Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T00:40:06.039Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Four Conceptions of Authority in International Relations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2021

Jorg Kustermans Open the ORCID record for Jorg Kustermans [Opens in a new window]  and
Rikkert Horemans Open the ORCID record for Rikkert Horemans [Opens in a new window]
Get access

Abstract

There is increasing agreement that states and other political actors on the world stage sometimes achieve international authority. However, there is less agreement about the nature and functioning of international authority relations. What determines whether an actor will be recognized as an authoritative actor? And what are the effects thereof? In this essay, we identify four distinct conceptions of authority in the study of international relations: authority as contract, authority as domination, authority as impression, and authority as consecration. Consideration of the typology leads to two important insights. First, the phenomenon of authority has an essentially experiential dimension. Subordinate actors’ emotional experience of authority determines their response to authority and thus also has a fundamental impact on the stability of authority. Second, the emergence of forms of international authority does not entail, at least not necessarily, the weakening of the sovereignty of states, but can equally be argued to strengthen it.

Keywords

Authorityinternational authoritystate sovereigntydecolonizationBandungconsecration
Type
Review Essay
Information
International Organization , Volume 76 , Issue 1 , Winter 2022 , pp. 204 - 228
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aalberts, Tanja. 2014. Rethinking the Principle of (Sovereign) Equality as a Standard of Civilization. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 42 (3):767–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anievas, Alexander, Manchanda, Nivi, and Shilliam, Robbie, eds. 2015. Race and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Color Line. Routledge.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah. 1961. Between Past and Future: Six Exercises in Political Thought. Viking Press.Google Scholar
Autesserre, Séverine. 2016. Paternalism and Peacebuilding: Capacity, Knowledge, and Resistance in International Intervention. In Paternalism Beyond Borders, edited by Barnett, Michael, 161–84. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Avant, Deborah, Finnemore, Martha, and Sell, Susan. 2010. Who Governs the Globe? Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, Michael N. 2016. Paternalism Beyond Borders. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barnett, Michael, and Duvall, Raymond. 2005. Power in International Politics. International Organization 59 (1):39–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnett, Michael, and Finnemore, Martha. 2004. Rules for the World: International Organizations in Global Politics. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bartelson, Jens. 2014. Sovereignty as Symbolic Form. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre. 2002. Masculine Domination. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bull, Hedley. 1977. The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics. Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, Ian. 2007. Legitimacy in International Society. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooley, Alexander, and Spruyt, Hendrik. 2009. Contracting States: Sovereign Transfers in International Relations. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa López, Julia. 2020. Political Authority in International Relations: Revisiting the Medieval Debate. International Organization 74 (2):222–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crawford, Neta. 2000. The Passion of World Politics: Propositions on Emotion and Emotional Relationships. International Security 24 (4):116–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Grazia, Sebastian. 1959. What Authority Is Not. American Political Science Review 53 (2):321–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, John. 1980. Art as Experience. Perigee Books.Google Scholar
Dinkel, Jürgen. 2014. “To Grab the Headlines”: Non-Aligned Summits as Media Events. In The Non-Aligned Movement and the Cold War: Dehli, Bandung, Belgrade, edited by Miskovic, Natasa, Fischer-Tine, Harald, and Boskovska, Nada, 207–25. Routledge.Google Scholar
Donnelly, Jack. 2015. The Discourse of Anarchy in IR. International Theory 7 (3):393–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donnelly, Jack. 2017. Beyond Hierarchy. In Hierarchies in World Politics, edited by Zarakol, Ayşe, 243–65. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Charlotte, Lindemann, Thomas, and Sending, Ole Jacob. 2018. Frustrated Sovereigns: The Agency that Makes the World Go Around. Review of International Studies 44 (5):787–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fassin, Didier. 2016. Rethinking Paternalism: The Meaning of Gender and Sex in the Politics of Asylum. In Paternalism Beyond Borders, edited by Barnett, Michael, 75–96. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Ilana. 2016. Humanitarian Refusals: Palestinian Refugees and Ethnographic Perspectives on Paternalism. In Paternalism Beyond Borders, edited by Barnett, Michael, 292–315. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Goh, Evelyn. 2013. The Struggle for Order: Hegemony, Hierarchy, and Transition in Post-Cold War East Asia. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graeber, David, and Sahlins, Marshall. 2017. On Kings. Hau Books.Google Scholar
Guzzini, Stefano. 1993. Structural Power: The Limits of Neorealist Power Analysis. International Organization 47 (3):443–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guzzini, Stefano. 2017. Max Weber's Power. In Max Weber and International Relations, edited by Lebow, Richard Ned, 97–118. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Rodney Bruce. 1997. Moral Authority as a Power Resource. International Organization 51 (4):591–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, Todd. 2015. Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Hampton, Jean. 2012. Hobbes and the Social Contract Tradition. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hathaway, Oona. 2008. International Delegation and State Sovereignty. Law and Contemporary Problems 71 (1):115–49.Google Scholar
Haugaard, Mark. 2018. What Is Authority? Journal of Classical Sociology 18 (2):104–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobson, John. 2014. The Twin Self-Delusions of IR: Why Hierarchy and Not Anarchy Is the Core Concept of IR. Millennium: Journal of International Studies 42 (3):557–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hobson, John. 2016. Eurocentric Pitfalls and Paradoxes of International Paternalism: Decolonizing Liberal Humanitarianism 2.0. In Paternalism Beyond Borders, edited by Barnett, Michael, 99–131. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Holmes, Stephen, and Krastev, Ivan. 2019. The Light That Failed: A Reckoning. Penguin.Google Scholar
