Presents an account of the successes, failures, and prospects of the human rights revolution. This work argues that human rights activists have rightly drawn criticism from Asia, the Islamic world, and within the West itself for being overambitious and unwilling to accept limits.

The acceptance of human rights and minority rights, the increasing role of international financial institutions, and globalization have led many observers to question the continued viability of the sovereign state. This book contends that states have never been as sovereign as some have supposed.

In this, his most systematic and fundamental work, Hedley Bull argues that the system of sovereign states is not in decline and is not an obstacle to world order but its essential foundation.

An examination of the extent to which humanitarian intervention has become a legitimate practice in international society, this text maps the changing legitimacy of humanitarian intervention by comparing the international response to cases of humanitarian intervention in the cold war and post-cold war periods.

An examination of the nature and history of authority, the political good, the sovereign and liberty. The foreword places the author's work in the context of his entire corpus.