Hierarchy in International Relations

by David A. Lake

International relations are generally understood as a realm of anarchy in which countries lack any superior authority and interact within a Hobbesian state of nature. In Hierarchy in International Relations, David A. Lake challenges this traditional view, demonstrating that states exercise authority over one another in international hierarchies that vary historically but are still pervasive today. Revisiting the concepts of authority and sovereignty, Lake offers a novel view of international relations in which states form social contracts that bind both dominant and subordinate members. The resulting hierarchies have significant effects on the foreign policies of states as well as patterns of international conflict and cooperation. Focusing largely on U.S.-led hierarchies in the contemporary world, Lake provides a compelling account of the origins, functions, and limits of political order in the modern international system. The book is a model of clarity in theory, research design, and the use of evidence. Motivated by concerns about the declining international legitimacy of the United States following the Iraq War, Hierarchy in International Relations offers a powerful analytic perspective that has important implications for understanding America's position in the world in the years ahead.

Genres: International Relations, Political Science, Politics, School

247 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[František · Rating 4 out of 5]

Given that it undermines the most basic concept of anarchy in international relations, it is surprisingly convincing. A perspective-changing, nice little piece of theory.

[Age · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author is way too humble. Gives unique perspectives that go way beyond what the author set out to do.

[Andrew Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

The inequality of states is the fundamental starting point for analysing international politics. Yet this has somehow become obscured in the discipline of international relations. Most studies either ignore all but the largest states, or for normative/legal reasons assume a sovereign equality between states.

In this important study, David Lake argues for the vital importance of re-inserting a focus on hierarchy into our analysis. Lake seeks to demonstrate what he sees as the causes of our horizontal focus (notions of anarchy and the indivisibility of sovereignty), and the improved understanding via hierarchy of how and why the US influences global politics today.

It would have been good to see a more global & more historical view (though I take Lake's point that the US is both the most obvious case, as well as the one we have the best data for). And as Lake would note there is much more to be said about how ideas shape hierarchy and why/how subordinate states participate.

Quite compelling.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting view of hierarchy as the outcome of a contract, a bargain, between the hegemon and subject states. Challenging the realist assumption that all behavior is rooted in power and anarchy, Lake sees international relationships and behaviors mediated by mutual interests in making the system work, regardless of where one sits on the power hierarchy.