Introduction

Accustomed to presuming a state system predominantly composed of sovereign states authorized to address and cope with change, we are unlikely to inquire whether states have been weakened and their micro components strengthened, whether the nature of force, legitimacy, and authority relations has undergone meaningful redefinition, whether the state system continues to be the prime organizer of global politics, or whether another world has emerged alongside the state system as the basis for world order (Rosenau, 1990: 39–40).