Bull, Hedley. "The Concept of Order in World Politics". In The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, 4th ed., by Hedley Bull, 3-21. New York: Columbia University Press, [1977] 2012.

Bull, Hedley. "The Concept of Order in World Politics". In The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World Politics, 4th ed., by Hedley Bull, 3-21. New York: Columbia University Press, [1977] 2012.

• The concept of 'order' in social life is different than that for other objects. A group of objects which demonstrate a reoccurring pattern are 'ordered'. A social group which recurrently demonstrates a pattern of behavior is not necessarily ordered. Instead for a social group to be 'ordered', it must be arranged to achieve a particular goal (3-4).
• Although values regarding other conceptions of the good differ, the author claims that all 'orderly' societies share three essential goals: securing members against harm; enforcing promises, agreements, and contracts; and securing the stability of property ownership, although not necessarily private property (4).
• States, for the purpose of this book, are defined by the author as political entities exercising internal sovereignty over their territory and population and external sovereignty as independent organizations from other states. Any organization that can assert both internal and external sovereignty is defined as a state (8). Polities lacking authority over a distinct territory are not states (9).
• A system of states, or an international system, is formed by two or more states that have contact and a significant impact on each other's decisions. States can be in contact without forming an international system if they do not impact each other significantly (9).
• A society of states, or 'international society', is formed by a group of states who actively seek to create a social order dedicated towards specific values, rules, and goals. In an international society, states recognize a set of rules as legitimate and will act accordingly (12).
• Not every system of states will produce an international society, as there are many examples of states in international systems not following shared rules and interests (13).
• Historically, international societies where formed where multiple states shared a common civilizational root, with similar languages, religious beliefs, systems of government, and laws. As a result, forming a common base of rules and goals was easier for these international systems (15).
• States within an international society will always seek the preservation of that international society, the protection of their own external sovereignty and independence, the maintenance of peace within the society, and establishing the international conditions which allow for order to exist within domestic social life (16-18).
• The 'world order' are those patterns of behavior and beliefs common among all of humankind which allow order in social life to exist. The world order is separate and distinct from an international order, as it can exist outside of the state system and is a moral conception among individual humans rather than political entities (19, 21).