Pragmatic ordering: Informality, experimentation, and the maritime security agenda

The question of when and how international orders change remains a pertinent issue of InternationalRelations theory. This article develops the model of pragmatic ordering to conceptualise change. Themodel of pragmatic ordering synthesises recent theoretical arguments for a focus on ordering advancedin-practice theory, pragmatist philosophy, and related approaches. It also integrates evidence from recentglobal governance research. We propose a five-stage model. According to the model, once a new problememerges (problematisation), informality allows for experimenting with new practices and developing newknowledge (informalisation and experimentation). Once these experimental practices become codified,and survive contestation, they increasingly settle (codification) and are spread through learning and trans-lation processes (consolidation). We draw on the rise of the maritime security agenda as a paradigmaticcase and examine developments in the Western Indian Ocean region to illustrate each of these stages. Thearticle draws attention to the substantial reorganisation of maritime space occurring over the past decadeand offers an innovative approach for the study of orders and change.