Stephen D. Krasner

I was a bit disappointed with this book even though the author makes a good point. He introduces four models of sovereignty and discusses "Westphalian sovereignty" in particular. According to this model, sovereign nations are "free to choose the institutions and policies they regard as optimal" (p.20). He also classifies the ways in which Westphalian sovereignty is compromised, e.g. voluntarily through constracts and involuntarily through coercion. The basic argument is that sovereignty, at least the "Westphalian" kind, is a question of brute force and logrolling rather than lofty ideals.

I liked the author's encompassing historical approach to his subject. He discusses examples from the 16th century to the 20th from matters such as minority human rights to international lending and the formation of new states. He seems to be well informed on European history and the examples are quite enjoyable in all their detail. They clearly support the main argument - state sovereignty has seldom stopped stronger nations from imposing their will on weaker ones.

But the book could have been better. The concept of "organized hypocrisy" is used repeatedly, but it remains a bit underdeveloped and unclear. The author says that organized hypocrisy is durable but not institutionalized (p.58), but it never became quite clear to me what this means. I wish he had spent more time on elaborating general consequences. How would we expect state leaders to interact if sovereignty is just organized hypocrisy?

The array of historical examples also becomes a bit too extensive towards the end when the author discusses state formation in the 20th century with a series of a rapid snapshots from across the globe. But I still give this book a partial recommendation. If you're looking for a critical book on sovereignty this will serve you well, but theoretically inclined readers might not feel quite satisfied.… (mehr)