Global Politics: A New Introduction - Softcover

Cynthia Enloe, author of Seriously! Investigating Crashes and Crises as If Women Mattered.

If you thought the first edition was amazing, wait until you read this! Global Politics 2.0 is the most intellectually rewarding textbook in the field to-date. The revolutionary question-based approach now challenges, provokes, and inspires across an even wider range of issues in contemporary political life. This version of Edkins and Zehfuss, with its unrivalled line-up of world-leading scholars, sets the bar even higher―it is a must-read for students and lecturers alike.

Nick Vaughan-Williams, Reader in International Security, University of Warwick, UK.

Unlike the majority of IR manuals, this book does not try to domesticate the ways we learn and teach global politics. Instead of spoon-feeding students with theories and concepts, it invites students to think about the international by focusing on the very questions that drive them to study world politics.

I wish a manual like this had been available back when I was an undergraduate student.

Erica Simone A. Resende, Rio de Janeiro State University, Brazil.

This engaging text treats readers as intelligent adults, inviting them to apply their own observations and experiences to the issues it addresses. Long case examples illustrating concepts like nationalism (China), and democracy (Argentina) let readers see how the moving parts of theories operate in practice. The chapter on the financial crisis is accessible, incorporates several tiny case examples from Iceland to Occupy, and carefully distinguishes among the contributions of states and other actors to what is happening. No text covers everything but what is examined here invites readers to continue their investigations, and provides tools to do just that.

Mary Ann Tetreault, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Trinity University, San Antonio TX.

"In my twelve years of teaching introduction-level courses in Globalization and IR, I have never seen a textbook come close to 'Global Politics'. The book brings an unprecedented degree of attention to the challenge of balancing theoretical rigor with facility of access. Many books will recite 'the theories' but none will get your students to think so deeply about the questions of our time. Power, subjectivity, sovereignty, security, neoliberalism, it's all here. This new edition adds fresh and relevant material addressing the Internet, global revolt, and the everyday politics of the ongoing financial crisis."

Nicholas Kiersey, Assistant Professor in Political Science, Ohio University, USA.

'Global Politics: A New Introduction' makes international politics and theorising accessible and intelligible for students. It gives equal weight to theoretical approaches and case studies, and the centrality of questions as a basis for inquiry is both engaging and unique.

Christine Agius, Lecturer in Politics, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.

Global Politics offers students analysis of the most pressing issues of today: climate change, migration, economic upheaval, resistance, inequality, and conflict - while also placing contemporary global politics in the context of histories of colonialism, nationalism, capitalism and statehood. It is an invaluable resource in helping students think through complex concepts in new and accessible ways, giving them illustrative examples about foundational topics in global politics, from democracy, ethics and human rights, to political economy, and war and peace. Moving beyond conventional stories about the nature of international relations, Global Politics captures the richness of the study and practice of international affairs today.

Alison Howell, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University (Newark), USA.

The 2nd Edition of Introduction to Global Politics speaks to students everywhere about how their world is constructed, and how it really works. Using a common language, it also suggests ways in which they could change it. Its appearance marks the formal end of that great divide – IR is made in the Global North and consumed in the Global South. This is a major achievement, and every textbook from here on, will have to use the Edkins/Zehfuss template..."

Peter Vale, Professor of Humanities, University of Johannesburg, and Nelson Mandela Professor of Politics Emeritus, Rhodes University, South Africa.

Praise for the Previous edition:

'Global Politics: A New Introduction explodes the tired axioms, sloppy analogies, common assumptions, and conventional wisdoms of International Relations. This collection, unlike any other, asks all the right questions, troubles the easy answers, and provides a common intellectual strategy for tackling the most pressing global issues of today.' - James Der Derian, Professor of International Studies, Brown University

'This text takes students on an important intellectual journey ... it offers a fresh perspective with a different purpose, especially in its focus on political questions. The chapters are of a high standard written by scholars with established reputations for critical-creative thought.' - David Campbell, Durham University, UK

Jenny Edkins is Professor of International Politics at Aberystwyth University and has also taught at the University of Manchester and the Open University. Her publications include Missing: Persons and Politics (Cornell University Press 2011), Trauma and the Memory of Politics (Cambridge University Press 2003) and Whose Hunger? Concepts of Famine, Practices of Aid (University of Minnesota Press 2000, 2008). She is co-editor (with Nick Vaughan-Williams) of the Routledge book series Interventions, and co-organiser of the Gregynog Ideas Lab Summer School in PostInternational Politics. She is currently completing a book with the working title Making Faces, Making a Politics (Routledge 2013).

Maja Zehfuss is Professor of International Politics and Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Constructivism in International Relations: The Politics of Reality (Cambridge University Press 2002) and Wounds of Memory: Politics of War in Germany (Cambridge University Press 2007). Her current research examines the politics of ethics in the context of war. She is a member of the National Academy of Teaching.