Global International Society A New Framework for Analysis

This ambitious book provides a new framework for analysing global international society (GIS). In doing so, it also links the English School's approach more closely to classical sociology, constructivism, liberal institutionalism, realism and postcolonialism. It retells the expansion of international society story to explain why the differences among states are as important as their similarities in understanding the structure and dynamics of contemporary GIS. Drawing on differentiation theory, it sets out four ideal-type models for international society. These cover the 'like units' of the classical English School, as well as differentiation by geography, hierarchy/privilege, and function. These models offer a systematic way to integrate international and world society, and to understand the relationship between the deep structure of primary institutions, and the vast array of intergovernmental and international non-governmental organisations. In this pioneering book, Buzan and Schouenborg present the reader with the first systematic attempt to define criteria for assessing whether international society is becoming stronger or weaker.

1. Theorising international society; 2. The making of contemporary global international society: how do international societies grow/expand?; 3. The 'like-units' model; 4. The regions/subglobal model; 5. The hierarchy/privilege model; 6. The functional differentiation model; 7. Aggregating the models: the complex differentiation of contemporary global international society; Conclusions.

Barry Buzan is Emeritus Professor in the London School of Economics and Political Science Department of International Relations, honorary professor at Copenhagen, Jilin, and China Foreign Affairs Universities, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Among his 26 books are: From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation (Cambridge, 2004); An Introduction to the English School of International Relations (2014); and, with George Lawson, The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations (Cambridge, 2015, winner of Francesco Guicciardini Prize for Best Book in Historical International Relations 2017).
Laust Schouenborg is Associate Professor of Global Studies in the Department of Social Sciences and Business at Roskilde Universitet, Denmark. He has authored The Scandinavian International Society: Primary Institutions and Binding Forces, 1815–2010 (2012) and International Institutions in World History: Divorcing International Relations from the State and Stage Models (2016), and contributed to Guide to the English School in International Studies (2014, eds Navari and Green).