Global International Society Research Articles

Geopolitics and global economic governance

Abstract This article analyses the relationship between geopolitics and global economic governance from an international relations perspective, laying stress on the long-term changes that have taken place in the character and dynamics of modern global international society. First, it unpacks what is involved in talk about the ‘the return of geopolitics’, arguing that the international political system needs to be understood in its own right and according to its distinctive logics and dynamics, separate from those of modern capitalism. The second section shifts the focus from the modern international to the modern global, arguing that the ‘we’ now involved in both geopolitics and global economic governance has changed in fundamental ways and that the diffusion of power and agency and the revolt against Western dominance are far broader than the rise of China. The final section looks at future pathways: the unlikely possibility of the restoration of US hegemony; the case for the primacy of political order over global governance and for refocusing attention on the primary or foundational institutions on which all more elaborate forms of global governance must depend; and the identification of some of the most important institutional pinch-points where geopolitics and global economic governance intersect and need to be managed, including sanctions, security-related trade measures, and industrial strategy.

Global International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons in collaboration with European Society of Coloproctology audit on office-based and surgical treatment of haemorrhoidal disease: Study protocol.

Haemorrhoidal disease (HD) is one of the most common anal disorders in the adult population. Despite that, treatment options differ among different countries and specialists, even for the same grade of HD. The aim of this study is to evaluate the differences in patient demographics, surgeon preference for the treatment option, outcomes as well as patient satisfaction rate for the procedure using an office-based or surgical approach for the treatment of HD among International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ISUCRS) and European Society of Coloproctology (ECSP) fellows. A panel of the ISUCRS and ECSP members will answer questions that are included in a questionnaire about the treatment of HD. The questionnaire will be distributed electronically to ISUCRS and ECSP fellows included in our database and will remain open from 1 April 2024 to 31 May 2024. This multicentre, global prospective audit will be delivered by consultant colorectal and general surgeons as well as trainees. The data obtained will lead to a better understanding of the incidence of HD, treatment and diagnostic possibilities. This snapshot audit will be hypothesis generating and inform areas the need future prospective study.

Assembling international society

AbstractProducing a means of conceptualising and analysing international society as an assemblage, this article reflects on Adam Watson’s Evolution of International Society and demonstrates how an assemblage theory approach allows us to undertake Watson’s general aims to engage in broad, comparative analyses of international societies historically and produce a history of contemporary international society, but without the problematic biases and omissions that plague the empirical dimensions of his work. Understanding international society as an assemblage affords an ability to see that the endurance of so much of Western European international society in contemporary, global international society is owing to its particular form of assemblage. As a highly adaptive form of assemblage, what changes there might be in the international domain tend to occur within the assemblage, as the assemblage’s form renders both a substantive change of the assemblage and the establishment of any rival assemblage unlikely.

Global Diplomacy and International Society, written by Yolanda Kemp Spies

Global Diplomacy and International Society, written by Yolanda Kemp Spies

The English School and Global IR – A Research Agenda

This paper explores the different ways in which the English School of International Relations (ES) can contribute to the broader Global IR research agenda. After identifying some of the shared concerns between the ES and Global IR, such as the emphasis placed on history and culture, the paper proceeds with discussing what the authors believe to be the areas in which the ES can align itself more closely with the ideas and values underpinning Global IR: a more thorough engagement with the origins of global international society rooted in dispossession, violence, and colonialism; a more localised and diverse understanding of ‘society’; a sharper and more grounded conceptualisation of ‘the state’ as a basic ontology; an embracement of the interpretivist principle of charity; and a problematisation of assumptions of ‘globality’ of international society. The paper concludes with a tentative research agenda, emphasising the value of fieldwork, local practices and languages, archives, and a theorisation of international society that is grounded in the very social contexts being investigated.

Western Hegemony and Russia’s Eurasian Turn

According to some perspectives, it is difficult to imagine the collective West developing further relations with Russia beyond the regulatory and systemic – rather than the social – so long as their political systems remain divergent. At the same time, continued elements of Russian “Europeanness” raise fundamental questions about the future role and pre-eminence of liberal states – including Canada – in the contemporary international order, seeing as the Western-led liberal order appears to have failed to become synonymous with global order itself. As such, Russia remains a good case study for probing the extent to which a future world order must root itself in a monist frame in today's pluralistic world. This paper will seek to explore this question from a perspective rooted in the English School of international relations, with the aim of deriving conclusions regarding the liberal international order's ability to maintain its hegemonic position in global international society.

