ABSTRACT
Any coherent attempt to understand contemporary international relations must include an analysis of the impact of two factors: long-term tendencies toward globalization—the intensification of transnational as well as interstate relations—and the more immediate effects of the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Thomas Hobbesian monarchs had incentives to expand internal markets, since they would capture part of the gains from trade, but their time horizons were shorter than those of the states that they controlled; thus they had incentives to capture immediate gains at the expense of long-term growth, as the repeated defaults of the Hapsburg emperors on their debts illustrate. The historically successful answer to Hobbes's dilemma at the internal level—constitutional government—is very different from that proposed by Hobbes. Liberal thinkers have sought to resolve Hobbes's dilemma by building reliable representative institutions, with checks on the power of rulers, hence avoiding the dilemma of accepting either anarchy or a "predatory state.".
