Social Practices Of Rule-Making In World Politics

Rule-based global order remains a central object of study in International Relations. Constructivists have identified a number of mechanisms by which actors accomplish both the continuous reproduction and transformation of the rules, institutions, and regimes that constitute their worlds. However, it is less clear how these mechanisms relate to each other–that is, the "rules for changing the rules". This book seeks to explain how political actors know how to change, interpret, and apply the rules that comprise rule-based global order. It argues that actors in world politics are simultaneously engaged in an ongoing social practice of rule-making, interpretation and application.