How states cooperate in the absence of a sovereign power is a perennial question in international relations. With "Power in Concert", Jennifer Mitzen argues that global governance is more than just the cooperation of states under anarchy: it is the formation and maintenance of collective intentions, or joint commitments among states to address problems together. The key mechanism through which these intentions are sustained is face-to-face diplomacy, which keeps states' obligations to one another salient and helps them solve problems on a day-to-day basis.
Mitzen argues that the origins of this practice lie in the Concert of Europe, an informal agreement among five European states in the wake of the Napoleonic wars to reduce the possibility of recurrence, which first institutionalized the practice of jointly managing the balance of power. Through the Concert's many successes, she shows that the words and actions of state leaders in public forums contributed to collective self-restraint and a commitment to problem solving – and at a time when communication was considerably more difficult than it is today. Despite the Concert's eventual breakdown, the practice it introduced – of face to face diplomacy as a mode of joint problem solving – survived and is the basis of global governance today.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Public Power and Purpose in Global Governance
Chapter 2. Governing in the Shadow of Violence
Chapter 3. From International Society to Public Power
Chapter 4. More Than Mere Words: Publicly Managing the Vienna Settlement, 1815-22
Chapter 5. Governing Together: The Greek Revolt and the Eastern Question, 1823-32
Chapter 6. Things Fall Apart: From a Russo-Turkish Dispute to the Crimean War, 1853-56
Chapter 7. Conclusion
References
Index
About the Author
Jennifer Mitzen is associate professor of political science at Ohio State University. She lives in Columbus, OH.
Reviews
"Jennifer Mitzen has written an essential book in International Relations (IR) theory, which will change the way we think about the power of words and international authority. While the book's specific theoretical subject is the emergence of global governance during the Concert of Europe, Mitzen's theory on the establishment of international public power by collective intentionality and talk in public forums is generalizable to other times, places, and subjects. The theory not only challenges and complements liberal, constructivist, and English school IR theories, but also suggests how to build bridges between these approaches" – Emanuel Adler, University of Toronto
"'Power in Concert' is the best sort of scholarship. It makes a bold, original, theoretical statement, convincingly arguing that global governance can be a product of a 'visible hand' that is characterized by collective intentionality, a public purpose, and a reasoning disciplined by a public. It is clearly written and demonstrates, historically, why the Concert of Europe, one of the world's first instances of global governance, can be fruitfully approached with this alternative lens. And, critically, it shows the power of the argument to illuminate not just history, but also the present. Highly recommended for scholars of international relations theory and all students of global governance" – Michael Barnett, author of "Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism"
