The Later Security Confederations: The American, New Swiss, and German Unions

(Hardback)

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In this volume, Fredrick Lister examines security confederations of the modern eras; America's confederal union during the winning of the Revolutionary War; Switzerland's in post-Napoleonic Europe; and Germany's during the turbulence of the Austro-Prussian Confrontation whose outcome transformed the European political scene. Lister concludes with an evaluation of the possibility that confederal-type ties might one day serve as a basis for global union. After setting forth the nature of confederal-type governance, Lister provides three case studies that follow on the evolution of confederal political institutions in the United States, Switzerland, and Germany. Each section ends with a series of conclusions on the confederation examined. A thorough examination of a long-neglected subject that will be of interest to scholars, students, and researchers involved with world government and international relations.

Reviews

By examining the Confederation of the United States (1781-1787), the Swiss Confederation (1815-1848), and the German Confederation (1815-1866), this book makes and important and timely contribution to the renewed interest in confederalism. Lister provides a rich contextual analysis of the political, social, and economic conditions leading to confederation in each case, a detailed examination of the constitutional texts, and a persuasive argument why these confederations were eventually turned into federal states.-Publius: The Journal of Federalism
"By examining the Confederation of the United States (1781-1787), the Swiss Confederation (1815-1848), and the German Confederation (1815-1866), this book makes and important and timely contribution to the renewed interest in confederalism. Lister provides a rich contextual analysis of the political, social, and economic conditions leading to confederation in each case, a detailed examination of the constitutional texts, and a persuasive argument why these confederations were eventually turned into federal states."-Publius: The Journal of Federalism

Author Bio

FREDERICK K. LISTER is a retired UN official, with 34 years of service in the United Nations Secretariat. He was long involved in coordinating the many interlocking activities of the UN and its numerous specialized agencies, such as the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the World Bank. He has since been involved in research on international co-operation as a senior research fellow of the Ralph Bunch Institute of the City University of New York. Among his earlier publications are The European Union, The United Nations, and the Revival of Confederal Governance (Greenwood Press, 1996) and the companion volume The Early Security Conferations: From Ancient Greece to the United Colonies of New England (Greenwood Press, 1999).