ABSTRACT
Insiders erect exclusionary closure barriers to secure material and ideational advantages for themselves. Closure barriers and Mobility Dampeners constitute an exclusive grouping’s closure strategies to maintain a status quo in which they are the dominant and privileged actors. This chapter provides the empirical justification for reforming closure theory’s typology of closure rules, presenting them as follows: Unachievable, Achievable, and Ostensibly Achievable. Collectivism is present at the very heart of the closure system. Its role is central in giving the international domain its broad shape and character by making the possession of sovereignty the primary closure rule of the system. Closure in international society is predominantly governed according to functionalist-individualist rules, rendering international society a relatively open system. Equality is possessed by sovereigns and states are universally subject to international law. The state has monopolised international legal life to the exclusion of other forms of political organisation.”
