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  1. Home
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  3. Scientific Cosmology and International Orders
  • Cited by 64
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
April 2018
Print publication year:
2018
Online ISBN:
9781108241540
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108241540
Series:
Cambridge Studies in International Relations (147)
Subjects:
History, Politics and International Relations, International Relations and International Organisations, History of Science: General Interest
Information

Book description

Scientific Cosmology and International Orders shows how scientific ideas have transformed international politics since 1550. Allan argues that cosmological concepts arising from Western science made possible the shift from a sixteenth-century order premised upon divine providence to the present order centred on economic growth. As states and other international associations used scientific ideas to solve problems, they slowly reconfigured ideas about how the world works, humanity's place in the universe, and the meaning of progress. The book demonstrates the rise of scientific ideas across three cases: natural philosophy in balance of power politics, 1550–1815; geology and Darwinism in British colonial policy and international colonial orders, 1860–1950; and cybernetic-systems thinking and economics in the World Bank and American liberal order, 1945–2015. Together, the cases trace the emergence of economic growth as a central end of states from its origins in colonial doctrines of development and balance of power thinking about improvement.

Awards

Winner, 2019 Don K. Price Award, Science, Technology and Environmental Section, American Political Science Association

Reviews

‘Bentley B. Allan’s Scientific Cosmology and International Orders demonstrates that it remains possible for scholars of international relations to write bold, original, and ambitious books. There have been other books written about world order, but nothing like this one. By developing and deploying the concept of cosmology, he considers how fundamental ways of understanding knowledge, origins, and the relationship between the self and the universe have worked their way through states to transform the fundamental workings of international order. Allan broadens our understanding of the relationship between science and global society, and in doing so tackles the question of international change in a highly provocative way. This is 'grand theory' at its very best.’

Michael N. Barnett - George Washington University, Washington DC

‘This ambitious and eye-opening book takes two bold steps. In taking a step back, it traces how the rise of European science since the sixteenth century transformed the image of the universe, the role of humanity in the cosmos and thus the purposes of the state. In taking a step forward, it identifies the mechanisms that have made these changes possible. Beyond this creative combination of history and social science, Scientific Cosmology and International Orders reminds us again that creative thought about the past alerts us to the existence of unimaginable futures. Every tomorrow has its own history.’

Peter J. Katzenstein - Walter S. Carpenter, Jr, Professor of International Studies, Cornell University, New York

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