Logics of Hierarchy: The Organization of Empires, States, and Military Occupations. By Alexander Cooley. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. 191p. $35.00 cloth.

War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe. By Victoria Tin-bor Hui. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 294p. $70.00 cloth, $24.99 paper.

These two ambitious books by Alexander Cooley and Victoria Tin-bor Hui address the consequences of managerial decisions within empires. Cooley's book borrows organizational models from the field of business management to explain the growing pains of empires and the misfortunes of newly independent states, with a particular focus on post-Soviet Central Asia. Hui draws on classical authors to explain how basic structural administrative choices within states affect systemic competition.