ABSTRACT
What do we understand by a social order at the level beyond the nation-state? The term of a social order refers to the regularity, predictability, or stability of patterns of behavior in social life. The quality of social order can be determined by assessing whether governance systems lead to the fulfillment of specific goals underlying a social order. Hedley Bull (1977, 4) pointed out that social order “is not any pattern or regularity in the relations of human individuals or groups, but a pattern that leads to a particular result, an arrangement of social life such that it promotes certain goals or values” [emphasis by author]. Social order is desirable only if the goals which it fulfills are compatible with social reason. The different international orders that emerged in the past few centuries considered the state as a main actor which dominates interactions and the creation of outcomes in international politics.1The idea of the state as a main actor in international politics emerged with the Westphalian model of order. This type of international order was established after the political chaos and belligerency which had characterized relations among various types of actors in times before and during the Thirty Years’ War in Europe.
