VDM Visions of Domination

Throughout history, great powers - Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, the British and Spanish New World Empires, to name a few - have established widely varying systems of domination to control subordinate polities. This variation, especially when found among contemporaneous actors, suggests an important puzzle that would seem to defy the expectations of predominant approaches in international relations theory: Why do great powers facing the similar incentives and constraints of an anarchic system establish widely different sub-systems of hierarchical domination? This book seeks to explain the apparent puzzle by theorizing that a great power's behavioral choice in establishing hierarchy is influenced by domestic social factors. Specifically, I look to a great power's communal ideology - its reason for being, or raison d'etre, that informs membership criteria, political authority, and legitimate power expression. Applying this theory to twelve cases in three eras of international politics, I argue that communal ideology is a compelling explanation for variation in great power hierarchy. This book is intended for audiences interested in subject matter related to international relations theory, political science and world history.