Critical Theory and World Politics

Reviews / Votes

'Kant's 'citizen of the world' undertakes an intellectual journey through the pages of Andrew Linklater's outstanding book. Reaching the present day, it appears possible that humanity is undergoing a global 'civilizing process ', in Elias's sense. If so, there is still a long road ahead. Can people be forced to live in peace without doing harm to each other? And can a global superpower resist the civilizing pressures and the temptation to pursue its own interests through harming others?' - Stephen Mennell, University College Dublin, Ireland

'Andrew Linklater offers a seminal account of the ways in which growing global interconnectedness could achieve an historic reconciliation of sovereignty and world community. This brilliantly conducted learned inquiry should be required reading for anyone concerned about the future of world politics and the ethical prospects of humanity.' - Richard Falk, Princeton University and University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

'In an age that combines rapid, often bewildering, change with the promotion of nationalist and particularist thinking, no intellectual task is more important than the redefinition, and reassertion, of cosmopolitan thinking. It is the great contribution of Andrew Linklater's work that, drawing at once on classical and on contemporary theory, and on a rigourous and realistic engagement with the dilemmas of our age, he has provided a major and constantly expanding reassertion of a global moral vision.The issues that he addresses - community and citizenship, harm, intervention and international law, states and global ethics - are those that lie at the centre of moral discussion and political engagement in the modern world.' - Fred Halliday, London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London, UK