William Maley , Charles Sampford and Ramesh Thakur

As the Western world enters a new millennium, the seemingly settled parameters of a global politics based on the interaction of sovereign states appear increasingly threatened. On the one hand, processes of globalisation, especially in the economic sphere, have limited the freedom of action of those political elites who do not wish to bear the costs of pursuing autarkic policies. The debate between free traders and protectionists, which so marked the politics of democratic states at the beginning of the twentieth century, has for the moment been resolved – in international agreements if not always in the practice of strong states. On the other hand, however, processes of fragmentation have led to the disruption of a significant number of states or proto-states. Whether in Kosovo or East Timor, Somalia or Afghanistan, Cambodia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sierra Leone or Zimbabwe, the instrumentalities of the state have been compromised. Yet in a curious twist, another form of globalisation – this time a globalisation based not on market exchange but on a spreading sense that the rule of law, human security, and the ability of ordinary people to change their rulers without bloodshed are all values worth protecting – has drawn what is loosely called ‘‘the international community’’ into the internal affairs of these territories. It is with some key dimensions of that involvement that the essays in this book are concerned.