to adapt to the evolving international climate. She argues that ‘as intervention opportunity rose, so did intervention action; military intervention expanded to fit the occasion, not to exploit it’ (p. 244). Even allowing for the fact that this book was written prior to the US's ‘liberation’ of Iraq, this is a questionable assertion, and one that requires more empirical and theoretical justification than Feste provides.
Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004, 335, £12.95, ISBN 0 691 11672 5
Reviewer: RITA ABRAHAMSEN (University of Wales, Aberystwyth)
This edited collection is an outcome of Harvard University's Failed States Project, and brings together fourteen chapters aiming to explain how and why states fail, and what, if anything, can be done to prevent state failure. The first chapter by the editor aims to develop a taxonomy of failed states, and seeks to develop performance criteria by which to distinguish between failed, collapsed, and weak states. A failed state is defined as ‘a polity that is no longer able or willing to perform the fundamental tasks of a nation-state in the modern world’ (p. 6). The remainder of the book is in two parts; the first discusses the causes and prevention of failure, while the second explores various aspects of ‘post-failure resuscitation’. Topics covered include the economic correlates of state failure, small arms, as well as suggestions for how to establish the rule of law, build trust, and resurrect civil society in the aftermath of failure. Only the final chapter by Herbst suggests that state reconstruction may not always be possible or desirable, and argues instead for decertification and the recognition of new political entities.
Given the prominence of the failed states thesis, and its increasing usage in political discourses following the events of September 11, 2001, this is undoubtedly an important topic to investigate. This book, however, is situated uncritically within the failed state paradigm, and does not debate or question the utility of the term, nor its political implications and overtones. Instead, the book strives to add greater definitional clarity to the term ‘failed state’, but fails to convince this reviewer. While it remains beyond doubt that some states are more capable than others, a term that places states as diverse as Sierra Leone, Iraq, DRC and Libya in the same category appears too broad to have much analytical utility. The suggestion that ‘the extent of a state's failure can be measured by the extent of its geographical expanse genuinely controlled (especially after dark) by the government’ (p. 6) underlines its impressionistic character and its limited ability to explain political turmoil in diverse parts of the world.
New York: State University of New York, 2004, 266, ISBN 0 7914 5828 8
London: Pluto Press, 2003, 202, £14.99, ISBN 0 7453 1920 3
Readership: Undergraduates, advanced undergraduates, postgraduates academic/research, professional
Rating: ****
Reviewer: ROGÉRIO DE SOUZA FARIAS (University of Brasília)
In this book, Annette Freyberg-Inan addresses how assumptions about human nature form the ontological foundation of all realist theories. This is relevant as those assumptions that characterize the realist paradigm include a particular view of human nature from which realist theorists develop expectations about the likely behavior of states. Other works have already tried to outline and explain the role of realist motivational assumptions in the development of international relations theory, but Annette's work is a landmark as she reconstructs the fundamental claims about human nature in the mainstream realist political thought – from Thucydides to Waltz's neorealism.
She argues that the motivational assumptions employed by realists are usually not made explicit and they are, in fact, biased in favor of the particular view of reality that corresponds to the ideological pref-erences shared by realist theorists and policy makers. The consequence is that realism would not follow the logic of science as it lacks a refutability dimension that is deemed necessary in modern and respected academic communities. The motivational bias in human agency in realism thought could be derived from the three basic motives of fear, honor, and profit that underlie most of realism works. Her argument is that these constitute an incomplete representation of the basic elements of human motivation, carrying a bias in favor of a highly pessimistic view of human nature. She uses evidence from a political-psychological literature to support those ideas, concluding that for a better explanation and prediction of political behavior a broader range of motives must be included – like the desire of affiliation or community, as well as the operation of altruism.
The book will be of interest to students and scholars willing to approach the realist theory of International Relations in an insightful and thorough way. Furthermore, her attempt to summarise main realist theories provides added value for readers interested in understanding the underpinning logic of international relations theory debate.
Mulltilateral institutions have been under constant criticism specially since the Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization. Most of this criticism is related to the meagre results yielded by developing countries in those institutions; ones that have an agenda directed, among other objectives, to ending poverty and fostering development in developing countries. However, most of the debate around the issue has focused just on theoretical frameworks for studying this field of international relations. Even empirical studies have devoted too much attention to theoretical problems, such as decision-making processes and the role of those institutions in promoting cooperation among states. The consequence is that in the literature there is a lack of concern in how the action of multilateral institutions could impair the same goals they defend.
This book tries to teach readers to approach multilateral institutions not by accepting in principle the benefits of them at face value, but to try and engage in multilateral institutions as socially constructed arenas that adopt policies that are power related. This perspective is based on two pillars that are closely connected. The first one is how and why policies and approaches of multilateral institutions come into existence. Here the structures, especially liberalism, underlying the particular world order that these institutions represent are the focus. The second is how the distribution of power – material or ideational – affects the internal politics of multilateral institutions.
