Until recently, the bounded, territorial, and sovereign state has been the foundation of modern understandings of political space. Now, however, as the patterns of world politics undergo major transformations through the competing processes of global integration and fragmentation, we are faced with the problem of how to conceptualize new and complex relationships. Further, addressing this problem requires a rethinking of the very categories we use in understanding local, national, and international politics and a reimagining of the nature of political space itself.
This book explores these issues conceptually and through case studies. The authors deal with the problem of identity and political space, analyze in detail the impact on the state of a globalized political space, and conclude with an effort to locate the state in these various developments and to characterize its trajectory as it struggles to adapt and survive.
"A substantial contribution to the field of international relations.... This work is both insightful and provocative."—Susan Stoudinger Northcutt, International Social Science Review
"Whatever my reservations about the post-modernist affectations of some contributors, The State in Transition remains a scholarly, informative and sometimes challenging work."—Australian Journal of Political Science
"[Does] a good job of de-fetishising the State, without marginalising its importance."—Millennium