Read more
Mark Shirk examines historical and contemporary state responses to transnational violence to develop a new account of the making of global orders. He considers a series of crises that plagued the state system: piracy in the eighteenth century, anarchist ¿propagandists of the deed¿ at the turn of the twentieth, and al-Qaeda in recent years.
List of contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Change and Continuity in Political Order
2. The Golden Age of Piracy and the Creation of an Atlantic World
3. “Propaganda of the Deed,” Surveillance, and the Labor Movement
4. Al-Qaeda, the War on Terror, and the Boundaries of the Twenty-First Century
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Mark Shirk is visiting assistant professor of political science at Bucknell University.
Summary
The state bounds politics: it constructs and enforces boundaries that separate what it controls from what lies outside its domain. However, states face a variety of threats that cross and challenge their geographical and conceptual boundaries. Transnational violent actors that transcend these boundaries also defy the state’s claims to political authority and legitimacy.
Mark Shirk examines historical and contemporary state responses to transnational violence to develop a new account of the making of global orders. He considers a series of crises that plagued the state system in different eras: golden-age piracy in the eighteenth century, anarchist “propagandists of the deed” at the turn of the twentieth, and al-Qaeda in recent years. Shirk argues that states redraw conceptual boundaries, such as between “international” and “domestic,” to make sense of and defeat transnational threats. In response to forms of political violence that challenged boundaries, states developed creative responses that included new forms of control, surveillance, and rights. As a result, these responses gradually made and transformed the state and global order. Shirk draws on extensive archival research and interviews with policy makers and experts, and he explores the implications for understandings of state formation. Combining rich detail and theoretical insight, Making War on the World reveals the role of pirates, anarchists, and terrorists in shaping global order.
Additional text
Mark Shirk offers a brilliant new analysis of the crucial role violent nonstate actors have played in transforming practices of state sovereignty from the golden age of piracy to the war on terror. This book combines exciting theoretical innovation with fascinating historical empirics, as well as offering timely lessons for the likely future of today’s troubled liberal international order. Written in punchy prose and with a natural storyteller’s flair, Making War on the World is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how transnational predators have so profoundly shaped both the modern state and the modern world.
