The Anarchical Society

A now classic study on international relations, Hedley Bull's The Anarchical Society explores three central questions: What is order in world politics? How is order maintained in the contemporary states system? And what alternative paths to world order are desirable and feasible? Bull argues that the system of sovereign states is not in decline, and that, contrary to much superficial thinking in the West today, is not an obstacle to world order but its essential foundation. Where traditional studies in international relations tend to consider such issues as balance of power, diplomacy, and war primarily in terms of their place in the global political system, The Anarchical Society probes deeper, delving into the fundamental question of order versus disorder. Bull contends that international stability cannot be attributed solely to enforced tenets of international law, asking us to acknowledge the importance of rules that do not have the status of law. Laws and institutions, he points out, shift and change over time--what The Anarchical Society attempts to address are the unwritten rules which have allowed international order to exist across the ages. Just as Hedley Bull's paradigm of the world system offers readers a rich, useful model of international relations, it also opens many new areas of inquiry. Can a global international system without a common culture be a strong, cohesive network? How does world order cope with internal violence within a state? With a new foreword by Stanley Hoffmann of Harvard University, the second edition of The Anarchical Society is a landmark in the literature of international relations.