List Books » Hierarchy and Flexibility in World Politics: Adaptation to Shifting Power Distributions in the United Nations Security Council and the International Monetary Fund
Authors: Patrick A. McCarthy
ISBN-13: 9781840144710, ISBN-10: 1840144718
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Limited
Date Published: November 1998
Edition: (Non-applicable)
This book develops a theory of international stability which it tests, with positive results, on two of the important institutions of contemporary world politics - The United Nations Security Council and the International Monetary Fund. It shows that states care passionately about their relative positions in important hierarchies of influence and that the ability of such hierarchies to adapt in line with shifts in the international distribution of power is vital to the overall stability of the international system. The book emphasizes the central role played by institutional design in determining the relative flexibility or rigidity of hierarchies of influence: even in technical issue-areas, such as that occupied by the IMF, where relative capabilities of states, and changes thereof, may be quite easily measured. The book thus transcends the question of whether institutions matter in world politics. While it clearly demonstrates that they do matter, it shows that institutions may both contribute to and detract from international stability.
McCarthy (European University Institute) develops a theory of international stability, then tests it on the United Nations Security Council and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He shows that states care about their relative positions in important hierarchies of influence and that the ability of such hierarchies to adapt in line with shifts in the international distribution of power is crucial to the overall stability of the international system. Lacks an index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
List of Figures | ||
Acknowledgements | ||
1 | Introduction | 1 |
2 | Confusing Stability with Peace and Status-quo | 10 |
3 | Stability as Process | 46 |
4 | Towards Testing the Hypotheses | 79 |
5 | Hierarchy and Flexibility in the UN Security Council | 95 |
6 | The 1965 Reform of the UN Security Council | 114 |
7 | Positionality, Tension and Instability in the UN Security Council | 127 |
8 | Hierarchy and Flexibility in the International Monetary Fund | 163 |
9 | Positionality, Tension and Stability in the International Monetary Fund | 187 |
10 | Reviewing (and Restating) the Hypotheses | 216 |
11 | Conclusion | 235 |
Bibliography | 245 |