Louis W. Pauly - Power in a Complex Global System

Are the international and domestic policy challenges we face in the early twenty-first century challenges to institutions, norms, identity, social compacts, and much else just marginally worse than in other eras or much more fundamental? A great many global, regional, and national problems certainly now call for innovative policy responses, which established political institutions and practices seem incapable of delivering. Power is very much at issue, and the challenge is double-edged. Simultaneously taming power and using it effectively is not a simple matter. Collaborative research focused on specific puzzles promises a way forward. The various authors of this book are in dialogue with one another. On one level, we are interested in the rendering of power-as-control into legitimate political authority. On another level, we highlight the more complicated manifestations of power that help or hinder the development of effective policy capacity. In short, the drive to understand the protean nature of power in todays world brings us together. But something else sparked our dialogue in the first place.