ABSTRACT
In contemporary social science, one can distinguish three levels of analysis in the study of international order. The constitution of an empire is one of the most frequent phenomena in the history of international relations. The horizontal dimension remains the most important one in the strategic-diplomatic system. The superpowers have, so far, despite all their disagreements and crises, successfully preserved world peace. The study of international order calls for several preliminary remarks. First, the problem of world order is quite different from that of domestic political order or from that of order within the social groups that exist within the political unit. The transnational society of "depoliticized" exchanges was, in the nineteenth century, a liberal ideal and a partial reality; but one must emphasize the word partial. The Transnational society was able to exist only so long as the political regimes of the main actors relied, for economic development, on free enterprise and on the market.
