ABSTRACT
The need to explain change was cogently noted by W. E. Moore in the late 1960s: “Paradoxically, as the rate of social change has accelerated in the real world of experience, the scientific disciplines dealing with man’s actions and products have tended to emphasize orderly interdependence and static continuity” (Moore, 1968:365). Clearly this statement applied to world politics, as well as to other domains of social science. Seemingly in response to this criticism, a marked shift in the focus of research has taken place from the static aspects of world politics to the dynamic concept of systemic change.1