Attempting to devise a theoretical framework based on empirical accounts that enables the readers to engage in critical thinking is another feature of the book. The use of the constructivist theories is especially acute in this endeavor, having the purpose of creating a desire in readers in contribute to improvement of the politics and procedures of multilateral institutions. Finally, this book should appeal to undergraduate students willing to look at alternative frameworks of thinking about multilateralism.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 194, ISBN 1 4039 6123 9
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: ***
Reviewer: SIMON SOROKOS (University of Kent)
Carsten Holbraad has written a highly readable but misleadingly titled book on internationalism and nationalism. This book should most certainly not be judged by what it says on its cover; those in search of a purely philosophical or theoretical tract should look elsewhere. Holbraad has produced a work that concerns itself with political history as much as political thought. It is about political actors, not just political thinkers. The book is divided into two parts. The first part deals with internationalism, which, we are told in no uncertain terms, is distinct from both cosmopolitanism and universalism. The second part deals with nationalism. The author recognises three distinct types of each and labels them ‘conservative’, ‘liberal’ and ‘socialist’. For each variety we are offered an outline of its origins, characteristics, concerns and goals, ascendancy, exponents and modern manifestations. Holbraad asserts that in both cases the conservative mode of thought has the longest history and remains dominant. This is despite the fact that, according to the author, conservative internationalism is the least developed of the types outlined.
But this is a carefully written and historically precise book. It contains a useful biographical glossary, although this does suffer from some needless inclusions. It is easy to see how those who are not familiar with the history of the Italian Communist Party might benefit from a sketch of Palmiro Togliatti, but it is less clear who will profit from reading pen portraits of John Stuart Mill, Jean Monnet and Margaret Thatcher. Holbraad has an idiosyncratic understanding of the terms ‘internationalism’ and ‘nationalism’. Although he acknowledges the fact, he considers these ideas in the context of international relations. In doing so, he ignores many of the insights provided by sociologists and political scientists. Despite these shortcomings this is a useful little book, but it is not an essential one.
London: C. Hurst & Co, 2004, 372, £16.50, ISBN 1 85065 737 8
Readership: Undergraduates, advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, professional
Rating: ****
Reviewer: CLAIRE THOMAS (University of Hull)
In the Shadow of ‘Just Wars’ asks the following questions: ‘To what extent has the proliferation of so-called “just” wars and the recent enthusiasm for ethical and humanitarian values benefited populations exposed to mass violence?’ and ‘What has been the practical international reaction to the most serious crises of the last five years stemming from the discourse of a “right to intervene” and the “war on evil”?’ (p. 3). The authors are a mixture of practitioners working with Medicins Sans Frontieres, with whom the book is published, academics and journalists. The majority of chapters are case studies of conflict situations, and the humanitarian issues they present. They are split into cases of intervention – East Timor, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan; involvement – North Korea, Angola, Sudan; and abstention – Liberia, Chechnya, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Algeria. The final section, ‘Points of View’, is more analytical and critical of the current state of humanitarian aid.
This book is an important contribution to the debate about humanitarian aid, in particular because it is grounded in the experience of practitioners. The authors do not hold back on their criticism, including of their own organisation. The case study chapters are at times too focused on the background of the case, leaving insufficient room for analysis. The ‘Points of View’ chapters are more analytical and reinforce the points made in the earlier chapters. The primary point advanced by the authors is that ‘humanitarian’ intervention or involvement is often used for political purposes, sidelining the needs of the people. Aid organisations also inadvertently get entangled in the politics of a situation. At the same time, places where people are in desperate need are often ignored. This book highlights some of the political and ethical dangers that intervening states, home states and aid organisations will come across.
Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003, 255, £17.99, ISBN 1 4039 6062 3
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: ***
Reviewer: JAN HANCOCK (University of Manchester)
The rationale for this edited volume is stated as questioning common assumptions made on behalf of the existing approach to international human rights. The contributors are united in making the criticism that ‘the human rights framework is facilitating new hierarchies of control and regulation’ rather than advancing human emancipation (p. 2).
Amongst the most notable contributions, John Laughland criticises international legal tribunals for having little democratic accountability. Jon Holbrook clearly demonstrates how the supposedly rules-based system of international law has been co-opted to promote the interests of the powerful through the selective application of the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. Edward Herman and David Peterson provide a competent chapter on the double standards employed by the intervening powers during the 1999 Kosovo campaign. David Chandler criticises the discourse of cosmopolitan rights on the grounds that it has empowered dominant international institutions and world powers rather than global citizens.
The achievements of this volume are significant. It offers a useful contribution to the existing literature on how human rights are co-opted into supporting rather than challenging dominant political practices, especially in the realm of military intervention.
However, the authors fail to demonstrate how any alternative methods of political empowerment will be more insulated from the effects of power; they do, however, competently demonstrate how the human rights regime has been susceptible to these effects. To more comprehensively realise its stated aim, the book could have focused more upon how social and economic power (as well as overt physical force) operates through such systems as capitalism and patriarchy to circumscribe the radical potential of human rights. Although there are pointers in this direction, notably in contributions from Vanessa Pupavac and John Pender, the edition is not as strong here as other notable texts, for example Tony Evans's 1998 edited collection Human Rights 50 Years On.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 260, £15.99, ISBN1 4039 2100 8
Readership: Academic/research
Rating: ***
Reviewer: YVES LABERGE (Institut Québécois des Hautes études Internationales, Québec City)
Mark Alleyne's third book is a follow-up to his previous News Revolution (St. Martin's Press, 1997). The objective of this book about the United Nations (UN) is to question the need of persuasion strategies in order to integrate specific issues with organizational goals. The study focuses on the role of the UN's Department of Public Information (DPI).
