Governance in a Global Economy: Political Authority in Transition. Edited by Miles Kahler and David A. Lake. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 472p. $70.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

The social scientific study of “globalization” has not been especially productive. Varying and expansive definitions of the phenomenon are used, cause and effect tend to be confused, and positive and normative claims are sometimes mixed. In this volume, Miles Kahler and David A. Lake offer a tractable and fruitful approach to the study of globalization by defining the phenomenon narrowly—in terms of economic integration made possible by reduced barriers to exchange and capital mobility—and by adopting a “second image reversed” perspective. Globalization is the independent variable used to explain changes in governance policies and institutions at the national level. This coherent focus allows the individual contributions to speak to each other while building on landmark works, such as Ronald Rogowski's (1989) Commerce and Coalitions and Robert Keohane and Helen Milner's (1996) Internationalization and Domestic Politics.

Bound by Struggle: The Strategic Evolution of Enduring International Rivalries. By Zeev Maoz and Ben D. Mor. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. 368p. $60.00.

One of the most intriguing empirical facts about international conflict is that a vast majority of militarized disputes and wars occur within a very small subset of pairs of states. Scholars have noted the very intense nature of relations within these dyads—dubbed rivalries—and have provided numerous studies of what causes the frequent conflicts between them. In this book, Zeev Maoz and Ben D. Mor move away from this segment of the literature by treating rivalries, not the conflicts that occur within them, as the unit of analysis. They provide a study of how rivalries start, develop, and terminate, using an evolutionary model of interstate relations. This analytical orientation provides the basis for an ambitious, thorough, and complex portrayal of rivalry development.

Irregular Armed Forces and Their Role in Politics and State Formation.

Our Enemies and Us: America's Rivalries and the Making of Political Science. By Ido Oren. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. 256p. $29.95.

Political scientists periodically step back and reflect on the state of their discipline. Some explore the origins and development of a particular methodological approach to the study of politics, such as behavioralism or public choice. Others place developments in political science in a broader political and cultural context, such as progressivism or liberal reformism. Oftentimes such reflections are laudatory, championing the wisdom that has accrued in the discipline over time. Every so often, however, a critical voice is raised, not only questioning the empirical work being done in the field but challenging the assumptions upon which such work is based. Ido Oren's book is an important addition to this literature. It compels political scientists to stop and think about what they are doing in the discipline and what ideas from the past they may unintentionally be bringing into their empirical work.

Language, Agency, and Politics in a Constructed World.

A Theory of Global Capitalism: Production, Class, and State in a Transnational World. By William I. Robinson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. 224p. $46.95 cloth, $18.95 paper.

This book intervenes in the contemporary debates on globalization by asking what it means to conceptualize the global economy. Demonstrating the inadequacy of nation-state-based or international-centric responses to this question, it makes a case for conceptualizing globalization as a historically novel form of transnational capitalism. World capitalism, William Robinson argues, has undergone an “epochal change” involving not just a quantitative intensification but also a qualitative reconfiguration of economic, political, and social processes that were hitherto largely international. Taking advantage of technological developments and organizational innovations, capital has liberated itself from the social and political constraints imposed on it by nation-states and reorganized—fragmented and decentralized—the production process on a transnational basis. This reorganization of the productive base has gone hand in hand with the emergence of a transnational capitalist class (TCC), a transnational state apparatus, and a transnational ideological project.

Locating the Proper Authorities: The Interaction of Domestic and International Institutions.

A Certain Idea of Europe. By Craig Parsons. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. 256p. $39.95.

This book offers perhaps the most carefully researched analytical study to date of French policymaking in European integration covering most of the post–World War II period. It seeks to show how certain ideas about Europe have shaped the French pursuit of European institutions and, by extension, European outcomes themselves. Ideas, Craig Parsons argues, have provided a measurable “constant cause” fueling the process of European integration. This process, however, was far from linear, as competing ideas battled for dominance in policy discourse and action at all key junctures of integration.

The Ties That Divide: Ethnic Politics, Foreign Policy and International Conflict. By Stephen M. Saideman. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. 348p. $70.00 cloth, $23.00 paper.

