Reconceptualising world order : transnational identities and English school theory

Theorists of world order have often contrasted the international society of states to a global society of individuals. While the former is positioned as the ‘real’ structure of world order, the latter has often been cast as an unrealistic and unrealisable form of human social organisation. At the same time, however, ideas of human community beyond the nation-state have clearly helped inform modern international relations. How can we reconcile these visions of world society with a global order created by and for states? This thesis adds to English School theory through a reconsideration of the relationship between the concepts of international and world society. Through a synthesis of existing English School contributions and relational constructivist approaches, it recovers the importance of transnational communities to individual nation-states and the international society they have formed. Importantly, the framework developed here supplements, rather than replaces, existing English School contributions, allowing deeper analysis of the sociological processes through which the concepts of world and international society constitute each other. The utility of these frameworks is then demonstrated through a short analysis of the global ideational forces informing Australia’s engagement with international institutions.