"Cunliffe argues valiantly and incisively for a concept long scorned. A revived concept of the national interest will help recover social solidarity, democratic accountability and the basis for pursuing the common good."Patrick Porter, University of Birmingham"Cunliffe's book provides a brilliant rehabilitation of the concept of national interest, establishing it as a founding stone of a post-globalist democratic theory and practice and making it the essential point of departure for a rigorous theory of the state-in-society that leaves the shallows of the neoliberal worldview behind."Wolfgang Streeck, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne"Rejecting the anti-politics of both managerial technocrats and populist demagogues, Philip Cunliffe makes a convincing argument that in today's world genuine democracy is impossible without national sovereignty."Michael Lind, author of The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite"A vital account of how academics and politicians have collaborated in the hollowing out of the idea of the nation state – in favour of sub-national identities and supranational institutions – and how it might be revived."David Goodhart, author of The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics"A foundation for a postliberal theory of international order... Cunliffe makes a compelling case that technocratic elitism and populist nihilism are both downstream of a crisis of political legitimacy that can only be remedied through a restoration of national identity, associational life, and democratic representation."Heather Penatzer, Compact