Rule-based global order remains a central object of study in International Relations. Constructivists have identified a number of mechanisms by which actors accomplish both the continuous reproduction and transformation of the rules, institutions, and regimes that constitute their worlds. However, it is less clear how these mechanisms relate to each other--that is, the "rules for changing the rules". This book seeks to explain how political actors know which
procedural rules to engage in a particular context, and how they know when to utilize one mechanism over another. It argues that actors in world politics are simultaneously engaged in an ongoing social
practice of rule-making, interpretation, and application. By identifying and explaining the social practice of rule-making in the international system, this book clarifies why global norms change at particular moments and why particular attempts to change norms might succeed or fail at any given time. Mark Raymond looks at four cases: the social construction of great power management in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars; the creation of a rule against the use of force,
except in cases of self-defense and collective security; contestation of the international system by al Qaeda in the period immediately following the 9/11 attacks; and United Nations efforts to
establish norms for state conduct in the cyber domain. The book also shows that practices of global governance are centrally concerned with making, interpreting, and applying rules, and argues for placing global governance at the heart of the study of the international system and its dynamics. Finally, it demonstrates the utility of the book's approach for the study of global governance, the international system, and for emerging efforts to identify forms and sites of authority and hierarchy in
world politics.
Rule-based global order remains a central object of study in International Relations. Constructivists have identified a number of mechanisms by which actors accomplish both the continuous reproduction and transformation of the rules, institutions, and regimes that constitute their worlds. However, it is less clear how these mechanisms relate to each other--that is, the "rules for changing the rules". This book seeks to explain how political actors know which
procedural rules to engage in a particular context, and how they know when to utilize one mechanism over another. It argues that actors in world politics are simultaneously engaged in an ongoing social
practice of rule-making, interpretation, and application. By identifying and explaining the social practice of rule-making in the international system, this book clarifies why global norms change at particular moments and why particular attempts to change norms might succeed or fail at any given time. Mark Raymond looks at four cases: the social construction of great power management in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars; the creation of a rule against the use of force,
except in cases of self-defense and collective security; contestation of the international system by al Qaeda in the period immediately following the 9/11 attacks; and United Nations efforts to
establish norms for state conduct in the cyber domain. The book also shows that practices of global governance are centrally concerned with making, interpreting, and applying rules, and argues for placing global governance at the heart of the study of the international system and its dynamics. Finally, it demonstrates the utility of the book's approach for the study of global governance, the international system, and for emerging efforts to identify forms and sites of authority and hierarchy in
world politics.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: Social Practices of Rule-Making
Chapter 2: The Social Construction of Great Power Management,
1815-1822
Chapter 3: Banning War: Social Practices of Rule-Making in the
Interwar Period
Chapter 4: Social Practices of Rule-Making and the Global War on
Terror
Chapter 5: Applying Old Rules to New Cases: International Law in
the Cyber Domain
Conclusion
Notes
References
Index
Mark Raymond is the Wick Cary Associate Professor of International Security and Director of the Cyber Governance and Policy Center at the University of Oklahoma. He has been a Carnegie Fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, an External Affiliate of the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University, and a Fellow with the Center for Democracy and Technology.
[A] fantastic achievement. Scholars of international security,
global governance, and practice will find the book to be of value.
Moreover, policymakers must consider its message: the stakes of
modern great-power competition are the rules of the international
system, and in this world, skill in rulemaking is as important to a
state's national security interests as a bullet on the battlefield.
This insight should caution U.S. policymakers who seek a retreat
from global governance, as well as encourage the Biden
administration as it seeks to restore U.S. leadership in the
world.
*Miles M. Evers, H-Diplo*
The book extends practice theory's application beyond specific
aspects of world politics (like diplomacy) to the more general
phenomenon of argumentation...This approach enables Raymond to make
constitutive and causal explanations about the process of rule
change.
*Perspectives on Politics*
What goes into the making of successful global rules? In this
sweeping and intellectually powerful analysis, Raymond shows that
there are generic procedural rules for making rules that apply
across contexts. Spanning topics from great power management and
collective security to terrorism and cybersecurity, Raymond deftly
reveals commonalties in the construction of governance arrangements
of all types. A must-read for all students of global governance and
international politics.
*Martha Finnemore, University Professor of Political Science and
International Affairs, George Washington University*
It's one thing to talk about rules and their properties in the
abstract. It's quite another thing to talk about rules in
practice-lawyers do this for a living, but only with a limited
stock of formal rules; many constructivists talk about informal
rules in the wooliest terms. It is altogether something else to map
'the endogenous dynamics of complex rule sets.' These are Mark
Raymond's words for his ambitiously conceived, carefully executed
project. Finding rules for making rules in four astutely chosen
case studies, Raymond shows how two centuries of social
construction have given us today's system of international
governance.
*Nicholas Greenwood Onuf, Professor Emeritus of Politics and
International Relations, Florida International University*
If global governance is about rule-making and interpretation, these
activities are themselves governed by secondary rules. In one of
the most thoughtful constructivist works of recent years, Mark
Raymond examines how and why social practices of secondary
rule-making have structured global security orders from the Concert
of Europe to the campaign against al Qaeda and ongoing efforts to
regulate cyberwarfare.
*Jason Sharman, Sir Patrick Sheehy Professor of International
Relations, University of Cambridge*
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