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Argues that systems approaches are necessary in order to identify and understand important features of the world.
List of contents
Part I. Systems, Relations, Levels, and Explanations: Foundations For Systemic/Relational IR: 1. Systems and relations; 2. Complex adaptive systems; 3. From levels of analysis to levels of organization; 4. Systems, causes, and theory: explanatory pluralism in IR; Part II. Waltzian Structural Theory: A Post-Mortem: 5. Structural theory; 6. Anarchy; 7. The tripartite conception of structure; 8. Functional differentiation and distribution of capabilities; 9. Ordering principles; Part III. Systems, Relations, and Processes: Reframing Systemic International Theory; Section A. Differentiation and Continuous (Trans)Formation: 10. Relations, processes, and systems; 11. Multiple dimensions of differentiation in assembled international systems; 12. Continuous (trans)formation: producing social continuity and social change; 13. Life sciences and social sciences: co-evolving complex adaptive systems; Section B. Four Excursions in Relational/Systemic IR: 14. Normative-institutional differentiation; 15. Vertical differentiation: stratification and hierarchy in international systems; 16. Levels, centers, and peripheries: spatio-political structures; 17. Continuous (trans)formation of eurocentric political systems (c. 1225 – c. 2025); 18. Afterword: multiple approaches to multidimensional systems of relations.
About the author
Jack Donnelly is the Andrew Mellon Professor in the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. His book Universal Human Rights in Theory and Practice (2002) is widely acknowledged as one of the preeminent works in the field of international human rights and his work in international relations theory has been published in leading journals including International Organization, European Journal of International Relations, and International Theory.
Summary
Inspired by recent work in evolutionary, developmental, and systems biology, Systems, Relations, and the Structures of International Societies sketches a robust conception of systems that grounds a new conception of levels (of organization, not merely analysis). Understanding international systems as multi-level multi-actor complex adaptive systems allows explanations of important features of the world that are inaccessible to dominant causal and rationalist explanatory strategies. It also develops a comprehensive critique of IR's dominant conception of systems and structures (narrow, rigid, and unfruitful); presents a novel conception of the interrelationship of the social production of continuities and the social production of change; and sketches models of spatio-political structure that cast new light on the development of international systems, including a distinctive account of the nature of globalization.
Foreword
Argues that systems approaches are necessary in order to identify and understand important features of the world.
