TY - CHAP

T1 - Empires and the Sovereign State Order

T2 - A Revisionist History

AU - Parker, Noel

PY - 2013/4

Y1 - 2013/4

N2 - For all the sustained discussion about the inclusion of bodies other than states(Ruggie 1993, 1998; Ferguson and Mansbach 1996, 2007; Nancy 2007; Walker1993, 2010) the object of analysis of international politics, the ‘IR systemas such’, remains largely focused (as the name suggests) upon the totality ofrelations between independent sovereign states. So the ‘question of empires’ andinternational relations can be formulated as: what role might empires have in thecontext of international order that has been widely understood to comprise firstand foremost autonomous states? Hence my title.Is it, for example, adequate to imagine a world of states with occasionalinterference from one or more empires to cover anomalies or exceptions wherestandard models of international order do not seem to work? That still leaves theidea of empires on the sidelines, an intrusion, a sticking plaster for the occasionallesions in the model of the international system ‘as such’. It does not think throughthe implications of their historical presence: empires’ role in the past, present andpossible future of the international system or systems. The purpose of this chapteris to reconsider how empires, with their proclivity for expanding their (version of) order, have frequentlybeen the biggest figures in the formation of international relations. One or moreempires has had that role, at the given time, in relation to whatever may be calledat the time ‘international order’.

AB - For all the sustained discussion about the inclusion of bodies other than states(Ruggie 1993, 1998; Ferguson and Mansbach 1996, 2007; Nancy 2007; Walker1993, 2010) the object of analysis of international politics, the ‘IR systemas such’, remains largely focused (as the name suggests) upon the totality ofrelations between independent sovereign states. So the ‘question of empires’ andinternational relations can be formulated as: what role might empires have in thecontext of international order that has been widely understood to comprise firstand foremost autonomous states? Hence my title.Is it, for example, adequate to imagine a world of states with occasionalinterference from one or more empires to cover anomalies or exceptions wherestandard models of international order do not seem to work? That still leaves theidea of empires on the sidelines, an intrusion, a sticking plaster for the occasionallesions in the model of the international system ‘as such’. It does not think throughthe implications of their historical presence: empires’ role in the past, present andpossible future of the international system or systems. The purpose of this chapteris to reconsider how empires, with their proclivity for expanding their (version of) order, have frequentlybeen the biggest figures in the formation of international relations. One or moreempires has had that role, at the given time, in relation to whatever may be calledat the time ‘international order’.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Empires

KW - International relations

KW - sovereignty

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9780754679936

SP - 69

EP - 91

BT - Empire and International Order

A2 - Parker, Noel

PB - Ashgate

CY - Aldershot

ER -