Organizing International Politics: Sovereignty and Open Systems

Abstract

Changes in the meaning of sovereignty are at the center of intersecting discussions between comparative and international politics. This article uses open-system perspectives from organization theory to move beyond arguments over the erosion or resilience of sovereignty, toward more substantive questions about the nature of the boundaries of political actors, and to frame the possibility that changes in world politics are constituting new actors whose relationships would follow logics different from those ascribed to sovereign states.