ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that incorporation in status groups and participation in their management of international society is fundamentally a function of playing a ‘closure game’ with and against other actors. It discusses a number of reforms of extant theory, rendering it suitable for studying international politics. The chapter examines the need for understanding the institutional and normative context in which a closure game takes place. This is necessary for identifying what types of strategies, and means of closure other than strategies, are available to actors playing the closure game. The chapter explores the concept of mobility dampeners, rendering it possible to identify ways that insiders entrench status positions by subtler means than erecting exclusion barriers. It argues that closure rules in international society are predominantly functional-individualist, meaning that barriers to entry and mobility for state actors are relatively few and relatively open.
