Systems Relations and the Structures of International Societies

Inspired by recent work in evolutionary developmental and systems biology Systems Relations and the Structures of International Societies sketches a robust conception of systems that grounds a new conception of levels (of organization not merely analysis).Understanding international systems as multi-level multi-actor complex adaptive systems allows explanations of important features of the world that are inaccessible to dominant causal and rationalist explanatory strategies. It also develops a comprehensive critique of IR''s dominant conception of systems and structures (narrow rigid and unfruitful); presents a novel conception of the interrelationship of the social production of continuities and the social production of change; and sketches models of spatio-political structure that cast new light on the development of international systems including a distinctive account of the nature of globalization.