Examines the troubled modern nation–state and reflects on the "end" of authority, sovereignty, and national security, and the implications of that end in the coming decades.

Examines the troubled modern nation–state and reflects on the "end" of authority, sovereignty, and national security, and the implications of that end in the coming decades.

After Authority offers an overview of the evolving international political "revolution," a historical perspective based on Lipschutz's writings over the years. It also examines the prospects for war and peace in the twenty-first century. During earlier "industrial revolutions," long-standing and apparently stable patterns of social behavior, economic exchange, and political authority came under challenge. Today, post World War Two institutions that were formed to create a peaceful, economically-prosperous world, are under severe challenge by globalization, liberalization, and social innovation. Old hierarchies of power and wealth have been undermined as people take advantage of new economic and political opportunities, and the resulting disruption of expectations leads to fear, uncertainty, instability, and violence.

Ronnie D. Lipschutz is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the coauthor, with Judith Mayer, of Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance: The Politics of Nature from Place to Planet, also published by SUNY Press.

Ronnie D. Lipschutz is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is the coauthor, with Judith Mayer, of Global Civil Society and Global Environmental Governance: The Politics of Nature from Place to Planet, also published by SUNY Press.

"This is an important book—the first to my knowledge to examine a wide range of alleged threats, from eco-violence to 'ethnic' conflict, in a unified and conceptual framework that makes sense for the post–Cold War world. His insights on the state's disciplining role in a globalized world economy are powerful and well developed." — Ken Conca, author of Manufacturing Insecurity: The Rise and Fall of Brazil's Military-Industrial Complex

"After Authority forces the reader to examine issues and explanations of war, peace, security, and international cooperation in a non-traditional way. It made me think." — Roger Coate, editor of the journal Global Governance