Political Survival and Sovereignty in International Relations

Shows how domestic politics creates incentives for political actors to surrender sovereignty to outside powers.

Jesse Dillon Savage (Author)

9781108494502, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 12 March 2020

280 pages, 15 b/w illus. 7 tables
15 x 23 x 2.5 cm, 0.57 kg

'In recent years, scholars of international relations have rediscovered the fact that all states are sovereign, but some are more sovereign than others. Now, it isn't all that surprising that powerful states seek to dominate weaker ones. But why do some leaders of subordinated states cheerfully accept, and even welcome, their loss of practical authority? Using multiple methods to examine both contemporary and historical cases of 'informal empire', Jesse Dillon Savage brings domestic politics back into the story. Corrupt and kleptocratic regimes - as well as ones that rely on the legal extraction of rents - give up sovereignty to external powers in order to protect their continued self-enrichment. Savage's account is compelling, persuasive, and highly relevant to contemporary global politics. Two thumbs up.' Dan Nexon, Georgetown University

Why do political actors willingly give up sovereignty to another state, or choose to resist, sometimes to the point of violence? Jesse Dillon Savage demonstrates the role that domestic politics plays in the formation of international hierarchies, and shows that when there are high levels of rent-seeking and political competition within the subordinate state, elites within this state become more prepared to accept hierarchy. In such an environment, members of society at large are also more likely to support the surrender of sovereignty. Empirically rich, the book adopts a comparative historical approach with an emphasis on Russian attempts to establish hierarchy in post-Soviet space, particularly in Georgia and Ukraine. This emphasis on post-Soviet hierarchy is complemented by a cross-national statistical study of hierarchy in the post WWII era, and three historical case studies examining European informal empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Introduction. Hierarchy and international politics
1. Political survival and the surrender of sovereignty
2. Submission, resistance, and war: national politics and Russian hierarchy in Georgia and Ukraine since independence
3. Subnational politics and sovereignty in post-Soviet Georgia
4. Mass politics and the surrender of sovereignty
5. European informal empire in China, the Ottoman Empire and Egypt: hierarchy and informal empire in historical context
6. Cross national variation in sovereignty and hierarchy
7. Hierarchy, political order, and great power politics.

Subject Areas: International organisations & institutions [LBBU], Political economy [KCP], International relations [JPS], Politics & government [JP]