1st Edition

Empire and International Order

Edited By Noel Parker Copyright 2013

    Empires have returned as features of the international scene. With the Cold War's global ideological contest gone, alternative structures such as the War on Terror or the Clash of Civilizations losing credibility, and even the unipolar position of the USA no longer self-evident, the operations of competing empires, history's best known form of order imposed over territories and peoples, acquires renewed credibility. Empire and International Order presents a critical examination of how useful the concept of empire is for understanding varieties of international order across time and place. Original contributions from an international team of upcoming and distinguished scholars analyse a wealth of theoretical approaches alongside contemporary themes enabling the reader to understand the desire to shift the ground of analysis away from the current literature of immediate issue of the US towards the disciplines of international relations, politics, and political/sociological theory.

    Chapter 1 Introduction:Empires and the International '” in History or throughout History, Noel Parker; Part I Mechanisms of Empire and 'the International'; Chapter 1a Empires, Past and Present: The Relevance of Empire as an Analytic Concept, Hendrik Spruyt; Chapter 2 Imperial Administration: Comparing the Byzantine Empire and the EU, Magali Gravier; Chapter 3 Empires and the Sovereign State Order: A Revisionist History, Noel Parker; Part II Newer Articulations of Empire in International Politics; Chapter 4 Empire, Specialness: Exploring the Intersections between Imperial and Special Relationships, Kristin M. Haugevik; Chapter 5 Imperial Discourse in a Post-Imperial Russia: Where Will It Float To?, Andrey Makarychev; Chapter 6 American Liberalism and the Imperial Temptation, Paul Musgrave, Dan Nexon; Chapter 7 Afterword, Yale H. Ferguson;

    Biography

    Noel Parker is Associate Professor in Political Theory and the History of Ideas at University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

    ’While the age of formal empires is over, empire continues to be an important yet highly variable ordering principle in world politics. Empire and International Order is a timely reminder that it is impossible to make sense of past and present international orders without studying their reliance on various forms of empire.’ Mathias Albert, Bielefeld University, Germany ’Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, empire has been found anew within the contemporary international system. Empire and International Order is a fundamental rethinking of these two important concepts from diverse perspectives. Using contemporary manifestations to reexamine the past, and the past to illuminate the present, this volume challenges both historians and political scientists.’ David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego, USA ’Noel Parker has assembled a stellar cast of scholars which succeeds admirably in resuscitating the imperial dimension of the modern international system. The resulting claim that empire and sovereignty go hand-in-hand much as the past and present co-exist constitutes a timely, original and superb intervention in the rapidly growing literature on empire and hierarchy in Internal Relations.’ John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield, UK