New Book Release from HNC American Co-Director

HNC Co-Director and Resident Professor of Political Science Adam K Webb's new book has been released.  The World's Constitution: Spheres of Liberty in the Future Global Order is available in a free e-book version (from Routledge and Amazon Kindle) thanks to the generous support of the Johns Hopkins Libraries Open Monograph Initiative (JHLOMI).

Book description:

Global governance is tightening and foreshadows that world state formation will become a live political issue in this century. Some observers treat it as inevitable amid the urgency of global issues. They foresee a technocratic scaling up of the model of state authority that has prevailed at the national level for over two hundred years. Many critics and members of the public around the world look askance at that prospect. They rightly fear a moral vacuum of authority disconnected from the world’s traditions, and a concentration of power that would be damaging to liberty or even dystopian in its upshot. Still, they often merely aim to stand athwart the scaling up of political institutions, rather than actively trying to shape an alternative that can seize the global horizon.

The World’s Constitution: Spheres of Liberty in the Future Global Order offers a radically different vision of future world order that could work in a global space while shifting the balance of power from state back to society. It draws on older resources in political thought, both Western and non-Western, to upend mainstream notions of statehood and sovereignty that have been taken for granted for too long in the modern era. It offers an original ‘sphere pluralist’ framework that can reconcile liberty, tradition, and cosmopolitanism. As a book rooted in the past but mindful of future constitutional and policy challenges, it bridges ideas and real-world implications, with insights that cut across a wide range of topics from migration and social welfare to personal law systems and channels of representation. It opens an exciting debate about global constitutional futures that is likely to become more salient over the next couple of generations.

Routledge: Click Here

Amazon Kindle US: Click Here

Amazon Kindle UK: Click Here

Adam Webb has been American Co-Director since 2019, and on the HNC faculty since 2008 as Resident Professor of Political Science. His responsibilities touch on multiple aspects of community life and the academic structure of HNC, as well as fostering integration between HNC and the other SAIS campuses in Washington and Bologna. His intellectual interests cut across political thought and global affairs and have generated four books. Over his long time in China, he has also done quite a lot of exploring off the beaten track.