Stratification in international society

This area of research examines the social structure of the international system. It builds on earlier work conceptualising international social stratification (Millennium, 2014) which developed a framework for thinking about the social positions of different international actors, and especially a new understanding of how status works in international relations.

The research is currently exploring processes of group formation. Among other things, it draws on a new dataset of treaties to analyse interactions between states in order to test theoretical claims about how international social position affects how states are treated by others and, ultimately, how it determines their 'life chances'.