ABSTRACT
The lack of reality-testing, together with the comparative cognitive remoteness of international society to the citizens of most nation-states, strengthens the tendency of individuals and states to adopt egocentric self-images and self-centered images of the world particularly characterized by their amorphous content. International society is based on structures and built out of elements which, as a whole, demonstrate a high degree of regularity. The history of international society is identical with the development of modern capitalism and worldwide anti-capitalist movements on a world scale provoked by the existence of capitalism. The development of the metropoles and the history of the underdevelopment of the Third World are complementary processes connected through the international economic system. The chapter provides some systematic observations on contemporary international society and its historical development. A structural theory of international society has to elaborate its constitutive components both under a diachronic and under a synchronic perspective.
