Abstract

This book offers a highly original analysis of world events in the light of the Iraq War. It explores the history and development of relations between major countries in the international community and the impact that successive wars and changes in the global political economy have had on the way states relate to each other today.

Tracing the liberal state structure back to the closing stages of the English Civil War and settlement in North America, it argues that the rise of the English-speaking West has created rivalries between contender states that are never entirely put to rest. With each round of Western expansion, new rivalries are created.

Offering a truly global analysis that covers every area of the world - from Europe and America to China, the Middle East, Latin America and Russia -- he analyses the development of international relations post WWII, and questions whether the neoliberal project and its human rights ideology have collapsed back into authoritarianism under the guise of the 'war on terror'.
'Kees Van Der Pijl has done a remarkable job of viewing the global rivalries in a fresh perspective of 'contender states''
Free Press Journal
'Adds more punch to your repository of arguments against the ongoing mindless violence'
The Financial Express
'Just when you thought International Relations as a field was brain-dead, along comes Kees van der Pijl's new book. His inspired account brings together history, economics and politics to create a far more nuanced view of rivalry and cooperation among the great powers over time'
Thomas Ferguson, University of Massachusetts, Boston
'A remarkable panorama of both the substance and meaning of recent world history, one of those rare books that will change the way thoughtful people think. Global Rivalries is rich in insight, making coherence of disparate events, and it offers again and again fresh insights into the way our war-torn, beleaguered world has operated'
Gabriel Kolko
'A magisterial work that explains and demystifies the rivalries and conflicts which have characterised the foreign relations of the "great powers" in the modern era'
Stephen Gill, York University, Toronto
'This is a delightfully objective, fair and fearless analysis of a strife-tired world ... A strategist's collector's item'
Tribune
'I can't think of a more effective way to bring economic history back into political discussions'
European Tribune