Description
The notion of 'the West' is commonly used in politics, the media, and in the academic world. To date, our idea of 'the West' has been largely assumed and effective, but has not been examined in detail from a theoretical perspective. Uses of 'the West' combines a range of original and topical approaches to evaluate what 'the West' really does, and how the idea is being used in everyday political practice. This book examines a range of uses of 'the West', and traces how 'the West' works in a broad array of conceptual and empirical contexts, ranging from the return of geopolitics - via a critical review of the debates surrounding Samuel Huntington's Clash of Civilization thesis - to the question of the future of 'the West'. Analysis extends further to the repercussions of the war on terror on Western democracy and the processes of delineating the Western from the non-Western, as well as observations of the institutional transformations of Western order.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction: uses of 'the West' Benjamin Herborth and Gunther Hellmann; Part I. Theorizing 'the West': 2. Foreign policy identity crises and the uses of 'the West' Stefano Guzzini; 3. 'The West' versus other Western 'we's': a discourse analysis in reverse Ole Wæver; 4. Between polarization and appeasement: democracy and its 'other' Harald Müller; 5. After 'the clash': uses of 'the West' after the Cold War Patrick Thaddeus Jackson; Part II. 'The West' in Use: 6. Aesthetics, power and insecurity: self-interrogative imaging in 'the West' Brent Steele; 7. Everyday exceptions: the paradox of a perpetual state of emergency Benjamin Herborth; 8. Reconstituting the North Atlantic Alliance: a reconstruction of NATO's strategic discourse since 1949 Gabi Schlag; 9. Transatlantic policies towards China and Russia: self-conceptions and contradictions of a universalizing West Christian Weber; 10. Russia becoming Russia: a semi-periphery in splendid isolation Ted Hopf; Part III. Transformations of the Western Institutional Order: 11. Defending 'the West'? The transformation of national security in the European Union Gunther Hellmann; 12. How the 'end of the Cold War' ended Matthew Evangelista; 13. Conclusion: the ways of 'the West' and the road ahead Lene Hansen.
