Observing International Relations: Niklas Luhmann and World Politics

by Albert,Mathias; Albert,Mathias

• ISBN13: 9780415315388
• ISBN10: 0415315387
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-19
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Observing International Relations draws upon the modern systems theory of society, developed by Niklas Luhmann, to provide new perspectives on central aspects of contemporary world society and to generate theoretically informed insights on the possibilities and limits of regulation in global governance.The authors develop a Luhmannian theory of world society by contrasting it with competing notions of international society, critically discussing the use of modern systems theory in international relations theory and assessing its treatment of central concepts within international relations, such as power, sovereignty, governance and war.

Table of Contents

Notes on contributors	x
Preface	xii
Series editor's preface	xiii
Acknowledgements	xv
1 Introduction	1	(10)
MATHIAS ALBERT
PART I Luhmann and IR: a worthwhile encounter?	11	(46)
2 On the Modern Systems Theory of society and IR: contacts and disjunctures between different kinds of theorizing	13	(17)
MATHIAS ALBERT
3 Politics, Modern Systems Theory and the critical purpose of International Relations Theory	30	(14)
THOMAS DIEZ
4 "Corpus mysticum": Niklas Luhmann's evocation of world society	44	(15)
STEFAN ROSSBACH
PART II Competing notions of world society and world society as the "largest social system possible"	57	(62)
5 The "English School" and world society	59	(13)
CHRIS BROWN
6 Sociological institutionalism and the empirical study of world society	72	(14)
GEORGE M. THOMAS
7 World society from the bottom up	86	(17)
LOTHAR BROCK
8 World society, systems theory and the classical sociology of modernity	103	(18)
DIETRICH JUNG
PART III Bringing Modern Systems Theory to the study of IR: concepts and questions	119	(107)
9 Systems and sovereignty: a systems theoretical look at the transformation of sovereignty	121	(21)
ANDERS ESMARK
10 "World opinion" and the turn to post-sovereign international governance	142	(15)
HANS-MARTIN JAEGER
11 Society's war: the evolution of a self-referential military system	157	(20)
GORM HARSTE
12 Organizations in/and world society: a theoretical prolegomenon	177	(19)
MATHIAS ALBERT AND LENA HILKERMEIER
13 Governance in a world society: the perspective of systems theory	196	(12)
DIETER KERWER
14 Constructivism and International Relations: an analysis of Luhmann's conceptualization of power	208	(15)
STEFANO GUZZINI
15 Concluding remarks	223	(3)
MATHIAS ALBERT
Bibliography	226	(26)
Index	252