Constructing Global Order: Agency and Change in World Politics

Description

For a long time, international relations scholars have adopted a narrow view of what is global order, who are its makers and managers, and what means they employ to realize their goals. Amitav Acharya argues that the nature and scope of agency in the global order - who creates it and how - needs to be redefined and broadened. Order is built not by material power alone, but also by ideas and norms. While the West designed the post-war order, the non-Western countries were not passive. They contested and redefined Western ideas and norms, and contributed new ones of their own making. This book examines such acts of agency, especially the redefinitions of sovereignty and security, shaping contemporary world politics. With the decline of Western dominance, ideas and agency from the Rest may make it possible to imagine and build a truly global order.

Amitav Acharya is Distinguished Professor of International Relations and the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance at the School of International Service, American University, Washington DC. His recent books include: The End of American World Order (2014); Rethinking Power, Institutions and Ideas in World Politics: Whose IR (2014); Whose Ideas Matter: Agency and Power in Asian Regionalism (2009) and Why Govern: Rethinking Demand and Progress in Global Governance (edited, 2016). He is the first non-Western scholar to be elected as the President of the International Studies Association (ISA).

'Amitav Acharya insists that global order constructions can be successful in a challenged world. But they must accept a past and a future marked by enduring contestations over an inescapably pluralist world. This gem of a book makes international relations theory speak directly to world politics.' Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University, New York '... well-crafted book ... the vast majority of publications this book draws on originates in the Western academy ... he makes a serious effort in defining what exactly this term is about - conceptually and not in its often-normative usage. As most of Acharya's reasoning this is guided by a constructivist approach.' Ulf Engel, Connections