The Geography of Ethnic Violence: Identity, Interests, and the Indivisibility of Territory. By Monica Duffy Toft. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 256p. $37.50.

These two useful books represent important contributions to the literature on violent ethnic conflicts. Monica Duffy Toft proposes a useful theory and adduces convincing evidence on some of the key determinants of severe ethnic violence. Stephen Saideman provides an even stronger theory and strongly suggestive evidence for explaining states' decisions to intervene in ethnic conflicts over secession. Both books provide a mix of quantitative analysis and case studies to support their claims more or less convincingly. Both conclusions deserve prominent attention in the literature.

A New World Order. By Anne-Marie Slaughter. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2004. 368p. $29.95.

This book puts forth a bold vision for global governance, based on a simple but powerful argument. The argument is this: “Networks of government officials … are a key feature of world order in the twenty-first century, but they are underappreciated, undersupported, and underused …” (p. 1). Central to this vision are the concepts of network and governance. Anne Marie Slaughter is careful to define each of these concepts and, in so doing, calls attention to the fundamental theoretical, empirical, and pragmatic challenges inherent in transforming this vision into some semblance of reality.

The Power of Legitimacy: Assessing the Role of Norms in Crisis Bargaining.

Distant Proximities: Dynamics Beyond Globalization. By James N. Rosenau. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 448p. $65.00 cloth, $24.95 paper.

In this book, James N. Rosenau draws together in a helpful, systematic way much of his thinking on global governance and globalization from the past decade. As with other aspects of his work, it is conceptually creative, detailed, and normative. He believes that political science needs to move beyond conceptual frameworks where the nation-state provides the central focus. He justifies this position by arguing that the “the best way to grasp world affairs today requires viewing them as an endless series of distant proximities in which the forces pressing for greater globalization and those inducing greater localization interactively play themselves out” (p. 2). Putting these “distant proximities” at the center of our analysis will challenge distinctions like those between domestic and foreign affairs or comparative politics and international relations.

Europe's Foreign and Security Policy: The Institutionalization of Cooperation. By Michael E. Smith. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 308p. $80.00 cloth, $28.99 paper.

Michael Smith asks and answers a question about the foreign policy of the European Union: How do we explain its surprising growth and development over the past 30 years despite the many obstacles? The question is timely for scholars and practitioners. For practitioners, the EU is beginning to matter more in international politics as it finally begins to operationalize the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) in the Balkans and Africa. For scholars, a theory of European foreign policy has not enjoyed the attention paid by theorists to internal economic integration (neofunctionalism), interstate bargains struck at intergovernmental conferences (realism, liberal intergovernmentalism), and the impact of ideas, preferences, identities, and interests (constructivism) that influence institutions.

International Relations and Scientific Progress: Structural Realism Reconsidered.

China's Use of Military Force: Beyond the Great Wall and the Long March. By Andrew Scobell. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 316p. $65.00 cloth, $23.00 paper.

Like heavyweight boxers at the end of a round, the disputing sides in the debate over China's rise have retreated to their respective corners. In one corner are those who stress China's peaceful dispositions in development and consider the country a stable actor in regional security. In the other corner are those who claim that behind the façade of Chinese pacifism lies a strong desire for the fulfillment of “rich country and strong army” and “revolutionary political culture” embedded in the Chinese variant of Marxism-Leninism, and who therefore perceive the country as a potential challenger to the current pecking order of power. These dichotomous views are partially rooted in the two divergent interpretations of China's strategic culture in its use of military force—a nonviolent, defensive, accommodationist, idealized Confucian-Mencian paradigm symbolized by the Great Wall, and a zero-sum, offense-oriented, violent “hard realpolitik” (“parabellum”) paradigm as illuminated particularly in Alastair Iain Johnston's (1995) Cultural Realism. While each side's position seems well entrenched, Andrew Scobell attempts to combine both strategic strains in a crafty synthesis—“Chinese Cult of Defense, in which realist behavior dominates but is justified as defensive on the basis of a pacifist self-perception” (p. 38).