Assessing Global Kidney Nutrition Care: A Collaborative Report from the International Society of Nephrology Global Kidney Health Atlas and International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism

Assessing Global Kidney Nutrition Care: A Collaborative Report from the International Society of Nephrology Global Kidney Health Atlas and International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism

The transformation of global international society and the security agenda. Interview with Professor Barry Buzan

1. Acharya, A. and Buzan, B. (2019) The making of Global International Relations: Origins and evolution of IR at its centenary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9781108647670. CrossRef Google Scholar

P0066KIDNEYCODE: A GENETIC TESTING PROGRAM FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE

Abstract Background and Aims Knowledge about genetic causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is one of the key gaps in global kidney research and recent International Society of Nephrology recommendations encourage the adoption of genetic testing to enable a goal of providing precision medicine based on individual risk (1). A recent whole-exome sequencing study showed that genetic inheritance may be responsible for up to 10% of CKD diagnoses, many of which may be previously undiagnosed or mis-diagnosed (2). Continued advances in DNA sequencing technology have made genetic testing, even whole-exome sequencing, applicable to routine clinical diagnoses. In order to test the hypothesis that genetic testing can provide valuable information to increase the accuracy and precision of diagnosis in CKD, we designed a gene panel to prospectively provide genetic testing in a subset of patients with CKD defined by a specific set of inclusion criteria. Method Reata Pharmaceuticals is partnering with Invitae on a program called KidneyCode, which provides no-charge genetic testing to enable diagnosis of three specific rare monogenic causes of CKD: Alport syndrome (AS), autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) due to PKD2 mutations, and focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS), as well as detection of variants in one of the autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease gene, PKHD1. Invitae’s renal disease panel includes 17 genes (ACTN4, ANLN, CD2AP, COL4A3, COL4A4, COL4A5, CRB2, HNF1A, INF2, LMX1B, MYO1E, NPHS1, NPHS2, PAX2, PKD2, PKHD1, and TRPC6), and its assay includes both full-gene sequencing and intragenic deletion/duplication analysis using next-generation sequencing (NGS). The assay targets the coding exons and flanking 10bp of intronic sequences. Invitae’s method of variant classification uses a systematic process for assessing evidence based on guidelines published by the American College of Medical Genetics (3). Patients in the US at risk for hereditary CKD (eGFR ≤ 90 mL/min/1.73m2 plus hematuria or a family history of CKD) or with a known diagnosis of AS or FSGS are eligible. Family members of those with suspected or known AS or FSGS are also eligible. All participants in the KidneyCode program have access to genetic counseling follow-up at no additional charge. Results In the first five months of the KidneyCode program, 152 genetic tests have been completed. A genetic variant was reported in 87 patients. Of those 87 patients, 67 patients had 75 variants in COL4A3, 4, or 5 genes (34 Pathogenic/Likely Pathogenic (P/LP), 41 Variants of Uncertain Significance (VUS)), 20 patients had 24 variants in genes associated with FSGS (3 P/LP, 21 VUS), 15 patients had 20 variants in PKHD1 (1 P/LP, 19 VUS), and 2 patients had variants in PKD2 (1 P/LP, 1 VUS). Of the 34 patients with Pathogenic or Likely Pathogenic COL4A variants, 19 reported a previous diagnosis of Alport syndrome. Other diagnoses in patients with COL4A mutations included FSGS, thin basement membrane disease, and familial hematuria. Extra-renal manifestations such as hearing loss and eye disease were reported in 7 of the 34 patients with COL4A variants. Conclusion Initial results with the KidneyCode panel demonstrate the utility of NGS and support the hypothesis that combining genetic testing with clinical presentation and medical history can significantly improve accuracy and precision of diagnosis in patients with hereditary CKD.

