Risk and hierarchy in international society

Abstract

Several recent works have emphasised contemporary hierarchical trends within international society that suggest a transition away from international society's pluralist constitution. These trends have been most readily demonstrated by the willingness of dominant states, such as the United States, to conduct interventions in support of the promotion and enforcement of liberal democratic values. Yet while many scholars have identified these hierarchical trends, few have considered what such trends suggest regarding the underlying normative constitution of international society. This paper seeks to explain why such a transition within the normative constitution of international society has occurred. Utilising Ulrich Beck's notions of risk and the ‘world risk society’, this paper suggests that an increasing preoccupation with globalised security risks within international society, particularly on the part of the West, underpins this constitutional transition. The West's perceived need to manage global security risks via intervention in so-called ‘risky zones’ structures the new normative basis of international society. Risk has altered the constitutional structure of international society in a way that gives rise to various hierarchical and anti-pluralist trends.