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

by ROSENBERG, JUSTIN

• ISBN13: 9780860916079
• ISBN10: 0860916073
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-05-17
• Publisher: Verso

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Justin Rosenberg is Reader in International Relations at the University of Sussex.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	1	(8)
The Trouble with Realism	9	(29)
Descriptive Realism: E.H. Carr and the State's-Eye View	10	(5)
Axiomatic Realism: Morgenthau's Laws of Politics	15	(8)
Waltz's Theoretical Realism: Accidents Will Happen	23	(6)
Realism as Ideology	29	(5)
Conclusions: What's Missing?	34	(4)
Social Structures and Geopolitical Systems	38	(21)
Utrecht, 1713	39	(4)
Wight and the Limits of Realist History	43	(3)
Social Theory and Social Structure	46	(8)
Social Structures and Geopolitical Systems	54	(5)
Secret Origins of the State	59	(32)
The Historical Legitimation of Realism	59	(4)
Renaissance Italy	63	(13)
Classical Greece	76	(7)
The Structural Basis of Raison d'Etat	83	(4)
Implications for Contemporary IR Theory	87	(3)
Conclusion	90	(1)
Trade and Expansion in Early Modern Europe	91	(32)
India Portuguesa	94	(13)
New Spain	107	(13)
Conclusions	120	(3)
The Empire of Civil Society	123	(36)
The Structural Basis of Civil Society	124	(2)
Sovereignty as a Capitalist Political Form	126	(3)
The Sovereign States-System	129	(6)
The Question of Absolutist Sovereignty	135	(4)
Historicizing the Balance of Power	139	(3)
Karl Marx's Theory of Anarchy	142	(17)
Tantae Molis Erat: Prospectus for an Alternative History of the International System	159	(15)
The Method	159	(3)
The Data	162	(7)
The Result	169	(3)
Conclusion	172	(2)
Notes	174	(36)
Bibliography	210	(7)
Index	217