The Anarchical Society in a Globalized World

Hedley Bull's The Anarchical Society is the defining text for the English school approach to international relations and one of the most enduring and important works of international theory. This book brings together some of the leading writers on the English school who provide an authoritative re-assessment of Bull's key concepts. In addition to analyzing the component elements of Bull's conception of the international society, they also examine how Bull's account of world order fares in the face of the forces of globalization that have started to play such an important role in world politics in the years since Bull wrote his classic text. The book follows the structure employed by Bull and it considers key concepts, major institutions and alternative approaches to order. In doing so, it reasserts the enduring insights of Bull's work, whilst responding to major developments in the theory and practice of international relations.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction; J.Williams & R.Little PART 1: THE CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Order and Society; J.Williams Seeing (Double) in the Darkness: The Moral Vision of The Anarchical Society; N.J.Rengger Hedley Bull, 'Embedded Cosmopolitanism', and the Pluralist-Solidarist Debate; J.M.Almeida PART 2: THE INSTITUTIONS OF ANARCHICAL SOCIETY Rethinking Hedley Bull on the Institutions of International Society; B.Buzan The Balance of Power and Great Power Management; R.Little The Nature of Law in an Anarchical Society; D.Armstrong Diplomacy, Anti-diplomacy and International Society; I.Hall War in the Twenty-first Century: An Institution in Crisis; C.A.Jones PART 3: THE TEST OF TIME The State of International Society; A.Hurrell References Index

About the Author :
RICHARD LITTLE is Professor in International Politics at the University of Bristol, UK. He is a former editor of the Review of International Studies and Chair of the British International Studies Association. Currently he holds a major research fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust and is working on the history and theory of the balance of power. He is the co-author with Barry Buzan of International Systems in World History. JOHN WILLIAMS is Lecturer in International Relations, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University, UK. As well as recent publications on the English school in the Review of International Studies and International Relations, he is author of The Ethics of Territorial Borders: Drawing Lines in the Shifting Sand to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2006.

Review :
'This is a valuable contribution to the 'English School' of which Hedley Bull was a leading founder. The editors have assembled a first rate group of commentators on the work of Bull. The volume is a major assessment of The Anarchical Society three decades on.' - Professor Robert Jackson, Boston University, USA