Beyond States

Powers, Peoples and Global Order

By: Anthony Pagden

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Paperback | 15 January 2025 | Edition Number 1

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224 Pages

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21.08 x 13.72 x 1.78

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Today the majority of the peoples of the planet live in nation-states, based upon the idea, if never the reality, of a single people, a single culture, a single rule of law and a single source of sovereign authority. But will they continue to do so in the future?

None of the major challenges that confront humanity today – from climate change to disease, from terrorism to mass migration – can be handled effectively by single nation-states, no matter how powerful. The world is no longer made up only of states but also of an ever-increasing multitude of inter-state networks and organizations which recognise no borders. Today we are beginning to see the emergence of a new, unprecedented, cosmopolitan order conceived in such terms as “transnational justice”, “trans-national governance”, “multi-level sovereignty”. Today, we are beginning to be able to imagine the very real possibility of a new global civil society. But what political form should this take?

This book, by examining the history of the evolution of human society from the world’s first empires to today’s world of inter-state networks, argues that there exists the possibility of the emergence of new political forms of global federation that will bring the species closer to the possibility of a more harmonious, equitable and secure future.

Industry Reviews

"This succinct, pungent and wide-ranging book is an elegant survey of the main forms of polity in world history and their competitive afterlives in our present. Any book from Anthony Pagden is an event to be welcomed. Few historians have such reach and readership; few writers have such depth of erudition."
—David Armitage, Harvard University

"Beyond States is a fascinating intellectual journey, written with flair and backed by immense knowledge of laws, commerce and nations. Pagden's reading of history is sophisticated and counterintuitive. This is a must-read book for anyone trying to grasp the evolving nature of global politics."
—Jan Zielonka, Universities of Venice and Oxford

"[A] timely and urgent call for rethinking our identities and notions of sovereignty in a world increasingly bound by common and mounting threats. . . . Pagden's heroic vision may help set future generations free."
—Tingis Magazine

"[A] very interesting book that is certainly worth reading."
—Sociological Research Online

"Pagden tells the grand story of the centuries-long transformation of the world of empires into a global system of sovereign states.... [He] sees the modern nation-state caught in a deep dilemma: it may have provided the fundamental political-legal framework for securing the rights of people, but it now struggles to protect its inhabitants from the global fallout of climate change and technological transformation."
—G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

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