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This text seeks to fulfil the promise made in ""The Elusive Quest"" to offer an alternative way of thinking about relations among polities. It attempts to shift the discipline's traditional focus from a world of territorially bounded sovereign states to an ever-changing variety of overlapping, layered, and politically functioning collectives. Ferguson and Mansbach identify ideal polity types and contend that while individuals typically possess loyalties to many compatible polities, issues may force individious choices, as exemplified by the post-cold-war reawakening of ""nations,"" tribes, and clans. Through six case studies of major civilizations and ages, they illustrate their theoretical arguments about the constant evolution of polities, the continual shifting of the global structure, and the importance of the past for understanding both the present and the future of global politics. The case studies included are: Ancient Mesopotamia; Greece from the Archaic period to Alexander; China from the early Chou to the Han era; Mesoamerica before and after the Spanish Conquest; Medieval Islam; and Italy from Rome to the Renaissance.