Peace of Westphalia, Liberal Revolutions, World Wars

The central theme of this research is the contemporary international system. In the quest to better understand this dynamic environment, we looked for historical phenomena that would help us understand its formation. To this end, we selected three characteristics of the international system and three historical episodes to analyse. These were: the principle of sovereignty and the peace of Westphalia; the nation state and the liberal revolutions of the 19th century; and the "new world order" and the period after the Second World War. By studying the origins of the International System, we can gain a more contextualised understanding of its elements. Instead of seeing the International System as a consequence of fate, we come to understand it as a historical construction. International politics is dynamic and contemporary changes can look to past phenomena for similar aspects. This makes it possible to identify inputs for more complete analyses of conjunctures.