The central objective of this work is to explain the impact of the discourse of civilization on the global order by drawing on and extending the Eliasian or process-sociological analysis of the European civilizing process. In his classic investigation of that process – which first appeared in German in the late 1930s – sociologist Norbert Elias (1897–1990) argued that the idea of civilization came to prominence in French court society in the last quarter of the 18th century. It entered the political vocabulary of ruling establishments in neighbouring European societies in the following decades. With the spread of elite discourse to the lower social strata, it became part of everyday language and a core element of prevalent orientations to the social world. During the 19th century, the concept of civilization defined European selfimages that revolved around feelings of cultural superiority in two interwoven respects. Confidence in intellectual and material progress beyond earlier eras such as the barbaric medieval period was linked with collective pride in the presumed cultural and technological superiority of European peoples over outlying societies. The supposed right to initiate civilizing missions to bring progress to humanity as a whole which emerged in that context had a profound effect on the formation of global order in the heyday of Western imperialism. Related standards of civilization have not exactly disappeared in the recent period, but their contestation and condemnation are distinctive features of the post-European society of states. Large questions now exist about whether the global order will become increasingly uncoupled from a foundation in agreed standards of civilization, such as those that existed in the age of European dominance, and about whether – or how far – it may become anchored in new conceptions of civilized existence which are shared by its constituent parts.

In his analysis of civilized self-images that have shaped the social and political world for the best part of two centuries Elias highlighted the development of the conviction that Europeans had succeeded in reducing levels of inter-personal violence and in eliminating cruelty within their societies. For example, critics of the public execution of criminals in the 19th century and opponents of the death penalty and other cruel methods of punishment in the 20th century concurred that the practices had no place in a civilized society.