Social Movements and International Order Formation

Social Movements and International Order FormationAs is increasingly commonly recognized, it can no longer be assumed that "the Western experience can be generalized to all orders". 1 A growing body of research has highlighted international ordering involving very different dynamics and institutions to those in modern European history in regions "beyond the West". 2 At the same time, there has been increasing recognition that the building of international order has been achieved not only from above, as in traditional accounts of the actions of great powers, ruling elites, and "Herculean acts of statesmanship", 3 but also from below, involving groups of social actors including scientists, intellectuals, industrialists, religious groups, revolutionary vanguards, and diverse popular movements. 4 Moreover, the ongoing erosion of the "liberal" world order has been attributed not only to the actions of revisionist states beyond the West but also to the appeal and confidence of right-wing, ethno-nationalist, and illiberal movements within it. 5Despite these advances, consideration of the roles of social actors and bottom-up struggles in international order formation becomes increasingly thin as we move back in time and further away from the contexts associated with Western modernity.The development of social movements and a political public sphere have often been portrayed as originating in North America and Western Europe from the 18 th century onwards, 6 and many follow Hobsbawm's assertion that the French Revolution was "the model to which, speaking historiographically, all models aspire". 7With the exception of the impact of the Protestant Reformation, 8 the origins of pre-modern international orders remain predominantly depicted in top-down and static fashion, with most analyses departing from descriptions of political traditions and cultural beliefs that somehow remain in place until an external (often Western) intervention brings them to an end.Although analytically useful for comparative and causal analysis, we consider the act of fixing culture in place and time to be problematic, potentially reproducing "myths of cultural essences" 9 and 1