While `world opinion' is a staple in political discourse, the concept has received
little attention in IR. Locating it along the `realist—idealist' divide,
existing studies have conceptualized `world opinion' empirically, as an aggregative
or intersubjective phenomenon, annexed or opposed to state sovereignty, and
embodying a normative standard. Drawing on Luhmann's conception of public opinion
and Foucault's governmentality approach, this article reconceptualizes `world
opinion' discursively (functionally and semantically), as a medium of communication
that enables post-sovereign forms of international governance irrespective of an
inherent normativity. The alternative conception of `world opinion' is illustrated
in the discourse of the emerging United Nations in the early 1940s. In this context,
`world opinion' addressed problems concerning the failure of the League of Nations,
total war, and threats to `civilization'. With public opinion research as a
technical backdrop, `world opinion' underwrote governmentalities of international
policing, welfare and rights liberalism, post-colonial pastoralism, and pedagogical
panopticism in response to these problems.
Armstrong, David
,
Lorna Llloyd
and
John Redmond
(1996) From Versailles to Maastricht: International
Organization in the Twentieth Century. New
York: St. Martin's Press.
2.
Barry, Andrew
,
Thomas Osborne
and
Nikolas Rose
(eds) ( 1996) Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism,
Neo-Liberalism and Rationalities of Government.
London: UCL
Press.
3.
Beer, Max
(1944)
`Peace Through Truth'
, New Europe4(3):
18-22.
4.
Bernays, Edward L.
(1945) Take Your Place at the Peace Table: What You Can Do to
Win a Lasting United Nations Peace. New
York: The Gerent Press.
5.
Bogart, Leo
(1972) Silent Politics: Polls and the Awareness of Public
Opinion. New York: John Wiley
and Sons.
6.
Bonnet, Henri
(1942) The United Nations: What They Are, What They May
Become. Chicago, IL: World
Citizens Association.
7.
Carr, Edward Hallett
(1946 [1939]) The Twenty Years' Crisis, 1919-1939:
An Introduction to the Study of International Relations, 2nd edn.
New York: Harper and
Row .
8.
Carr, Edward Hallett
(1947 [1942]) Conditions of Peace.
New York:
Macmillan.
9.
Chalaby, Jean K.
(1996)
`Beyond the Prison-House of Language: Discourse as a Sociological
Concept'
, British Journal of Sociology47(4):
684-98.
10.
Cmiel, Kenneth
(2002) `Human Rights, Freedom of Information, and the Origins
of Third-World Solidarity', in
Mark Philip Bradley
and
Patrice Petro
(eds) Truth Claims: Representation and Human Rights, pp.
107-30. New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press.
11.
Commission on a Just and Durable Peace
(1945 )
`The Churches and the Current International Situation - A Memorandum
Concerned with the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals' and `Statement of Political
Propositions'
, International Conciliation409: 150-66,
170-7.
12.
Commission to Study the Organization of Peace [Commission]
(1973) Building Peace: Reports of the Commission to Study the
Organization of Peace 1939-1972. Metuchen,
NJ: The Scarecrow Press.
13.
Davison, W. Phillips
(1973) `International and World Public Opinion', in
Ithiel de Sola Pool
et al. (eds) Handbook of Communication, pp.
871-86. Chicago, IL:
Rand McNally.
14.
Dean, Vera Micheles
(1946) The Four Cornerstones of Peace.
New York:
McGraw-Hill.
15.
Dean, Mitchell
(1999) Governmentality: Power and Rule in Modern
Society . London:
Sage.
16.
Department of State Bulletin [Bulletin] (1944) Vol. 11, Nos 262-288, 2
July-31 December.
17.
Department of State Bulletin [Bulletin] (1945) Vol. 12, Nos 289-313, 7
January-24 June.
18.
Dolivet, Louis
(1942)
`Educating Public Opinion for World Organization'
, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science222: 84-9.
19.
Doman, Nicholas
(1942) The Coming Age of World Control: The Transition to an
Organized World Society. New York:
Harper and Brothers.
20.
Dulles, John Foster
(1939) War, Peace and Change. New
York : Harper and
Brothers.
21.
Eden, Anthony
(1948) Freedom and Order: Selected Speeches 1939-1946 .
Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin.
22.
Eichelberger, Clark
(1943)
`Next Steps in the Organization of the United Nations'
, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science228: 34-9.
23.
Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America
(1945)
`Christian Standards and Current International Developments' and `Statement
[on the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals]'
, International Conciliation409: 142-9,
167-9.
24.
Foucault, Michel
(1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge, trans. A.M. Sheridan
Smith. New York: Pantheon
Books .
25.
Foucault, Michel
(1977) Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans.
Alan Sheridan. New York: Vintage
Books.
26.
Foucault, Michel
(1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other
Writings 1972-1977. New York:
Pantheon Books.
27.
Foucault, Michel
(1990) The History of Sexuality: An Introduction, Vol.
1. New York: Vintage
Books.
28.
Foucault, Michel
(1991) `Governmentality', in
Graham Burchell
,
Colin Gordon
and
Peter Miller
(eds) The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, pp.
87-104. Chicago, IL:
The University of Chicago Press.
29.
Foucault, Michel
(1997a) `Security, Territory, and Population', in
Paul Rabinow
(ed.) Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. Essential Works of Foucault,
1954-1984, Vol. 1, pp. 67-71.
New York: The New
Press.
30.
Foucault, Michel
(1997b) `The Birth of Biopolitics', in
Paul Rabinow
(ed.) Ethics: Subjectivity and Truth. Essential Works of Foucault,
1954-1984, Vol. 1, pp. 73-9. New
York : The New Press.
31.
Foucault, Michel
(2000a) `"Omnes et singulatim": Toward a Critique of
Political Reason', in
James D. Faubion
(ed.) Power: Essential Works of Foucault, 1954-1984, Vol. 3, pp.
298-325. New York:
The New Press.
32.
Foucault, Michel
(2000b)
`The Political Technology of Individuals'
, in
James D. Faubion
(ed.) Power: Essential Works of Foucault,
1954-1984, Vol. 3, pp.
403-17. New
York: The New
Press.
33.
Foucault, Michel
(2003) `Society Must Be Defended': Lectures at the
Collège de France 1975-76, trans. David Macey.
New York:
Picador.
34.
Goldmann, Kjell
(1993)
`International Opinion and World Politics: The Case of the INF
Treaty'
, Political Studies41(1):
41-56.
35.
Goldmann, Kjell
(1994) The Logic of Internationalism: Coercion and
Accommodation . London:
Routledge.
36.
Goodrich, Carter
(1943)
`Social Reconstruction'
, International Conciliation389: 311-30.
37.
Hill, Christopher
(1996)
`World Opinion and the Empire of Circumstance'
, International Affairs72(1):
109-31.
38.
Hindess, Barry
(1996) Discourses of Power: From Hobbes to Foucault.
Oxford:
Blackwell.
39.
Holborn, Louise W.
(ed.) (1948) War and Peace Aims of the United Nations, Vol.
2: From Casablanca to Tokio Bay, January 1, 1943 - September 1, 1945.
Boston, MA: World Peace
Foundation.
40.
Hoopes, Townsend
and
Douglas Brinkley
(1997) FDR and the Creation of the UN.
New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press.
41.
Ignatieff, Michael
(2003)
`Why Are We in Iraq? And Liberia? And Afghanistan?'
, New York Times Magazine 7 September:
38-43, 71-2,
85
.
42.
Jaeger, Hans-Martin
(2004) `"World Opinion" and the Turn to Post-sovereign
International Governance', in
Mathias Albert
and
Lena Hilkermeier
(eds) Observing International Relations: Niklas Luhmann and World
Politics, pp. 142-56.
London:
Routledge.
43.
Jaeger, Hans-Martin
(2007)
`"Global Civil Society" and the Political Depoliticization of Global
Governance'
, International Political Sociology1(3):
257-77.
44.
Jones, Dorothy V.
(1989) Code of Peace: Ethics and Security in the World of
Warlord States. Chicago, IL: The
University of Chicago Press.
45.
Kimball, Warren
(1994) `The Atlantic Charter: "With All Deliberate
Speed"' , in
Douglas Brinkley
and
David R. Facey-Crowther
(eds) The Atlantic Charter, pp. 83-114.
New York: St. Martin's
Press.
46.
Kotschnig, Walter M.
(1944)
`Realism in Educational Reconstruction'
, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science235: 17-24.
47.
Larner, Wendy
and
William Walters
(eds) (2004) Global Governmentality: Governing International
Spaces. London:
Routledge.
48.
Lasswell, Harold D.
and
Howard H. Cummings
(1943) Public Opinion in War and Peace: How Americans Make Up
their Minds. Washington, DC :
National Education Association.
