The Global Transformation
History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations

This book shows how the political, economic, military and cultural revolutions of the nineteenth century shaped modern international relations.

Barry Buzan (Author), George Lawson (Author)

9781107035577, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 February 2015

426 pages, 11 b/w illus. 8 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.74 kg

'In this monumental book, Barry Buzan and George Lawson provide an outstanding synthetic history of the nineteenth-century roots of contemporary international relations. Drawing on economic history, world history and historical sociology, they produce a dynamic and highly readable grand narrative that is destined to achieve canonical status in the field of international relations (IR).' Ann Towns, European Political Science

The 'long nineteenth century' (1776–1914) was a period of political, economic, military and cultural revolutions that re-forged both domestic and international societies. Neither existing international histories nor international relations texts sufficiently register the scale and impact of this 'global transformation', yet it is the consequences of these multiple revolutions that provide the material and ideational foundations of modern international relations. Global modernity reconstituted the mode of power that underpinned international order and opened a power gap between those who harnessed the revolutions of modernity and those who were denied access to them. This gap dominated international relations for two centuries and is only now being closed. By taking the global transformation as the starting point for international relations, this book repositions the roots of the discipline and establishes a new way of both understanding and teaching the relationship between world history and international relations.

Introduction
Part I. The Global Transformation and IR: 1. The global transformation
2. IR and the nineteenth century
Part II. The Making of Modern International Relations: 3. Shrinking the planet
4. Ideologies of progress
5. The transformation of political units
6. Establishing a core-periphery international order
7. Eroding the core-periphery international order
8. The transformation of great powers, great power relations and war
Part III. Implications: 9. From 'centred globalism' to 'decentred globalism'
10. Rethinking international relations.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS]