International Society

280 Pages·1990·28.029 MB·English

by  Evan Luard (auth.)

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY
Also by Evan Luard and published by Palgrave Macmillan
INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES: The Emerging Framework of
Interdependence (1976)
SOCIALISM WITHOUT THE STATE (1979)
THE UNITED NATIONS: How It Works and What it Does (1978)
A HISTORY OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Volume 1: The Years of Western Domination, 1945-1955 (1982)
Volume 2: The Age of Decolonization, 1955-1965 (1989)
THE MANAGEMENT OF THE WORLD ECONOMY (1983)
ECONOMIC RELATIONSHIPS AMONG STATES (1984)
CONFLICT AND PEACE IN THE MODERN
INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM (revised edition 1988)
Other books by Evan Luard
TYPES OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY (1977)
WAR IN INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY (1986)
THE BLUNTED SWORD: The Erosion of Military Power III
Modern World Politics (1988)
BASIC TEXTS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
(forthcoming)
International Society
Evan Luard
M
MACMILLAN
© Evan Luard 1990
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1 st edition 1990
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First published 1990
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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and London
Companies and representatives
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Typeset by Wessex Typesetters
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Luard, Evan, 1926-
International society
1. Society
I. Title
301
ISBN 978-0-333-48728-0 ISBN 978-1-349-20636-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20636-0
Contents
Preface Vll
Introduction: The Study of International Society 1
1 Social Theory and International Society 11
2 Action 39
3 Society 55
4 Structure 69
5 Ideology 88
6 Motives 116
7 Roles 136
8 Status 165
9 Conflict 183
10 Norms 201
11 Authority 227
12 Conclusions 246
Index 270
v
Preface
Over the last few years I have published a trilogy of books, each
subtitled "a study in international sociology". The books were based
on the belief that the study of international society, including relations
between states, is best seen as an aspect of the study of society
generally: in other words of sociology.
For many centuries nations have established among themselves
societies of states, having many of the characteristics of smaller
societies. These, I believed, could be studied by the use of methods
and concepts comparable to those employed by social scientists in
studying other types of society.
Each of the three books adopted a predominantly historical
approach: that is, they compared a number of "international societies"
which have existed at different periods in history. The first, Types of
International Society, described the different characteristics of a
succession of historical societies of states, including the various social
structures, institutions, prescribed norms of conduct, roles, systems
of stratification, motives and means employed within each, and sought
to identify the typical "ideology" of each society. The second,
Economic Relationships among States, examined the different types
of economic relationships established between the different members
of a number of such societies. The third, War in International Society,
described the changing character of war over recent centuries,
showing how its forms and purposes, the issues over which it has
been fought, the assets which it has been used to procure and the
beliefs about its legitimacy, have varied from one international society
to another according to the interests, goals and "ideology" of the
governing elites in each age.
It has been suggested that it might be useful to try to summarise,
in a single and briefer volume, the main features of this approach.
The purpose is to bring together some of the main findings of the
earlier books and to set out the presuppositions which underlay those
findings. It is hoped that this may be of some interest to general
readers, as well as to specialists in sociology and international
relations.
vii
Introduction:
The Study of International
Society
IS THERE AN INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY?
The first question to be asked in studying international society is:
does such a society exist?
At first sight the world as a whole is an entity so vast and amorphous,
the links between its parts so tenuous, that it is meaningless to
conceive of it as a "society" which can be subjected to systematic
scrutiny. Its five billion people, scattered as they are among 160 or
so different states, each having its own culture, traditions, economic
system and political organisation, appear to possess so little in
common, to enjoy so little systematic contact, to have so little
knowledge of, let alone any sense of kinship with, fellow members
of the society, that the conditions necessary for "social" existence, it
may be held, are entirely lacking. The common traditions and
institutions, the social cohesion, above all the common system of
values, which are sometimes seen as the essence of social existence,
do not here exist. On the contrary, the degree of hostility and conflict
among the members, the frequency of all-out warfare between them,
might seem to make the concept of a single world "society" a
nonsensical one.
If we define society in a sufficiently narrow way - to mean a
compact, closely integrated community, comparable to the primitive
societies mainly studied by social anthropologists, or even the social
structure of a village or small town in industrial countries today -
then international society clearly could not qualify. Many of the
features we associate with social existence of that kind are here
