Hedley Bull: The Anarchical Society - The Concept of Order

These vocabulary flashcards cover the foundational concepts of international relations theory as presented by Hedley Bull in 'The Anarchical Society', including definitions of order, states, systems, societies, and the various traditions of international thought.

Order (in social life)

A pattern of human activity that sustains elementary, primary or universal goals of social life.

Augustine's Definition of Order

A good disposition of discrepant parts, each in its fittest place.

The Goal of Security

An elementary social goal to ensure life is secure against violence resulting in death or bodily harm.

The Goal of Promises

The elementary goal of ensuring that agreements, once undertaken, will be carried out; also known as the principle of pacta sunt servanda.

The Goal of Stability of Possession

The elementary goal of ensuring that the possession of things remains stable and not subject to challenges that are constant and without limit.

State

An independent political community that possesses a government and asserts sovereignty in relation to a particular portion of the earth's surface and a particular segment of the human population.

Internal Sovereignty

Supremacy over all other authorities within a state's territory and population.

External Sovereignty

Independence of outside authorities from a state's jurisdiction.

International System (System of States)

Formed when two or more states have sufficient contact and impact on one another's decisions to cause them to behave, at least in some measure, as parts of a whole.

International Society (Society of States)

Exists when a group of states, conscious of certain common interests and values, conceive themselves to be bound by a common set of rules and share in the working of common institutions.

Suzerain-state System

A system in which one state asserts and maintains permanent and unchallengeable paramountcy or supremacy over the rest.

International States System

A system composed of sovereign states where hegemony passes from one power to another and is constantly subject to dispute.

Primary States Systems

Systems composed of individual states as the primary units.

Secondary States Systems

Systems composed of systems of states, often consisting of suzerain-state systems.

International Order

A pattern of activity that sustains the elementary or primary goals of the society of states, such as preservation of the system, independence, and peace.

World Order

Patterns or dispositions of human activity that sustain the elementary or primary goals of social life among mankind as a whole, focusing on individual human beings as the ultimate units.

Hobbesian (Realist) Tradition

Views international politics as a state of war, an arena of struggle where states are pitted against each other in a zero-sum game without moral or legal restrictions.

Kantian (Universalist) Tradition

Views international politics as a potential community of mankind where trans-national social bonds link individual human beings and common interests transcend state boundaries.

Grotian (Internationalist) Tradition

Views international politics as taking place within a society of states, where conflict is limited by common rules and institutions.

Principles of International Legitimacy

The collective judgement of international society used to determine rightful membership, originally based on dynastic rights and later transitioning to national or popular rights.

The Domestic Analogy

The argument that states, like individual human beings, are capable of orderly social life only if they are subject to a common government.

International Anarchy

The condition of international relations characterized by the absence of a central world government or supreme authority over sovereign states.

Rules

General imperative principles which require or authorize prescribed classes of persons or groups to behave in prescribed ways.

Institutions (in International Society)

A set of habits and practices shaped towards the realization of common goals, including the balance of power, international law, diplomacy, and the management of Great Powers.

Principle of Complementary Opposition

A feature of primitive stateless societies where units in conflict at one level combined for unity at higher levels of social organization.