The author (from UCLA) explores issues labelled as the ‘“soft” dimensions of international relations in the 1990s (such as culture, communication, ideology and race)’ (p. xiii). He argues that the United Nations’ DPI frequently used diverse forms of communication strategies, known as ‘public information’ (p. 3); that could also be coined as ‘good propaganda’. But this assertion goes onto touchy ground, because in fact, for best and worse, ‘propaganda became a standard means of conducting international relations in the twentieth century’ (p. 93). Since propaganda was massively used by the Nazi regime, no one could ever think of using such methods when the UN was created in 1946, even for information purposes. Knowing that, how could world organizations conceive their own information campaigns without using similar persuasion strategies? To answer this, the author, who knows the question well, explains that ‘the UN has never been against propaganda per se but against a particular form of propaganda – the “bad” propaganda’ (p. 118).
The book explains how the UN's Department of Public Information used communication strategies to improve its own image, to sponsor international conferences (the 1992 ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio) and to promote ‘just causes’, such as human rights and healthcare, with the help of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) or Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs).
I think Global Lies is a valuable and insightful examination of an overseen issue in international relations that might help scholars in diplomacy, media ethics, and political communication.
Washington DC: Island Press, 2003, 271, $25.00, ISBN 1 55963 289 5
Readership: Undergraduates
Rating: ***
Reviewer: TOME SANDEVSKI (London School of Economics)
Ann Florini provides a very accessible and balanced overview of an array of issues related to globalisation and global governance. The book deals with the shrinking power of nation states, environmental problems, cross-border business activities, non-state actors in international politics, collective identities, and the growing role of information technologies. The main argument of the book is as simple as it is plausible: global problems can only be solved by global forms of democratic governance, but genuine democracy is only possible when people have a voice in decision-making processes and the opportunity to hold their representatives accountable. Transparency is considered ‘the most important concept for global democracy in the twenty-first century’ (p. 16). Not only governments and intergovernmental organizations, but also corporations and civil society organizations, have to be transparent. Florini argues that if governments and corporations were obligated to publicly reveal their activities, it would make them change ‘undesirable behavior’ (p. 35), thereby creating a new type of governance, which she conceptualises as ‘regulation by revelation’ (p. 35). Information technologies are meant to play a crucial role in achieving global transparency. Florini compares today's influence of information technologies with the impact that the invention of book printing had in the fifteenth century on the Reformation and the creation of the European nation-state system. However, information technologies can be misused by governments or terrorist organisations and might threaten forms of democratic governance – a point that is understated in the book. The book also deals with the difficulties in establishing global forms of governance. Intergovernmental organisations are only as strong as their member states want them to be, and civil society organisations are not in a position to solve global problems. Florini is optimistic about the future, but the book clearly shows that there are as yet no rules for governing a new world.
Oxford: Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, 289, £17.99, ISBN 0 19 516643 4
Readership: Postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: ****
Reviewer: ALPASLAN OZERDEM (University of York)
The primary focus of this book is the progression of reconciliation from conflict resolution to lasting peace. It argues that conflict resolution techniques are not capable of building long-term stability, and as reconciliation tends to take a more grassroots approach and wider view of peace, it could achieve what conflict resolution fails to do. The book's individual chapters by reputable contributors, provide a multi-disciplinary understanding of reconciliation. They question the meaning and nature of reconciliation; how it differs in the contexts of domestic and international conflicts; why it should be seen as a process as well as an outcome; and what structural, social and psychological challenges can be faced in its implementation and how they could be overcome.
The book, as a whole, could have been more tightly structured, which could have avoided the repetition with similar type of literature review on reconciliation in each chapter. This was partly unavoidable for some chapters, as they approach the subject from different academic disciplines. However, in others, this is not the case and consequently, the reader may find it slightly irritating to be told repeatedly that reconciliation is a dynamic and complex process. It would also be advisable to read chapter 4 (a comparison of reconciliation within and between countries by Kriesberg), chapter 6 (on the role of leadership in reconciliation by Bargal and Sivan) and chapter 9 (on the politics of reconciliation) before others, as these three chapters provide a much better framework as an introduction to the subject and pose interesting questions for discussions in other chapters. Also, it is not clear why the book shies away from the subject of ‘peace-building’, and consequently missing the opportunity of making many relevant connections. Nevertheless, this useful and interesting book can find a wide range of readership from peace studies to political science and post-conflict reconstruction.
Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2003, 295, £52.50, ISBN 1 4039 1499 0
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: ****
Reviewer: ALEX J. BELLAMY (University of Queensland)
This book traces the evolution of British policy on peacekeeping between 1948 and 1967. Based on declassified government documents, Briscoe provides a uniquely detailed account of how British policy-makers perceived the character, uses and management of UN peacekeeping and demonstrates how British policies were influential on the development of peacekeeping itself. The volume is organized chronologically and charts the way that Britain first perceived UN peacekeeping as a useful way of disengaging from colonialism in the Middle East but soon came to realize that, as a declining power, it could not control the composition and direction of peacekeeping operations in the cases of UNEF and ONUC in particular. British policy-makers, therefore, oscillated between lukewarm support in cases where peacekeeping furthered British interests (in Cyprus), ambivalence (in Lebanon and Kashmir) and outright hostility (mostly in relation to the post-Suez deployment and Congo). Briscoe combines ample documentary evidence with a narrative that is highly sensitive to the political context in which peacekeeping takes place, something that is often missing in the peacekeeping literature.
