Abstract

This essay is an investigation into the nature of actorhood in world politics. My narrative is as follows. World politics is more than a mere abstraction. It is materially consequential insofar as it is ordered within the framework of a second order society. Second order social relations operate through institutions that reflect the co-constitutive nature of intra- and inter-actor development. This shared development is relevant insofar as it a precondition to conceptualising international relations, of which diplomacy plays a key role, as characterised by ideological organisation. Ideologically organised actors participate officially in world affairs, and influence politics through participation in negotiating the terms of second order society, but by this very virtue nonetheless maintain (rather than contest) an oligarchically managed (rather than "natural") world order.