Of all of the books produced by Ernst B. Haas during his career, Beyond the Nation-State contains the most complete and definitive statement of 'neofunctionalism': the theory of transnational integration for which he is best known. Focusing on the International Labor Organization (ILO), Beyond the Nation-State was one of the first efforts to analyse systematically the dynamics and effects of a global international institution.

Regarded as a classic in comparative politics and international relations, and among students of European integration, this book enjoyed a renaissance with the end of the cold war, reinvigorated European integration, and resumed interest in communitarian theorising about forms of global governance, which relied on a heightened role for international institutions and their associated policy communities.

First published in 1964, Beyond the Nation-State was part of larger project described by others as neofunctionalism, regional integration, and soft constructivism, which animated Haas throughout his career. Beyond the Nation-State continues to provide valuable guidelines for describing and understanding contemporary IR, and is reissued with a new introduction by Peter M. Haas, John G. Ruggie, Philippe Schmitter and Antje Wiener, placing this important work in a current context.