See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century (Paperback)

by Robert Cooper (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


14 used from £5.64
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (American) 15 used & new from £1.81
Paperback (2nd Revised edition) £8.99 £6.99 33 used & new from £2.00

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order

Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order

by Robert Kagan
4.1 out of 5 stars (18)  £6.99
The Clash of Civilizations: And the Remaking of World Order

The Clash of Civilizations: And the Remaking of World Order

by Samuel P. Huntington
3.9 out of 5 stars (23)  £5.99
The Return of History and the End of Dreams

The Return of History and the End of Dreams

by Robert Kagan
3.6 out of 5 stars (10)  £7.79
Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

by Joseph S. Nye
4.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.99
Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World

Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World

by Ashraf Ghani
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £9.09
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 192 pages
  • Publisher: Grove Press; Reprint edition (Oct 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0802141641
  • ISBN-13: 978-0802141644
  • Product Dimensions: 21 x 14 x 1.5 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 963,516 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Folks who like their global political analysis presented in snippy sound-bite form can hurry along to the Carvilles and Coulters and find plenty of reading material. Robert Cooper's The Breaking of Nations is designed for those who appreciate the complex tapestry of security issues and international affairs.

The present-day world, posits Cooper, is divided into three types of nations: premodern (often third world and politically unstable), modern and postmodern. While the present-day Europe Union exists as a postmodern model, with each country relying on others to facilitate prosperity, most other large nations, including, for the moment, the United States, are stuck in a merely modern capacity, still viewing foreign policy as essentially a way of keeping enemies at bay and maintaining the status quo. As terrorism grows more powerful and the "premodern" world more unstable, sophisticated weaponry becomes more readily available to terrorist organisations. It then falls to the enlightened "postmodern" countries to intervene militarily, taking a pre-emptive approach when necessary, to contain threats, root out bad guys and defend the world. With this scenario in mind, Cooper urges EU members to increase their military capability to better measure up to the status and power of the American military forces. But as technology makes weapons of mass destruction more readily available around the planet, a more aggressive diplomatic strategy, Cooper says, is crucial to effectively dealing with the build up of weaponry and he presents five "maxims" to illustrate how such a diplomacy should be organised.

While Cooper cogently presents his vision of where the world is and where the powerful nations need to take it, he also acknowledges the vagaries of a shifting world and as such presents The Breaking of Nations more as a rumination on complex issues than a ready-made solution. --John Moe, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
From 'the foremost commentator on the strategic issues of our age' (New Republic) comes an important - and already massively influential - argument that is required reading for anyone seeking to understand the world in which we now live. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Product Description

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

 (What's this?)
Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
Check a corresponding box or enter your own tags in the field below
neocon
international relations
history - nation-state
current affairs

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century
80% buy the item featured on this page:
The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century 4.5 out of 5 stars (4)
The Clash of Civilizations: And the Remaking of World Order
10% buy
The Clash of Civilizations: And the Remaking of World Order 3.9 out of 5 stars (23)
£5.99
Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics
3% buy
Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics 4.0 out of 5 stars (3)
£5.99
Diplomacy
3% buy
Diplomacy 4.5 out of 5 stars (10)
£11.19
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A practitioner speaks, 23 Dec 2006
By Nicholas Whyte (Oud Heverlee, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century (Paperback)
Cooper is in the rare position of being a practitioner who has taken the time to write it all down, and tell us what he is doing. His is the sort of writing that helps us understand a) what is going on in the world politically and also b) what we can to to try and change things.

Cooper divides the world into three categories: pre-modern, where chaos reigns; modern, where the ideals of the Treaty of Westphalia stil operate; and post-modern, as typified by the European Union and Japan, where interdependence has replaced the desire for independence. The USA, of course, is in a peculiar place, as a state which is the most powerful in the world and yet stuck between modern and post-modern paradigms. It's a flexible typology.

