ABSTRACT
The essential purpose of any social order is to provide enough regularity in relationships among the individuals within it that values supporting the common good can be achieved, maintained, and advanced, while those most damaging to the common interest are controlled. An international legal system that originated in Europe has dominated the way in which increasing numbers of human beings have ordered global politics down to the current generation. It dates for the most part from the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, one of the most important points demarking the medieval period from the modern period in Europe's development. Westphalia is a blueprint for order based on a factual situation of considerable anarchy. The triumph of the organizing logic of Westphalia became evident by the mid-twentieth century. Westphalia's success is a function of its utility in ordering the realm of power capabilities.