The author undoubtedly succeeds in producing an accurate and highly informative account of British attitudes towards peacekeeping. In so doing, he demonstrates the significance of Cold War and post-colonial politics on the evolution of peacekeeping and the extent to which the canons of peacekeeping were more products of politics than planning. Although the book is entirely concerned with British perspectives on peacekeeping and makes only infrequent incursions into others’ perceptions of Britain, Briscoe also helps to fill in important blanks in the history of peacekeeping. For instance, he demonstrates that the idea that peacekeepers could use force to ‘defend the mandate’ was a product of the 1960s, not (as is commonly thought) the late 1990s. Overall, this is an important and welcome contribution to the study of peacekeeping.
Oxford: Hart Publishing, 2003, 556, £50, ISBN 1 84113 337 X
Readership: Postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: ****
Reviewer: AGUSTÍN JOSÉ MENÉNDEZ (Universidad de León)
This edited volume aims at the reappraisal of the concept of sovereignty in the post-national constellation. Most of its contributors claim that a proper reconstruction of contemporary legal orders can only proceed if we reject constitutional monism, i.e. the existence of a single level of constitutional discourse and authority, and we endorse constitutional pluralism, which affirms the simultaneous co-existence and validity of multiple constitutional discourses and authorities. Moreover, pluralism is said to be also preferable on normative grounds, because it would foster the mutual checking and balancing of legal orders. The process of European integration, and more particularly, the constitutionalisation of European Union law, are considered as decisive evidence of the soundness of pluralism, and of the outdated character of monism.
The three sections of the book nicely combine legal, philosophical and political-theoretical approaches. The first part, intended to provide the reader with a general theoretical framework, is full of suggestive thoughts. However, it suffers from a certain lack of coherence (i.e. the extremely interesting chapters 3 and 5 do not directly speak to the central hypotheses of the book). The second ‘comparative’ section contains eight national case studies on sovereignty discourses. It is extremely informative; however, some of the pieces (noticeably chapter 16) dwell too extensively on theoretical debates more fitting in the first section. The third ‘European’ section contains three chapters dealing with the constitutional architecture of the Union and the status of third country nationals in Union law.
In terms of breadth and scope, the reader may regret that the more ‘federal’ and ‘cosmopolitan’ approaches to the analysis of the post-national constellation are rather under-represented in the volume; as well as the lack of a concluding chapter that would help clarify the outcomes of the debate on the central tenets of constitutional pluralism.
New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, 285, £35, ISBN 1 4039 6248 0
Readership: Postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: ***
Reviewer: ANTHONY EGAN (St Augustine College of South Africa)
From 1975, the regime of the late Hafiz Asad systematically sabotaged all attempts to achieve peace in the Middle East. The purpose of this has been to assert Syrian domination of the region. After the Golan Heights Disengagement Agreement and the Rabat Arab summit decision to recognise the Palestinian Liberation Organisation as the sole representative of the Palestinians, Asad's regime relentlessly pursued through diplomatic and military means (the latter both covertly and overtly) a plan to dominate Jordan, Lebanon and the PLO. Asad and his government regularly stalled and blocked all peace plans with Israel, while ruthlessly manipulating the various political players. This included political assassinations and intimidation on a wide scale. Through a combination of selectively backing and betraying Palestinians, Lebanese Christians, Lebanese Shi'a and Sunni Muslims, Druze, et al, Syria helped foment the disastrous Lebanese Civil War – and then emerged as the dominant peace broker, making Lebanon by 2000 in all but name a province of greater Syria.
Professor Deeb's account of Syria's political machinations makes for densely detailed and very disturbing reading. He has drawn heavily on Arabic sources, much of them Lebanese, which the majority of his readers will find both hard to access and probably impossible to read. His is also perhaps the first relatively easily accessible book on the subject. Stylistically, the book has its problems – the reader gets lost in an ocean of detail, including the acronyms of the all too numerous groups and factions, without the benefit of a glossary. This makes his book at times a bit ponderous. What is also missing is sufficient careful analysis of the events described, including possible alternative readings of what is in effect a grand conspiracy theory that had everyone fooled. Once over these obstacles, however, this proves a highly useful account of a little-researched aspect of the Middle East conflict.
Washington DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2004, 150, $16.50, ISBN 0 8157 7194 0
Readership: Professional, academic/research
Rating: ****
Reviewer: PETER SHEARMAN (University of Melbourne)
Yevgeny Primakov, (former Foreign Minister, Head of Foreign Intelligence, and Prime Minister of the Russian Federation) puts his impressive knowledge and experience to an analysis of contemporary international politics, focusing in particular on the nature of the global terrorist threat. His principle message is that the US should discard unilateralism and embrace the UN and multilateral approaches to international security. As the world's hegemonic power the US should help to establish a multilateral solution to the Arab-Israeli dispute, provide an impetus for the establishment of an Asian Security system, foster the sharing of intelligence, and help to establish a draft code of conduct under the UN for countering terrorism. Primakov has academic credentials in the field of Islam and the Arab world, practical experience in Russian policy in the Middle East, and has retained personal contacts with many of the key actors in the region. He is extremely well qualified to outline what he sees as the roots of 9/11, many of them he sees sprouting from the unresolved and long-simmering conflicts in the Middle East, which help to create an environment that fosters Islamic radicalism.
