Global Rivalries From the Cold War to Iraq

by Pijl, Kees Van Der

• ISBN13: 9780745325415
• ISBN10: 0745325416
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-09-26
• Publisher: Pluto Press

Summary

This is a groundbreaking new work from a leading scholar in the field of international relations. Offering a highly original analysis of world events, especially in the light of the Iraq War, Kees van der Pijl explores the history and development of relations between major countries in the international community, and the impact that successive wars and changes in the global political economy have had on the way states relate to each other today. Tracing the liberal state structure back to the closing stages of the English Civil War and settlement in North America, he argues that the rise of the English-speaking West has created rivalries between contender states that are never entirely put to rest. With each round of Western expansion, new rivalries are created. Offering a truly global analysis that covers every area of the worldfrom Europe and America to China, the Middle East, Latin America and Russiahe analyses the development of international relations after World War II, and questions whether the neoliberal project and its human rights ideology have collapsed back into authoritarianism under the guise of the "war on terror."

Author Biography

Kees Van der Pilj is Professor of International Relations at the School of European Studies, University of Sussex. His books include, among others, The Making of the Atlantic Ruling Class (Verso, 1984) and Transnational Classes and International Relations (Routledge, 1998).

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	ix
Preface	x
List of Abbreviations	xvii
1. FRACTURES AND FAULTLINES IN THE GLOBAL POLITICAL ECONOMY	1	(32)
The Making of the 'West' and the Contender State Challenge	1	(11)
Systemic and Transnational Rivalries	12	(9)
Industrial Competition and Capitalist Discipline	21	(12)
2. INTEGRATION AND RIVALRY IN EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST	33	(33)
Cold War Antecedents of European Integration	33	(9)
Anglo-American Redistribution and State Formation in the Middle East	42	(8)
The Resurrection of the Strong State in France	50	(16)
3. AMERICA'S CRUSADE IN ASIA AND THE EURO-ATLANTIC RIFT	66	(38)
The Illusion of an Atlantic Europe	66	(9)
Asian Killing Fields: Indo-China and Indonesia	75	(12)
Gaullist France and the Remaking of the Post-War Atlantic Order	87	(17)
4. THE SPECTRE OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY	104	(34)
May 1968 and the New Freedom	104	(8)
The Middle East and OPEC as New Contenders	112	(10)
The Drive for a New International Economic Order	122	(16)
5. TRANSNATIONAL RIVALRIES AND THE NEOLIBERAL TURN	138	(39)
Contending Forces in the Strategy of Tension	138	(10)
Disciplining the Heartland in the Interregnum	148	(9)
Neoliberal Civil Society against the State	157	(20)
6. FROM PINOCHET TO THE REAGAN DOCTRINE	177	(39)
Latin America's Contender State Experience and Atlantic Rivalry	177	(11)
Oligarchic Privatisation in the Debt Trap	188	(11)
Attacking the Weak Links of the 'Third World': Africa and Central America	199	(17)
7. FIB R APAI I 0 SYNDROME AND THE DEMISE OF THE SOVIET UNION	216	(40)
The USSR as a Contender State	216	(9)
Atlantic Rivalries in the New Cold War	225	(12)
Rival Responses to Gorbachev's New Look	237	(19)
8. AMERICA OVER EUROPE IN THE BALKANS CRISIS	256	(41)
Social Forces in the Clinton Globalisation Offensive	256	(10)
Rival Responses to the Crisis in Yugoslavia	266	(13)
Americanisation of the European Union against the United States?	279	(18)
9. THE RISE OF CHINA AS THE NEW CONTENDER	297	(39)
China's Reintegration into the Capitalist World Economy	297	(11)
The Asian Crisis and the Disruption of the Japan-centred Order	308	(9)
The Asia-Pacific Geopolitical Triangle—The US, Japan and China	317	(19)
10. ENERGY CONFLICTS IN THE POST-SOVIET ERA	336	(43)
From 'Iran–Contra' to the First Gulf War	336	(11)
Struggles over Caspian Energy Resources and the 'New Silk Road'	347	(11)
Afghanistan, 11 September, and the Invasion of Iraq	358	(21)
11. FROM HUMAN RIGHTS TO THE GLOBAL STATE OF EMERGENCY	379	(32)
The Aesthetics of Imperialist Geopolitics	379	(8)
Rival Concepts of Human Rights	387	(7)
From Humanitarian 'Just Wars' to the Global War on Terror	394	(17)
References	411	(30)
Index	441	(20)
About the Author	461