This book examines the different ways in which order has been
achieved in world affairs with a view to understanding current
political dilemmas and opportunities.
International Ordersbegins by distinguishing between
world order and international order in the spirit of Hedley Bull.
This leads to an analysis of five different principles of
international order – the principles of the balance of power, the
concert of great powers, liberal regimes, interdependence, and the
exercise of hegemony. However, principles of international order
are rarely simply clear cut in their operations, they intermingle
with the perceptions of human agents and the plans of political
leaders who have sought to structure the world polity to serve
particular aims.
The core of this volume comprises a detailed historical
sociology of how international order was achieved at three crucial
phases in the history of the states system. Theories and evidence
are deployed to examine: the emergence of the European states
system; the development of the European state from Westphalia to
the rise of Nazism; and the emergence and impact of the Cold War.
Throughout, the theories of world order are examined, tested and,
in the light of evidence, improved.
In conclusion, considerable attention is given to the forces of
integration and disintegration which might strengthen or undermine
world order in the future, and an argument is offered concerning
the ethical grounds on which intervention in the affairs of another
state might be justified.
Table of Content
Preface.
1. Groundwork.
2. The European System.
3. The Age of Revolutions.
4. La Paix Belliqueuse.
5. Results of the Inquiry.
Index.
About the author
John A. Hall is a Professor of Sociology at Mc Gill University.
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