Whither Globalization? The Vortex of Knowledge and Ideology. By James H. Mittelman. New York: Routledge, 2004. 152p. $105.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.

This book contains an accessible blend of previously published articles (revised) and new essays that examine the role of knowledge and ideology as the pivots of globalization's power in the twenty-first century. Expanding the central arguments of his previous study, The Globalization Syndrome (2000), James Mittelman defines globalization as “a triangulated structure” comprised of “the global division of labor and power, a new regionalism, and resistance politics” (p. 5). Shifting his analytic focus from issues in international political economy to the cultural production of identities, Mittelman locates his primary concern in this concise collection in the “subjective framework of globalization, namely, knowledge and ideology” (p. 3). Thus viewing globalization as a “cognitive map constituted by clusters of knowledge,” the author focuses particularly on the production of alternative forms of knowledge, ideas, and strategies of resistance to globalization—“alterglobalization” (p. 97).

Covenants Without Swords: Idealist Liberalism and the Spirit of Empire. By Jeanne Morefield. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. 280p. $39.50.

The entanglement of liberal political thought and European imperial expansion has received increasing attention in recent years, in work by David Armitage, Barbara Arneil, Uday Mehta, Richard Tuck, and James Tully, among others. Yet the phenomenon remains puzzling, for while many European liberals, especially from the mid–nineteenth century through the interwar period, enthusiastically promoted imperial rule, the reasons for their support varied widely: There is no single or consistent liberal imperialism. Jeanne Morefield has enriched this story considerably with her closely argued and elegantly written account of a hitherto largely neglected episode, which she calls “one of the most philosophically interesting moments when liberal thinkers and activists engaged in the politics of hierarchy and paternalism” (p. 2). Although Morefield's protagonists, Gilbert Murray and Alfred Zimmern, have not received much attention in previous scholarship, her narrative impressively complements the account in Martti Koskenniemi's recent book The Gentle Civiliser of Nations (2002). Both chronicle the activities and ideas of visionary internationalists who aspired to end the barbarities of war and erect a humane international system, but who also keenly supported European imperial expansion during its heyday.

Balance of Power: Theory and Practice in the 21st Century. Edited by T. V. Paul, James J. Wirtz, and Michel Fortmann. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004. 400p. $70.00 cloth, $27.95 paper.

The end of the Cold War and the advent of the post–9/11 era altered the strategic context of international relations irrevocably. In the wake of these changes, it is useful to reexamine our traditional theoretical understandings of the system in order to determine the direction international relations scholarship should take. While theory should evolve independently from the empirical realities of world politics, periodically taking stock of where we are and where we should go is extremely helpful. This book is a welcome collection that takes on that task.

Mixed Signals: U.S. Human Rights Policy and Latin America. By Kathryn Sikkink. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004. 288p. $29.95.

Kathryn Sikkink argues that the United States government has sent mixed signals to the governments of Latin American countries about the importance of respect for human rights. The book provides detailed descriptions of U.S. policies that promoted better and worse human rights practices in particular countries over the past 30 years. She notes several cases where the U.S. government sent mixed signals by being strong on general human rights rhetoric, but by not pressing human rights concerns when dealing with Latin American governments facing domestic rebellions. The willingness of the U.S. government to support anticommunist, counterrevolutionary and antiterrorist policies has been much stronger than any desire to promote good human rights practices in the region. In the author's view, these were the wrong priorities.

Bridging the European Divide: Middle Power Politics and Regional Security Dilemmas. By Joshua B. Spero. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. 360p. $75.00.

The focus of this work is narrower than the title implies. It is actually a close study of the policies of Poland's first noncommunist foreign minister, Krystof Skubiszewski, who served all four Solidarnosc-based governments, 1989–93, and thus set Poland on its present course. Joshua Spero abundantly praises Skubiszewski for pursuing policies that not only safeguarded Poland's interests but kept Central Europe out of the traps of the interwar period.

The New Masters of Capital: American Bond Rating Agencies and the Politics of Creditworthiness. By Timothy J. Sinclair. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. 208p. $29.95.

In his book, Timothy J. Sinclair makes a strong theoretical and empirical contribution to the growing political economy literature on the increasing influence of nonstate actors. More specifically, he draws upon a cogent interweaving of rationalist and constructivist approaches to reveal the various forms of power exercised by American bond raters, such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's. Moreover, by means of detailed case studies on the rating of corporations, municipalities, and national governments, he demonstrates the broad political implications of rating agency power in terms of both geopolitical and distributive questions. In both cases, Sinclair's central argument is that “rating agencies help to construct the context in which corporations, municipalities, and governments make decisions. Rating agencies are not, as often supposed, ‘neutral’ institutions. Their impact on policy is political first, in terms of the processes involved, and second, in terms of the consequences of competing social interests” (p. 149).