Description
International politics are increasingly described in terms of great power politics. While the theorization of power has become increasingly sophisticated, the theorization of the ‘politics’ of power politics in this literature is relatively under-theorized. Bridging literatures of International Political Theory, International Political Sociology, and International Relations Theory, this paper explores the terms in which the concept of politics and the political are theorized in great power politics. It then offers a new conceptualization of the role of great power ‘politics’ in the making and unmaking of international (dis)order. Using this framework, it traces the evolution of great power ‘politics’, with in interest in eras of increased 'political' conflict in international society, from the 19th Century to current times.
