In a series of case studies – including classical Greece, Renaissance Italy, and the Portuguese and Spanish Empires – Justin Rosenberg shows how the historical-materialist analysis of societies is a surer guide to understanding geopolitical systems than the technical theories of realist IR. In each case, he draws attention to the correspondence between the form of the gropolitical system and the character of the societies composing it.

In the last third of the book, the tools forged in these explorations are turned onto the contemporary international system with striking results. Realism emerges as incapable of understanding what it has itself always insisted is the central feature of the international system – namely, the balance of power. And Marx's social theory of value, conventionally regarded as an account of hierarchical class domination, is shown to provide the deepest understanding of the core IR theme of “anarchy.“

Justin Rosenberg is Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Sussex. His The Follies of Globalisation Theory is also published by Verso.

256 pages

Paper
0 86091 607 3
US$19 / £13