Can independent nations unify politically? Amitai Etzioni raised this searching question in his seminal 1965 book, Political Unification: A Comparative Study of Leaders and Forces. In this revised editionnow with an extensive new introductionEtzioni convincingly argues that the experiment of collective self-determination is the only viable replacement for a perilously overloaded international system. This fascinating work debates the limitations of informal networks of governance, transnational agencies and cross-nation bondingincluding the grand experiment of the European Unionto argue that only a truly transcendent supranational community can effectively succeed the nation-state. He doubts whether the traditional system of international relations can withstand the threat of transnational forces. Old-fashioned diplomacy can neither prevent weapons of mass destruction and hate material moving easily across national borders, nor deal with mass cross-border immigration in the wake of civil war and the rise of political and ethnic separatism. Political Unification Revisited is essential reading for political scientists and scholars of international law and international relations seeking to navigate the path from national sovereignty to world government in the 21st century..

Amitai Etzioni is the founder and first president of the Communitarian Network and a university professor at George Washington University. Among his many books are Civic Repentance, The New Golden Rule, The Spirit of Community, and The Moral Dimension.

Chapter 1 A Paradigm for the Study of Political Unification
Chapter 2 Delineation of the Subject and of Elementary Concepts
Chapter 3 Political Unification
Chapter 4 Distribution and Configuration of Integrating Powers: A Comparative Analysis
Chapter 5 Theoretical Framework
Chapter 6 Integrating Power
Chapter 7 A Union That Failed: The United Arab Republic (1958-61)
Chapter 8 A Union That Failed: The Federation of the West Indies (1958-62)
Chapter 9 A Stable Union: The Nordic Associational Web (1953-64)
Chapter 10 A Growing Union: The European Economic Community (1958-64)
Chapter 11 In Comparative Perspective