ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to provide the contours of the emergent academic field of "world order" which is rapidly becoming a fashionable term of art for political leaders. It draws some distinctions that seem helpful in discerning the various tendencies sheltered beneath the broad umbrella of world order. A related objection to the world order approach is associated with its apparent emphasis upon order as the missing ingredient in an acceptable world system. The Trilateral Commission, founded in 1973 at the initiative of David Rockefeller, epitomizes a system-maintaining perspective on world order. An interesting feature of system-maintaining approaches to world order is the stress placed upon technical solutions and the corresponding disregard of the political or normative. The distinguishing characteristic of system-transforming approaches to world order is the acceptance of the need to transform the structure of international relations by diminishing the role of sovereign states in some decisive respects.
