Book Notes
| Date | 01 March 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002234330604300212 |
| Author | Jozef Bátora |
| Published date | 01 March 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
journal of PEACE RESEARCH volume 43 / number 2 / march 2006
230
unnecessary complexity, many will have much to
learn from him.
Håkan Wiberg
Cohen, Ariel, ed., 2005. Eurasia in Balance:
The US and the Regional Power Shift. Aldershot:
Ashgate. xiii + 214 pp. ISBN 0754644499.
Freshness is, perhaps, the main attraction of this
neat and compact volume: most chapters are
updated to mid-2004, which, by normal pub-
lishing standards, is quite decent. A reader should
be aware of two important features: first, the geo-
graphic scope goes no further than ‘former Soviet
Central Asia and the Caucasus’ (p. 1), so the
slightly awkward term ‘Former Soviet South’
would have been more accurate in the title, since
for most scholars ‘Eurasia’ means something far
wider. Second, the seven contributing authors, all
of them US-based experts, emphasize current
political analysis assuming that ‘the majority of
academic theories have little resonance with or
relevance to today’s policy makers’ (p. 205). The
combination of these two features is slightly prob-
lematic in itself. Indeed, a sound political analysis
of the ‘security deficit’ in the Caucasus (presented
by Svante E. Cornell) requires an assessment of
risks in the North Caucasus and an evaluation of
Euro-Atlantic initiatives in the ‘Wider Black Sea’
area. Central Asia should be analysed in a differ-
ent context, where the major impacts come from
rapidly changing Afghanistan and increasingly
self-assertive Russia. The only aspect of Russian
policy that is covered in the volume is its nuclear
cooperation with Iran, which is slightly off-target,
but the two chapters focusing on China and India
provide plenty of food for thought. Clearly, the
ambition of the book was to produce clear-cut
recommendations, but the proposals for the
United States to join the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization and to establish a military base in
Azerbaijan inevitably incite doubt. Maybe the
analysis is not that fresh after all.
Pavel Baev
Cooper, Andrew F., 2004. Tests of Global
Governance: Canadian Diplomacy and United
Nations World Conferences. New York: United
Nations University Press. 298 pp. ISBN
9280810960.
Canada’s participation at UN world conferences
in recent decades has been characterized by
unorthodox and innovative approaches of the
Canadian government to include civil-society
groups, enabling a flexible and unique bridging
between what the author refers to as ‘state-craft’
and ‘society-craft’. The nexus between the latter
two concepts reflects the imagery of respectively
an ideal-type Westphalian world order, based on
states carving out global regulatory regimes, and
a more complex global order, consisting of
multiple centres of authority engaged in continu-
ous negotiation of global norms. Through the
prism of the recent Canadian diplomatic experi-
ence at UN world conferences, the author
examines which of these imageries are more
appropriate in conceptualizing the changing
nature of diplomacy, as well as the evolving nature
of the global order. He identifies six tests of global
governance around which the book is organized.
The tests examine, respectively, the potential for
the rise of new diplomatic rules and procedures;
the emerging character of the partnerships
between governments and civil-society actors; the
role of political leaders; the underlying normative
structure and disciplinary mechanisms at the core
of the emerging global order; challenges to the
notion of sovereignty; and, finally, the potential
for cultural clashes and the emerging norms
regularizing interactions at multilateral forums.
The latter may be particularly relevant for the
conditions of conflict mediation. In elaborating
each of the tests, the author moves skilfully
between the micro level of statements by indi-
viduals and the analytical points on the macro-
dynamics investigated in the respective tests. In
this way, the reader is provided with a multilevel
analysis adding empirical substance to some of
the core debates in recent IR theory.
Jozef Bátora
Covey, Jock; Michael J. Dziedzic & Leonard
R. Hawley, eds, 2005. The Quest for Viable Peace:
International Intervention and Strategies for
Conflict Transformation. Washington, DC:
United States Institute of Peace Press. xx + 306
pp. ISBN 1929223676.
Six years after the international takeover of
Kosovo, with mixed reports about its progress
towards political self-sufficiency, and at a time
when the ‘War on Terror’ dominates most media
editing rooms, The Quest for Viable Peace is a
timely reminder of the international efforts to
secure lasting stability for the tested Balkan terri-
tory. Its contributors, who have all been affiliated
at SAGE Publications on December 7, 2012jpr.sagepub.comDownloaded from
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