Robustness and Fragility of Political Orders: Leader Assessments, Responses, and Consequences

This volume focuses on the assessments political actors make of the relative fragility and robustness of political orders. The core argument developed and explored throughout its different chapters is that such assessments are subjective and informed by contextually specific historical experiences that have important implications for how leaders respond. Their responses, in turn, feed into processes by which political orders change. The volume's contributions span analyses of political orders at the state, regional and global levels. They demonstrate that assessments of fragility and robustness have important policy implications but that the accuracy of assessments can only be known with certainty ex post facto. The volume will appeal to scholars and advanced students of international relations and comparative politics working on national and international orders.

Richard Ned Lebow is the author of fifty books on international relations, comparative politics, political theory, history, classics, and philosophy of science. He has also recently published his first novel and a book of short stories. Lebow is a fellow of the British Academy and the recipient of many book awards and honorary degrees.

Ludvig Norman studies European politics, democratic theory, and social science methodology. He is the author of the book The Mechanisms of Institutional Conflict in the European Union (2016) and recent articles in Journal of Common Market Studies, Political Studies, European Journal of International Relations, European Journal of Social Theory, and Cooperation and Conflict.