This article explores how the use of alliances and treaties changed
along with the developments in the European international order in the
modern era. Fundamentally, European international relations
remained based on an "anarchic" system of competing sovereign states.
Yet the evolution of concepts of international law from the Renaissance
onwards and the impact of cultural, political, and social developments
has encouraged a use of treaties and alliances that has moved
European politics fitfully towards a "constitutional" solution, while
never fully embracing such a model
