Review: International Politics and Organization: Sovereign Equality among States
| Author | Carsten Holbraad |
| Date | 01 September 1978 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207803300320 |
| Published date | 01 September 1978 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
644
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
order,
all
deserve
extended
critical
appraisal.
But
Bull's
analysis
pre-
sents
an
excellent
point
from
which
critical
thought
on
this
general
subject
might
begin.
R.B.J.
Walker/Princeton
University
SOVEREIGN EQUALITY
AMONG STATES
The
History of an
Idea
Robert
A.
Klein
Toronto:
University
of
Toronto
Press,
1974,
xx,
19
8
pp,
$1o.oo
The
main contention
of
this
book
is
that
the once
dominant
idea
of
great-power primacy
has
lost its
position
and
that
the rivalling
idea
of
sovereign
equality
of
all
states
has
become
the
basis
of
the
contempo-
rary
structure
of
international
society.
Tracing
the historical
and
ana-
lysing
the
philosophical
conflict
between
the
two
doctrines,
Dr
Klein
starts with
the
rule
of
great-power primacy
in
post-1815
Europe
and
moves
on
to
the
clash
between
the
two
ideas
in the
western
hemisphere
and
in
Europe
before the
First
World
War.
After
a
discussion
of
Woodrow
Wilson
and
the
idea
of
equality
and an
account
of
the
chang-
ing
concepts
that
guided
inter-American
relations
between
the
world
wars,
the
author
turns
to the
mounting
tension between
the
great
powers
and
the
small
states
over
their
roles
in
the
postwar world.
In
the
final
chapter,
which deals
with
the
establishment
of
the
doctrine
of
equality
in
a
world
of
superpowers,
he
attempts
to
adjudicate
be-
tween
the
two
concepts.
He
is
concerned
about
the
grip
with
which
what
he
describes
as
the
mythical
doctrine
of
sovereign
equality
has
'fastened
itself
to
the
inner
recesses
of
the
human
mind,'
and
thinks
that
'the
concept
of great-power
primacy,
with
all
its
faults
and
with
all
its
shortcomings,
and
there
are
many,
offers
a
more
plausible
in-
terim
artifice
for
reducing matters
concerning
international
order
to
more manageable
proportions.'
While
agreeing
with
this
judgment,
one
may
question
whether
the
eclipse
of
the
idea
of
great-power
primacy
is
in
fact
as
near
total
as
suggested
by
Dr
Klein. If one
sets
aside
the
verbiage
of
the
General
Assembly
and
looks
beyond
the
United
Nations, the
idea
still
seems
to
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