Théories des relations internationales, Dario Battistella, Paris : Presses de sciences po, 2003, 512 p.

Depuis quelques années, plusieurs ouvrages ont été publiés en français sur différents aspects de la discipline des relations internationales, mais il manquait encore un véritable ouvrage d'introduction aux principales théories des relations internationales. C'est cette lacune que Dario Battistella, professeur à l'Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux, cherche à combler avec son ouvrage intitulé Théories des Relations internationales. L'objectif poursuivi est de présenter, de manière simple et accessible, les principales écoles théoriques et les principaux auteurs en relations internationales pour les étudiants et pour les lecteurs en général qui s'intéressent à ces questions. L'autre objectif, plus ambitieux, est d'inciter des internationalistes francophones à la production théorique (l'auteur s'adresse aux chercheurs français, mais il me semble plus juste d'élargir à l'ensemble du monde francophone).

Mouvements sociaux et changements institutionnels : L'action collective à l'ère de la mondialisation, Louis Guay, Pierre Hamel, Dominique Masson et Jean-Guy Vaillancourt (sous la direction de), Québec : Presses de l'Université du Québec, 2005, 420 pages.

Cet ouvrage dirigé par Guay, Hamel, Masson et Vaillancourt cherche à revoir la problématisation de l'action collective au regard des transformations sociales contemporaines. L'angle d'analyse privilégié par les différents auteurs est celui des rapports entre mouvements sociaux et institutions. Ce rapport ne peut plus être considéré comme nécessairement conflictuel étant donné que les mouvements sociaux “ n'hésitent plus à intervenir à partir ou au sein des institutions elles-mêmes ” (p. 2). Cette transformation des mouvements sociaux constitue en quelque sorte un paradoxe dont le chercheur intéressé à ces questions doit tenir compte car l'analyse traditionnelle des nouveaux mouvements sociaux – voir Offe, par exemple – a souvent considéré le caractère extra-institutionnel de ce type d'action collective comme une de ses particularités.

Kant's Critique of Hobbes, Howard Williams, Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press, 2003, pp. 244.

Howard Williams argues that Immanuel Kant's (1724–1804) international political theory is a significant critique of Thomas Hobbes'(1588–1679) theory of the sovereign state. Kant's critique is rooted in a conviction that reform, rather than revolution, is the only rationally defensible response to an empirically defective sovereign. In other words, Kant reforms rather than jettisons altogether Hobbes' account of the sovereign state. Rather than absolute internal authority and an untamed gladiator externally, Kant's sovereign state advances gradually towards popular sovereignty and global legality. Williams concludes, “Kant's critique of Hobbes presents the most appropriate account of political sovereignty for today” (232).

Smoke and Mirrors: Globalized Terrorism and the Illusion of Multilateral Security, Frank P. Harvey, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004, p. x, 345.

Following the second Gulf War, international observers were quick to criticize the unilateral behaviour of the United States. Without a UN mandate, the allies had undermined the very institution they had created to foster multilateralism following the Second World War. Yet, Frank Harvey makes the case that not only is unilateralism the new trend in American foreign policy, it is desirable in an age of terrorism and nuclear proliferation. Harvey begins by scrutinizing the foundations of multilateralism and their applicability to the post 9/11 world. He concludes that not only is the higher moral ground associated with multilateralism a fallacy, but that multilateralism can be dangerous in an era where rapid responses to security threats are needed. To justify his conclusions, Harvey examines both the buildup to the 2003 Iraq conflict and the issue of Ballistic Missile Defense. He concludes with an analysis of future U.S. and Canadian security policy.

Globalization, Technology, and Philosophy, David Tabachnick and Toivo Koivukoski, eds., Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004, pp. vi, 251.

Technology is an underlying cause, probably the chief underlying cause, of the complex phenomenon of globalization. That much is virtually axiomatic among globalization theorists and social scientists generally. From at least early modernity to the present, global flows of people, commodities, ideas and information have expanded, and sped up. In recent times, trans-border social networks and international governance have become increasingly important. Political decision making is increasingly directed at management of the planet as a whole; the world of politics is increasingly Earth. All of these aspects of globalization (and others besides) depend on the development and deployment of technologies, and on the development and deployment of technoscientific knowledge.

Protection de l'environnement et relations internationales, les défis de l'écopolitique mondiale, Philippe Le Prestre, Paris : Armand Colin, 2005, 477 pages.

L'ouvrage de Philippe Le Prestre se présente comme une tentative de clarification des débats internationaux sur la protection de l'environnement. Dès l'avant-propos, l'auteur nous dit : “ l'écopolitique internationale fait référence à l'ensemble des dimensions politiques de l'identification et de la résolution des questions environnementales et, plus particulièrement, aux tentatives des acteurs internationaux d'imposer leurs définitions de la sécurité face à la nature et à la qualité de vie des populations et d'utiliser les nouvelles pénuries à leur profit ”. En ce sens, l'auteur indique trois axes qui devront être développés pour saisir convenablement la position des enjeux environnementaux dans les relations internationales. D'abord, circonscrire le lieu du débat sur la protection de l'environnement dans le réseau plus large des problèmes internationaux et de l'élaboration des politiques publiques, ensuite tracer l'évolution historique de l'exigence environnementale dans les relations internationales, et ce par l'étude des positions nationales et multinationales pour chacune des principales étapes de ce développement, et finalement identifier les points d'arrimage entre les questions environnementales et les questions internationales de l'heure, notamment celles du libre-échange et de la sécurité. Ces trois axes correspondent aux trois parties du livre de Le Prestre, ce qui lui permet de synthétiser les différents aspects des questions environnementales internationales et de rendre compte des principaux éléments de cette problématique, tout en en montrant la complexité.

