Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition (Cornell Studies in Political Economy) - Softcover

Spruyt, Hendrik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801489725 ISBN 13: 9780801489723

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2005

Synopsis

At the dawn of the twentieth century, imperial powers controlled most of the globe. Within a few decades after World War II, many of the great empires had dissolved, and more recently, multinational polities have similarly disbanded. This process of reallocating patterns of authority, from internal hierarchy to inter-state relations, proved far more contentious in some cases than in others. While some governments exited the colonial era without becoming embroiled in lengthy conflicts, others embarked on courses that drained their economies, compelled huge sacrifices, and caused domestic upheaval and revolution. What explains these variations in territorial policy? More specifically, why do some governments have greater latitude to alter existing territorial arrangements whereas others are constrained in their room for maneuver?

In Ending Empire, Hendrik Spruyt argues that the answer lies in the domestic institutional structures of the central governments. Fragmented polities provide more opportunities for hard-liners to veto concessions to nationalist and secessionist demands, thus making violent conflict more likely. Spruyt examines these dynamics in the democratic colonial empires of Britain, France, and the Netherlands. He then turns to the authoritarian Portuguese empire and the break-up of the Soviet Union. Finally, the author submits that this theory, which speaks to the political dynamics of partition, can be applied to other contested territories, including those at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"Ending Empire is a remarkable achievement. Hendrik Spruyt addresses the collapse of overseas empires and, in one case, a multinational state/continental empire. Spruyt shines in his talent for combining theoretically informed analysis with deep historical research across multiple cases."—David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego

"An elegant and compelling account of the politics of decolonization, Ending Empire is a major contribution to the literature on imperialism and to the study of how domestic institutions shape grand strategy."—Charles A. Kupchan, Georgetown University and Council on Foreign Relations, author of The Vulnerability of Empire and The End of the American Era

"The unwinding of Europe’s vast colonial empires is one of the great transitions of the twentieth century. Hendrik Spruyt explains the process with clear, nuanced arguments, backed with historical studies, all designed to show why different imperial powers handled that unwinding so differently. What accounts for the differences, according to Spruyt, are the varied political structures in the metropolitan countries themselves. In some countries—but not in all—groups opposed to decolonization held effective veto power over territorial changes. In developing this ‘veto points’ approach, Spruyt’s Ending Empire provides a powerful analysis of the varied paths that decolonization took. It is a major achievement."—Charles Lipson, University of Chicago

About the Author

Hendrik Spruyt is Norman Dwight Harris Professor of International Relations and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Northwestern University. He is the author of The Sovereign State and Its Competitors, which won the J. David Greenstone Award given by the History and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0801489725
• ISBN 13: 9780801489723
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 326