Kant or Cant: The Myth of the Democratic Peace

This article clarifies the origins of the field of transitional justice and its preliminary conceptual boundaries. I argue that the field began to emerge in the late 1980s, as a consequence of new practical conditions that human rights activists faced in countries such as Argentina, where authoritarian regimes had been replaced by more democratic ones. The turn away from “naming and shaming” and toward accountability for past abuse among human rights activists was taken up at the international level, where the focus on political change as “transition to democracy” helped to legitimate those claims to justice that prioritized legal-institutional reforms and responses—such as punishing leaders, vetting abusive security forces, and replacing state secrecy with truth and transparency—over other claims to justice that were oriented toward social justice and redistribution. I end by discussing the many ways in which these initial conceptual boundaries have since been tested and expanded.

How "Transitions" Reshaped Human Rights: A Conceptual History of Transitional Justice

1. Introduction 2. Fear, interest and honor 3. The spirit and its expression 4. The ancient world 5. Medieval Europe 6. From Sun King to Revolution 7. Imperialism and World War I 8. World War II 9. Hitler to Bush and beyond 10. General findings and conclusions.

/pdf/a-cultural-theory-of-international-relations-4bpcaeiy8z.pdf

A Cultural Theory of International Relations

Introduction 1. The orthodox theory of order in world politics 2. The Grotian theory of the law of nations 3. Colonialism, imperialism and extra-European international politics 4. Two patterns of modern international order: toleration and civilisation 5. Order in contemporary world politics, global but divided Conclusion.

/pdf/beyond-the-anarchical-society-grotius-colonialism-and-order-569a6vm4tz.pdf

Beyond the Anarchical Society: Grotius, Colonialism and Order in World Politics

Security relations between states vary along a continuum from anarchic alliances to hierarchic empires. This continuum, in turn, is defined by the parties' rights of residual control. The state's choice between alternatives is explained in a theory of relational contracting as a function of the expected costs of opportunism, which decline with relational hierarchy, and governance costs, which rise with relational hierarchy. A comparison of early postwar relations between the United States and Western Europe and the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe illustrates the theory.

Anarchy, hierarchy, and the variety of international relations

The Oxford history of the British Empire

(1994). The imperialism of decolonization. The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History: Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 462-511.

The imperialism of decolonization

This book, which examines British disengagement in the Middle East during the Labour Government of 1945-51, is in a large sense a comment on the British response to Arab, Jewish, and Iranian nationalism

The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951 : Arab nationalism, the United States, and postwar imperialism

This book examines the wartime controversies between Britain and America about the future of the colonial world, and considers the ethical, military, and economic forces behind imperialism during World War II It concludes that, for Britain, there was a revival of the sense of colonial mission; the Americans, on the other hand, felt justified in creating a strategic fortress in the Pacific Islands while carrying the torch of "international trusteeship" throughout the rest of the world-a scheme that Churchill and others viewed as a cloak for American expansion

Imperialism at bay 1941-1945 : the United States and the decolonization of the British Empire

This book, which examines British disengagement in the Middle East during the Labour Government of 1945-51, is in a large sense a comment on the British response to Arab, Jewish, and Iranian nationalism.

William Roger Louis

Papers

The Oxford history of the British Empire

The imperialism of decolonization

The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951 : Arab nationalism, the United States, and postwar imperialism

Imperialism at bay 1941-1945 : the United States and the decolonization of the British Empire

The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945-1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism