Introduction: Networks, Complexity, and the Global Order

The observation that the world has become increasingly complex across a range of critical global issues and networks, begs the question of how resultant regimes impact on the ability of state and non-state actors to coordinate policies and actions in a coherent and effective way. Complexity promotes a relational and processual style of thinking that stresses organizational patterns, networked relationships, and historical contexts. Networks, it can be argued, whilst not taking away from the relevance of state competition in the global order, can bring new ideas and processes, more expertise, and greater flexibility to solve problems across and at different levels of action. Networks can be analyzed in any number of ways, and it is only more recently that the method and tools of social network analysis have actually been introduced into International Relations and EU studies. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.