Non-Great Powers in International Politics: The English School and Nordic Internationalism

This book develops a theoretical framework drawn from the English School of international theory to explore the contribution of non-great powers within the international society of states. In doing so the author asks whether the analysis of such actors as well as their distinct contributions to global justice and order, can sustain the normative and analytical rigour of the English School. Focussing on the Nordic states' conduct and conceptions of welfare internationalism, the responsibility to protect norm and humanitarian intervention as well as gendered and adjacent forms of internationalisms, this book provides important insights into the co-constitutive relationship between specific agents and the wider sphere of international society. It sheds light on the crucial normative debate between order and justice in international politics and explains the specific roles of "non-great powers" in sustaining, nurturing and constituting international society through their internationalist foreign policies. This book will be of strong interest to students and scholars of international relations; international relations theory, particularly those with an interest in the English School; and Nordic politics.

1. Introduction2. Revising the English School- a move towards greater solidarism3. Non-great powers in international society - the English School and Nordic internationalism4. Nordic welfare internationalism as a form of solidarism5. Humanitarian (forcible) intervention and the limits of solidarist arguments6. Gendered internationalism and the English School7. Adjacent internationalism -small states solidarism in international society8. Conclusion