China Through the Lens of Modernity

Abstract This article examines China’s encounter with modernity from the 19th century to the present day. It builds on the historical narrative of modernity developed by Buzan and Lawson (2015), and two theoretical perspectives: uneven and combined development, and differentiation theory. The article opens with a short history of modernity, establishing that it is not a static phenomenon, but a continuously unfolding process. It then explores five periods of China’s encounter with modernity: imperial decline and resistance to modernization; civil war and Japanese invasion; Mao’s radical communist project; Deng’s market socialism; and Xi’s attempt to synthesize Confucius, Mao, and Deng. It explores both how China fits into the general trajectory of modernity, and how it has evolved from rejection of it to constructing its own distinctive version of ‘modernity with Chinese characteristics’. The article ends by reflecting on what issues remain within China’s version of modernity, and how it fits, and doesn’t fit with other forms of modernity already established within global international society.

Left Ventricular Assist Device (LVAD) in Singapore: A Nation's 10 Year Experience

Continuous flow left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become part of the mainstay of management in Singapore's transplant scarce population, whether as a bridge-to-transplant or as definitive management for refractory heart failure. We report our nation's experience with the use of 2 LVADs, the HeartMate II, HeartMate HVAD, & the HeartMate III from May 2009-May 2019. From may 2009 to May 2019, 100 patients underwent implantation of 100 CF LVADs, HeartMate II (Thoratec Corp. Pleasanton, CA n= 60) or HeartMate III (Abott, n=17) or HVAD (HeartWare Inc., Framingham, MA; n = 23). Of this, 72 were implanted as bridge to transplant, 27 implanted as destination therapy and 1 implanted as bridge to recovery. A comparative analysis using exact binomial test was performed against global International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) Mechanically Assisted Circulatory Support (IMACS) registry. Mean age was 51.06 with 83 male and 17 female patients. 30 patients were INTERMACS I, 20 patients INTERMACS II, 37 patients INTERMACS III, 12 patients INTERMACS IV and 1 INTERMACS V. We had 0 INTERMACS VI and VII patients. The early complication rate of the cohort, HeartMate II, HeartMate III & HeartWare were as follows: 84.0%, 95%, 70.6% and 65.2% respectively. Perioperative mortality (within 30 days) in the same order was 8.0%, 8.33%, 11.8%, and 4.35%. Amongst the early complications, the most common was infections at 59.0%, followed by renal dysfunction 35.0% arrhythmias 30.0%, hemorrhagic events 27.0%, pericardial effusions 14.0% & lastly thromboembolic events 6.00% We report a higher 2-year survival (81% p = 0.0089) and 3-year survival (80% p=0.000023) compared to IMACS registry but also a higher early infection rate in 59%. Other complications were not statistically significant. The use of LVAD is promising as both BTT & definitive management in the Singapore population. Despite the relatively low volume performed in our nation, our complication rates are similar to international standards. This is likely due to the strict selection criteria with rigorous workup by a dedicated LVAD team. Our higher infection rates are possibly due to the warm and humid climate in Southeast Asia. In this promising era of changing improvements in MCS, we believe our nation can seek to improve future outcomes of our patients.

The nineteenth century liberal tradition and the English School historical narrative

This article uses the framework of “traditions of thought” and “dilemmas” to problematize and revise the English School’s Expansion Narrative of international relations history in the crucial nineteenth century, when the forms and practices of “European international society” expanded to dominate the world’s international relations. An exercise in historicizing and contextualizing the broader liberal tradition of international thought brings into focus a period of liberal ideas and policies in the first-half of the nineteenth century, before Expansion and the New Imperialism, and a particular “free trade” liberal order project adopted by Britain in the years 1830–1865 in particular. This brings a different perspective to the ES historical narrative of expansion of the European international society into a “global international society.” The article contextualizes ideas in the nineteenth century liberal tradition by highlighting a British global “unipolar moment” and the order project that accompanied it. It discusses the “dilemmas” that prompted the closing of that era and a shift in British thought and policy during the 1860s. These laid the foundation for the Expansion the English School focuses on after 1870, but also constitute a previous experiment in the engagement of the West with the Rest, with different potentialities, before the final onslaught of global-scale conquest.

