The Resilience of Neoliberalism: Order and Self-Organisation in a Complex World more

Order will always emerge. Basically, any inter-relation of ‘open’ systems will produce an order. Indeed, it is best imagined as a series of orders nested and scaled over time and space. Orders become self-sustaining – reproduction, adaptation and path dependence are central to any series of interlocked ‘complex adaptive systems’. Yet, conversely order is not a static affair – it is a series of high energy processes that are, on occasions, prone to phase transitions and rapid and unpredictable transformations. These are lessons drawn from complexity theory; really an assemblage of non-linear dynamical theories that focus on emergence, far-from-equilibrium processes and self-organisation. It is a scientific paradigm that runs counter to dominant notions of orderliness that draw from a Newtonian worldview that privileges linear cause and effect. The relevance to international politics? Meta-theoretically informed by an unstated Newtonian worldview, dominant theories of international relations, inclusive of neoliberal perspectives, are guilty of considering a particular idea of the international system as a final (and, often, natural) form. Indeed, an end of history scenario or a ‘common sense’ position that the world just is. This Newtonian view is delivered to the study of international relations via an economic ontology. Complexity, as an alternative meta-theoretical commitment, might also be utilised to illustrates neoliberalism's continued dominance. But the revivals and resilience of neoliberalism is underscored by positive (away from equilibrium) feedback effects; a high energy affair that is by no means a natural nor permanent set of arrangements.