The book calls for increased cooperation between the US and Russia in countering terrorism and in enforcing a multilateral external peace on the protagonists in the Middle East conflict. The book is clearly aimed at policy makers and opinion formers in the United States, but will have wider appeal to a general audience interested in a Russian perspective on these issues. The book is well written and is an interesting insight into the thinking of someone whom might be termed the Russian ‘Henry Kissinger’ (Kissinger writes a foreword to the book). That this is not lost on Primakov is in the title of the book (compare Kissinger's A World Restored)"
Tokyo: United Nations Press, 2003, 365, $37.95, ISBN 92 808 1083 9
Readership: Academic/research, Professional
Rating: *****
Reviewer: KATAYOUN HASSALL (University of the South Pacific)
There is a growing concern about the economic impact of proliferating regional trade agreements (RTAs) on multilateralism. However, there are few systematic studies of the impact of RTAs on multilateral regimes of the WTO. Remaining within the context of WTO, Regionalism, Multilateralism and Economic Integration, extends the inquiry to include implications of modern RTAs for ‘deeper’, non-border regulatory policy areas, such as transparency in government procurement, investment and competition, and environmental and labour standards. The book is a multilevel comparison of RTAs and the resulting level of coordination and harmonisation of domestic policies.
Using existing trade provisions in the World Trade Organization as a benchmark, co-editor, Stephen Woolcock, introduces the concept of WTO-Plus as a comparative framework for the analysis of RTAs and the extent to which these complement or compete WTO provision in relation coverage, substantive and procedural provisions (e.g. transparency, institutional infrastructure, regional harmonization, and mutual recognition), and enforcement (e.g. anti-competitive practices). The framework structures the subsequent case study chapters.
Detailed studies of six regional trade agreements (FTAs between EU-Mexico, EU-Mediterranean, the North American, and Chile-Canada; CER between Australia and New Zealand; and the Association Agreement between EU and Poland) suggest that these are generally consistent with multilateral principles. On the other hand, ‘horizontal case studies’ argue that in policy areas such as food safety and environmental standards, RTAs protect divergent transatlantic regulatory regionalism reflecting domestic interests and preferences. As such these RTAs are stumbling blocks for multilateralism.
Although the book takes the WTO approach to multilateralism for granted, individual chapters highlight to the discerning readers, potential areas where the WTO itself can be construed as biased toward some regulatory regionalism, thus becoming a stumbling block for multilateralism (e.g. WTO rules on scientific criterion on the food safety). Overall, the book provides an analytical framework that enhances the scholarly debate on regionalism versus multilaterialsm. The book also extends the dimensions of the debate to non-economic impact of RTAs. Each chapter is rich in details and provides an indepth analysis of RTAs. Although chapters are well structured and clearly written, the book is technical and assumes prior knowledge of trade-related terms and a familiarity with the WTO provisions and procedures.
London: Pluto Press, 2004, 562, ISBN 0 7453 2135 6
Readership: Advanced undergraduates
Rating: ****
Reviewer: ROGéRIO DE SOUZA FARIAS (Relnet – The Brazilian Gateway of International Relations)
There is a very strong and widely held view in mainstream international relations theory that the increase of economic relations among countries has severe impacts in the configuration of the international political system. But when we start to examine the specific nature of those impacts, we start to realize that using just the current IR framework is not satisfactory to explain it. The specific contribution of this book, in this sense, underlines how the nature of this system can be better understood if we bring together politics and economics. Hence, several scholars of both areas approach the issue of economic interdependence and political order in its intertwined relationships.
As the book is an edited selection of articles, the reader may think, as a first impression, that it may be one of those collective works that brings together unrelated articles already published somewhere else. But that impression soon vanishes as the contributions for the volume demonstrate how each one connects with the others in a harmonic and well-written work. The editors of the book were particularly worried about the linkage between the main ideas of the chapters in the book.
Another feature of the book is how the specific problems of developing countries are examined. The special attention to African countries in several chapters cut across the conventional terms of debate in order to demonstrate the perils of economic interdependence. Other chapters attempt to support the claim that even powerful developing countries such as Mexico and India are equally exposed to the severe problems posed by economic interdependence.
Most of the authors of the book share a critical stance on the subject but this does not disfigure the well-constructed theoretical framework of the contributors.
Students and scholars willing to understand the particular problems that stand out in this post-modern world will find this book particularly interesting.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 349, ISBN 0 521 54192 1
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: ****
Reviewer: ALEX J. BELLAMY (University of Queensland)
This book explores institutional change in world politics over the longue duree. The question of change, Holsti argues, permeates every aspect of international relations yet there is little agreement about what we mean by change, let alone how we study it. This book addresses this problem by proposing a framework for studying macro-level change in world politics that charts eight key institutions. The framework identifies six different types of change and the key international institutions that change can be identified within. The volume then proceeds to evaluate change in each of the eight institutions: states and statehood, territoriality, sovereignty, international law, diplomacy, international trade, colonialism and war.
