Complex Sovereignty Reconstituting Political Authority in the Twenty-First Century

Editors Edgar Grande and Louis W. Pauly and the contributors to this volume elucidate the meaning of ‘complex sovereignty’ through a set of conceptual and empirical studies.

The way humanity governs itself is today changing very rapidly. Profound transformations in structures of political authority are underway in Europe, North America, and beyond. Nation-states remain central, but they cannot address the most pressing problems facing their own citizens without moving away from traditional understandings of sovereignty itself. Complex Sovereignty contends that just such a movement is underway.

Editors Edgar Grande and Louis W. Pauly and the contributors to this volume elucidate the meaning of ‘complex sovereignty’ through a set of conceptual and empirical studies including governance in the European Union and North America, the emergence of private-public partnerships, the adaptation of established international organizations, and the search for innovative mechanisms to manage risk. They reveal a fascinating and vitally important struggle to give coherence to a complicated governing system of multiple and overlapping hierarchies. This is an original, collaborative study crossing the disciplines of political science, international relations, sociology, and political economy.