lacking: the bonds of mutual dependence, the sense of community,
the common loyalties - all important features of social existence in
these smaller societies - are almost completely absent. But if the
comparison is made with the kind of societies found in modern
industrial states, the difference is far less. For there too there are
among the members large differences in culture, religion, political
1
2 International Society
belief, race, language (in many cases), speech and way of life that
are not much less than those which exist in the wider international
society. There too there are major conflicts of interest and purpose:
among occupations, classes and regions. There too there exists (and
increasingly exists) no commonly accepted system of beliefs and
values. Even in terms of size and numbers such states as the US,
China and India today, bringing together hundreds of millions of
peoples, of many creeds, races, colours, political ideas and ethical
beliefs, are far closer in character to the world as a whole than to
the small-scale communities traditionally studied by anthropologists
(the population of the entire international society is, after all, only
five times that of China). For all its diffuseness, its geographical
dispersion, its lack of integration, its disharmony of value systems,
therefore, world society is not altogether different from the national
social systems that have been widely studied.
The differences between the two are anyway rapidly declining.
While national societies have grown larger and more diffuse, inter
national society has become less so. Only a century ago or less,
sociologists such as Comte and Durkheim could conceive of national
societies almost as if they were (or should be) closely integrated
communities; and assumed they had, or might regain, a common
pattern of beliefs and values - "consensus" or "solidarity" - which,
though quite different from those in primitive societies, might unite
their people in a similar way; though now societies (Gesellschaften),
they could none the less retain, it was suggested, some of the character
of communities (Gemeinschaften). Today 'this seems an increasingly
unreal assumption. The lack of any genuinely shared religious beliefs,
the alienation of large minorities, the existence of a substantial under
class, the wide differences in interests and conditions, way of life,
and above all ways of thought, have caused modern national states
not only to cease to be "communities", but to be scarcely even
"societies" in the sense traditionally understood.
Conversely, the world as a whole, growing smaller, begins to take
on some of the features of such a society: if not integrated, at least
interdependent and interrelated. Only a century or so ago contacts
between states remained relatively marginal. Only a tiny proportion
of mankind ever stepped outside the borders of their own countries.
Most had little knowledge, and even less consciousness, of those
living elsewhere. Most of the people of China in 1850 not only knew
nothing of the people of the US or of Europe; in many cases they
did not know of the latter's existence. Only a little more than a
Introduction 3
century ago there were no diplomatic links, hardly any trading links,
virtually no contacts of any kind between those countries. Where
there was no mutual consciousness among peoples there could not
be in any meaningful way a society among them. There existed,
possibly, some kind of European society, or an inter-American
society, even an Asian society of sorts. There was no world society.
Today the situation is altogether different. Almost every inhabitant
of every country now has some awareness of the world outside their
borders. They are likely to buy (or to wish to buy) at least some
foreign goods. They will probably see films, newspaper accounts,
television programmes, that provide some information about other
lands. Postal and telecommunication services link every country in
the world. Diplomatic and commercial contacts join almost all of
them. More important, the ideas that become widespread in one part
of the world become known, often widely known, in others. Political
creeds spread rapidly across the world; science and technology crosses
frontiers quickly and easily; the current fashions - in pop music,
clothes, in sport and entertainment - move in a very short time from
one country to another.
Finally, and perhaps most important for our purpose, the actions
taken in one country have a rapid effect elsewhere. The price set for
oil by one group of countries, that demanded for capital goods by
another, the rate of interest set in New York, the emergence of
recession in Western Europe, all of these have a huge and immediate
impact, direct or indirect, on millions of people scattered throughout
the world. The defence policies adopted by the Soviet Union, the
foreign policy adopted by the US, the racial policies adopted by
South Africa, the revolutionary policies adopted by Iran or Libya,
all of these have repercussions that are quickly felt elsewhere. The
result is that the interrelationships - social, cultural, economic, and
political - between different parts of the globe are today as close as
were those between different parts of Britain only a century or so
ago. And they can reasonably be described as establishing a network
of mutual influence, a set of complex but defined and understood
interrelationships, which in themselves create a "society" of a sort.
The consciousness of interrelatedness is reinforced in many ways.
Individuals, in travelling in increasing number to the remotest parts
of the world, in absorbing foreign cultures, in undertaking trade with
distant territories, or investment in far economies, are made aware
of a common world system. Governments, equally, become almost
as concerned to influence what happens in other parts of the world