Abstract
The idea that we occupy a world-historical moment in which the international community is breaking the mold of the Westphalian system and moving toward the "new kind of universalism" (p. 155) heralded by the establishment of the United Nations and drawing its impetus from horror at the Holocaust, has been a leitmotif for Cook throughout; in the final chapter, "Transcending Westphalia," it takes center stage. When Cook speaks of the justice of defending the "globalized civilization grounded in democracy, human rights, free trade, communication, technology and science" (p. 36), I find myself wondering if that is really the best account of ourselves that we heirs of Moses and Christ, Aristotle and Augustine, and Thomas More and Abraham Lincoln can give.