The Anarchical Society as Futurology

Abstract

The Anarchical Society outlines various possible world orders, such as New Medievalism and world state, as alternatives to the anarchic order of the modern states-system. In this chapter, I evaluate critically the factual and normative premises of his arguments concerning possible, likely and desirable future world orders (factual and normative are intertwined but not inseparable). A key point is that Bull somewhat underestimated the sway of globalizing forces, including the gradual emergence of elements of world statehood. My main argument, however, is that because of his omission of political economy, Bull would have been puzzled about the causes of the re-emergence of great power conflicts. For the same reason, he also misjudged the importance of building better common institutions.