From Vision to Reality takes the reader past the fixation with political decision-making by focusing on the process of implementation that follows important policy decisions. The book identifies the intentions behind a collection of key policy decisions for establishing Europe's new security order and investigates whether the implementation of thos
Abstract NATO has for 75 years been a remarkably resilient organization because it has been able to change when the world changed. NATO's longevity is in large part due to a dual structure, which has enabled the alliance to oscillate between a role as a military alliance and as a community of value. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and global geopolitical shifts such as the rise of China prompted NATO to prioritize its role as a military alliance and to add a new political focus on China. However, this article demonstrates that NATO's reading of the geopolitical transformation is incomplete. NATO should recognize the new global ordering architecture as a multi-order one, which requires NATO to distinguish clearly between the 'unbounded' global rules-based order in which several international orders now exist and the 'bounded' liberal international order of which NATO is a key institution. NATO needs to develop its policies accordingly—policies governing relations within the liberal international order must be clearly anchored in liberal values and designed to defend liberal international order, while policies governing relations between international orders cannot be anchored in liberal values, but must seek rules-based cooperation in areas of shared interests.
The article outlines processes of order transformation in light of Russia's war in Ukraine. The article argues that transformation is taking place at three levels of ordering conceptualized as the global order level, the international order level, and the national order level. The article shows that transformation is currently taking place at all three levels: in the ideational foundations of the global rules-based order; in the number of ordering entities at the international order level as the Russian-led Eurasian order and the Chinese-led Belt-and-Road order consolidate; and at the national order level through the emergence of right-wing populism. The article demonstrates the importance of paying attention to all three levels, and that Putin's ambition for a viable Eurasian order probably is unlikely to be met, but that this is not necessarily cause for optimism about the coming world order.
Artiklen skitserer processer for ordenstransformation i lyset af Ruslands krig i Ukraine. Den argumenterer for, at transformation finder sted på tre niveauer af orden, konceptualiseret som det globale ordensniveau, det internationale ordensniveau og det nationale ordensniveau. Artiklen viser, at transformation i øjeblikket finder sted på alle tre niveauer: i det idémæssige grundlag for den globale regelbaserede orden; i antallet af ordensenheder på det internationale ordensniveau, hvor den russiskledede eurasiske orden og den kinesiskledede bælte-og-vej-orden i øjeblikket tager form; og på det nationale ordensniveau gennem fremkomsten af højrepopulisme. Artiklen demonstrerer vigtigheden af at være opmærksom på alle tre niveauer, og at Putins ambition om en levedygtig eurasisk orden sandsynligvis ikke vil blive opfyldt, men at dette ikke nødvendigvis giver anledning til optimisme om den kommende verdensorden.
AbstractAs part of the roundtable "International Institutions and Peaceful Change," this essay focuses on the role of institutions as agents of peaceful change from a perspective that emphasizes the importance of a wide spectrum of human emotions to better understand the less quantifiable but nevertheless important conditions for being able to sustain initiatives for peaceful change. It aims to throw light on the often overlooked psychological and emotional hurdles standing in the way of agents' ability to undertake and sustain action designed to lead to peaceful change. To do so, the essay returns to the pioneering work of Ernst Haas and his important concept of "spillover." The essay shows that the neofunctional understanding of spillover was a theoretically important innovation, but that it was missing three essential elements: an understanding of the need for positive emotions and ontological security; an understanding of the link between values and identity; and a realization of the importance of a shared vision for the "good life." To illustrate the problems with Haas's version of spillover, but also to highlight the significant potential of the theory, the essay turns to the crisis of the liberal international order as an example of a forum where the agency to undertake peaceful change seems to be faltering. The essay concludes that the ability of the liberal order to effect peaceful change is currently hampered because the order is characterized by negative emotions, contested values, and a vision of the good life that is seen as mainly a benefit for the cosmopolitan elite.
AbstractConstructivism has a problem in accounting for agent-led change and for what motivates agents to make up their minds about how to put their agency to use. I show that constructivism's problem of change is related to tensions between constructivism's own key assumptions about the mutually constitutive relationship between structure and agency, understanding of change and to an essentialist conception of identity. I argue that agency is constituted through processes of 'identification' involving identity and narrative constructions and performance through practice and action. I make the perhaps controversial move to regard ontological security as a precondition for agent-led change and to identify ontological security maximisation as functionally equivalent to rationalist theories' agent assumption of utility maximisation. I identify two strategies for maximising ontological security: a 'strategy of being' to secure a stable and esteem-enhancing identity and a strong narrative; and a 'strategy of doing' to ensure cognitive consistency through routinised practice whilst also undertaking action contributing to a sense of integrity and pride. The article concludes that although humans are endowed with agency, their actual ability to utilise their agency is severely constrained by their need for maintaining ontological security, which may explain why change appears so difficult to achieve.
The article shows that the current international system is changing towards a completely new form of international system, conceptualized as a multi-order system. The suggestion for a multi-order world stands in contrast to three current narratives about the future global order expressed through a multipolar narrative; a multi-partner narrative and a multi-culture narrative. The article demonstrates that although each narrative points to a plausible future, neither fully captures what lies ahead. Using English School concepts such as order, international society, international system and primary and secondary institutions, the article reveals a conception of the coming international system as a system consisting of several different 'orders' (or international societies) nested within an overall international system. In the coming 'multi-order world', the liberal order will continue, and may even be strengthened internally, but its global reach will be a thing of the past. Moreover, the challenge in a multi-order world will be to forge new forms of relationships between composite and diverse actors across complex lines of division and convergence. Scholars and policy-makers should note that the coming multi-order world will be radically different, requiring new thinking and new institutions and the acceptance of diversity in both power and principle.