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Border Politics: The Limits of Sovereign Power

Nick Vaughan-Williams

This book presents a distinctive theoretical approach to the problem of borders in the study of global politics. It turns from current debates about the presence or absence of borders between states ... More

This book presents a distinctive theoretical approach to the problem of borders in the study of global politics. It turns from current debates about the presence or absence of borders between states to consider the possibility that the concept of the border of the state is being reconfigured in contemporary political life. The author uses critical resources found in poststructuralist thought to think in new ways about the relationship between borders, security and sovereign power, drawing on a range of thinkers including Agamben, Derrida and Foucault. He highlights the necessity of a more pluralised and radicalised view of what borders arel, and where they might be found, and uses the problem of borders to critically explore the innovations and limits of poststructuralist scholarship.Less

The Concept of the State in International Relations: Philosophy, Sovereignty and Cosmopolitanism

Peter M. R. Stirk

Robert Schuett (ed.)

This volume provides a collection of essays that, between them, offer a critical reassessment of the concepts of the state and sovereignty in international relations theory. Featuring contributions ... More

This volume provides a collection of essays that, between them, offer a critical reassessment of the concepts of the state and sovereignty in international relations theory. Featuring contributions from some of the most reputed theorists on the subject, this book provides a coherent and, at the same time, distinctively pluralist set of original reflections on the role and nature of the state. It considers the concept of sovereignty and the challenges of globalisation and cosmopolitanism. The collection highlights the fact that the concept of the state plays a central role in international relations, particularly in realist and neo-realist approaches. It also provides an important counterpoint to the general assumption that the meaning of the state is self-evident; something that is often taken for granted by both advocates of the sovereign state and its critics.Less

Critique of Security

Mark Neocleous

The contemporary political imagination and social landscape are saturated by the idea of security and thoughts of insecurity. This saturation has been accompanied by the emergence of a minor industry ... More

The contemporary political imagination and social landscape are saturated by the idea of security and thoughts of insecurity. This saturation has been accompanied by the emergence of a minor industry generating ideas about how to define and redefine security, how to defend and improve it, how to widen and deepen it, how to civilise and democratise it. This book takes an entirely different approach and offers the first fully-fledged critique of security. Challenging the common assumption that treats security as an unquestionable good, Neocleous explores the ways in which security has been deployed towards a vision of social order in which state power and liberal subjectivity have been inscribed into human experience. Treating security as a political technology of liberal order-building, engaging with the work of a wide range of thinkers, and ranging provocatively across security studies and international political economy; history, law and political theory; international relations and historical sociology, Neocleous explores the ways in which individuals, classes and the state have been shaped and ordered according to a logic of security. In so doing he uncovers the violence which underlies the politics of security, the ideological circuit between security and emergency powers, and the security fetishism dominating modern politics.Less

Debating Foreign Policy in the Renaissance: Speeches on War and Peace by Francesco Guicciardini

Marco Cesa (ed.)

This book includes a collection of debates on foreign policy from the works of Guicciardini, freshly translated with new commentary. This book brings together eleven pairs of opposing speeches on ... More

This book includes a collection of debates on foreign policy from the works of Guicciardini, freshly translated with new commentary. This book brings together eleven pairs of opposing speeches on foreign policy written by Florentine statesman and historian Francesco Guicciardini (1483–1540). Collectively, they constitute a remarkable collection of debates on war, peace, alliance, and more. Incisive and elegant, the debates contain an early formulation of concepts such as the balance of power and the security dilemma — ideas that are still in international politics today. This book highlights the importance of Guicciardini's work for the evolution of international theory and explains why he, alongside Machiavelli, should be considered a leading figure of Realism.Less

Ethics and Politics after Poststructuralism: Levinas, Derrida and Nancy

Madeleine Fagan

This book offers a distinctive theoretical approach to the problem of ethics and responsibility in the study of Politics and International Relations. The book asks what post-foundational accounts of ... More

