On the Evolution of Primary Institutions of International Society

2017 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-630 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotta Friedner Parrat
Keyword(s):  
International Society ◽  
Primary Institutions

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

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Falkner ◽  
Barry Buzan
Keyword(s):  
International Society ◽  
Environmental Stewardship ◽  
The Other ◽  
English School ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Normative Order ◽  
Primary Institutions ◽  
The Impact

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.

The political international society: Change in primary and secondary institutions

2014 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 601-622 ◽  
Author(s):  
KILIAN SPANDLER
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
International Society ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Deep Structure ◽  
The Political ◽  
English School ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Autonomous Objects ◽  
Primary Institutions

AbstractThis article intends to contribute to the theorising of institutional change. Specifically, it asks how dynamics in the ‘deep structure’ of international society correspond to changes in more specific institutions as embodied by regimes and international organisations. It does so by taking up the distinction of primary and secondary institutions in international society advocated by scholars of the English School. It argues that, while the differentiation offers analytical potential, the School has largely failed to study secondary institutions such as international organisations and regimes as autonomous objects of analysis, seeing them as mere materialisations of primary institutions. Engaging with the concepts of structuration and path dependence will allow scholars working in an English School framework to explore more deeply the relation between the two kinds of institutions, and as a consequence devise more elaborate theories of institutional change. Based on this argument, the article develops a theoretical model that sees primary and secondary institutions entangled in distinctive processes of constitution and institutionalisation. This model helps to establish international organisations and regimes as a crucial part of the English School agenda, and to enlighten the political mechanisms that lead to continuity and change in international institutions more broadly.

scholarly journals The English School: History and Primary Institutions as Empirical IR Theory?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Buzan ◽  
George Lawson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Society ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
English School ◽  
Ir Theory ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
School Work ◽  
School History ◽  
Primary Institutions ◽  
Historical Accounts

How does the English School work as part of Empirical International Relations (IR) theory? The English School depends heavily on historical accounts, and this article makes the case that history and theory should be seen as co-constitutive rather than as separate enterprises. Empirical IR theorists need to think about their own relationship to this question and clarify what “historical sensitivity” means to them. The English School offers both distinctive taxonomies for understanding the structure of international society, and an empirically constructed historical approach to identifying the primary institutions that define international society. If Empirical IR is open to historical-interpretive accounts, then its links to the English School are in part strong, because English School structural accounts would qualify; they are, in other ways, weak because the normative theory part of the English School would not qualify. Lying behind this judgement is a deeper issue: if Empirical IR theory confines itself to regularity-deterministic causal accounts, then there can be no links to English School work. Undertaking English School insights will help open up a wider view of Empirical IR theory.

Primary Institutions, Secondary Institutions, and Moral Obligation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Youde
Keyword(s):  
Global Health ◽  
International Society ◽  
Moral Obligation ◽  
English School ◽  
Global Health Governance ◽  
Health Governance ◽  
Formal Organizations ◽  
Primary Institutions

Institutions are foundational to the English School and to the very concept of international society, so it makes sense that scholars would pay attention to them. What’s curious, though, is how much ambiguity permeates the discussion of primary and secondary institutions within English School theorizing. There is a lack of agreement among authors about what constitutes a primary institution, and secondary institutions receive almost no attention because they are merely formal organizations with no independent power within international society. This chapter distinguishes between primary and secondary institutions, describes the emergence of moral obligation and responsibility as a primary institution, explains why secondary institutions are constitutive of international society, and makes the case for global health governance as a secondary institution.

scholarly journals International refugee protection and the primary institutions of international society

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 256-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Nantermoz
Keyword(s):  
International Society ◽  
The United States ◽  
English School ◽  
Territorial State ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
State Practice ◽  
Politics Of Contestation ◽  
The One ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Primary Institutions

AbstractRefugees are often considered as a source of disorder if not fundamental threat to international society. In contrast, and drawing from an English School approach, this article argues that the figure of the refugee is foundational to the constitution of both modern international society and its agent, the sovereign territorial state; hence refugee protection represents a primary institution of international society. Starting with conceptual and methodological considerations for studying primary institutions, the article then highlights the longstanding and widespread state practice of granting asylum. It is shown that on the one hand, the figure of the refugee serves to consolidate and naturalise the nation/state/territory trinity underpinning the modern state system; and on the other hand, protecting refugees plays a central role in the construction of statist self-identities as liberal, humanitarian, and altruistic agents. The last section of the article turns to the politics of contestation of refugee protection, examining domestic, regional, and international reactions to ‘anti-refugee’ policies in the United States, Hungary, and Australia. The considerable amount of criticism generated by these restrictive policies, it is argued, evidence the enduring importance and relevance of refugee protection in (and for) international society.

