Introduction: Learning in Modern International Society

Abstract

Learning in international relations is by no means a new or groundbreaking notion. The bell for the contemporary round of discussions was rung with the end of the Cold War when scholars sought to explain the unpredicted transformation that took place in the Soviet Union. Today, the old Union made way for a new union as many of the former Eastern bloc states become members of the European Union. Yet, learning as a means for explaining policy changes or transformations that at first glance contradict rational expectations of actors’ interests is still under discussion. And as the fate of the former Soviet Union keeps moving, so do developments in learning theory. A modern theory of learning would have to exceed the now essentially historical case studies of individual policy change of the 1990s. Particularly the end of the Cold War has opened the world political stage for a new generation of actors. A diversification of levels of interaction and objects of regulation implicates the rising importance of international organisations, transnational networks, sub-state units of regulation, public-private partnerships and topically specialised non-governmental organisations on a transnational stage. Scholars refer to a growing transparency of national borders, the development of an international society or the formation of a global society (Brock/Albert 1995, Bull 1977, Forschungsgruppe Weltgesellschaft 1996) as well as the development of global governance or global statehood (Kommission für Weltordnungspolitik 1995, Messner/Nuscheler 1996, 1999, Shaw 2000).