Hutchison, Emma, and Bleiker, Ronald. 2014. Theorizing Emotions in World Politics. International Theory 6 (3):491–514.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Inayatullah, Naeem. 1996. Beyond the Sovereignty Dilemma: Quasi-States as Social Construct. In State Sovereignty as Social Construct, edited by Biersteker, Thomas and Weber, Cynthia, 50–80. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jakonen, Mikko. 2011. Thomas Hobbes on Fear, Mimesis, Aesthesis and Politics. Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory 12 (2):157–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Mark. 2008. The Meaning of the Body: Aesthetics of Human Understanding. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kantorowicz, Ernst. 1957. The King's Two Bodies: A Study in Medieval Political Theology. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kierkegaard, Søren. 2004. The Sickness unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition of Edification and Awakening. Penguin.Google Scholar
Kojève, Alexandre. 2014. The Notion of Authority: A Brief Presentation. Verso Books.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen. 1995. Compromising Westphalia. International Security 20 (3):115–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich. 1989. Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kratochwil, Friedrich. 1994. The Limits of Contract. European Journal of International Law 5 (4):465–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krisch, Nico. 2017. Liquid Authority in Global Governance. International Theory 9 (2):237–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kustermans, Jorg. 2013. The Category Rogue. Thesis Eleven 114 (1):3–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lake, David. 2009. Hierarchy in International Relations. Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Lake, David. 2017. Laws and Norms in the Making of International Hierarchies. In Hierarchies in World Politics, edited by Zarakol, Ayşe, 17–42. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lederman, Rena. 1990. Big Men, Large and Small? Towards a Comparative Perspective. Ethnology 29 (1):3–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mauss, Marcel. 2002. The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcconaughey, Meghan, Musgrave, Paul, and Nexon, Daniel. 2018. Beyond Anarchy: Logics of Political Organization, Hierarchy, and International Structure. International Theory 10 (2):181–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mercer, Jonathan. 2010. Emotional Beliefs. International Organization 64 (1):1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milner, Helen. 1991. The Assumption of Anarchy in International Relations Theory: A Critique. Review of International Studies 17 (1):67–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muppidi, Himadeep. 2016. The Elements of Bandung. In Meanings of Bandung: Postcolonial Orders and Decolonial Visions, edited by Pham, Quynh and Shilliam, Robbie, 23–36. Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Neumann, Iver, and Wigen, Einar. 2018. The Steppe Tradition in International Relations: Russians, Turks and European State Building 4000 BCE–2018 CE. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Onuf, Nicholas, and Klink, Frank. 1989. Anarchy, Authority, Rule. International Studies Quarterly 33 (2):149–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paris, Roland. 2020. The Right to Dominate: How Old Ideas About Sovereignty Pose New Challenges for World Order. International Organization 47 (3):453–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philpott, Daniel. 2001. Revolutions in Sovereignty: How Ideas Shaped Modern International Relations. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Pouliot, Vincent. 2017. Against Authority. In Hierarchies in World Politics, edited by Zarakol, Ayse, 113–34. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rappaport, Roy. 1999. Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raz, Joseph. 1979. The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reus-Smit, Christian. 1999. The Moral Purpose of the State: Culture, Social Identity, and Institutional Rationality in International Relations. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, Henry. 2016. Only in the Ballpark of Paternalism: Arrogance and Liberty-Limitation in International Humanitarian Aid. In Paternalism Beyond Borders, edited by Barnett, Michael, 47–76. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Riley, Patrick. 1973. How Coherent is the Social Contract Tradition? Journal of the History of Ideas 34 (4):543–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringmar, Erik. 2019. History of International Relations: A Non-European Perspective. Open Book.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Andrew. 2014. Mixed Emotions: Beyond Fear and Hatred in International Conflict. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Sending, Ole Jacob. 2015. The Politics of Expertise: Competing for Authority in Global Governance. University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sennett, Richard. 1980. Authority. W.W. Norton and Company.Google Scholar
Shils, Edward. 1965. Charisma, Order, and Status. American Sociological Review 30 (2):199–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shimazu, Naoko. 2014. Diplomacy as Theatre: Staging the Bandung Conference of 1955. Modern Asian Studies 48 (1):225–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sjoberg, Laura. 2017. Revealing International Hierarchy Through Gender Lenses. In Hierarchies in World Politics, edited by Zarakol, Ayse, 95–112. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spruyt, Hendrik. 2020. The World Imagined: Collective Beliefs and Political Order in the Sinocentric, Islamic and Southeast Asian International Societies. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tallberg, Jonas, and Zürn, Michael. 2019. The Legitimacy and Legitimation of International Organizations: Introduction and Framework. Review of International Organizations 14 (4):581–606.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tambiah, Stanley. 2013. The Galactic Polity in Southeast Asia. HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 3 (3):503–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1984. The Politics of the World Economy: The States, the Movements and the Civilizations. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Weber, Max. 1978. Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. University of California Press.Google Scholar
Wright, Richard. 1994. The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference. University Press of Mississippi.Google Scholar
Zala, Benjamin. 2020. Interpreting Great Power Rights in International Society: Debating China's Right to a Sphere of Influence. Journal of International Political Theory 16 (2):210–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zarakol, Ayşe. 2017. Hierarchies in World Politics. Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Feng. 2015. Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East Asian History. Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Zürn, Michael. 2018. A Theory of Global Governance: Authority, Legitimacy, and Contestation. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zürn, Michael, Binder, Martin, and Ecker-Ehrhardt, Matthias. 2012. International Authority and Its Politicization. International Theory 4 (1):69–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar