Broadening and Deepening: Systemic Expansion, Incorporation and the Zone of Ignorance

I intend to address a critical element of world-systems theory, and in doing so illuminate some larger concerns with international relations theory in general. Speci?cally, I will be examining the concept of the external arena and its relation to the international system as an expanding whole. The goal is to re-think the incorporation of new regions (states and peoples) into the world-system in order to understand world-system processes more completely. This should be taken as a positive critique of both Wallersteins analysis of incorporation (European, state-centric, inside-out) and Halls analysis of incorporation (external, indigenous peoples, outside in)