International Society as Homogeneity

Abstract

The concept of ‘international society’ occupies a significant place, at once constitutive and spectral, in the study of international relations. A number of reasons for this ambivalent position will be discussed below, but perhaps the most important of all is the variance of meanings that attaches to the term. Within realism, ‘international society’ refers to a relationship between states, based on shared norms and understandings: this is the sense in which it is used by Martin Wight, Hedley Bull, James Mayall and other theorists of the English school. Within transnationalism, it refers to the emergence of non-state links of economy, political association, culture, ideology that transcend state boundaries and constitute, to a greater or lesser extent, a society that goes beyond boundaries. Originally pioneered by writers within International Relations influenced by behaviouralism and a liberal Internationalist approach (John Burton, Robert O. Keohane, Joseph Nye) it has been developed in some more recent international relations literature (Evan Luard) and separately but relatedly in the sociological literature on globalisation (Michael Featherstone, Roland Robertson, Leslie Sklair, John Urry). Both of these uses, the inter-state and the transnational, have, within their theoretical frameworks, important explanatory power.