Back in 2004, i wrote a lengthy response to Alexander Wendt’s amazing article “Why a World State is Inevitable.” (Wendt, Alexander (2003) ‘Why a World State Is Inevitable’, European Journal of International Relations 9(4): 491-542.), but surfing the web of late has convinced me to bring it forward (finally).

Alexander Wendt begins his paper “Why a World State is Inevitable” with the following concise formulation of his intent: “In this article I propose a teleological theory of the ‘logic of anarchy’ which suggests that a world state is inevitable….” I offer the following equally concise opposition: In this article I propose a teleonomic theory of the ‘logic of panarchy’ which suggests that a world state is not inevitable. I suggest that the stable “state” for this teleonomic process is a global “complex adaptive system,” or governance network, in which the “logic of anarchy” gives way to the “logic of panarchy.”

http://paulbhartzog.org/papers/Panarchy%20Is%20What%20We%20Make%20of%20It.pdf
(folder: http://paulbhartzog.org/papers/ )