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This article joins the debate on the entry of non-European states into International Society by examining the socialization of Japan into the normative framework of European International Society during the Meiji period. Despite recent arguments that the English School has pioneered an interpretivist approach in the study of international politics, their conceptualization of the expansion of International Society has paid scant regard to non-European perspectives. As a consequence, International Society is commonly portrayed as playing a progressive role in mitigating conflict and enhancing world order. The article challenges the lopsided portrayal of how non-European states were socialized into International Society. It illustrates that Japan was socialized into a Janus-faced International Society. Finally, it argues that the English School's normative commitment to international order and exclusion of non-European perspectives is in danger of undermining its interpretivist credentials.

This book provides a critical examination of how state socialization has been conceptualized by examining the entry of China and Japan in the expansion of the European international order.

This paper critically examines the 'admittance' of the Ottoman Empire as the first non-European and non-Christian state into European international society, challenges the idea that international society had a universal character, and explores how the Empire encountered and adapted to the requirements of this society. There are two premises to explore. First, the Empire was never accepted as an equal member of the European society of states. Second, the Ottoman Empire's desire to enter European international society initiated its modernisation, which gradually led to the emergence of Turkish nationalism in the twentieth century. The first part of this paper deals with the 'otherness' of the Ottoman Empire within European international society. The second part explains the paradoxical character of Ottoman–European relations, which initiated the Empire's modernisation. The last part explores the emergence of Turkish nationalism in relation to the policies of Ottoman modernisation that brought the transition from an Islamic empire into a modern secular nation-state. It concludes by questioning whether or not the modern Turkish state is considered a European member of international society.

"The Historical Expansion of International Society" published on by Oxford University Press.

AbstractProducing a means of conceptualising and analysing international society as an assemblage, this article reflects on Adam Watson's Evolution of International Society and demonstrates how an assemblage theory approach allows us to undertake Watson's general aims to engage in broad, comparative analyses of international societies historically and produce a history of contemporary international society, but without the problematic biases and omissions that plague the empirical dimensions of his work. Understanding international society as an assemblage affords an ability to see that the endurance of so much of Western European international society in contemporary, global international society is owing to its particular form of assemblage. As a highly adaptive form of assemblage, what changes there might be in the international domain tend to occur within the assemblage, as the assemblage's form renders both a substantive change of the assemblage and the establishment of any rival assemblage unlikely.

This article contributes to the debate that 'international society is what states have made of it' by examining the socialisation of late-Tokugawa/Meiji Japan into the normative framework of European international society. Despite the recent arguments that the English School has pioneered an interpretivist approach in the study of international politics, their conceptualisation of the expansion of international society has paid scant regard to non-European perspectives. As a consequence international society is commonly portrayed as playing a progressive role in mitigating conflict and enhancing world order. I challenge the lopsided portrayal of how non-European states were 'civilised' into international society. I illustrate, in particular, that Japan's socialisation into international society did not lessen conflict. Rather, Japan's social understanding of how European states use international society led it to embark on an imperialist spree. Finally, I demonstrate that the English School can become a more powerful interpretivist approach by incorporating non-European perspectives.