The Institutions of International Society

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tonny Brems Knudsen
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
International Society ◽  
English School ◽  
The Subject ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
Interdisciplinary Scholarship ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Primary Institutions ◽  
Hedley Bull

The “fundamental” or “primary” institutions of international society, among them sovereignty, diplomacy, international law, great power management, the balance of power, trade, and environmental stewardship, have been eagerly discussed and researched in the discipline of international relations (IR), at the theoretical, meta-theoretical, and empirical levels. Generations of scholars associated with not only the English School, but also liberalism and constructivism, have engaged with the “institutions of international society,” as they were originally called by Martin Wight and Hedley Bull in their attempt to develop a historically and sociologically informed theory of international relations. The fact that intense historical, theoretical, and empirical investigations have uncovered new institutional layers, dynamics, and complexities, and thus opened new challenging questions rather than settling the matter is part of its attraction. In the 1960s and 1970s, the early exponents of the English School theorized fundamental institutions as historical pillars of contemporary international society and its element of order. At the turn of the 21st century, this work was picked up by Kal Holsti and Barry Buzan, who initiated a renaissance of English School institutionalism, which specified the institutional levels of international society and discussed possibilities for institutional change. Meanwhile, liberal and constructivist scholars made important contributions on fundamental institutions in key engagements with English School theory on the subject in the late 1980s. These contributions and engagements have informed the most recent wave of (interdisciplinary) scholarship on the subject, which has theorized the room for fundamental institutional change and the role of international organizations in relation to the fundamental institutions of international society.

The English School and Institutions: British Institutionalists?

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laust Schouenborg
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
International Law ◽  
International Society ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
Great Powers ◽  
English School ◽  
International Institution ◽  
Functional Perspective ◽  
Primary Institutions ◽  
Hedley Bull

The argument can be made, and has in fact been made, that the English School is primarily concerned with the study of institutions. The institutions of international society are social in a fundamental sense. That is, they are something above and beyond what one usually associates with an international institution. There are three dominant perspectives on what the primary institutions of international society are: functional, historical/descriptive, and typological. Hedley Bull was the major proponent of the functional perspective, and he identified five primary institutions of international society: the balance of power, international law, diplomacy, war, and the great powers. However, the historical/descriptive perspective appears to be the prevailing one. Nevertheless, various authors have started to think about the institutions of international society typologically. This has certain implications for how one views the cognitive objectives of the English School. The adherence to functional, historical/descriptive, or typological perspectives involves a positioning in relation to where international relations (IR), as a discipline, and the English School, as an approach to it, should locate itself in wider academia.

scholarly journals Transnational society as a mirror of international society: a reinterpretation of contemporary world order

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 264-292
Author(s):  
Thomas Davies
Keyword(s):  
International Society ◽  
World Order ◽  
International Order ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
State Actors ◽  
Primary Institutions

AbstractAlthough there has been widespread attention to the apparent rise of a transnational society of cross-border non-state actors alongside the international society of states, transnational society and international society have traditionally been treated as distinctive domains with different institutions. This article, by contrast, aims to transform theorization of world order through its investigation of how actors in transnational society have developed institutions that mirror in notable respects some of the primary institutions of the international society of states such as through serving constitutive and regulative functions. In addition to delineating these institutions of transnational society, the article interrogates the interdependence of these institutions of transnational society and those of international society, as well as their differences and repercussions for world order. The analysis considers how, in conjunction with the contribution of institutions of international society to international order, institutions of transnational society contribute to transnational order. By exploring not only the tensions between but also the complementarities of transnational and interstate institutions, the article both provides a reinterpretation of contemporary world order and helps reveal the potential for its more harmonious operation.

Menschenrechtsschutz in der internationalen Gesellschaft

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Peters
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
International Society ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Rights Protection ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Responsibility ◽  
Primary Institutions ◽  
Administrative Science

The idea of an international responsibility to protect, which implies that the international community or individual states should exercise graded responsibilities to protect basic human rights, remains disputed in contemporary international society. By analysing the debates about protection from mass atrocities and from human rights violations in a globalised world economy, this study discusses the problem of a fragmented human rights regime. Against this backdrop, it demonstrates the possibility of linking different concepts of protection in order to overcome the isolated implementation of different concepts of human rights protection. At the same time, this study introduces additional primary institutions of international society, thereby contributing to the English School of IR. Dr. rer. pol. Daniel Peters is a lecturer in Fundamental Rights and Security Studies at the Federal University of Applied Administrative Science, department of Federal Police, in Lübeck.

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