Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Empire of Civil Society: A Critique of the Realist Theory of International Relations

The Empire of Civil Society: A Critique of the Realist Theory of International Relations

Rosenberg, Justin

Paperback

General Political ScienceInternational Relations

ISBN10: 0860916073
ISBN13: 9780860916079
Publisher: Verso
Published: May 17 1994
Pages: 236
Weight: 0.66
Height: 0.73 Width: 5.33 Depth: 8.51
Language: English
The Empire of Civil Society mounts a compelling critique of the orthodox realist theory of international relations and provides a historical-materialist approach to the international system.

Opening with an interrogation of a number of classic realist works, the book rejects outright the goal of theorizing geopolitical systems in isolation from wider social structures. In a series of case studies--including Classical Greece, Renaissance Italy and the Portuguese and Spanish empires--Justin Rosenberg shows how the historical-materialist analysis of societies is a surer guide to understanding geopolitical systems than the technical theories of realist international relations. In each case, he draws attention to the correspondence between the form of the geopolitical system and the character of the societies composing it.

In the final section of the book, the tools forged in these explorations are employed to analyze the contemporary international system, with striking results. Rosenberg demonstrates that the distinctive properties of the sovereign-states system are best understood as corresponding to the social structures of capitalist society. In this light, realism emerges as incapable of explaining what it has always insisted is the central feature of the international system--namely, the balance of power. On the other hand, it is argued that Marx's social theory of value, conventionally regarded as an account of hierarchical class domination, provides the deepest understanding of the core international relations theme of anarchy.

Provocative and unconventional, The Empire of Civil Society brilliantly turns orthodox international relations on its head.

Also from

Rosenberg, Justin

View All

Also in

International Relations

View All