The English School and postcolonial state agency: social roles and order management in Southeast Asia and the Asia-Pacific

AbstractThis paper contributes to recent revisions to the English School (ES) which have sought to redress its Eurocentrism. It argues that, despite providing necessary accounts of non-Western international societies and the agency of non-European polities in the expansion of global international society, there remains a gap in capturing the agency of postcolonial states in contributing to order negotiation and management in contemporary international order. It proposes a social role negotiation framework to address the gap, which it situates within a holistic conceptual framework that supplements an ES understanding of international order between states with a world-system perspective on how states are embedded within global capitalism, and a neo-Gramscian focus on social forces as the key agents contesting and shaping states' foreign policy orientation. It highlights two major types of postcolonial state agency within international order: contesting and limiting great powers' legitimate exercise of power; and establishing responsibilities towards building and managing order vis-a-vis great powers. The paper illustrates the utility of the social roles framework with the example of ASEAN in Southeast Asian and Asia-Pacific order.

«СТАРАЯ-НОВАЯ ХОЛОДНАЯ ВОЙНА» В ИНТЕРПРЕТАЦИИ АНГЛИЙСКОЙ ШКОЛЫ МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ

This article is devoted to English school of International relations – autonomous community of scientists of International policy, who work mainly in Great Britain. It formed in the end 1950–1970. Historians H. Butterfield, M. Wight, A. Watson, M. Howard, philosophers D. McKinnon and H. Bull took an active part in the creation of this community. Concept “International Society” become a symbol and different mark this scientific community thanks to the books by H. Bull in 1970–1980. B. Buzan, C. Navary, R. Jackson and others scientists continue work of the school now. Such objectives factors as the development of Global International Society, the change of institutional structure of the modern world and the formation process of the World Society explain the end of Cold War into the school. Besides, English school of International relations pays special attention to the problems of justice in international relations in 1970–1980. All this aspects are demonstrating the specific school’s approach to the study of end of “Old Cold War”. Modern period of confrontation between Russia and West explained in school through heterogeneity of modern International Society, absence of international legitimacy, erosion of basic institutes of International Society. However, concept “New Cold War” takes on metaphorical meaning.

The heritage of European International Society in multidimensional peace operations: Liberia as a case study

The present paper has as its central objective to analyze peace operations as a form to reinsert States in a Global International Society that still carries a series of institutions, norms, values and rules earlier consolidated by the Europeans in previous centuries. I rely on English School’s historical perspective on International Society in order to demonstrate the transmission of certain institutions through multidimensional peace operations, briefly exposing the UNMIL case.

China’s rise in English school perspective

This chapter looks at English School (ES) theory as a way of understanding China and its rise. It focuses both on where ES theory fits well enough with China to provide an interesting perspective, and on where ‘Chinese characteristics’ put China outside the standard ES framing and raise theoretical challenges to it. The first section briefly reviews the ES literature on China. The second section places China within the normative structure of contemporary global international society by looking at how China relates to the primary institutions that define that society. The third section explores two challenges that ‘Chinese characteristics’ pose for how the ES thinks about international society: hierarchy and ‘face’. The Conclusions assess the strengths and weaknesses of ES theory in relation to understanding the rise of China.

The emergence of environmental stewardship as a primary institution of global international society

This article develops an English School framework for analysing the emergence of new primary institutions in global international society, and applies this to the case of environmental stewardship. The article traces the impact that global environmentalism has had on the normative order of global international society, examines the creation of secondary institutions around this norm and identifies the ways in which these developments have become embedded in the constitution and behaviour of states. It assesses the ways in which environmental stewardship has interacted with the other primary institutions that compose global international society, changing some of the understandings and practices associated with them. The conclusions argue that environmental stewardship is likely to be a durable institution of global international society, and that it might be a harbinger of a more functional turn in its priorities.

