scholarly journals Complexity in international society: theorising fragmentation and linkages in primary and secondary institutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Dennis R. Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Systems Thinking ◽  
International Society ◽  
Adaptive Systems ◽  
International Institutions ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Structural Condition ◽  
English School ◽  
Global Level ◽  
Complex Systems Thinking

This article seeks to contribute to theorising the institutional structure of international society by exploring synergies between complex systems thinking and the English School theory of International Relations (IR). Suggesting that the English School already embraces key conceptual insights from complexity theory, most notably relational and adaptive systems thinking, it reconfigures international society as a complex social system. To further advance the English School’s research programme on international institutions, the article introduces the notion of “law-governed emergence” and distils two effects it has on global institutional ordering practices: fragmentation and clustering. These moves help to establish complexity as a fundamental structural condition of institutional ordering at the global level, and to provide a basis for taking steps toward better understanding the nature and significance of institutional interconnections in a globalised international society.

scholarly journals Anarchy in International Relations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silviya Lechner
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
English School ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Interaction Domain ◽  
Alternative Discourse ◽  
The Third ◽  
Analytical Review ◽  
International Anarchy

The concept of anarchy is seen as the cardinal organizing category of the discipline of International Relations (IR), which differentiates it from cognate disciplines such as Political Science or Political Philosophy. This article provides an analytical review of the scholarly literature on anarchy in IR, on two levels—conceptual and theoretical. First, it distinguishes three senses of the concept of anarchy: (1) lack of a common superior in an interaction domain; (2) chaos or disorder; and (3) horizontal relation between nominally equal entities, sovereign states. The first and the third senses of “anarchy”’ are central to IR. Second, it considers three broad families of IR theory where anarchy figures as a focal assumption—(1) realism and neorealism, (2) English School theory (international society approach), and (3) Kant’s republican peace. Despite normative and conceptual differences otherwise, all three bodies of theory are ultimately based on Hobbes’s argument for a “state of nature.” The article concludes with a summary of the key challenges to the discourse of international anarchy posed by the methodology of economics and economics-based theories that favor the alternative discourse of global hierarchy.

Sovereignty under attack: the international society meets the Al Qaeda network

2005 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barak Mendelsohn
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
International System ◽  
Al Qaeda ◽  
English School ◽  
State Actor

This article examines the complex relations between a violent non-state actor, the Al Qaeda network, and order in the international system. Al Qaeda poses a challenge to the sovereignty of specific states but it also challenges the international society as a whole. This way, the challenge that Al Qaeda represents is putting the survival of the system under risk. Consequently it requires that the international society will collectively respond to meet the threat. But challenges to both the practical sovereignty of states and to the international society do not have to weaken the system. Instead, such challenges if handled effectively may lead to the strengthening of the society of states: a robust international society is dynamic and responsive to threats. Its members could cooperate to adapt the principles and the institutions on which the system is founded to new circumstances. Through its focus on the preservation qualities of the international society this article also reinforces the significance of the English School to the study of international relations. It raises important questions that could be answered in the framework of the English School.

5. International Society

2021 ◽  
pp. 137-169
Author(s):  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller ◽  
Robert Jackson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
International Society ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
World Politics ◽  
English School ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
International Systems

This chapter examines the International Society tradition of international relations (IR). International Society, also known as the ‘English School’, is an approach to world politics that places emphasis on international history, ideas, structures, institutions, and values. After providing an overview of International Society’s basic assumptions and claims, the chapter considers the three traditions associated with the leading ideas of the most outstanding classical theorists of IR such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Immanuel Kant: realism, rationalism, and revolutionism. It then explores International Society’s views regarding order and justice, world society, statecraft and responsibility, and humanitarian responsibility and war; as well as how International Society scholars have used a historical approach to understand earlier international systems and the development of international society. It also discusses several major criticisms against the International Society approach to IR and concludes with an overview of the research agenda of International Society after the Cold War.

5. International Society

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Immanuel Kant ◽  
International Society ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
World Politics ◽  
World Society ◽  
English School ◽  
International History ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Niccolò Machiavelli

This chapter examines the International Society tradition of international relations (IR). International Society, also known as the ‘English School’, is an approach to world politics that places emphasis on international history, ideas, structures, institutions, and values. After providing an overview of International Society's basic assumptions and claims, the chapter considers the three traditions associated with the leading ideas of the most outstanding classical theorists of IR such as Niccolò Machiavelli and Immanuel Kant: realism, rationalism, and revolutionism. It then explores International Society's views regarding order and justice, empire and world society, statecraft and responsibility, and humanitarian responsibility and war. It also discusses several major criticisms against the International Society approach to IR and concludes with an overview of the current research agenda of International Society.

