Social Movements and International Order Formation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19214767 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alejandro M Peña (0000-0002-7317-9246, Universidad Torcuato Di Tella), Thomas Davies (0000-0002-0020-0235, University of London) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1-40 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-11 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Organization (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0020-8183 • E-ISSN: 1531-5088 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0020818326101374 |
| OpenAlex | W7148984078 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 137 |
Through comparative analysis of two historical cases of transition from hierarchical to competitive international orders—from the Han dynasty to the Period of Disunion in third-century China, and from the Abbasid Caliphate to the Islamic Commonwealth in the tenth century—we consider how social movements have long been significant facilitators of international change. With reference to the contributions to these transitions of early Daoist and Sunni movements respectively, we offer a comparative framework for understanding how social movements may undermine established hierarchies and induce legitimacy contests that contribute toward the emergence of new international orders. Moreover, by contrasting these cases against the role of the Reformation movement in the development of European international order, the article both decenters the European experience and illuminates how social movements can be central to crafting fundamental, yet varying, relationships between political authority and society across highly diverse cultural and temporal contexts
Appeal · Assertion · International relations · Order (exchange) · Politics · Social movement · Social order · Peacebuilding and International Security · Political Conflict and Governance · World Systems and Global Transformations
China's Hegemony
The 'Alids
Before Colonization
The Anticolonial Transnational
International societies in pre-modern East Asia
How the West Came to Rule
Contentious Performances
Individual Rights and the Making of the International System
The Global Transformation
Moral Movements and Foreign Policy
The Struggle for Power in Early Modern Europe
‘Leaders’ Or Brokers? Positions and Influence in Social Movement Networks
Comparative Historical Analysis and Knowledge Accumulation in the Study of Revolutions
Social Movements as Challenges to Authority
The Sovereign State and Its Competitors
Early Daoist Movements
Han foreign relations
The World Imagined
Islamic Societies to the Nineteenth Century
The Decline and Fall of the First Muslim Empire
The European Reformations
Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion
Religious Refugees in the Early Modern World
Before the West
The Umayyad Dynasty and the Western Maghreb. A Transregional Perspective
Early China
Celestial Masters
Taoism
Anatomies of Revolution
Buddhism in China
World of the Right
Popular Religious Movements and Heterodox Sects in Chinese History
Bringing Religion into International Relations
War and State Formation in Ancient China and Early Modern Europe
Before Religion
Some Chinese Rebel Ideologies
The Idea of Supreme Peace (Taiping) in Premodern Chinese Philosophies of History
Beyond anarchy
Three visions of the global
Global international relations and the essentialism trap
Radical conservatism and global order
International Progress, International Order, and the Liberal International Order
The English and Chinese Schools of International Relations
From guo to tianxia
Global IR Meets Global History
Why Westphalia Still Matters
Bringing the Ottoman Order Back into International Relations
Medieval Origins of the European State System
World society, international society and the colonization of Africa
On the Revolutions in Early Islam
The International Turn in Far-Right Studies
History of International Relations
The Steppe Tradition in International Relations
Religious toleration, the Peace of Westphalia and the German territorial estates
Embedded authority
Human security and the rise of the social
Transformation at the margins
System, empire and state in Chinese international relations
The nation‐state, non‐Western empires, and the politics of cultural difference
The Great Seljuk Empire
Taoist Messianism
The Separation of State and Religion in the Development of Early Islamic Society
The Eurocentric Conception of World Politics
Historiographical Foundations of Modern International Thought
A Europe of Composite Monarchies
Between Eurocentrism and Babel
Why Europe Avoided Hegemony
Struggles for Recognition
International Order in Historical East Asia
The Eastern cousins of European sovereign states? The development of linear borders in early modern Japan
Beyond War and Contracts
The Feudal Revolution and Europe's Rise
Tilly Goes to Church
The Religious Roots of Modern International Relations
Democratic Waves in Historical Perspective
Whatever Happened to The Women's Movement
Ideologically Structured Action
To Map Contentious Politics
Anarchy and Empire
Explaining Durable Diversity in International Systems
The Co-Constitution of Order
Embedded Revisionism
Defending Hierarchy from the Moon to the Indian Ocean
Security, Society, and the Perennial Struggles over the Sacred
Sovereignty, International Relations, and the Westphalian Myth
Cultural Diversity and International Order
State Formation in Korea and Japan, 400–800 CE
Global Civil Society
Regime Change Cascades
Making Sense of Religion in Political Life
Charles Tilly and the Practice of Contentious Politics
Revisiting the expansion thesis
The end of global pluralism
Anachronism and International Relations theory
Concept formation in historical International Relations
The Anarchical Society
Transnational Civil Society and Advocacy in World Politics
Social Movements and Social Networks
Beyond Tocqueville
State and Religion in Islamic Societies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |