Reconceptualizing regional order: a critical/scientific realist (CR/SR) intervention

Abstract

This article begins from the observation that while the problem of international order is an issue of crucial importance to International Relations (IR), the very concept of “order” is still mainly treated in terms of patterns and regularities that sustain rule-governed interactions among states, thus failing to bring IR in closer contact with the more general discussion on “social order” in the social sciences. Written from the “emergentist systemic” perspective, this article attempts to develop a conceptual framework for the systematic analysis of regional orders centering on characteristics common to all societal spheres. The argument is developed in three steps. First, I focus on the system’s emergent properties and the process of self-organization to account for the dynamics of the emergence, the maintenance, and the submergence of order. Second, I discuss levels of social process and, drawing on the work of Brante, I introduce the “component–structure–context” procedure to account for the vertical differentiation of order. Third, drawing on Archer’s and Bhaskar’s theories, I attempt to construct “culture-inclusive” as well as “history-inclusive” account of order. I conclude with some suggestions as to how the proposed framework might contribute to the ongoing debate on order transition in East Asia.