Coexisting Civilizations in a Plural World

The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals and Civilization. By Robert W. Cox, Michael G. Schechter. New York: Routledge, 2002. 232 pp., $100.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-415-25290-3), $24.95 paperback (ISBN: 0-415-25291-1). Over the years, many a student has sat in Robert Cox's international political economy class and wondered how best to label this scholar. Is he a Marxist, a Gramscian, or a Weberian? Is he a realist, a liberal idealist, an historical materialist, or a postmodernist? In this timely and provocative book— The Political Economy of a Plural World: Critical Reflections on Power, Morals and Civilization —Cox proves beyond any shadow of a doubt that he defies labeling, that he cannot be pigeonholed. Indeed, he reveals an eclecticism of thought that can only come from serious engagement with a vast range of scholarship. He demonstrates an agility with respect to theoretical formulation and conceptualization that can only be produced by a supple, critical, reflective, and open mind. In short, this book is a masterful encapsulation of Cox's epistemological, ontological, and methodological roots. It also serves as a systematic response to Cox's various critics and confirms the important contribution that this scholar has made to modern-day international political economy and critical international relations theory. Criticism is one stimulus that propels the evolution of Cox's thought. Michael Schechter does the readers of this book a favor by summarizing and synthesizing the past critiques of Cox's major works. Most of these critiques have come from scholars who perceive that Cox has neglected issues stemming from their particular research agendas (for example, military analysts, feminists, ecologists). But others have also criticized Cox's historical materialist theoretical framework and his postpositivist methodological orientation. Schechter's opening chapter serves as the catalyst for Cox to engage in a truly stimulating dialogue with his critics. However, the book is much more than a rebuttal. It provides Cox with an …