Continuity and change in international orders and disorders

Attention to the problem of “order” in political science is not a surprise. Neither are the realities designated by the categories of “political order” or the “international order”. The growth of this attention may mean that what is happening in some sphere of life differs from the usual, from previously observed dynamics. As an integral part of the language of politics as well as a category of social sciences, including the political science, “order” in general, “political order”, and “international order” in particular, usually carry strong normative and ideological connotations and reflect certain expectations and perceptions. This article proposes a classification of approaches to the category of international orders, including those with minimal normative and ideological connotations and thus potentially possessing greater analytical value (the positional approach is one of them).
The sign of the existence of an international order (world order) in real life is the predictability and repeatability of the actions of those who are subject to the order (regardless of the diversity of ideas about its parameters and origins). The establishment of an international order, which is usually qualified as liberal, is associated with the rapid rise (growth of power) of the USA in the 19^th – early 20^th centuries. In the thirty years following the end of the Cold War, there was a roughly similar rapid rise of China, which gradually returns the world to a situation of competitive orders maintained by superpowers with global ambitions and global reach.

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