World society as humanity is both beauty and beast; the concept thus ought to capture the complexity of ways human beings manage the very plurality of the human condition
The most powerful societies have not come under sustained pressure to construct an international society that does justice to different cultures or civilisations.
A post-Iraq United States suggests a weakening of the West’s willingness to maintain dominance; and the rise of China promises the return of a general balance of power.
The expansion of the international society as articulated by the English School has come under increasing criticism for its putatively pronounced Eurocentric bias.
The English School in IR theory has an under-theorised understanding of humanity which in turn fails to explain why ‘we’ should act to save ‘them’.
Contrary to the billiard-ball metaphor of international politics, states are not just individual elements in a system. They form a ‘world society’.
The English School has resisted well to criticism and calls for closure over the years, refining some of its under-specified aspects without losing its central identity.
Due to its pluralistic model, the English School represents a coherent and advantageous method for achieving a broad and complex understanding of international political issues.
This volume, now in its 2nd edition, brings together some of the most important voices on the English School to highlight the multifaceted nature of the School’s applications in IR. Edited by Robert W. Murray.
While talk would suggest that there exists some kind of unitary and durable actor called ‘international community’, it is far from clear who or what it represents.
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