The Shield Of Achilles: War, Law, And The Course Of History

'The Shield Of Achilles' is a brilliant, epic enquiry into the nature of the state - its origin in war, its drive for peace and legitimacy - and the unprecedented threats that it will face in this era of uncertainty.

Here Philip Bobbitt offers answers to some of the great questions of statehood. What is the relationship between states and the huge, epoch-defining wars that ravage the world? How do those wars and the peace that follows them define the world order we live under? With both the death of the nation-state and the ever-increasing power of the state being predicted, where does its future lie? Do the fortunes of states turn on the actions of a few individuals or are they determined by the inevitable flow of events?

Timely and perceptive - sometimes visionary - 'The Shield Of 'Achilles will change the way we think about the world; its past, present and, most remarkably, its future.