For those who want to understand how international political institutions have developed and changed over the last 300 years, this is the book for you. K. J. Holsti begins from the premise that we actually know very little about how these institutions have changed and especially about the degree to which they have done so since the Second World War.

To address the issue, Holsti begins by identifying different types of institutional change, ranging from minor to fundamental, in international politics and by explaining how researchers can better distinguish conceptually and methodologically among them. He argues that all international political institutions consist of three dimensions: patterned practices, ideas and beliefs, and norms. In order to determine the degree to which an institution changes, he argues, we need to track the degree to which each of these dimensions changes over a given period of time. He uses this approach to determine how much change has occurred in four institutions that provide the basic foundation for international politics (i.e., states, sovereignty, territoriality, international law) and four so-called process institutions that underlie and regulate interactions and transactions between international political actors (i.e., diplomacy, international trade, colonialism, war). Each institution receives a chapter-length treatment that describes the essential developments of each dimension from its origins to the present. Additionally, Holsti assesses for each institution the various factors that are most responsible for precipitating change, such as depressions, wars, globalization, technological changes, intellectual breakthroughs, or the collapse of empires, including the Soviet Union.

The author finds that no single explanation or description of change fits all eight areas that he examines. Trade has recently become increasingly globalized; territoriality has been transformed (e.g., the European Union); colonialism has become obsolete; and war has reverted in part to pre-Westphalian practices and principles (e.g., terrorism). Nevertheless, he concludes that insofar as trends can be identified, many international institutions have become increasingly complex. That is, the essential practices, ideas, and norms have remained basically the same for a long time even though the activities and actors associated with them have expanded in numbers and tasks, rules have become more elaborate, and the functional scope of these institutions has often increased dramatically. For instance, he argues that the essential elements of the typical Westphalian state have remained in place since the late seventeenth century, although such states have grown in terms of their resources, personnel, military capabilities, and areas of responsibility. As such, he argues that it is a mistake to claim, as many do, that states today are becoming obsolete, withering away, or otherwise being transformed in ways that change their fundamental institutional character. This is not to deny that some states have become weaker or that some states have collapsed. But for the most part, according to Holsti, the basic institutional elements of most states and the international political institutions within which they are embedded have remained remarkably resilient in the face of phenomena that, others have argued, create tremendous pressures for change.

One aim of Taming the Sovereigns is to refute those who have argued that late-twentieth-century globalization is fundamentally transforming the institutional basis of international politics. This is an impressive rebuttal, given the wide range of institutions that Holsti tackles. There are no new data here. But the conceptual and methodological apparatus he uses to organize his presentation of the secondary literature brings new sophistication and analytic rigor to the debate—especially insofar as he systematically tracks the same institutional dimensions (practices, ideas, norms) over time in each case to determine what types of change, if any, have occurred.

There are also other reasons why this book is important. In contrast to most realist theories of international relations, Holsti maintains that ideas, such as economic theories and taken-for-granted norms regarding the behavior of states, to mention just two, figure prominently in the development and change of international political institutions. He acknowledges that the material interests of states and the concerns of states with raw political power matter, too. But the book seeks to show that interests and ideas are intimately connected in ways that affect change. Hence, the argument here has implications for the recent literature on “ideas” in politics. What these implications are, however, are not clearly developed. And this illustrates a shortcoming of the book. Let me explain.

I found it frustrating that Holsti failed to offer a coherent theoretical view of change in international politics. In fact, the final chapter explicitly refrains from drawing broad theoretical conclusions. On the one hand, I understand that he wants to be cautious and not overgeneralize from his findings, especially because he finds some important differences across cases. But, on the other hand, because he acknowledges throughout the volume the debates over ideas and interests and the debates over globalization, I was expecting him to adjudicate these debates and draw theoretical lessons from his analysis. I hoped, at a minimum, that tracing developments in eight institutional areas over the last three centuries would yield at least some theoretical hunches upon which others might focus later. Instead, we are left with a descriptive, albeit useful, taxonomy of change, rather than a coherent theory of change. Moreover, if in fact the important story that emerges from his analysis is that international political institutions are resilient over time and tend to increase in complexity, then the implications for theories of path-dependent political and institutional change could have been developed. Theoretically informed arguments about path dependence abound in political science (and sociology and economics) these days, but none of them are addressed in the book. In fairness, however, we should remember that Holsti's stated purpose is not so much to engage theoretical debates as it is to determine empirically how much change has occurred or not.

Overall, given its substantive breadth and historical scope, this book would be an excellent text in courses on international politics or globalization. It certainly provides a wonderful introduction to the history of state building and international political institutions. It also shows how international institutions have tamed the behavior of sovereign states. And it provides food for thought for those who might want to consider a range of underlying theoretical implications later.