Dynamics among Nations: The Evolution of Legitimacy and Development in Modern States

by Hilton L. Root

Overview

An innovative view of the changing geopolitical landscape that draws on the science of complex adaptive systems to understand changes in global interaction.

Liberal internationalism has been the West's foreign policy agenda since the Cold War, and the West has long occupied the top rung of a hierarchical system. In this book, Hilton Root argues that international relations, like other complex ecosystems, exists in a constantly shifting landscape, in which hierarchical structures are giving way to systems of networked interdependence, changing every facet of global interaction. Accordingly, policymakers will need a new way to understand the process of change. Root suggests that the science of complex systems offers an analytical framework to explain the unforeseen development failures, governance trends, and alliance shifts in today's global political economy.

Root examines both the networked systems that make up modern states and the larger, interdependent landscapes they share. Using systems analysis—in which institutional change and economic development are understood as self-organizing complexities—he offers an alternative view of institutional resilience and persistence. From this perspective, Root considers the divergence of East and West; the emergence of the European state, its contrast with the rise of China, and the network properties of their respective innovation systems; the trajectory of democracy in developing regions; and the systemic impact of China on the liberal world order. Complexity science, Root argues, will not explain historical change processes with algorithmic precision, but it may offer explanations that match the messy richness of those processes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262318273
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	11/01/2013
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	404 KB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Hilton L. Root, an expert on international political economy and development, is Professor at the George Mason University School of Public Policy. He is the author of Alliance Curse: How the U.S. Lost the Third World, Capital and Collusion: Political Logic of Global Economic Development, and other books.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments vii

1 Post-Globalization: Complexity in the Governance of a Networked Global Society 1

2 Opening the Doors of Complexity 15

3 Economic Incentives and the Replication of Social Complexity 35

4 Coevolution versus Liberal Internationalism 57

5 Promises and Pitfalls of New Institutional Economics 75

6 Dancing Landscapes: How Interdependency Shapes the Optimization Challenge of Globalization 95

7 Accelerators of "Stateness": System Structure and Network Behavior in the Making of the Modern State 115

8 Democracy's Hybrid Architecture 143

9 Achieving State Capacity: Parallel Political Modernization in China' and Europe 165

10 Does China Challenge the Global Legitimacy of Liberalism? 197

11 No Captain at the Helm 217

Glossary 237

Notes 249

References 277

Index 301

What People are Saying About This

Charles A. Kupchan

A creative and sophisticated treatment of the dynamics of global change. By fleshing out the notion of a 'networked global society,' Root at once makes an important theoretical contribution and advances our understanding of the interdependent—yet decentralized—world that lies ahead.

Endorsement

As China gets richer, why is it not becoming more like the West? Because, says Hilton Root in this outstanding new book, development does not work the way that most social scientists think. Borrowing the tools that natural scientists use to explain evolution and complex systems, Dynamics among Nations reveals the hidden logic behind global economics, governance, and security. Everyone who wants to understand how our world is changing should read this compelling book.

—Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules—For Now

From the Publisher

Hilton Root examines international relations from the perspective of complexity theory, the science of the twenty-first century. His analysis will compel a complete re-thinking of the current dominant narrative on globalization, with its assumption of convergence to Western liberal values. A very original, well-written, and highly thought-provoking book.

—Paul Ormerod, Partner, Volterra Partners

A creative and sophisticated treatment of the dynamics of global change. By fleshing out the notion of a 'networked global society,' Root at once makes an important theoretical contribution and advances our understanding of the interdependent—yet decentralized—world that lies ahead.

—Charles A. Kupchan, Georgetown University and Council on Foreign Relations, Author of No One's World

As China gets richer, why is it not becoming more like the West? Because, says Hilton Root in this outstanding new book, development does not work the way that most social scientists think. Borrowing the tools that natural scientists use to explain evolution and complex systems, Dynamics among Nations reveals the hidden logic behind global economics, governance, and security. Everyone who wants to understand how our world is changing should read this compelling book.

—Ian Morris, author of Why the West Rules--For Now

Paul Ormerod

Hilton Root examines international relations from the perspective of complexity theory, the science of the twenty-first century. His analysis will compel a complete re-thinking of the current dominant narrative on globalization, with its assumption of convergence to Western liberal values. A very original, well-written, and highly thought-provoking book.

Ian Morris

As China gets richer, why is it not becoming more like the West? Because, says Hilton Root in this outstanding new book, development does not work the way that most social scientists think. Borrowing the tools that natural scientists use to explain evolution and complex systems, Dynamics among Nations reveals the hidden logic behind global economics, governance, and security. Everyone who wants to understand how our world is changing should read this compelling book.