Contract, Theory of the State, and World Order:A Study of World Order from the Perspective of Neo-Liberal Institutionalism

This essay, based on the contract and state theories in the new institutional economics, explores the views of neo-liberal institutionalism on diplomacy and world order. It points out that the new theories about contract, economic rights and scope of the state have thought-provoking importance for the study of liberal institutionalism. The paper advances some fundamental points about what neo-liberal institutionalism insists in terms of diplomacy and world order; and it argues that the research program of neo-liberal institutionalism needs to be transformed. It should derive nourishment from the new institutional economics and combine the theories of contract and the state with world order so as to create a new field in the new institutional studies.