From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation

Abstract

From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of Globalisation. By Barry Buzan. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 318p. 25.99 paper.The English School of international relations has been principally concerned with understanding the society of states, but some of its members have commented on its relationship with world society. Hedley Bull and Martin Wight noted that the architects of the modern society of states derived some of their political vocabulary from medieval conceptions of world society. Bull maintained that natural law images of a world society survived in the modern doctrine of universal human rights. Whether a world society was likely to develop in the first universal society of states was a question of great importance to Bull and John Vincent. The former referred to an emerging “cosmopolitan culture of modernity” that could underpin order between radically different societies in “the post-European age”; the latter believed a global culture that established the right of every human being to be free from starvation could perform that function. However, most members of the English School have denied that the modern society of states is likely to be dissolved in a world society. Indeed, Wight argued that from the Reformation, rival conceptions of world society have often had a divisive effect on international relations. Barry Buzan's most recent book is the first work by a member of the school to consider world society since Vincent's call for the more systematic investigation of the concept almost 15 years ago.