The social construction of state sovereignty / Thomas J. Biersteker and Cynthia Weber -- Contested sovereignty: the social construction of colonial imperialism / David Strang -- Beyond the sovereignty dilemma: quasi-states as social construct / Naeem Inayatullah -- The sovereign state system as political-territorial ideal: historical and contemporary considerations / Alexander B. Murphy -- Sovereignty and the nation: constructing the boundaries of national identity / Roxanne Lynn Doty -- Sovereignty, nationalism, and regional order in the Arab states system / Michael Barnett -- Binding sovereigns: authorities, structures, and geopolitics in Philadelphian systems / Daniel Deudney -- Hierarchy under anarchy: informal empire and the East German state / Alexander Wendt and Daniel Friedheim -- Reconstructing the analysis of sovereignty: concluding reflections and directions for future research / Cynthia Weber and Thomas J. Biersteker.