Introduction / Mathias Albert
On the modern systems theory of society and IR. Contacts and disjunctures between different kinds of theorizing / Mathias Albert
Politics, modern systems theory and the critical purpose of international relations theory / Thomas Diez
"Corpus mysticum": Niklas Luhmann's evocation of world society /Stefan Rossbach
The "English school" and world society / Chris Brown
Sociological institutionalism and the empirical study of world society / George M. Thomas
World society from the bottom up / Lothar Brock
World society, systems theory and the classical sociology of modernity / Dietrich Jung
Systems and sovereignty - a systems theoretical look at the transformation of sovereignty / Anders Esmark
"World opinion" and the turn to post-sovereign international governance / Hans-Martin Jaeger
Society's war: the evolution of a self-referential military system / Gorm Harste
Organizations in/and world society: a theoretical prolegomenon / Mathias Albert and Lena Hilkermeier
Governance in a world society: the perspective of systems theory / Dieter Kerwer
Constructivism and international relations: an analysis of Luhmann's conceptualization of power / Stefano Guzzini
Concluding remarks / Mathias Albert.