Global Responses to Terrorism: 9/11 Afghanistan and Beyond, Mary Buckley and Rick Fawn, eds., New York: Routledge, 2003.

In the aftermath of 9/11, book publishers have been relatively quick to release works that somehow capitalize on the public's demand for insight with respect to terrorism and groups such as Al-Qaeda. Many of the monographs have been the work of journalists, others the efforts of scholars, and some the writings of practitioners. Still other books have been the result of collaborations, either in edited or co-authored forms, among writers from different backgrounds, training and experience.

Turbulence and New Directions in Global Political Economy, James Busumtwi-Sam and Laurent Dobuzinskis, eds., Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave, 2003, pp. xiv, 234.

Few would argue with the observation that the world economy today presents a more changeable, unpredictable and unrecognizable environment than a mere decade ago. In the mid-1990s, at the heyday of the so-called “Washington Consensus,” neoliberal market orthodoxy appeared both predictably and triumphantly at global, regional and national levels: the World Trade Organization had emerged with great fanfare to ostensibly establish a new rules-based system for international trade; the North American Free Trade Agreement had been enacted to liberalize trade and investment across the continent; while the Maastricht Treaty had begun to exert fiscal constraint on the national policy priorities of European Union member states. Today's global political-economic setting is by contrast ideologically unsettled, destabilized by a post-Cold War, post-Seattle, and post-September 11 agitation, and beset by a host of new actors, emerging new power alignments and new capabilities. It is this state of turbulence and flux that is captured in this book, the varied contributions of which intelligently grapple with the challenges such unrest poses for practitioners and academic observers alike.

Globalization and Society: Processes of Differentiation Examined, R. Breton and J.G. Reitz, eds., Praeger: Westport, 2003, pp. 321.

There is currently a plethora of books on globalization in all of its guises. Many of these fail to seriously contribute to a growing body of literature in any intellectually rigorous way because they either simply re-hash well-worn notions about global political economy or culture, or provide a weakly disguised postmodern attempt to textualise social and economic change. There are some notable exceptions, however, and this book is one of them. The first thing to strike you with this edited collection is the sheer breadth of the scale ranging from trends in global inequality to considerations about nationalism and the crisis of the welfare state. This is a comprehensive treatment of a highly complex set of processes which does not uncritically apply the term “globalization” without recourse to informed theoretical debate concerning the active role of civil society, forms of governmentality and the nation state. While the authors do not completely escape forms of reductionism in the language used, they do nonetheless attempt to ground this reasoning within a critical context which avoids the excesses of idiosyncratic localization or convergence theories.

Globalizing Democracy and Human Rights, Carol C. Gould, New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 276.

Carol C. Gould, professor of Philosophy and Government and director of the Center for Global Ethics at George Mason University, has undoubtedly gained recognition as one of the most prolific scholars in the burgeoning literature on democracy and human rights in the contemporary contexts of globalization. This latest book is a worthy successor to her earlier book, the highly acclaimed Rethinking Democracy (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988), in which the author articulated a distinctive and innovative approach that placed the conception of human rights at the core of democratic theory. With this book, Gould takes the next giant step in an evolving debate by presenting colleagues and students with another instance of a well-integrated and intellectually sophisticated analysis. She deserves to be congratulated for the vein of thought she has been examining.

Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics, Doris Buss and Didi Herman, Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003, pp. xxxvii, 197.

When read against the backdrop of President George W. Bush's successful re-election—a victory achieved, evidently, with support from significant numbers of conservative Christian voters—this book provides important observations, and perhaps to some readers, ominous warnings about the strategies, ideology and policies of conservative Christian political activists in general and the American contingent in particular. That the Christian Right (CR) has taken to the international arena in ever-increasing numbers in recent years may come as a surprise for some. Indeed, until quite recently—particularly after the American presidential elections of 1996—many observers concluded that the bulk of activist CR organizations were a) waning in political influence, and b) concentrating what remained of their energies upon the domestic front to carry on the battle against those ubiquitous domestic targets: liberalism and secular-humanism.

Im Weltinnenraum des Kapitals, Peter Sloterdijk., Frankfurt: M., Suhrkamp, 2005, 415 pagesComme pour tous ces ouvrages précédents, cet essai de Sloterdijk sera bientôt traduit dans plusieurs langues, notamment en français. Toutes les citations tirées de l'œuvre sont notre traduction libre..

L'essayiste et philosophe allemand, Peter Sloterdijk, qui s'est employé depuis quelques années à penser l'histoire humaine comme une histoire morphologique (le projet des Sphères), propose dans Im Weltinnenraum des Kapitals—Dans le monde intérieur du Capital—une philosophie de la globalisation qui emprunte les traits du Grand Récit de notre relation au globe.