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In recent years the rank-dimensional approach to the analysis of social stratification has become increasingly prominent. One of its advocates, Johan Galtung, has made relations between nations his major point of empirical reference. The present paper applies rank-dimensional analysis to the deprived nations of Africa and Asia (or the so-called Third World) in an attempt to grasp the degree of rank homogeneity within the group and to relate its rank characteristics to the more privileged nations in the global system. This exercise demonstrates that there is a linear relationship between total rank and rank disequilibrium in the Afro-Asian group; a finding which has a number of significant theoretical ramifications. The major theoretical innovation in this connexion is the concept of rank divergence—defined as the degree to which a unit in a system of stratification diverges from the typical relational pattern holding between the unit's total rank and rank disequilibrium scores.

520 p. ; This thesis proposes a critical deconstruction of Alexander Wendt's theory. We underline the genealogy of his thought in the contexts of social theory and international relations theory.Thus, we can say that the Wendtian theory does not solve the agency-structure problem, but actually emphasizes the very terminological problem of this debate. In particular, Wendt's will to synthesize two co-determinist approaches – critical realism and constructivism – shows the deadlock of such a thinking mode. A semantic reformulation of the debate becomes a necessity, therefore the development of concepts such as process, relations, habitus and figurations coming from Eliasian thought. A reconstruction is then offered, wich is based on relationism or process sociology as developped by Norbert Elias. A relationist approach allows us to underline the process character of any social reality in order to avoid reifications so common in traditional social thinking. Besides, to explain and understand international politics, we need to work on the longue durée in order to study the evolution (often slow) of social processes. Finally, with Elias, we integrate a psychological dimension to the understanding of international politics through the concept of habitus wich is, at the same time, social and psychological. In other words, there is a need to open a discussion on the role of emotions, affects and their self-control in the relations of violence on the international scene. The overall goal is to humanize, socialize and historicize theories of international relations. ; Cette thèse propose une démonstration critique de l'œuvre d'Alexander Wendt. On mettra en lumière la généalogie de sa pensée qui se retrouve en théorie sociale et en relations internationales. Ainsi, on peut dire que la théorie wendtienne, loin d'apporter une réponse au traditionnel débat agency-structure, met en réalité en évidence le problème fondamental posé par les termes mêmes de ce débat. La volonté affichée par Wendt de synthétiser les deux approches ...