Part I: 1815 – British hegemony and the invention of the multilateral conference plus follow-up conference: The Concert of Europe and the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine

Part II: Transnational networks of citizens: From the anti-slavery movement in 1815 to the International Committee of the Red Cross of 1863

Part III: The creation of the Hague system: The arbitration movement and the 1899 and 1907 Peace Conferences in The Hague

Part IV: Public International Unions 1865–1914: Institutionalization of conferences and the creation of continental markets in Europe and the Americas

Part V: The international foundation for the welfare state 1880–1914: How governments became involved in international labour legislation

Part VI: Laying down the path of collective security: The First World War, the League of Nations founded (1919) and the interwar period

Part VII: Laying down the path of common economic endeavours: The International Labour Organization (1919) and the economic and social activities of the League of Nations

Part VIII: American hegemony and the genesis and evolution of the United Nations system

Part IX: Collective security in a bipolar world 1945–80

Part X: Economic cooperation in a bipolar world 1945–70

Part XI: Decolonization, the North–South divide and Third World experiences with global and regional international organizations 1960–80

Part XII: Development aid, environmental protection and human rights as normative powers: NGO pressure on governments through intergovernmental organizations 1960–80

Part XIII: International organizations in the 1980s: The Cold War intensifies and neoliberalism replaces Keynesianism

Part XIV: The 1990s and new challenges for the United Nations as peacekeeper

Part XV: Globalization in the 1990s: New challenges for the United Nations system as promoter of economic and social stability

Part XVI: Regional international organizations from the 1980s onwards

Part XVII: Security and the international economy on the threshold of the twenty-first century