THE LIMITS OF WORLD POLITY ANALYSIS
The spread of international norms has attracted increasing scholarly interest, especially among analysts working in the world polity tradition.[2]
Such studies typically involve large-sample studies that persuasively document processes of global convergence, showing that structural homogenization is sweeping the world as more states sign international treaties and hook up to global flows. This diffusion process is accelerated by the work of intergovernmental bodies such as the International Monetary Fund, as well as nongovernmental organizations such as Greenpeace, Transparency International, and Human Rights Watch.
States now broadly conform to a small number of generic models, adopting constitutions that define the relationship between citizens and the state, valuing education and economic development, and creating bureaucratic machineries to promote women, science, the environment, and education. Although homogenization has escalated dramatically since the Cold War's end, the process was first initiated by European colonialism. Decolonization shrugged off overt Western political domination, but retained many Western structures and narratives. Like scholars of cultural globalization, world polity theorists see an increasingly homogenous globe imitating a handful of Western-devised models.[3]
World polity scholars rarely explore local variations on global themes, however, and as one leading ethnologist notes, often have little to say about the "link between models or norms on the one side and concrete practices on the other."[4] On the ground, after all, the practice of liberal democracy in Sweden, the United States, and Russia is remarkably different, as savvy local actors devise their own unique paths through globally mandated rules. As a result, local variations on global themes are best explored through detailed investigations of individual cases. The ethnic cleansing and ethnic policing efforts described in this book are examples of such innovations, as Serbian leaders and Israeli decision makers manipulated the global rules of sovereignty and human rights to further their own agendas. Bosnian sovereignty was not supposed to provoke Serbian ethnic cleansing, while Palestinian human rights lobbying efforts were not intended to encourage Israeli ethnic policing. In each case, nationalist states both conformed to and violated international norms.