Research

Book project

Images of Hierarchy: The Contestation of International Stratification and the Making of Global Order

Across the world, struggles over core aspects of international order are intensifying. Rising powers like China and India, as well as far-right actors, are increasingly vocal in their attempts to alter international order’s social hierarchies, albeit in vastly different ways. Such acts of resistance are by no means unprecedented; a range of actors have long sought to reform fundamental hierarchies of international order. How do actors resist and contest international hierarchies? And what effects have such acts of resistance had on international order historically?

Images of Hierarchy argues that actors in international relations contest not only their own position within hierarchies but also how those hierarchies are structured. Put differently, they are not just fighting over their rank within an existing hierarchy but over how that hierarchy is organized: which positions exist, how they are defined, and how they relate to one another. The book identifies three recurring visions of hierarchy that actors have used, and continue to deploy, in these struggles. Some actors depict hierarchy as divided into three different tiers. Others portray a binary divide between “haves” and “have-nots.” Still others reject hierarchy altogether, envisioning the international realm as one of sovereign equals, as is written in the UN Charter. Images of Hierarchy traces how these competing visions have clashed and interacted, leaving enduring marks on international order across episodes from the 1907 Hague Conference to the rise and decline of the “Third World” movement.

Images of Hierarchy demonstrates that some of the most fundamental aspects of contemporary international order are not simply the product of top-down design, but rather of resistance and reconfiguration “from below.” Moreover, it highlights how contemporary actors—from China to transnational far-right movements—continue to draw on and redeploy these familiar images of hierarchy which have been invoked throughout the history of modern international society. The book thereby links current struggles over international order to earlier episodes that, at first glance, appear disconnected.