Policymakers worry that "ungoverned spaces" pose dangers to security and development. Why do such spaces exist beyond the authority of the state? Earlier scholarship-which addressed this question with a list of domestic failures-overlooked the crucial role that international politics play. In this shrewd book, Melissa M. Lee argues that foreign subversion undermines state authority and promotes ungoverned space. Enemy governments empower insurgents to destabilize the state and create ungoverned territory. This kind of foreign subversion is a powerful instrument of modern statecraft. But though subversion is less visible and less costly than conventional force, it has insidious effects on governance in the target state.

To demonstrate the harmful consequences of foreign subversion for state authority, Crippling Leviathan marshals a wealth of evidence and presents in-depth studies of Russia's relations with the post-Soviet states, Malaysian subversion of the Philippines in the 1970s, and Thai subversion of Vietnamese-occupied Cambodia in the 1980s. The evidence presented by Lee is persuasive: foreign subversion weakens the state.

She challenges the conventional wisdom on statebuilding, which has long held that conflict promotes the development of strong, territorially consolidated states. Lee argues instead that conflictual international politics prevents state development and degrades state authority. In addition, Crippling Leviathan illuminates the use of subversion as an underappreciated and important feature of modern statecraft. Rather than resort to war, states resort to subversion. Policymakers interested in ameliorating the consequences of ungoverned space must recognize the international roots that sustain weak statehood.

About the Author

Melissa M. Lee is Assistant Professor of Political and International Affairs at Princeton University. Visit melissamlee.com for more information.

Reviews

Lee's pathbreaking book provides the best study yet of how ungoverned spaces have become important in international conflict.

* Foreign Affairs *

Melissa Lee's superb new book challenges both the conventional wisdom and the qualification to identify an overlooked way in which conflictual relations between two states since 1960 have served to weaken, rather than strengthen, one of the disputants.

* Perspective on Politics *

Lee has written nothing short of a cornerstone book for any international relations or comparative politics scholar.

* Security Studies Quarterly *

As a whole, Crippling Leviathan stands at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations and makes contributions to both fields. Lee's chief theoretical insight is that state formation and consolidation-central concepts to scholarly work in both comparative politics and international relations-is not merely a domestic, but also a transnational process. Lee's chief empirical contribution is the creative and thoughtful measures for state capacity.

* International Studies Review *


Awards
Commended for Foreign Policy Section Best Book Award 2022 (United States).



Book Information
ISBN 9781501748363
Author Melissa M. Lee Desfor
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 25mm