This book offers a distinctive theoretical approach to the problem of ethics and responsibility in the study of Politics and International Relations. The book asks what post-foundational accounts of ethics mean for practical politics: can we think about politics without an appeal to foundational ethics, and what might this politics look like? Drawing on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy, Ethics and Politics after Poststructuralism puts forward a radical and far-reaching critique of both foundational and non-foundational ethical theory. The ‘ethical’, the book argues, should not be understood as a label; it does not mean ‘good’ or ‘right’, it is not an evaluation or guide. Rather, both the ethical and the political are descriptions of the context in which we find ourselves; compelling and irreconcilable obligations can and do happen, in a forceful way, at the limits of foundations. As such the book proposes the need for sensitivity to the ways in which the existing order is already challenged and displaced from within through precisely the unsecured claims made in the name of ethics. Fagan offers an account of the inseparability of ethics and politics that challenges existing accounts of poststructuralist ethics and shows the need for a practice-based rethinking of the ethico-political.Less

The European Union and South Korea: The Legal Framework for Strengthening Trade, Economic and Political Relations

James Harrison (ed.)

The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of bilateral and regional cooperation in all parts of the world. The European Union (EU) and South Korea have both been involved in this trend. In 2010, ... More

The past decade has witnessed a proliferation of bilateral and regional cooperation in all parts of the world. The European Union (EU) and South Korea have both been involved in this trend. In 2010, these two actors launched a strategic partnership in order to strengthen their trade, economic and political ties. This partnership is underpinned by a number of important legal instruments, including the EU-Korea Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Korea Framework Agreement. The main aim of this book is to analyse the development of EU-Korea relations and the role that these treaties play in the development of the strategic partnership. The book contains contributions by European and Korean experts in international and EU law who each examine a particular aspect of the legal framework for EU-Korea relations. The authors explain the scope and substance of the relevant legal rules, as well as the considering opportunities and challenges for the implementation of the agreements. The book covers a wide range of policy areas, including trade, competition, and investment, as well as cooperation in non-economic areas, such as environmental protection and security. The contributions to this volume aim to offer insights not only into the state of EU-Korea relations, but also potential lessons for other bilateral and regional initiatives.Less

Governing Taiwan and Tibet: Democratic Approaches

Baogang He

This book is devoted to a search for democratic governance of China’s national identity problem, with regards to the Taiwan and Tibet questions specifically. It adopts a democratic approach and ... More

This book is devoted to a search for democratic governance of China’s national identity problem, with regards to the Taiwan and Tibet questions specifically. It adopts a democratic approach and argues that liberals can offer a democratic solution, defend democratic principles, and develop democratic governance. This book problematizes the existing hard-liners’ realist policies towards Tibet and Taiwan, and examines how and under what conditions democracy can or cannot provide an answer. It examines the different meanings, practices, institutions and various impacts of democracy with regards to the problem of China’s national identity. It provides a systematic analysis of different forms of the democratic approach and their likely impacts. In particular, it presents the difficulties and obstacles to the democratic approach to the Tibet and Taiwan questions, but it still searches for some political space in which democratic governance can work.Less

Health Inequalities and Global Justice

Patti Tamara Lenard and Christine Straehle (eds)

This volume focuses on the moral dilemmas posed by health inequalities across borders, and examines to what extent inequalities in health pose problems for those concerned with global justice. The ... More

This volume focuses on the moral dilemmas posed by health inequalities across borders, and examines to what extent inequalities in health pose problems for those concerned with global justice. The demands of global justice have been debated for some time now, and many have argued that any plausible account of global injustice takes its starting point from accounts of wealth inequalities and an analysis of why such inequalities are unjust. Yet, the causes of the appallingly poor health outcomes in developing nations are complex, as are the difficulties we face in identifying who, if anybody, is responsible for them and who should take on the responsibility to remedy them. This volume's authors examine the extent to which global inequalities in health can be addressed as the product of global wealth inequalities more generally, or whether inequalities in health pose specific and distinct problems to moral and political philosophy, in particular at the global level.Less

Human Rights from Community: A Rights-Based Approach to Development

Oche Onazi

Despite its predominance, human rights discourse, for all its claims and potential to challenge deep-rooted injustice, continues to develop without significant reference to community. It is therefore ... More