How can the diplomat from country X seek to influence the behaviour of country Y? Cooper is blunt: "states have at their disposal three main instruments of influence: words, money and force. They can persuade, they can bribe or they can coerce." This is followed by several impressive pages on the pros and cons of economic sanctions and military action, leading to the conclusion that unless you can change the mind-set of the people you want to influence, deploying cash and weapons to reinforce your case is probably a waste of time.

There's lots of good stuff here, about power, domestic imperative, economic motives, and the clash of civiliastions (in more or less that order of priorities). One particular point that leapt off the page at me: his observations on international protectorates, as in Bosnia and Kosovo, which depend on international cooperation and the voluntary acquiescence of the locals in question: "...not as efficient as traditional imperialism... Nevertheless, in a postmodern era... nothing else will work."

The only slightly less-than-excellent part of the book is the twenty-page coda on the virtues of a Europe-wide armaments policy. In a work which is otherwise devoted to grand strategy it seemed odd to have so much prominence given to a single point if admittedly an important one. Indeed, if one considers the book as a collection of three different essays, it probably works OK; it's just that the first 150 pages work so well as an organic whole that the last 20 stand out rather.

In conclusion - very strongly recommended, if you want to find out what is really going on in the world rather than take refuge in the romantic fantasies either of the Left or the Right.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for those interested in contemporary foreign policy, 26 Feb 2007
By Emerson Roberts (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century (Hardcover)
As a career diplomat, Cooper's working life is to a large extent dominated by the issues he explores in this book; unusually, he has taken the time to consider those issues objectively and, even more unusually, chosen to share his conclusions with the wider world. The result is a book that would make even the most interested, well-informed internationalist reconsider some of his frames of reference.

I won't rehearse what the other reviewer here has written, which sums up the book's contents pretty well, except to disagree with his assessment of the final section.

Unlike him, I believe that the discussion of Europe's (and, by extension, the post-modern world's) defence policy, and its willingness to engage in force if necessary, was a logical conclusion to the discussions of "grand strategy" in the first two sections. Cooper's point is that although post-modern solutions are an ideal goal, they are perhaps ultimately unattainable, at least on a global level, and it is no longer reasonable for the 450m citizens living in post-modern Europe to rely for their defence on the 250m taxpayers of the (modern nation state) United States. In a sense, Cooper seems to me to be recognising the limits of the post-modern approach he espoused in the first two sections - i.e. force is often still needed when dealing with pre-modern and modern states - and that post-modern entities like Europe and Japan should invest accordingly. Inevitably, such conclusions lack the majestic sweep of historical analysis, but as a thought piece over "What next?", I think it is both persuasive and appropriate.

Kagan is right - this book takes the geopolitical discussion a step further. Highly recommended.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Solid and useful look at international relations, 22 Oct 2008
By M. McManus - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first Century (Paperback)
This book is a solid introduction to what the author sees as being the primary definition of types of countries in the 21st century. The author argues there are 3 different kinds: pre-modern, modern and post-modern.

The pre-modern states (e.g. Somalia) have no modern infrastructure and/or no modern systems of governance, and therefore, are not in a position to to conduct any kind of foreign policy. Modern states (.e.g USA) do have these things, but maintain a "realist" outlook on world affairs, particularly in terms of using force as a tool in diplomacy. Post-modern states (e.g the EU, Japan) are similar to modern, but generally avoid war because their strategic position is such that they don't need to worry about war anymore.

The book is a useful framework for viewing the world in the 21st century. It is useful to read alongside "Return of History" by Robert Kagan, and "Clash of Civizations" by Huntingdom, who also provide useful and different views of how to classify countries.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful, intelligent and well-written
This short book explores the new world of the early 21st century. Cooper sees the defining moment in the end of the Cold War in 1989, which changed the state system that had... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Erik Cleves Kristensen

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

›Shop the Powerball store

  

Beauty without the Beast

Olay Regenerist Daily 3 Point Treatment Cream
From au naturel to party glam, we have all the best names in cosmetics and skincare.

›Discover Beauty at Amazon.co.uk

  

Train Hard...Play Hard

Nike, Gola, Converse, and more
Gear up with up to 60% off athletic and outdoor shoes.

›Shop now

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates