Restraining Power: The Law of Nature and the Theory of International Relations

Author/Contributor(s):	Hendrickson, David C.
Publisher:	Verso
Date:	9/8/2026
Binding:	Paperback
Condition:	NEW

Challenges dominant paradigms in international relations and reclaims an intellectual tradition essential for our time.

For centuries, thinkers grappled with a fundamental question: how can sovereign states coexist without destroying each other? Restraining Power recovers a forgotten tradition that offered an answer—the "law of nature and nations" built on reciprocity, justice, and good faith. David C. Hendrickson excavates this vital framework for restraining state violence and shows why it matters now more than ever.

All states, Hendrickson argues, have an interest in observing these principles, but few states have violated them more than the United States. He shows that in crossing these principles, US foreign policy has entered a destabilizing shadow world in which force and fraud seem normal.