Despite its predominance, human rights discourse, for all its claims and potential to challenge deep-rooted injustice, continues to develop without significant reference to community. It is therefore no surprise that poverty, exclusion, and lack of participation continue to thrive and are symptomatic of the failings of the dominant state-and market-based human rights approaches alike. This book presents community – a fundamental source of hope, relief, support and comfort to individuals' lives in cities and villages across Africa – as a better alternative, capable of inspiring the poor and the vulnerable to organise themselves democratically to claim ownership of the processes that determine their human rights. Nigeria is used as a case study to empirically illustrate and develop this argument, especially to present community as an ideal and a form of practice that is best, but not only, illustrated by creative forms of solidarity, co-operation, collaboration, relationships and exchanges between residents of local, small and geographical demarcated communities. Although it is commonly assumed that human rights and community are incompatible concepts, this book attempts to transcend this dichotomy by presenting a concept of human rights, not opposed, but rather established from community, a type of community that is itself constituted by expressions of love and empathy.Less

Human Trafficking: The Complexities of Exploitation

Margaret Malloch and Paul Rigby (eds)

‘Human Trafficking’ is a term that does little to convey the myriad acts that underpin the exploitation of men, women and children across the world. Despite legislative developments and the ... More

‘Human Trafficking’ is a term that does little to convey the myriad acts that underpin the exploitation of men, women and children across the world. Despite legislative developments and the introduction of national and international interventions, definitions of this form of exploitation, estimates of its extent and nature, and responses to victims and perpetrators have thus far been limited. Furthermore, aspirations to prioritise a human rights model within a wider discourse of ‘vulnerable people’ on the move are frequently overtaken by law enforcement and border control priorities. This book brings together expert contributions from researchers and practitioners locating human trafficking within a theoretical and legislative framework of global, political and economic development. It presents findings from original research in the field of human trafficking alongside practitioner insights, highlighting the challenges of research and evaluation in this contentious and hidden economy and the implications of this for developments in survivor care and recovery.Less

Humanitarian Intervention and the United Nations

Norrie MacQueen

This book explores the United Nations' track record of military action, from Cold War ‘brushfire’ peacekeeping to the fractured globalisation of the contemporary world. The book assesses armed ... More

This book explores the United Nations' track record of military action, from Cold War ‘brushfire’ peacekeeping to the fractured globalisation of the contemporary world. The book assesses armed humanitarian intervention on a region-by-region basis, from the Balkans to Africa, the Middle East to Southeast Asia. Using empirical evidence, it compiles a ‘balance sheet’ of the UN's successes and failures, and asks hard questions about humanitarian intervention's short- and long-term value.Less

Immigration Justice

Peter Higgins

By what moral standards must nation-states select immigration policies? A central contention of Immigration Justice is that the justice of an immigration policy can be ascertained only through ... More

By what moral standards must nation-states select immigration policies? A central contention of Immigration Justice is that the justice of an immigration policy can be ascertained only through consideration of the pervasive, systematic, and unjust inequalities engendered by the institutions that constitute our social world. Immigration policies affect people primarily as members of social groups demarcated from each other by members’ gender, race, and class. For this reason, this book argues that states’ selection of immigration policies is a matter of structural justice, defending the cosmopolitan principle that immigration policies are not just if they avoidably harm social groups that are already unjustly disadvantaged. Via this principle, Immigration Justice challenges the three most widely-held views on immigration justice among philosophers, political theorists and the general public: the moral sovereignty of states view, on which states have moral discretion to select immigration policies by criteria of their own choosing; nationalism, on which states morally must choose immigration policies that promote the national interest; and open borders, the view that states morally ought to eliminate virtually all restrictions on immigration. Instead, this book argues, just immigration policies vary among states in accordance with a variety of contextual factors influencing their consequences for disadvantaged social groups.Less

Institutions in Global Distributive Justice

Andras Miklos

The monograph analyses whether social, economic and political institutions affect the justification, the scope and the content of principles of distributive justice. First, it examines whether ... More

