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This book reinterprets the EU using classical and early modern republican political theory. Bypassing the nation-state, it presents a new theory of the creation, change and demise of organizations in world politics. It also argues that the state is a problematic solution to ´state-failure´ and explores alternative republican commonwealths.

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Introduction: Through the Shadows of the State The Fiction of the State as the Good, Natural and the Beautiful Remedies: The Neglected Heritage of Republicanism A Long-lived Republic: The Holy Roman Empire 1648-1763 A Solitary Republic: The United States of America 1776-1865 A Shielded Republic: The European Union 1957-2010 Republican Commonwealths versus State-Building Conclusions

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PETER HALDÉN is Researcher at the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. Previously, he was a researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and worked at the Swedish Defence Research Agency. His publications include The Geopolitics of Climate Change and an edited translation of the Peace of Westphalia.

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