New Directions in Uneven and Combined Development

This book introduces Uneven and Combined Development as an approach in international studies and showcases some of the latest and most innovative research in this field.

The theory of Uneven and Combined Development originated in the writings of Leon Trotsky. However, in recent years it has become the subject of flourishing literature in the discipline of International Relations, due to its unique ability to reintegrate social and international theory. The first and second generations of this literature were focused upon retrieving the idea, expanding it into a social theory of ‘the international’, and applying it to numerous empirical cases – such as the rise of political Islam, the causes of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution, and even the origins of capitalism as a world system. In the present volume, a third generation has arrived which further extends the reach of UCD, connecting it in new and exciting ways to such subjects as ecology, macro-economic policy, culture, Science and Technology Studies, Comparative Literature and even science-fiction.

The chapters in this book were originally published in the journal, the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Justin Rosenberg is Professor of International Relations at the University of Sussex. He is the author of The Empire of Civil Society (1994), The Follies of Globalisation Theory (2000), and numerous articles on Uneven and Combined Development.

Jack Brake is PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, and former Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Tatiana Pignon is PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, and Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Lucas de Oliveira Paes is Senior Research Fellow and Post-doctoral Researcher at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, as well as a former Editor-in-Chief of the Cambridge Review of International Affairs.