Content:
Part I: International Systems, World History, and International Relations Theory
Chapter 1 Systems, History, Theory and the Study of International Relations
Chapter 2 Competing Conceptions of the International System
Chapter 3 Systemic Thinking in World History
Chapter 4 The Theoretical Toolkit of this Book
Chapter 5 Establishing Criteria for International Systems
Part II: Systems in Pre-International World History
Chapter 6 The Origins of Pre-International Systems
Chapter7 The Transition from Pre-International to International Systems
Part III: The Rise and Interlinkage of Multiple International Systems in the Ancient and Classical World
Chapter 8 The New Units: City States, Empires and Barbarians as the Main Actors of the Ancient and Classical World
Chapter 9 Interaction Capacity
Chapter 10 Process
Chapter 11 Structure
Part IV: The Establishment and Evolution of a Global International System
Chapter 12 Units
Chapter 13 Interaction Capacity
Chapter 14 Process
Chapter 15 Structure
Part V: Speculations, Assessments, Reflections
Chapter 17 What World History tells us about International Relations Theory
Chapter 18 What International Relations Theory tells us about World History
Chapter 19 Reflections

This book tells the 60,000 year story of how humankind evolved from a scattering of hunter-gatherer bands to todays highly integrated global international political economy. It traces the evolution of ever-wider economic, societal and military-political international systems, and the interplay between these systems and the tribes, city states, empires, and modern states into which humans have organised themselves. Buzan and Little marry a wide range of mainstream International Relations theories to a world historical perspective. They mount a stinging attack on International Relations as a discipline, arguing that its Eurocentrism, historical narrowness, and theoretical fragmentation have reduced almost to nothing both its cross-disclipinary influence and its ability to think coherently about either the past or the future. Seeking to emulate and challenge the cross-disciplinary influence of the world systems model, the book recasts the study of International Relations into a macro-historical perspective, shows how its core concepts work across time, and sets out a new theoretical agenda and a new intellectual role for the discipline.