There is a lurking sense that the state system is under attack or is simply withering away. The world is simultaneously coming together and falling apart. This book looks at current definitions of sovereignty and theories of systems change. Much of our inability to explain change in our current state system stems from using poorly conceived concepts. the cases together we will draw out the key points for a comprehensive theory of sovereignty and systems change. Systems change has challenged scholars for some time now.
Yet there is still at it's a core progressive research program at work. Over time scholars have laid out the basic set of relationships that exist between competing social systems and the variations in the international system that often occur. For long periods of time, stable sovereign principles structure the international system and create various international orders.
When that equilibrium does break and the types of units proliferate numerous scholars have provided fairly clear, if not contradictory, explanations for why one unit will tend to prevail over competing units. The biggest gap in the literature was proving that some relationship between the competing social systems, the various polities, and the international order existed and that these variations could be predictable.
By filling in this gap we have been able to address the two central questions of this book: when will systems change occur and what unit types are likely to form in any given circumstance?
A new full, revised version as an additional analysis for the comparative study of ancient civilizations.