Each of these chapters provides a useful empirical overview of the institution under review. What becomes clear is that modern international society was shaped in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and that since then there has been remarkably little institutional change, despite rapid changes in technology and communications. Holsti argues that all four ‘foundational’ institutions (statehood, territoriality, sovereignty, and law) have remained foundational for at least two centuries, and that in three of the four institutions (territoriality being the exception) change has been one of greater complexity (each institution has become ‘thicker’) rather than one of transformation (where the institution itself has changed). Over time it is clear, Holsti argues, that institutions – themselves produced by sovereigns – ‘tame’ sovereigns by having a moderating effect on their plans and actions. Without such taming, life in international society would indeed be ‘nasty, brutish, and short’. Whilst this volume certainly provides one of the most thorough accounts of institutional change in world politics, there will undoubtedly be much reflection on Holsti's choice of institutions (which he does not explain in great detail) and because each institution is evaluated separately, questions remain about the relationship between them.
Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003, 246, £45, ISBN 1 84014 751 2
Readership: Postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: ****
Reviewer: AMANDEEP SANDHU (University of California, Santa Barbara)
The French foreign policy – both in action as well as discourse – toward the political upheavals in Algeria from 1988 to 1995 has, according to Camille Bonora-Waisman, been driven by the importance of political stability as opposed to democracy. The three different French governments whose foreign policy toward Algeria is examined here – Beregovoy (April 92–March 93); Balladur (March 92– May 95); and Juppe (May 95–) – shifted their position around the issue of conciliation with, or eradication of, the Algerian Islamists. While the Beregovoy government threw its weight behind the eradication option, the two following governments gradually shifted toward conciliation. But even when conciliation was the preferred option, it was never because conciliation was the preferred democratic option; it was rather because political stability in Algeria dictated a conciliation posture on part of the French government. As a case study of French response to democratization in Algeria, this book – based upon primary and secondary documents, press coverage and interviews with French civil servants – is effective in arguing that the French were concerned first and foremost with preserving political stability, and then perhaps with promoting democracy as an afterthought. Bonora-Waisman makes her arguments effectively, yet her arguments take it for granted that the only relationship that determines the French policy in Algeria is the French-Algerian relationship. This, however, misses out on the wider world-system, with other players having an impact on the French foreign policy toward Algeria. There is also an over-dependence on French sources in her work. Of the Algerian sources she uses, none are from Arabic language newspapers. That being said, this is an effective study of French foreign policy toward Algerian crisis. Bonora-Waisman succeeds in capturing the conservative nature of French foreign policy in Algeria. This book is a welcome addition to the meagre but growing English language literature on French-Algerian relations in the recent past.
Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004, 243, £12.95, ISBN 0 691 11512 5
Readership: Postgraduates, academic/research, professional
Rating: *****
Reviewer: STEFAN WOLFF (University of Bath)
Virginia Page Fortna's exploration of the significance of cease-fire agreements and the mechanisms within them for the durability of peace is a welcome addition to the ever-growing literature on war and peace. Focusing on the durability of peace rather than on the resurgence of hostilities between state combatants, she argues that the strength of mechanisms within cease-fire agreements in three areas are particularly important factors in securing lasting peace – ‘raising the costs of reinitiating conflict, reducing uncer-tainty about actions and intentions, and preventing and managing accidental violations of the cease-fire’ (p. 37). Embedded in a theoretical discussion of agreements and the durability of peace (chapter 1) and a methodological justification of the chosen approach to the study of the durability of peace (chapter 2), Page Fortna examines three closely related questions. The first is about the influence of situational variables, or of the case-specific context (Chapter 3). The second is about the effects that these ‘baseline prospects for peace’ have on the cease-fire agreements reached (Chapter 4). Third, if baseline prospects are controlled, does the strength of agreements matter for the durability of peace, and do specific mechanisms aimed at increasing the costs for military reengagement, reducing uncertainty, and preventing and managing accidents contribute to maintaining peace (chapters 5 and 6). Combining econometric modelling with a large-N qualitative survey (based in part on a new dataset on cease-fire agreements specifically compiled by the author herself) and a small-N set of case studies (India-Pakistan, Israel-Syria), Page Fortna is able to overcome most of the methodological hazards involved in this kind of research and to present sound and robust findings that support her overall argument that cease-fire agreements matter and that belligerents and outsiders can take concrete steps to increase the chances to institute a durable peace between states previously at war.
New York: Columbia University Press, 2004, 191, £24, ISBN 0 231 12348 5
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, postgraduates, academic/research
Rating: *****
Reviewer: ANTHONY EGAN (St Augustine College of South Africa)
In this excellent work of intellectual history, Campbell Craig examines changes in the attitudes of three important exponents of the Realist school of international relations – Reinhold Niebuhr, Hans Morgenthau and Kenneth Walz – to the problem of war. Central to change in all their thinking was the real possibility during the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union of nuclear war.
Niebuhr, a theologian as well as political analyst, adopted Realism as a theory, but by 1958 came to see coexistence between the USA and USSR as crucial, later even claiming that nuclear warfare was morally and politically inadmissible. Morganthau too shifted from Realism rooted in a Euro-pessimistic Nietszchean view of power to a conviction that the national interest demanded coexistence in the nuclear age, as did Walz – who saw the need for Realism's ‘paradigm shift’ in the nuclear age.
Craig's book is an eloquent retrieval of the thought of Niebuhr, Morgenthau and Walz. He sums up and contextualises the changes in his subjects’ thought, drawing both on their classic texts and their writings in contemporary periodicals. Given that they were prolific writers – particularly Niebuhr – this is a difficult task, yet one Craig has achieved skilfully and concisely. My only quibble is that, in the case of Niebuhr, he does not sufficiently consider how Niebuhr the theologian influenced Niebuhr the po-litical analyst. This is unfortunate since Niebuhr was first and foremost a ‘public theologian’ of considerable note and importance. Similarly, I would have liked a more detailed examination of the philosophical foundations of Morgenthau and Walz, particularly how such foundations formed them initially. This notwithstanding, this is a densely written yet highly readable piece of scholarship, one that deserves the readership of intellectual historians and international relations scholars, and, despite his contrary protestations, theorists.
Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 2003, 292, $27.95, ISBN 0 7914 5668 4
Readership: Advanced undergraduates, professional
Rating: ****
Reviewer: KATAYOUN HASSALL (University of the South Pacific)
In the tradition of books such as the similarly titled Taming Globalization (Held and Koenig-Archibugi, 2003) the central argument of Civilizing Globalization is that ‘Globalization’ – understood as globalization of capitalism, driven by neoliberal prescriptions and promises – though destructive, should not be abandoned. Rather, chapters in this collection argue that more democratic ‘negotiated agreements’ (enforceable environmental, social and cultural charters), market regulations (international currency transfer taxes), and deliberate and equitable distribution of costs and resources (financial transfer schemes) at the global level can, and must, liberate society from the impositions of neo-liberal assumptions. In a way reminiscent of such classic works as Falk's Predatory Globalisation (1999) and Beck's What is Globalization? (1999) Richard Sandbrook argues that ‘[p]olitics is […] key to civilizing globalization’ (p. 9). Global reform, therefore, lies not in structural adjustments (nor in radical rejection of market economy), but in the negotiated spaces between government, private and grassroots interests.
Twenty easy to read, concise chapters are carefully organised around four themes reflecting the structure of the central argument: 1. Destructive and divisive tendencies (growing inequalities, declining social welfare and rise of fundamentalism); 2. Need for and mechanisms of global extension of social-democratic approach to market regulation (promoting core labour standards, and striking a balance between trade and the environment); 3. Its associated reform of global institutions of governance (World Trade Organization, foreign aid, democracy, and the national state); and finally 4. Politics of non-governmental organizations and social movements that despite their diversity, form a global countermovement of ‘globalization-from-below’.
Chapters are of uneven quality. A few reiterate familiar arguments applied to scantily presented and superficially analysed case studies while most are empirically specific and present practical novel ideas. Although arguments and ideas in some chapters may not be new to some readers, the collection forms a coherent whole that adds impetus to a growing scholarship that shows globalization as a series of human decisions and agreements, hence, opening up space for imaging mechanisms for possible ‘negotiated agreements’ for a more humane globalization.
International Relations
New books received
Mark Abrahamson (2004) Global Cities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 179, £16.99, ISBN 0 19 5142047
Ugo M. Amoretti and Nancy Bermeo (2004) Federalism and Territorial Cleavages. Baltimore MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 497, £40.50, ISBN 0 8018 7408 4
Robert Albritton, Shannon Bell, John R. Bell and Richard Westra (2004) New Socialism: futures beyond globalization. London: Routledge, 267, £16.15, ISBN 0 415 32820 9
Alex Battler (2004) The 21st Century: the world without Russia. Washington DC: American University and College Press, 386, $24.95, ISBN 1 58982 121 X
Jeffrey D. Berejikian (2004) International Relations Under Risk. Albany NY: State University of New York Press, 151, $40.00, ISBN 0 7914 6007 X
Sandra Braman (2004) The Emergent Global Information Policy Regime. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 262, £55, ISBN 1 4039 0369 7
Maurice J. Bric and John Coakley (2004) From Political Violence to Negotiated Settlement: the winding path to peace in the twentieth century Ireland. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 257, £18.95, ISBN 1 900621 84 3
William Brown, Simon Bromley and Suma Athreye (2004) Ordering the International: history, change and transformation. London: Pluto Press, 647, £21.99, ISBN 07453 2137 2
Zbigniev Brzezinkski (2004) The Choice: global domination or global leadership. New York: Basic Books, 242, £18.99, ISBN 0 465 00800 3
Sabine C. Carey and Steven C. Poe (eds) (2004) Understanding Human Rights Violations. Aldershot: Ashgate, 290, £40.00, ISBN 0 7546 4026 4
Jonathan Colman (2004) A ‘Special Relationship’?: Harold Wilson, Lyndon B. Johnson and Anglo-American relations ‘at the summit’, 1964–68. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 192, £50.00, ISBN 0 7190 7010 4
Andrew F. Cooper (2004) Tests of Global Governance: Canadian diplomacy and United Nations world conferences. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 298, ISBN 92 808 1096 0
Felix Dodds with Michael Strauss (2004) How to Lobby Intergovernmental Meetings. London: Earthscan, 169, £17.99, ISBN 1 84407 074 3
Fredrik Engelstad and Øyvind Østerud (2004) Power and Democracy: critical interventions. Aldershot: Ashgate, 258, £47.50, ISBN 0 7546 3767 0
Johan Galtung (2004) Transcend and Transform: an introduction to conflict work. London: Pluto Press, 189, £15.99, ISBN 07453 2254 9
Michael Graham Fry, Erik Goldstein, Richard Langhorne (2004) Guide to International Relations and Diplomacy. London: Continuum, 567, £25, ISBN 0826473016
Aleksandras Shtromas (2004) Totalitarianism and the Prospects for World Order. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 494, £21.95, ISBN 0 7391 0534 5
Lawrence Freedman (2004) Deterrence. Cambridge: Polity Press, 145, £13.99, ISBN 0 7456 3113 4
Derek Gregory (2004) The Colonial Present. Oxford: Blackwell, 367, £16.99, ISBN 1 5771 8090 9
Neil E. Harrison and Gary C. Bryner (eds) (2004) Science and Politics in the International Environment. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 379, ISBN 0 7425 2020 X
David Held (2004) Global Covenant: the social democratic alternative to the Washington consensus. Cambridge: Polity Press, 201, £12.99, ISBN 0 7456 3353 6
Karl F. Inderfurth and Loch K. Johnson (2004) Fateful Decisions: inside the national security council. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 378, £21.99, ISBN 0 19 5159667
Sheila Jasanoff and Marybeth Long Martello (2004) Earthly Politics: local and global in environment governance. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 356, £17.95, ISBN 0 262 600595
Norichika Kanie and Peter M. Haas (eds) (2004) Emerging Forces in Environmental Governance. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 380, $36.00, ISBN 92 808 1095 2
Tom Keating and W. Andy Knight (2004) (eds) Building Sustainable Peace. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 502, $30.00, ISBN 92 808 1101 0
Rachel Kerr (2004) The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia: an exercise in law, politics and diplomacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 239, £53.00, ISBN 0 19 926305 1
John J. Kirton and Radoslava N. Stefanova (2004) The G8, the United Nations and Conflict Prevention. Aldershot: Ashgate, 360, £49.95, ISBN 0 7546 0879 4
Robert K. Kloyt (2004) The Politics of Internet Communication. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 259, £20.95, ISBN 0 7425 2926 6
Kofi Oteng Kufour (2004) World Trade Governance and Developing Countries. Malden MA: Blackwell Publishing, 115, £19.99, ISBN 1 405 116773
Donato Masciandaro (ed.) (2004) Global Financial Crime: terrorism, money laundering and offshore centre. Aldershot: Ashgate, 256, £45.00, ISBN 0 7546 3707 7
Joel S. Migdal (ed.) (2004) Boundaries and Belonging: states and societies in the struggle to shape identities and local practices. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 363, £45.00, ISBN 0 521 83566 6
Time Newburn and Richard Sparks (2004) Criminal Justice and Political Cultures: national and international dimensions of crime control. Devon: William Publishing, 276, £45, ISBN 1 84392 054 9
Morten Ougaard (2004) Political Globalization: state, power and social forces. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 238, £45, ISBN 0 333 96315 6
Anthony Payne (ed.) (2004) The New Regional Politics of Development. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 290, £17.99, ISBN 0 333 97395 X
Dennis Clark Pirages and Theresa Manley DeGeest (2004) Ecological Security: an evolution perspective on globalization. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 284, £18.95, ISBN 0 8476 9501 8
Istvan Pogany (2004) The Roma Café: human rights and the plight of the Romani people. London: Pluto, 198, £13.99, ISBN 07453 2051 1
William D. Rubinstein (2004) Genocide. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 322, £19.99, ISBN 0 582 50601 8
Ranabir Samaddar (2004) Peace Studies: an introduction to the concept, scope and themes. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 445, ISBN 0 7619 9661 3
G.W. Sand (ed.) (2004) Defending the West: the Truman-Churchill correspondence, 1945–1960. Connecticut CT: Greenwood Publishing, 246, £39.99, ISBN 0 313 28330 3
Manfred B. Steger (ed.) (2004) Rethinking Globalism. Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 276, ISBN 0 7425 2545 7
Ulrich Schenkener and Stefen Wolff (eds) (2004) Managing and Settling Ethnic Conflicts. London: C. Hurst and Co, 291, £16.50, ISBN 1 85065 6916
William K. Tabb (2004) Economic Governance in the age of Globalization. New York: Columbia University Press, 520, £20.50, ISBN 0 231 13155 0
Ian Taylor and Paul Williams (2004) Africa in International Politics: external involvement on the continent. London: Routledge, 225, £60.00, ISBN 0 415 31858 0
Lasha Tchantouridze (2004) Geopolitics: global problems and regional concerns. Oxford: Centre for Defence and Security Studies, 241, ISBN 0 97323313 3
Andrei P. Tsygankov (2004) Whose World Order: Russia's perception of American ideas after the cold war. Indiana IN: University Of Notre Dame Press, 224, $22.00, ISBN 0 268 04229 2
Virginia M. Walsh (2004) Global Institutions and Social Knowledge: generating research at the Scripps institution and the inter-American tropical tuna commission, 1900s–1990s. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 171, £12.95, ISBN 0 262 73167 3
Martin Wolf (2004) Why Globalization Works. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 398, £19.99, ISBN 0 300 10252 6