ABSTRACT
The history of modern international relations is composed of a succession of international orders. Each international order comprises a succession of international systems. The last international system of one international order is also, as a transitional phenomenon, the first international system of the next international order. The Treaty of Westphalia effectively ended the Counter-Reformation, but it only codified changes in international law and practice that had been evolving for some time before. The breakdown of the Crowned Society order into bipolarity in the two decades preceding the First World War prefigured the bipolarity of the "International Society" order. Regularities are evident from the foregoing analytical review of the succession of international orders and international systems within those orders. The International Society order is characterized by bipolarity: between the status quo and revisionist powers under the Interwar System, before the Second World War; and between the two superpowers and their blocs under the Cold War system, after the Second World War.
