The English School of International Relations has traditionally maintained that international society cannot accommodate hierarchical relationships between states. This book employs a unique theoretical and conceptual approach challenging this view and arguing that hierarchies are formed on Western states' need to manage globalised risks.

''International Relations scholars have long assumed that anarchical international orders are incompatible with hierarchy among states. A new wave of scholarship challenges this 'taken-for granted', and with this book William Clapton emerges as an important new voice in this literature. Combining a social theory of hierarchy with insights drawn from Beck's theory of 'risk society', Clapton develops a powerful new argument about the evolution of international hierarchies and their effects on practices of international intervention. An essential read for anyone interested in the social contours of international relations''. - Professor Christian Reus-Smit, University of Queensland, Australia

''Risk and Hierarchy is an inventive combination of ideas and literatures, which together yield improved, significantly more complete explanations of the phenomenon that is in many ways the hallmark of the post-1990 world: liberal interventionism. We are the richer for it.'' - Daniel M. Green, University of Delaware, USA

Autorentext

William Clapton is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He has published on risk and hierarchy in International Politics and International Relations.

Inhalt

1. Introduction 2. The Hierarchical Society 3. Risk and International Society 4. The Management of Risk 5. Managing Risks in Europe's Periphery: The European Neighbourhood Policy 6. Australia and the Management of Risk in the South Pacific 7. Preventing Risks and Changing Regimes: The 2003 Invasion of Iraq 8. Conclusion