Representing civilization: Solidarism, ornamentalism, and Siam's entry into international society

In: European journal of international relations, Band 16, Heft 3, S. 417-439

Abstract

Although norms are important in various schools of international relations theory, there has been relatively little effort to integrate their various uses of the term. Here I seek to bring together the Constructivist use of norms based on individual human agency with the English School's concept of solidarism. This perspective helps make sense of the expansion of international society, a point demonstrated through a study of the apparently anomalous case of Siam, which achieved sovereignty without developing significant military power. Siamese elites were able to gain inclusion in international society by enacting solidarism with European conceptions of 'civilized' behavior and using European conceptions of class to trump preconceptions about race.