Ewan Harrison - The Triumph of Democracy and the Eclipse of the West [2013][A]

Book Description
Publication Date: December 18, 2013
This book explores the paradox of the worldwide spread of democracy and capitalism in an era of Western decline. The rest is overtaking the West as Samuel Huntington predicted, but because it is adopting Western institutions. The emerging global order offers unprecedented opportunities for the expansion of peace, prosperity, and freedom. Yet this is not the 'end of history', but the beginning of a post-Western future for the democratic project. The major conflicts of the future will occur between the established democracies of the West and emerging democracies in the developing world as they seek the benefits and recognition associated with membership of the democratic community. This 'clash of democratizations' will define world politics.

Reviews
"It is so refreshing to read a political science book that is willing to tackle a big question and to put major events of our times in larger context. You may not agree with all of Ewan Harrison's and Sara McLaughlin Mitchell's arguments, but you will think differently about the global order and the significance of the revolutions rippling across the Middle East. If I were teaching a course on international relations, foreign policy, or global studies, this book would find a place on my syllabus." —Anne-Marie Slaughter President and CEO, New America Foundation, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University, USA

"Ewan Harrison and Sara McLaughlin Mitchell start off by charting the rise of democratic norms and liberal international institutions. But their cogent analysis of recent and current developments quickly shifts to a compelling, counterintuitive conclusion. The West will be left behind by the revolution it has helped to bring about. A triumph of political insight and scholarly synthesis, this is the type of book that changes minds and policies. Those of us in the West can only hope that it has not come too late!" - Erik Gartzke, University of Essex, United Kingdom, and University of California San Diego, USA

"A wonderfully refreshing and unfashionably optimistic discussion of the new world order in the making - one in which the current doom and gloom about a declining West, economic disintegration and the spread of intractable conflict is replaced by a sober yet utterly convincing vision of unprecedented opportunities for the old world powers and the newly emerging ones as well. More than a challenging read for our uncertain times. This is a reasoned manifesto of hope that will surely get - and definitely deserves - the widest readership possible." - Professor Michael Cox, Department of International Relations and Founding Director IDEAS, The London School of Economics, United Kingdom

From the Authors
This book offers new synthesis of the end of history and clash of civilizations theses, and a 'return to grand theory' in IR for the 25th anniversary of the end of the Cold War. It argues, controversially, that Fukuyama's thesis about the global spread of democracy and capitalism was essentially correct. However, there is a twist at the end of history. By adopting Western institutions, the rest will start to beat the West at its own democratic and capitalist game. Paradoxically, the global spread of liberalism therefore poses a major challenge to the position of the established Western democratic powers at the top of the international hierarchy. The global order of the future will be dominated by a 'clash of democratizations' between old and new democracies as the latter seek the benefits and recognition associated with membership of the democratic community.

About the Authors
Ewan Harrison is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Political Science at Rutgers University, USA. He is author of The Post-Cold War International System: Strategies, Institutions and Reflexivity (2004) and co-editor of Rethinking Realism in International Relations (2009). He completed his PhD at the University of Bristol in 1999, and was Hedley Bull Junior Research Fellow at St Anne's College, Oxford 2001-2004.

Sara McLaughlin Mitchell is Professor of Political Science and Collegiate Scholar at the University of Iowa, USA. She is co-author with Emilia Justyna Powell of Domestic Law Goes Global (2011), and with John A. Vasquez of Conflict, War, and Peace (2013). She is also co-editor of Guide to the Scientific Study of International Processes (2012). She is associate editor of Foreign Policy Analysis, and co-founder of the Journeys in World Politics mentoring workshop for women in international relations.