The monograph analyses whether social, economic and political institutions affect the justification, the scope and the content of principles of distributive justice. First, it examines whether institutions are necessary for generating requirements of distributive justice, and considers implications for global justice. Second, it develops a novel theory about the role political and economic institutions play in determining the content of requirements of distributive justice, and shows how they can affect the scope of application of these requirements. The book defends a cosmopolitan conception of distributive justice and argues that there are some egalitarian distributive requirements with a global scope. It critically discusses statist positions that limit the scope of justice to nation-states on the basis of regarding special relations such as common nationality or political and economic institutions as necessary to generate requirements of justice. The argument demonstrates that these relational theories cannot justify statism. The book also shows that political and economic institutions may be necessary to assess alternative distributive shares and to guide and evaluate individual conduct and institutional design. They can limit the applicability of principles of justice even in a cosmopolitan conception.Less

Intelligence Studies in Britain and the US: Historiography since 1945

Christopher R. Moran and Christopher J. Murphy (eds)

Secrecy has never stopped people from writing about intelligence. From memoirs and academic texts to conspiracy-laden exposés and spy novels, writing on intelligence abounds. Now, this account ... More

Secrecy has never stopped people from writing about intelligence. From memoirs and academic texts to conspiracy-laden exposés and spy novels, writing on intelligence abounds. Now, this account uncovers intelligence historiography's hugely important role in shaping popular understandings and the social memory of intelligence. In this introduction to these official and unofficial histories, a range of chapters narrate and interpret the development of intelligence studies as a discipline. Each chapter showcases new archival material, looking at a particular book or series of books and considering issues of production, censorship, representation, and reception.Less

International Development and Human Aid: Principles, Norms and Institutions for the Global Sphere

Paulo Barcelos and Gabriele De Angelis (eds)

Are global standards of aid, assistance and redistribution achievable in practice? The eight chapters within this book assess fields including humanitarian and development aid, the slave trade, ... More

Are global standards of aid, assistance and redistribution achievable in practice? The eight chapters within this book assess fields including humanitarian and development aid, the slave trade, health care assistance, reparations for historical injustices, the UN Central Emergency Response Fund and the global responsibility of the EU. The book consists of three parts: Human Rights and the World Economy, The Applicability of Global Principles, and Justice and International Institutions. Chapters cover justice in a complex world, the universality of economic and social rights, approaches to global health care justice, restitution and distributive justice, humanitarian aid, and global justice and the European Union.Less

Liberal Peace Transitions: Between Statebuilding and Peacebuilding

Oliver P. Richmond and Jason Franks

Since the early 1990s, the projects of peace-building and state-building have increasingly been integrated. Since the early 2000s, this has been mainly an outcome of the United States' and the United ... More

Since the early 1990s, the projects of peace-building and state-building have increasingly been integrated. Since the early 2000s, this has been mainly an outcome of the United States' and the United Kingdom's support for an active, muscular and humanitarian internationalism. This book examines the nature of ‘liberal peace’ — the common aim of the international community's approach to post-conflict statebuilding. Adopting a particularly critical stance on this one-size-fits-all paradigm, it explores the process by breaking down liberal peace theory into its constituent parts: democratisation, free market reform and development, human rights, civil society and the rule of law. The book provides critically and theoretically informed empirical access to the ‘technology’ of the liberal peacebuilding process, particularly in regard to Cambodia, Kosovo, East Timor, Bosnia and the Middle East.Less

The Politics of Military Occupation

Peter M. R. Stirk

Military occupation is a recurrent feature of modern international politics and yet has received little attention from political scientists. This book sets out to remedy this neglect, offering: an ... More

Military occupation is a recurrent feature of modern international politics and yet has received little attention from political scientists. This book sets out to remedy this neglect, offering: an account of military occupation as a form of government; an assessment of key trends in the development of military occupations over the last two centuries; an explanation of the conceptual and practical difficulties encountered by occupiers; examples drawn from, amongst others, the First and Second World Wars, US occupations in Latin America and Japan, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and the current occupation of Iraq. After a survey of the evolving practice and meaning of military occupation, the book deals with its contested definitions, challenging restrictive approaches that disguise the true extent of the incidence of military occupation. Subsequent chapters explain the diverse forms that military government within occupation regimes take on, and the role of civilian governors and agencies within occupation regimes; the significance of military occupation for our understanding of political obligation; the concept of sovereignty; the nature and meaning of justice; and our evaluation of regime transformation under conditions of military occupation. The book argues that military occupation covers a wider range than is often assumed, including ‘international administration’ under the auspices of the UN.Less

Post-War Planning on the Periphery: Anglo-American Economic Diplomacy in South America, 1939–1945

Thomas C. Mills

The dominant theme of Anglo-American economic diplomacy during the Second World War was an attempt by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to promote a multilateral system, based on equality of ... More

The dominant theme of Anglo-American economic diplomacy during the Second World War was an attempt by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration to promote a multilateral system, based on equality of access to markets and raw materials. Doubting Britain's ability to compete in such a system without various safeguards to protect its export markets, the British government baulked at the US proposal and clung to its autarkic structures constructed during the interwar years. In considering Anglo-American economic diplomacy in South America this book paints a different picture. It was Britain that promoted multilateralism in this region. Britain lacked the preferential position in South America that it sought to defend in other parts of the world. A multilateral system based on free and equal access therefore represented its best chance of maintaining commercial footholds. The Roosevelt administration was divided concerning the appropriate attitude to be taken towards British interests in South America. On the one hand there were those like the State Department's internationalists who wished to protect British interests in South America in the service of bringing about a multilateral system on a global scale. Others, however, like the State Department's Latin Americanists and influential temporary government agencies, pursued policies which excluded British interests from South America, thereby threatening the successful implementation of multilateral system. As such, this book argues that exploring relations between the US and Britain in South America results in a greater understanding of the broader economic diplomacy conducted between the two powers during the Second World War.Less

Solidarity Across Divides: Promoting the Moral Point of View

George Vasilev

This book addresses the conceptual and practical challenges surrounding the promotion of solidarity in divided societies. It brings together the normative insights of political theory and the ... More

This book addresses the conceptual and practical challenges surrounding the promotion of solidarity in divided societies. It brings together the normative insights of political theory and the empirical insights of comparative research to identify institutional arrangements conducive to ties of responsibility across ethnic lines. Against critics who claim group representative measures are incompatible with solidarity, the book argues they serve as its very basis by providing the incentive structure for interethnic cooperation and openness. It extends the scope of analysis beyond the representative institutions of the nation-state to show how everyday deliberations and transnational influences can also positively shape ethnic relations. The book’s core claim is that what happens outside the state and across state borders also matters, as non-government organisations, international institutions and influential opinion leaders have become increasingly pivotal in shaping attitudes and political behaviour as the salience of international norms on ethnic diversity has grown. This analysis is conducted against the backdrop of several case studies involving various Balkan states, Northern Ireland, South Africa, transnational advocacy networks, and the European Union.Less

Twentieth-Century German Political Thought

Peter M. R. Stirk

Germany, as Europe's most powerful state, has a political significance that underlines the importance of twentieth-century German political thought. Yet this tradition has been poorly represented in ... More

Germany, as Europe's most powerful state, has a political significance that underlines the importance of twentieth-century German political thought. Yet this tradition has been poorly represented in academic literature. This book offers an account of German political thought, emphasising its diversity and contested nature, and gives an overview of the subject that allows access to relatively unknown figures as well as the ‘names’ of the tradition (Weber, Schmitt, Arendt, Habermas). The book also demonstrates the political significance of figures better known in other disciplines including law and sociology. The book is organised chronologically, with a series of recurrent themes providing analytic unity: the nature of politics (including political vocation and leadership, and definitions of politics), collective identity, the rule of law, the role of the state, the role of political parties and the nature of parliamentary democracy, state intervention in society and the economy and, finally, the international order. Pedagogical features include a glossary of German terms and a substantial set of biographical notes identifying the major theorists referred to in the text.Less