Networked Politics: Agency, Power, and Governance

by Miles Kahler (Editor)

The concept of network has emerged as an intellectual centerpiece for our era. Network analysis also occupies a growing place in many of the social sciences. In international relations, however, network has too often remained a metaphor rather than a powerful theoretical perspective. In Networked Politics, a team of political scientists investigates networks in important sectors of international relations, including human rights, security agreements, terrorist and criminal groups, international inequality, and governance of the Internet. They treat networks as either structures that shape behavior or important collective actors. In their hands, familiar concepts, such as structure, power, and governance, are awarded new meaning.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2009

About the author

Kahler is an expert on international politics and international political economy, including international monetary cooperation, global governance, and regional institutions. Kahler was most recently Rohr Professor of Pacific International Relations and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IR/PS) and the Political Science Department, University of California, San Diego. He has been a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2012-2013), at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University (2007-2008), and at the Council on Foreign Relations (1994-1996 and currently). He is a member of the Editorial Board of International Organization. His current research centers on the role of emerging economies in global governance and challenges to the nation-state as a dominant unit in the international system. Recent publications include Integrating Regions: Asia in Comparative Context (co-editor, Stanford University Press), Politics in the New Hard Times (co-editor and contributor, Cornell University Press), and "Rising Powers and Global Governance: Negotiating Change in a Resilient Status Quo," (International Affairs, 2013). He received A. B. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University and a B. Phil. (M. Phil.) degree from Oxford University.

Reviews

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a useful volume on networks and politics. For those who are not steeped in the literature, a network is a structure that has a number of actors working together in a non-hierarchical manner, although--in public administration--the term has a zillion different meanings (making things more confusing). The editor of this volume, Miles Kahler, notes that there are two approaches to networks--(a) structures; (b) actors (as opposed to hierarchical actors).

The book explores networks in action. The various parts of this book: Part I: International economic networks and constitutional networks; Part II: networks and collective action; Part III: power and accountability in networks; Part IV: networks and international governance.

It's hard to describe the essence of this book in 25 words or less. Nonetheless, it is a useful volume laying out the political implications of network structures.

[Liquidlasagna · Rating 3 out of 5]

coalition of networks to influence outcomes

and insights into criminal networks