Dichotomy of Power

Dichotomy of Power studies the future of the nation-state as the world's basic political organization and the foundation of modern international relations. Richard A. Matthew argues that this Hegelian construct-once championed as the rational and preferred basis for global order-developed through a series of dichotomies: the cut and thrust of realism mediated by idealism; coercive power politics balanced by a constitutive mode of power; and a collaborative search for a just society. The book analyzes the conceptualization of the nation-state in the Western tradition of political thought, from the classical bifurcation of politics to the postmodern debate about the nation-state as the ideal mechanism for organizing power in a new global age.