Das Ende von Ordnung im 20. Jahrhundert

How do international orders end? This question, which has received little attention in the transformation narratives of the 20th century, lies at the heart of this book. Building on network theory and insights from research literature on empires, the book develops a model that can explain disintegration processes of imperial—in network theoretical terms: ‘star-shaped’—orders. This model is then tested in two detailed case studies on the decolonisation of the Eastern Bloc after World War II and the collapse of its socialist order.
The author demonstrates that local elites on the peripheries of the respective orders played an important role in the processes of disintegration. He also shows that the ‘power’ and ‘idea’-based explanations that dominate discourse on transformations in international relations cannot be empirically juxtaposed. Instead, he advocates a synthesis: the analysis of ideas in power struggles.