Is contemporary international order truly a secular arrangement? William Bain challenges this narrative by arguing that modern theories of international order reflect ideas that originate in medieval theology.

William Bain is Associate Professor of International Relations at National University of Singapore. He is the author of Between Anarchy and Society: Trusteeship and the Obligations of Power (OUP, 2003) and editor of, and contributor to, Medieval Foundations of International Relations (Routledge, 2016) and The Empire of Security and the Safety of the People (Routledge, 2006). He has written widely on the theory of international society and the history of international thought.

• 1: Order and Theology


• Part I: Two Kinds of Order


• 2: Rival Conceptions of Order: Immanent and Imposed


• Part II: From Medieval to Modern


• 3: Renaissance, Reformation, and the Road to Westphalia


• 4: Martin Luther and the Theology of the Two Kingdoms


• 5: Hugo Grotius and the God of International Society


• 6: Thomas Hobbes and the Divine Politics of Anarchy


• Part III: Modern International Order as Medieval Theology


• 7: Political Theology I: System, Anarchy, Balance of Power


• 8: Political Theology II: Society, Law, Constitution


• 9: International Order Beneath and Empty Sky