Option 2: Examine and Assess the Claim That ‘There Is No Legitimate Authority Internationally’ (Bromley, 2009, P. 427)

There are many key factors that can affect the safety of nations all over the world. If there are large changes in social, economic, political or environmental factors it can lead to disorder and anarchy. A good example of this is climate change. Sir David King, who was chief scientific advisor for the UK government has suggested that if consumption rates of fossil fuels continue to grow rapidly the number of people at risk to flooding would be ‘counted in hundreds of millions’ by 2080. King has also stated that ‘climate change is the most severe problem that we are facing today – more serious even that the threat of terrorism…’ (King, cited in Bromley and Clarke, 2009, p.307). Whilst this might be Kings personal view, he succinctly links one problem the world faces with another – terrorism - which is connected with disorder and anarchy.

National and international order is needed to help maintain peace and security around the world. Nations are not only governed and ordered by their government but also by the presence of the state, which as a concept is ‘an idea based on shared expectations about the ordering of social life; a set of organisations and a set of practices’ (Blakeley and Saward, 2009, p. 355). The government, police, armed forces, health services and education are all examples of some of the organisations that make up the state. It is one of many mechanisms, which contribute to social order. This is considered as a ‘stable social situation in which connections are maintained without change, or else change occurs in a predictable way (often contrasted with social breakdown or chaos)’ (Taylor, 2009, p. 173). The state has a distinctive role in providing an institutional political order, or as Blakely and Saward put it rather well as ‘both a condition in which there is an absence of conflict and disorder, especially an absence of violent disorder, and a set of organisations that seek to shape or regulate social life’ (Blakeley and Saward, 2009, p....