3. Realism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Past ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Power Concept ◽  
International Thought

This chapter examines the realist tradition in international relations (IR). It highlights an important dichotomy in realist thought between classical realism and contemporary realism, including strategic and structural approaches. It also considers both classical and social scientific strands of realist thought. After describing the elements of realism, the chapter discusses the international thought of three outstanding classical realists of the past: Thucydides, Niccolò Machiavelli, and Thomas Hobbes. It then analyses the classical realist thought of Hans J. Morgenthau, along with strategic realism and neorealism. Furthermore, it looks at the recent theoretical debate among realist IR scholars concerning the relevance of the balance of power concept, as well as two critiques of realist doctrine: an International Society critique and a revisionist and emancipatory critique. The chapter concludes with an overview of the prospects for the realist tradition as a research programme in IR.

Regions in International Society. The English School at the Sub-Global Level

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleš Karmazin ◽  
Filippo Costa-Buranelli ◽  
Yongjin Zhang ◽  
Federico Merke ◽  
Katarzyna Kaczmarska
Keyword(s):  
International Society ◽  
English School ◽  
Global Level

A Realist critique of the English School

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Copeland
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
English School ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Realist Theory ◽  
The Past ◽  
Middle Way ◽  
Material Power

Over the past decade, the English School of International Relations (IR) has made a remarkable resurgence. Countless articles and papers have been written on the School. Some of these works have been critical, but most have applauded the School's efforts to provide a fruitful ‘middle way’ for IR theory, one that avoids the extremes of either an unnecessarily pessimistic realism or a naively optimistic idealism. At the heart of this via media is the idea that, in many periods of history, states exist within an international society of shared rules and norms that conditions their behaviour in ways that could not be predicted by looking at material power structures alone. I f the English School (ES) is correct that states often follow these rules and norms even when their power positions and security interests dictate alternative policies, then American realist theory – a theory that focuses on power and security drives as primary causal forces in global politics – has been dealt a potentially serious blow.

scholarly journals The English School: History and Primary Institutions as Empirical IR Theory?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Buzan ◽  
George Lawson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
English School ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
School Work ◽  
School History ◽  
Primary Institutions ◽  
Historical Accounts

How does the English School work as part of Empirical International Relations (IR) theory? The English School depends heavily on historical accounts, and this article makes the case that history and theory should be seen as co-constitutive rather than as separate enterprises. Empirical IR theorists need to think about their own relationship to this question and clarify what “historical sensitivity” means to them. The English School offers both distinctive taxonomies for understanding the structure of international society, and an empirically constructed historical approach to identifying the primary institutions that define international society. If Empirical IR is open to historical-interpretive accounts, then its links to the English School are in part strong, because English School structural accounts would qualify; they are, in other ways, weak because the normative theory part of the English School would not qualify. Lying behind this judgement is a deeper issue: if Empirical IR theory confines itself to regularity-deterministic causal accounts, then there can be no links to English School work. Undertaking English School insights will help open up a wider view of Empirical IR theory.

Thucydidean Themes: Democracy in International Relations

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Hobson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
International Society ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Democratic Peace ◽  
Conceptual History ◽  
Peace Research

This chapter explores existing scholarship on democracy in international relations, focusing primarily on the democratic peace research programme. The remainder of the chapter provides the theoretical and conceptual framework for the book. It identifies how conceptions of democracy have developed in relation to principles of sovereignty and legitimacy in international society. A conceptual history methodology is proposed, which is outlined by drawing on the work of Quentin Skinner and Reinhart Koselleck. The final part of the chapter uses Thucydides to draw out some key themes of the book.

The Anarchical Society as Christian Political Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Bain
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Thomas Hobbes ◽  
English School ◽  
Political Relations ◽  
The World ◽  
Artificial Nature ◽  
Hedley Bull ◽  
The Universe

It is widely accepted that in The Anarchical Society—the key text of the English School—Hedley Bull presents and defends the Grotian conception of international relations. This essay argues that Bull’s thinking about order is indebted to a medieval theological dispute about the nature of God and the extent of his power. This dispute yields a way of knowing and explaining the world that stresses the artificial nature of political relations, domestic and international. In other words, order between states is instituted in the same way that God made the universe, through will and artifice. Once this theological ground is uncovered it becomes apparent that Bull’s account of international order is consistent, not with Grotius, but with the thought of Thomas Hobbes. One of the crucial implications of this argument is that international society has not outgrown its European and Christian roots to the extent that Bull suggests.

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