The social construction of contemporary international hierarchy. (Volumes I and II)

One of the basic features of international relations as we know it is the existence of hierarchy. Enduring relations of inequality are standard themes in the international relations literature. This is evident in the relations between what is commonly referred to as the "North" and the "South". Despite differences among the various bodies of literature that focus on this issue, they share in a particular oppositional structuring of the world which includes the conceptual divisions of; "First World"/"Third World", "core"/"periphery", and "developed"/"underdeveloped". These divisions are accepted as central features of our current hierarchy. Two problems arise from this. First, the basis for hierarchy is held to be the same across time and space. The identity of those on top and those on bottom may change but what differentiates the two is accepted as universal. The second problem is that existing literature gives analytical priority to a type of power that operates on and through already constructed subjects inhabiting an already constructed world. This overlooks and potentially obscures other forms of power which are implicated in the very construction of worlds and their inhabitants. This study suggests that there is a productive and disciplining power that inheres in discursive practices, the result of which is the social construction of and simultaneous arrangement of particular kinds of subjects and objects into hierarchical relations. This study gives empirical content to this suggestion by examining a set of relationships between two dominant countries (Britain and the U.S.) and one of their respective colonies/neo-colonies (Kenya and the Philippines).