Europos Sąjungos institucijos kaip regioninės tarptautinės visuomenės struktūros dalis

Akademinėje tarptautinių santykių literatūroje tarptautinių sąveikų Europos žemyne visuma dažnai apibūdinama kaip regioninė tarptautinė visuomenė, t. y. žemesnio nei globalus (regioninio) lygmens socialinė sistema. Sociologiniu požiūriu socialinės sistemos yra sudarytos iš institucionalizuotų praktikų, tarp kurių galima identifikuoti pirmines institucijas, apibrėžiančias ir sukuriančias tipiškus veikėjus ir jiems būdingą veiklą, ir pagal šias institucijas tikslingai sukurtas antrines institucijas. Seniausiai Vestfalijos valstybių sistemai būdingos pirminės tarptautinės institucijos, aptinkamos ir už Europos ribų, yra suverenitetas, teritoriškumas, tarptautinė teisė, diplomatija, galios pusiausvyra, karas ir kt. Naujesnės – tokios kaip žmogaus teisės ar demokratija – inkrementiškai susiformavo XIX–XX a. ir papildė Vestfalijos sistemą.Straipsnio tikslas – identifikuoti, kokios pirminės institucijos susiformavo pokario Europoje kuriantis Europos Bendrijai (šiandien – Europos Sąjunga), ir įvertinti jų dermę su senosiomis Vestfalijos valstybių visuomenės institucijomis. Apžvelgus pagrindines tokių pirminių institucijų kaip viršvalstybiškumas, subsidiarumas, harmonizacija ar mikroregionalizmas praktikas, straipsnio išvadose teigiama, jog naujausios su ES siejamos tarptautinės institucijos pradėjo iš dalies oponuoti vestfališkosioms ir sukūrė naujo tipo tarptautinius veikėjus – tiek viršnacionalinius, tiek subnacionalinius, kuriuos nacionalinės valstybės šiandien de facto jau pripažįsta kaip sau lygius ir tarptautinės teisės, ir diplomatijos, ir tarptautinės prekybos kontekste. Kaip ateityje bus susidorojama su šia institucine įtampa, priklausys ne tik nuo valstybių narių, bet ir nuo nacionalinių valstybių, esančių už Europos ribų, priverstų koegzistuoti su tokiu dariniu kaip ES vis dar didžiąja dalimi vestfališkojo modelio globalioje valstybių visuomenėje.

China and liberal hierarchies in global international society: power and negotiation for normative change

This article investigates the entanglement of the rising Chinese power with the liberal global order in negotiating for normative change. Drawing upon the English School theoretical perspective, it argues that three hierarchical constructs of liberal persuasion co-exist in and cohabit the global international society today. They are, namely, the legalized hegemony as seen in the UN Charter-based liberal pluralism; the changing normative order of emerging solidarist and anti-pluralist formation that purposively creates unequal sovereigns; and the liberal global governance order that moves predominantly in the direction of state-centric solidarism. As an emerging power with an authoritarian regime, China's entanglement with these liberal hierarchical constructs is multifaceted with complex dynamics. The article argues specifically that three differentiated strategic approaches have been developed by China in this entanglement: to defend liberal pluralism in the legalized hegemony; to contest liberal cosmopolitan anti-pluralism in the changing normative order; and to endorse state-centric solidarism with regard to the construction of a liberal global governance order. If they reflect a rising China's preferences of order construction, they also constitute an important part of China's engaging negotiations for normative change in international society. The agency China exercises in this regard helps explain the limited consensus among Great Powers as to the ‘central direction’ for the evolving global order. The preferences of China as the second among equals in the Great Power club matter greatly in understanding the contention between pluralism and solidarism in the changing raison de systeme of contemporary global international society.

Could IR Be Different?

How one thinks about the challenges to, and prospects of, global international relations (IR) depends on how one defines IR. My position on this still hotly contest question is that IR is NOT just world politics: that is, the macro end of political science. For me, IR is multidisciplinary, comprising, and interweaving, the macro ends of most of the social sciences as well as world history. One reason this view matters is because the current West-centrism of IR derives from the fact that much of mainstream IR theory is simply an abstraction of European/Western history. History and the social sciences are interwoven not just in the nature of IR’s subject matter but in the very process of its theorizing. Thus, realism universalizes Westphalia and the anarchy model. Liberal institutionalism reflects the Western style of intergovernmental organizations and regimes that dates from the later nineteenth century and International Political Economy, the Western-created capitalist global economy put in place from the beginning of the nineteenth century. The English School sees global international society mainly through the institutions that the Europeans imposed on the rest of the world. Marxism theorizes the world in terms of the dynamics of industrial modernity that the West again imposed on the rest of the world. This analytical apparatus is then retro-fitted, both normatively and structurally, onto other times and places. A useful mental gymnastic is to ask yourself: “What …