Social closure and the reproduction of stratified international order

Naylor, Tristen (2022) Social closure and the reproduction of stratified international order. International Relations, 36 (1). 23 - 39. ISSN 0047-1178

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Abstract

This article investigates how the means by which actors compete for position in the management of international society stratifies international order. Advancing scholarship on hierarchies, it applies a theory of social closure to examine two status groups, The Family of Civilised Nations and the G20, arguing that stratification is reproduced by a dynamic interplay of top-down collectivist exclusion on the part of superiorly positioned actors and bottom-up mimicry performed by those inferiorly positioned. As such, the same means of closure which used the Standard of Civilisation to exclude outsiders from the Family of Civilised Nations in the past stratifies non-state actors today, particularly international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) seeking to play a role in-the G20. This article offers amendments to closure theory in International Relations (IR), demonstrating its utility for analysing contemporary international politics, engaging in trans-historical analysis, and in incorporating non-state actors into enquiry.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/ire
Additional Information:	© 2021 The Author
Divisions:	International Relations
Subjects:	J Political Science > JZ International relations
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2021 14:48
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 02:34
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/110931

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