The interplay between regional international societies

Abstract

The increasing salience of ‘multiple worlds’ within the international system makes it necessary to take into account the dynamics operating at the sub-systemic level. This article, utilising the concept of regional international society (RIS), aims to further develop the regional dimension as seen through the lenses of the English School. It suggests accompanying the move to the regional level by reflections on the interregional. For this purpose, it puts forward a conceptualisation of various types of relationships that unfold between RIS's – the inter-regional dimension. The traditional notion of ‘expansion’ is found wanting in capturing the full range of relationships and is complemented by forms of coexistence and confrontation. Understood as ideal types, the three concepts (expansion, coexistence and clash) serve as analytical tools for making sense of the varied nature of inter-regional encounters. This is illustrated with regard to the relationship between the European international society and its Eastern neighbours in the aftermath of the Eastern enlargement of the European Union. A more nuanced reading of the inter-regional highlights a constellation quite different from ‘expansion’ where the European society does not push into empty space, but reaches out into an alternative order, opening the possibility of a clash between the European and a consolidating post-Soviet RIS.