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New Perspectives on Historical States-Systems

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F. S.Northedge, The International Political System. London: Faber and Faber, 1976, 336 pp., £3.25.

MartinWight, Systems of States. Edited and with an Introduction by Hedley Bull. London: Leicester University Press in Association with the London School of Economics and Political Science, 1977, 232 pp., £7.00; Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press, $14.00.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

David S. Yost
Affiliation:
U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California.
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Abstract

Theoretical analyses of international systems tend to fall into three categories: case studies of specific past systems aiming at modest generalizations; rigorous examinations of the current global system in search of manipulable variables; and heuristic models of hypothetical international systems. The late Martin Wight's studies of historical statessystems indicate possible ways of giving this area of theoretical inquiry a new empirical and conceptual foundation. Wight's insights about norms and values within specific past and present states-systems, and about ambiguities involved in identifying their boundaries and transformation mechanisms, seem especially valuable and original when compared to recent work in the same field by F. S. Northedge. Even Wight's work is essentially exploratory, however. Numerous historical states-systems remain to be thoroughly studied, and Wight's analytical framework may require some modifications.

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Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1979

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