The Sovereignty Revolution

By Alan Cranston

The Sovereignty Revolution is the late Senator Alan Cranston's analysis of the problems created by our current conception of sovereignty, "with every nation supreme inside its own borders and acknowledging no master outside them." As such, it is the last testament of a senior statesman with a deep moral commitment to nuclear disarmament.

This book is an impassioned argument that these conceptions of sovereignty, and in turn the role of international institutions, must change before humanity can effectively resolve the world's increasingly global challenges, from international terrorism and the proliferation of nuclear weapons to climate change and poverty. Cranston argues that for humanity to survive the twenty-first century, we must adopt a more encompassing understanding of sovereignty, one that acknowledges the primacy of the individual, while emphasizing the importance of strengthening international law and increasing the authority of multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations. The book includes a foreword by Mikhail Gorbachev, an Introduction by Jonathan Schell, and response essays by Jane Goodall and Jonathan Granoff.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080474761X
• ISBN13: 9780804747615
• Release Date: July 2004
• Publisher: Stanford Law and Politics
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Don't wait, you need to read this book

Most pleas for democratic global governance, including reforming of the United Nations came from outsiders, people against the current system, or are just empty words from leaders that whenever possible do what they can to preserve their nation-states privileges and undermine global action. Alan Cranston is obviously an insider, but in this little gem of a book he convincingly shows what he really thought and believed, that nations have to proceed to the deliberate pooling, through democratic processes of consent, of strictly limited and carefully defined portions of sovereignty to international institutions, either by reforming current ones or creating ones, if we are to have hope of solving the myriad problems with global dimensions that challenge us or threaten our own continuity as species in this planet. Everything else is practically perfect. There are many other books about global governance, but The Sovereignty Revolution is so cogent, to the point, impassionate and convincing that I recommend it as first choice if you are going for the first book on this matter, as your next book if you are already well read and for sheer pleasure if you are a foremost expert on global governance. And then, enjoy the essays by Jane Goodall, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, and Jonathan Schell. Either if you agree or diasagree there is no way you can be dissapointed.