Observing International Relations: Niklas Luhmann and world politics

by Mathias Albert (Editor), Lena Hilkermeier (Editor)

Observing International Relations draws upon the modern systems theory of society, developed by Niklas Luhmann, to provide new perspectives on central aspects of contemporary world society and to generate theoretically informed insights on the possibilities and limits of regulation in global governance.

The authors develop a Luhmannian theory of world society by contrasting it with competing notions of international society, critically discussing the use of modern systems theory in international relations theory and assessing its treatment of central concepts within international relations, such as power, sovereignty, governance and war.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Mathias Albert is Professor of Political Science at Bielefeld University. He has written, co-authored or edited numerous books and written or co-authored about one hundred and thirty articles and chapters. Among his books are Zur Politik der Weltgesellschaft (2002), Identities, Borders, Orders (2001, edited with David Jacobson and Yosef Lapid) and New Systems Theories of International Relations (2010, edited with Lars-Erik Cederman and Alexander Wendt). Work in progress includes A Theory of World Politics.