Furthering Human Interests through Solidarity - World Society as a Substantive Goal of Progress in International Relations.

The pluralist-solidarist debate within the English School of International Relations boils down to the conceptualization of the boundary between International Society and World Society. Assuming that pluralism and solidarism are ends of a spectrum, solidarity can only develop up to a certain point without accompanying developments in World Society. But what makes international society move towards the solidarist end of the spectrum, where the authority of states gradually decreases?. This paper suggests that the boundary should not be seen as a clear threshold, but rather as gradual evolutionary steps along the continuum. Shifts along the spectrum can be linked to the telos of international society. Since world order is order among individuals, it is morally superior to an order among states. As the paper argues, the substantive elements of the telos correspond to the three values (security, human rights and welfare) along which progress, in the Adlerian sense, is conceptualized. In the outlined framework, the shift to increased levels of solidarism in international society is progress towards these substantive goals. Therefore, world society is in fact the substantive goal of progress in international relations. As elements of progress are identifiable, the proposed framework also renders the distinction between levels of solidarity measurable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]