Great Powers and International Hierarchy

Description

Hierarchical relationships—rules that structure both international and domestic politics—are pervasive. Yet we know little about how these relationships are constructed, maintained, and dismantled. This book fills this lacuna through a two-pronged research approach: first, it discusses how great power negotiations over international political settlements both respond to domestic politics within weak states and structure the specific forms that hierarchy takes. Second, it deduces three sets of hypotheses about hierarchy maintenance, construction, and collapse during the post-war era. By offering a coherent theoretical model of hierarchical politics within weaker states, the author is able to answer a number of important questions, including: Why does the United States often ally with autocratic states even though its most enduring relationships are with democracies? Why do autocratic hierarchical relationships require interstate coercion? Why do some hierarchies end violently and others peacefully? Why does hierarchical competition sometimes lead to interstate conflict and sometimes to civil conflict? Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 1-32 Structural Analogies in International Relations (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 33-59 Hierarchy Throughout History (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 61-85 The Shifting Territorial Logic of Hierarchy (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 87-118 Maintaining Hierarchy (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 119-152 Extending Hierarchy (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 153-185 Eclipsing Hierarchy (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 187-218 Conclusion: Hierarchy and Political Violence in the International System (Daniel McCormack)....Pages 219-241 Back Matter ....Pages 243-246