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This volume examines concepts of State and political power within the evolving multilateral network. It considers the EU as both a reference and a proactive player which fosters a new research agenda for comparative studies on cooperation and political theory.

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This volume presents a reconsideration of the concepts of State and political power within the evolving multilateral network of cooperation and conflict. By means of an innovating research strategy, it explains state resilience within global governance while deepening the obsolescence of the traditional sovereign state concepts, including by emerging powers. Rather than considering the EU as an isolated case study, the book considers the EU as both a reference and a proactive player, which fosters a new research agenda both for comparative studies and political theory. Lastly, in view of the currently emergent, unprecedented and asymmetrical, ´multi-polar´ world, it considers the need for a new research agenda on multilateralism.

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Table of Contents.- List of Acrnyms.- Introduction; Mario Telò.- 1. State and multilateralism: system change, diversities and challenges.- State and Multilateralism: History and Perspectives; Mario Telò.- State, Regionalism and global governance: the theoretical debate from the opening of the Berlin wall to the economic crisis; Andrew Gamble.- Economic Multilateralism: A Search for Legitimacy and Coherence in the 21st Century; Richard Higgot.- International Responsibility, Multilateralism and China Foreign Policy; Chen Zhinim.- 2. Globalization and the Transformation of the State: The Theoretical Debate.- The State and Political Economic Change: Beyond Rational Choice and Historical Institutionalism to Discursive Institutionalism; Vivien A. Schmidt.- Globalization, Regionalization and Stateness; Thomas Meyer.- The Rise of Executive Sovereignty in the Era of Globalization; Andreas Vasilache.- Conclusion, State and New Multilateralism in a Multipolar World; Mario Telò.- Bibliography.-

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