International Relations

Elements of international society may be found from the time of the first organized human communities. Early forms of diplomacy and treaties existed in the ancient Middle East. Relations among the city-states of ancient Greece were characterized by more developed societal characteristics, such as arbitration. Ancient China, India, and Rome all had their own distinctive international societies. Medieval Europe’s international society was a complex mixture of supranational, transnational, national, and subnational structures. The Catholic Church played a key role in elaborating the normative basis of medieval international society. Islam developed its own distinctive understanding of international society. The main ingredients of contemporary international society are the principles of sovereignty and non- intervention, and the institutions of diplomacy, the balance of power, and international law. These took centuries to develop, although the Peace of Westphalia (1648) was a key event in their establishment throughout Europe. The Napoleonic Wars were followed by a shift to a more managed, hierarchical, international society within Europe and an imperial structure in Europe’s relations with much of the rest of the world. The League of Nations was an attempt to place international society on a more secure organizational foundation. • The United Nations was intended to be a much-improved League of Nations but the cold war prevented it from functioning as such. Decolonization led to the worldwide spread of the European model of international society. The collapse of the Soviet Union completed this process. Globalization poses serious problems for a sovereignty-based international society. These include the challenges emanating from new forms of community, failing states in Africa, American hyper-power, growing resistance to Western ideas, and global poverty and environmental issues.