49.
Lippmann, Walter
(1943) US Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic.
Boston, MA: Little, Brown and
Company.
50.
Lippmann, Walter
(1944) US War Aims. Boston,
MA: Little, Brown and
Company.
51.
Luhmann, Niklas
(1970)
`Öffentliche Meinung'
, Politische Vierteljahresschrift11(1):
2-28.
52.
Luhmann, Niklas
(1990) `Gesellschaftliche Komplexität und
öffentliche Meinung', in Soziologische
Aufklärung 5: Konstruktivistische Perspektiven, pp.
170-82. Opladen:
Westdeutscher Verlag.
53.
Luhmann, Niklas
(1995) Social Systems, trans. John Bednarz, Jr with Dirk
Baecker. Stanford, CA: Stanford
University Press.
54.
Luhmann, Niklas
(1997) Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft.
Frankfurt/Main :
Suhrkamp.
55.
Luhmann, Niklas
(2000) Die Politik der Gesellschaft.
Frankfurt/Main :
Suhrkamp.
56.
Luhmann, Niklas
(2002) `What Is Communication?', in
William Rasch
(ed.) Theories of Distinction: Redescribing the Descriptions of
Modernity, pp. 155-68. Stanford,
CA : Stanford University
Press.
57.
Marcinkowski, Frank
(2002) `Politische Öffentlichkeit:
Systemtheoretische Grundlagen und politikwissenschaftliche Konsequenzen',
in
Kai-Uwe Hellmann
and
Rainer Schmalz-Bruns
(eds) Theorie der Politik: Niklas Luhmanns politische Soziologie,
pp. 85-108. Frankfurt/Main:
Suhrkamp.
58.
Meiklejohn, Alexander
(1943) `Education and the Future', in
Ruth Nanda Anshen
(ed.) Beyond Victory, pp. 120-9.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company.
59.
Merle, Marcel
(1982) Sociologie des Relations Internationales,
3rd edn.
Paris
: Edition
Seuil
.
60.
Merlingen, Michael
(2003)
`Governmentality: Towards a Foucauldian Framework for the Study of
IGOs'
, Cooperation and Conflict38(4):
361-84.
61.
Mitrany, David
(1946[1943]) A Working Peace System: An Argument for the Functional Development of
International Organization, 4th edn.
London: National Peace
Council .
62.
Morgenthau, Hans J.
(1978 [1948]) Politics among Nations: The Struggle
for Power and Peace, 5th edn, rev. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf.
63.
Murphy, Gardner
(ed.) (1945) Human Nature and Enduring Peace.
Boston, MA: Houghton
Mifflin.
64.
Ninkovich, Frank
(1994) Modernity and Power: A History of the Domino Theory in
the Twentieth Century. Chicago, IL:
The University of Chicago Press.
65.
Osborne, Thomas
and
Nikolas Rose
(1997)
`In the Name of Society, or Three Theses on the History of Social
Thought'
, History of the Human Sciences10(3):
87-104.
66.
Osborne, Thomas
and
Nikolas Rose
(1999)
`Do the Social Sciences Create Phenomena? The Example of Public Opinion
Research'
, British Journal of Sociology , 50(3):
367-96.
67.
Perry, Ralph Barton
(1945) One World in the Making. New
York: Current Books.
68.
Prefaces to Peace (1943) A Symposium consisting of One World by
Wendell L. Willkie
; The Problems of Lasting Peace by Herbert Hoover and Hugh Gibson; The
Price of Free World Victory by Henry A. Wallace; Blue-print for Peace by Sumner
Welles. New York: Simon and
Schuster.
69.
Quirk, Joel
and
Darshan Vigneswaran
(2005)
`The Construction of an Edifice: The Story of a First Great Debate'
, Review of International Studies31(1):
89-107.
70.
Robinson, Leland Rex
(1945)
`Powers or Peoples: The Issue of the Peace'
, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science240: 20-6.
71.
Rose, Nikolas
(1996) `Governing "Advanced" Liberal Democracies', in
Andrew Barry
,
Thomas Osborne
and
Nikolas Rose
(eds) Foucault and Political Reason: Liberalism, Neo-Liberalism and
Rationalities of Government, pp. 37-64.
London: UCL
Press.
72.
Royal Institute of International Affairs [RIIA]
( 1944) The International Secretariat of the Future: Lessons
from Experience by a Group of Former Officials of the League of Nations.
