Hierarchy in International Relations

International relations are generally understood as a realm of anarchy in which countries lack any superior authority and interact within a Hobbesian state of nature. In Hierarchy in International Relations, David A. Lake challenges this traditional...

David A. Lake is the Jerri-Ann and Gary E. Jacobs Professor of Social Sciences and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. His previous books include Power, Protection, and Free Trade: International Sources of U.S. Commercial Strategy, 1887–1939 (also from Cornell) and Entangling Relations: American Foreign Policy in Its Century, as well as eight edited or coedited volumes

In this pioneering work, Lake argues that hierarchical relations are best seen as bargained relationships in which the dominant state provides 'services'—such as order, security, and governance—to subordinate states in return for compliance. What distinguishes the various forms of hierarchy, from colonialism to modern alliances, is the amount of sovereignty signed over to the leading state. Lake uses this insight to explore patterns of U.S.-led hierarchy in the security and economic realms, relying on measures such as the presence of U.S. military bases, exchange-rate linkages, and trade dependence.

James D. Morrow, University of Michigan:

David A. Lake effectively and convincingly argues that international politics is characterized not by anarchy, as the received wisdom and theory in the field hold, but rather by hierarchical relations among states. He develops the concept of relational hierarchy, by which a pair of states agree for one to accept the authority of the other to their mutual benefit, and applies it to understand the hierarchical relations created by the United States during and after the Cold War.