Anarchical society: a study of order in world politics

Part I seeks to define world order, to show that order does exist in world politics, and to explore the relationship between order and justice in world politics. Part 2 shows how order is maintained in the contemporary states system through 'institutions such as the balance of power, international law, diplomacy, war and the special position of the great powers, Part 3 examines what alternative forms of universal political organisation exist. It considers and rejects both the idea that the states system is giving place to some such alternative as a world government or a neo-mediaeval order, and also the idea that the states system has ceased to be viable in the sense that it is incompatible with objectives such as peace, economic justice and ecological control. It also reviews proposals for the reform of the states system, including the "Kissinger Model, the proposals of radical global salvationists, Third World proposals for redistribution of power and Marxist or Maoist visions of future world order.