Risk and Hierarchy in International Society ― Liberal Interventionism in the Post-cold War Era

The English School of International Relations has traditionally maintained that international society is anarchical and cannot accommodate hierarchical relationships between states. This book provides an innovative theoretical and conceptual approach that challenges this view, demonstrating that international society can accommodate hierarchies between sovereign states.

Synthesising the concept of international society with elements of Beck's 'risk society', Clapton explores a particular set of hierarchies in the post-Cold War era that are characterised by interventions conducted by Western states in non-Western territories to promote liberal democratic government. Exploring interventions along the European Union's periphery, in the South Pacific and in Iraq, Clapton argues that these interventions are essentially exercises in risk management, designed to promote liberalism and democracy as a means of managing globalized risks to the security of Western states, such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

William Clapton is a Lecturer in International Relations at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. He has published on risk and hierarchy in International Politics and International Relations.