Beyond the Nation State: Functionalism and International Organization

Ernst B. Haas

Of all of the books produced by Ernst B. Haas during his career, Beyond the Nation State contains the most complete and definitive statement of "neo-functionalism"--the theory of transnational integration for which he is best known. Focusing on the International Labor Organization (ILO), Beyond the Nation State was one of the first efforts to analyze systematically the dynamics and effects of a global international institution. This book is regarded as a classic in comparative politics, international relations, and among students of European Integration (IR) and has enjoyed a renaissance with the end of the cold war, reinvigorated European integration, resumed interest in communitarian theorizing, and efforts to theorize forms of global governance which relied on a heightened role for international institutions and their associated policy communities. First published in 1964, this book was part of larger project described by others as "neofunctionalism," "regional integration," and "soft constructivism," which animated Haas throughout his career. Beyond the Nation State continues to provide valuable guidelines for describing and understanding contemporary IR, and its reissue features a new introduction by Peter M. Haas, John G. Ruggie, Philippe Schmitte,r and Antje Wiener, placing this important work in a current context.

Related Subjects

• International Affairs

About the Author

Ernst Bernard Haas was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1924. Haas and his family immigrated to the United States in 1938, where he attended the University of Chicago prior to working in the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Service from 1943–46. In 1952 he received his Ph.D. in public law and government from Columbia University, where he had also received his BS and MA. Haas began his academic career in 1951 at the University of California, Berkeley, where he remained until his death in 2003. From 1969–73 he was director of the UC Berkeley Institute for International Studies and Robson Professor of Government. A leading authority on international relations theory, Haas was concerned with the concepts and process of international integration and is the founder of neofunctionalism as an approach to the study of integration. Haas was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he served as a consultant to many bodies in academia, publishing, government, and international organizations, including the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, and the Commission on Global Governance.

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