This book offers an original analysis of the relationship between twentieth-century theories of international relations, and the political theory of civil society. The author views theories of international relations both as an ideological expression of the modern state, and as a clear indication of the difficulties of thinking about a world politics distinct from relations among states. Theories are examined in the light of recent debates about modernity and post-modernity, the rearticulation of political space/time, and the limits of modern social political theory.

Preface; 1. International relations as political theory; 2. The Prince and 'the pauper'; 3. Ethics, modernity, community; 4. History, structure, reification; 5. Realism international relations to world politics; 6. The territorial state and the theme of Gulliver; 7. On the spatio-temporal conditions of democratic practice; 8. Sovereign identities and the politics of forgetting; Notes; Bibliography; Index.