Beyond International Society: The World Society idea from English School to Critical Theory

Abstract This article aims to scrutinise the international society concept in order to point out its insufficiencies within contemporary world politics. We conclude that the concept of world society is a better choice concerning discussions about normative challenges on International Relations Theory. Here, nonetheless, a renewed world society idea comes into view. Considering its origins in the English School, we remember that international and world society concepts are two out of three possibilities for world order, as pointed by Wight (1991). In this sense, we argue that both of them, within the English School, lack elements when it comes to contemporary International Relations debates. We run, then, through Critical Theory contributions, mainly from Jürgen Habermas, to develop a world society concept that fits into a transnationalised reality. Although we don’t always agree with Habermas, we critically defend his intellectual proposal and his attempts to advance the discussion about cosmopolitanism, that here deals with the world society idea.