'Causes of another sort': action, behaviour and the caliphate

摘要

The Islamic caliphate is a key competitor in the global ideological marketplace. Indeed, it has been called 'one possible configuration for a post-industrial politics' (Philip W. Sutton and Stephen Vertigans, 'Islamic “New Social Movements”?: Radical Islam, Al-Qa'ida and Social Movement Theory', Mobilization 11, no. 1(2006): 105). What is its nature? The answer illustrates the argument that the relationship between the informal conception of collective identity and its non-agentive interest in formal establishment is the ontological basis of international relations. This points the way toward resolution of the agent-structure problem with reference to evolutionary theory. Distinguishing between action and behaviour on the basis of subjecthood is useful, showing that actors' primary interest is self-identification through affirmation of an institutional ideal-state. Such ideational objects do not act, but those through which agents successfully constitute and affirm themselves are more likely to prosper strategically. The caliphate is one such. Thus, conceptions of collective identity behave, compete and evolve.