London: Royal Institute of
International Affairs.
73.
Royal Institute of International Affairs [RIIA]
(ed.) (1946) United Nations Documents 1941-1945.
London: Royal Institute of
International Affairs.
74.
Ruggie, John Gerard
(1983) `International Regimes, Transactions, and Change:
Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order', in
Stephen D. Krasner
(ed.) International Regimes, pp. 195-231.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press.
75.
Rusciano, Frank Louis
with
Roberta Fiske-Rusciano
,
Bosah Ebo
,
Sigfredo A. Hernandez
and
John Crothers
(1998) World Opinion and the Emerging International
Order. Westport, CT:
Praeger.
76.
Russell, Ruth B.
(1958) A History of the United Nations Charter: The Role of
the United States 1940-1945. Washington,
DC: Brookings.
77.
Sanger, David E.
(2002)
`Bush is Doubtful Iraq Will Comply with UN Demands'
, New York Times 14 September:
A1
,
A6
.
78.
Sanger, David E.
(2003)
`Texas in His Heart, Iraq on His Mind'
, New York Times 4 January:
A9
.
79.
Schlesinger, Stephen
(2003) Act of Creation: The Founding of the United
Nations . Boulder, CO: Westview
Press.
80.
Schwarzenberger, Georg
(1951[1941]) Power Politics: A Study of International Society, 2nd rev. edn.
New York:
Praeger.
81.
Shotwell, James T.
(1945) The Great Decision. New
York : Macmillan.
82.
Spring, Powell
(1944) Basic Principles for the Peace Table.
Winter Park, FL: The Orange
Press.
83.
Streit, Clarence K.
(1943) Union Now: Why Freedom and Peace Require the Atlantic
Democracies to Begin World Federal Union. Washington,
DC : Federal Union.
84.
Suganami, Hidemi
(1989) The Domestic Analogy and World Order Proposals .
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
85.
Thies, Cameron G.
(2002)
`Progress, History and Identity in International Relations Theory: The Case
of the Idealist-Realist Debate'
, European Journal of International Relations8(2):
147-85.
86.
UNCIO I, Iii, Vi, Viii, Xi
(1945) Documents of the United Nations Conference on
International Organization San Francisco, 1945, Volume I: General; Volume III:
Dumbarton Oaks Proposals, Comments and Proposed Amendments; Volume VI:
Commission I (General Provisions); Volume VIII: Commission II (General
Assembly); Volume XI: Commission III (Security Council).
London: United Nations Information
Organization.
87.
US Department of State
(1945) Charter of the United Nations: Report to the President
on the Results of the San Francisco Conference by the Chairman of the United
States Delegation, the Secretary of State, Department of State Publication
2349. Washington, DC: US Government
Printing Office.
88.
Walters, William
and
Jens Henrik Haahr
(2005) Governing Europe: Discourse, Governmentality and
European Integration. London:
Routledge.
89.
Welles, Sumner
(1943) The World of the Four Freedoms.
London:
Hutchinson.
90.
Welles, Sumner
(1944) The Time for Decision. New
York : Harper and
Brothers.
91.
Wells, H.G.
(1940) The New World Order: Whether it is Attainable, How it
Can Be Attained, and What Sort of a World a World at Peace Will Have to
Be. New York: Alfred
Knopf.
92.
Wendt, Alexander
(1998)
`On Constitution and Causation in International Relations'
, Review of International Studies24 (special issue):
101-17.
93.
Whitton, John B.
(1944) `Institutions of World Order', in
John B. Whitton
(ed.) The Second Chance: America and the Peace, pp.
68-114. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
94.
Wilcox, Clyde
,
Aiji Tanaka
and
Dee Allsop
(1993)
`World Opinion in the Gulf Crisis'
, Journal of Conflict Resolution37(1):
69-93.
95.
Wilson, Peter
(1998)
`The Myth of the "First Great Debate"'
, Review of International Studies24(5):
1-15.
96.
Wolfers, Arnold
(1962) Discord and Collaboration: Essays on International
Politics.
Baltimore
, MD:
The Johns Hopkins University Press
.
97.
Wright, Quincy
(1943a)
`Human Rights and the World Order'
, International Conciliation389: 238-62.
98.
Wright, Quincy
(1943b)
`United Nations - Phrase or Reality?'
, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science228: 1-10.
99.
Zolo, Danilo
(1997) Cosmopolis: Prospects for World Government.
Cambridge: Polity
Press.
