Every now and then, a monograph on an obscure topic overcomes intractable issues across the subfields. Armed Guests deserves that honor. Drawing on pragmatism, Sebastian Schmidt develops a theory of institutional order and change, which circumvents the structure-agency dilemma that keeps constructivists, practice theorists and historical institutionalists chasing their tails. Applied to the practice of "sovereign basing," Schmidt shows how state sovereignty
was recomposed after World War II in ways that reshaped the contemporary world.
