Emanuel Adler is the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair of Israeli Studies and Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto, and Honorary Professor at the University of Copenhagen. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the European Academy of Sciences. His publications include Security Communities (co-edited with Michael Barnett, Cambridge University Press, 1998) and International Practices (co-edited with Vincent Pouliot, Cambridge University Press, 2011).

• Prologue. The crux of the matter; Part I. Social Constructivism as Cognitive Evolution: 1. Samurai crabs and international social orders; 2. Evolutionary ontology: from being to becoming; 3. Evolutionary epistemology; 4. Practices, background knowledge, communities of practice, social orders; Part II. Cognitive Evolution Theory and International Social Orders: 5. International social orders; 6. Cognitive evolution theory: social mechanisms and processes; 7. Agential social mechanisms; 8. Creative variation; 9. Selective retention; 10. Better practices and bounded progress; Epilogue: world ordering.

'In this long-awaited, stunning book Emanuel Adler articulates his theory of cognitive evolution, expanding and deepening theoretical insights he has developed over a life-time of path-breaking scholarship. Its jacket should scream 'must-read'.' Peter J. Katzenstein, Walter S. Carpenter, Jr, Professor of International Studies Cornell University, New York