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STEPHEN KRASNER, Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1999, pp 264, ISBN 0-691-00711-X 10.50 p/b; ISBN 0-691-- 00702-0, 31.00 h/b.
You may well wonder at the title of this book. It is not, as you might suppose, a tirade against hypocrisy in international affairs. Stephen Krasner is, in part, a `realist', believing that the key features of the international system are the lack of `any institutional arrangement for authoritatively resolving conflicts' and the `power asymmetries among principal actors, notably states'. Yet Krasner is no disciple of the abstract realms of `neo-realism'. Rather than perfecting theory, he messes with its simplicity. He seeks to illuminate the sources and uses of power in international relations-a task requiring recognition of the domestic pressures, constraints and vested interests that decisionmakers face, or to put it in Krasner's own words `the differing incentives confronting individual rulers'.
In this book, Krasner investigates sovereignty. He does not explore the contested meaning of the term, but rather seeks to illuminate what `sovereign statehood' has meant in the practice of contemporary international relations. He contrasts two kinds of sovereignty. `International legal sovereignty' is based on a formal set of rules by which states recognize each other as territorial entities with formal juridical independence. He proposes that this form...