Tuesday's Read: Forced Migration and Global Politics

Betts, Alexander. Forced Migration and Global Politics. (New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009)
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Alexander Betts' Forced Migration and Global Politics (2009), is an excellent resource for students of refugees and international relations. Betts first conceived the idea of the book when he noticed a lacuna in effective, comprehensive, diversely-sourced and well-organized materials on forced migration to use in his graduate seminars at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. In Forced Migration he seeks to compensate for the lack by bringing together in one volume the various theories of International Relations on the subject. In this sense Forced Migration is first and foremost a textbook.

Betts summarizes a the main schools of thought on the causes, consequences, and responses of the international community toward refugee crises, including neo-realism; liberal institutionalism; analytical liberalism; constructivism, critical theory; and the English school/international society. He then examines how different theories explain the relationship of states to the idea of sovereignty and to refugees: are states primarily focused on internal security? on maintaining sovereignty? do they privilege "order over justice," as some in the English school have suggested? How do they maintain sovereignty and territorial integrity in a global context?

Betts moves on to theories of international order, global governance, and regional sovereignty, including a chapter on the relationship between the global north and the global south, and on the tension between capitalist principles and the plight of displaced persons.

Though the theories in this book are much too complex to summarize in a brief blog post, they are ably and succinctly put down by Betts. Given the breadth and scope of the information covered, it is impressive that he was able to keep this volume at a scant 200 pages. Forced Migration is highly recommended for students needing a solid theoretical grounding and a jumping off point for further research.