Description
Book SynopsisThe idea of civilization recurs frequently in reflections on international politics. However, International Relations academic writings on civilization have failed to acknowledge the major 20th-century analysis that examined the processes through which Europeans came to regard themselves as uniquely civilized – Norbert Elias’s On the Process of Civilization. This book provides a comprehensive exploration of the significance of Elias’s reflections on civilization for International Relations. It explains the working principles of an Eliasian, or process-sociological, approach to civilization and the global order and demonstrates how the interdependencies between state-formation, colonialism and an emergent international society shaped the European 'civilizing process'.
Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Process-Sociological Approach to Understanding Civilization The Return of Discourses of Civilization and Barbarism Elias’s Explanation of the European Civilizing Process The Nation-State, War and Human Equality The Classical European ‘Standard of Civilization’ Civilization, Diplomacy and the Enlargement of International Society Standards of Civilization in the Post-European Global Order Civilizing Processes at the Level of Humanity as a Whole Summary and Conclusions
