War, the State and International Law in Seventeenth-Century Europe

Exploring the history and theories of political thought of international relations in the seventeenth century, this volume addresses one of the great paradoxes of post-medieval Europe: why instead of bringing peace to a disorganised and violent world, modernity instead produced a seemingly endless string of conflicts and social upheavals? Bringing together political scientists, philosophers, historians of political thought, jurists and scholars of international relations, the collection offers a sophisticated and fresh account of the interactions of law, conflict and the nation state in an early-modern European context