Review: States, Nations and the Great Powers

Abstract

STATES, NATIONS AND THE GREAT POWERS: The Sources of Regional War and Peace Benjamin Miller Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. 5????, US$39.00 paper (ISBN 978-0-521-69161-1)The end ofthe Cold War and the emergence of a unipolar world took almost all theorists in international relations by surprise. Before the Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union disintegrated, there was a widespread presumption that, for better or worse, bipolarity would prove to be an enduring structure of international politics. Although there were realists as well as liberals who were optimistic that the more divisive aspects of bipolarity could be overcome, few predicted that the task of managing a bipolar world would come to such an abrupt and peaceful conclusion. The sudden and almost complete collapse of communism was greeted by liberals with unbound enthusiasm and this putative end of history was accompanied by talk of a new world order and the emergence of an expanding zone of peace that would, over time, extend into the peripheral zone of war. Realists urged caution; some even argued that we would soon experience some regret for the passing of bipolarity and most insisted, at least initially, that unipolarity would not persist for any length of time. In fact, the new world order never materialized and unipolarity has proved to be remarkably resilient and so theorists of all colours have had to do some serious rethinking.Four very significant developments have emerged from the reassessments that have taken place in recent years. First, it is now regularly acknowledged that it is not possible to make sense of world politics simply from a global perspective and that it is essential to accommodate a regional perspective. In Regions and Powers, Buzan and Wsever (2003), for example, reassess global security in terms of regional security complexes and in A World of Regions, Katzenstein (2005) looks at Asia and Europe in the context of what he calls the American Imperium. Second, there has been a growing recognition that research must incorporate both domestic and international levels of analysis. Third, it is argued that we must endeavour to find ways of integrating the insights of divergent paradigms, as Katzenstein and Sil advocate in their forthcoming edited book Analytical Eclecticism (2009). Finally, there is a growing insistence that we need to operate on a broader historical canvas.In this major contribution to the literature on war and peace, Miller demonstrates the enormous dividends that can be reaped by taking all four of these developments into account. Too often, the literature in this area concentrates on a global perspective and so Miller's crucial first move is to acknowledge the centrality of regions in any attempt to understand the complex patterns of war and peace that have developed in world politics across time. He then establishes a theoretical framework that recognizes the importance of taking account of both liberal and realist insights and in the process accommodating variables that are identified at both the global and the domestic level. …