The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments Our collaboration has been characterized by the best kind of egalitarianism and professional conduct. Each of us has contributed equally to this project. We are grateful to each other for making the journey of developing this book just as refreshing as the subject matter. Furthermore, we are encouraged about the outlook for engagement between scholars with ties to more critical and more problem-solving approaches because of our own engagement and dialogue. Colleagues have commented constructively on this project throughout its development. For reactions to work at early stages, we are indebted to the anonymous reviewers from International Studies Perspectives, the journal that published our initial study. We also thank Christina Gray, Stuart J. Kaufman, Angela McCracken, V. Spike Peterson, Jennifer Sterling-Folker, Ann Tickner, and especially the late Hayward Alker Jr. for thoughtful comments on previous drafts of the article. We are particularly grateful to have bene‹ted from Hayward’s attentive and extensive critique before his passing and will miss his excellent colleagueship. Some have read this manuscript in full or in part and offered helpful commentary. We are grateful to the referees, along with Catia C. Confortini , Cynthia Enloe, and Angela McCracken. Carolyn C. James read multiple drafts of our manuscript and offered extensive commentary. She also used the manuscript in her International Relations of Middleearth classes at Pepperdine University; the students helped this project by providing reactions to earlier drafts. Both of us are also grateful to the Center for International Studies and School of International Relations at the University of Southern California for supporting this project. Abigail Ruane would also like to thank the Josephine De Kármán Fellowship Trust for ‹nancial assistance, and her family (Alex, Aidan, and Kiana Ruane) for their encouragement and support during this time. Finally, we thank Jennifer Barrios, Ki Evelyne Kim, and Daniel J. Smith, who provided excellent assistance with the preparation of this manuscript. We are very grateful to our outstanding editor, Melody Herr, who provided valuable advice and guidance at all stages of this project. We also appreciate the ‹ne work of Susan Cronin in the handling of our manuscript. vi • Acknowledgments ...