BOOK REVIEW ESSAY Sovereign Claims Recent Contributions to the Debate on Sovereignty in the Light of Intervention Policies in World Politics

describes the concept of sovereignty as a ‘bothersome concept ’ (1979: 95). While there is indeed hardly a concept more fundamental to the theory and practice of international relations than sovereignty, there seems to exist a considerable confusion in the literature on sovereignty (Rittberger, 1997: 100). In light of this observation, one may ask whether anything new can still be said on the subject. Many authors would say ‘No’.The following four books, however, prove that many aspects of sovereignty are still unexplored and that valuable contributions can be made to the general debate on sovereignty. All four contribute to the academic debate on sovereignty in presenting new impulses of how order might be attained in world politics, and might also therefore be of relevance to practitioners. Of Rights and Duties of States — Making Sense of a Sovereign Confusion International Relations (IR), as an academic discipline, has in recent years struggled to come to terms with two phenomena in international politic