The Contemporary World Practice Exam

The main idea here is a political order built on state sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. This describes the Westphalian system, which arose from the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. It established that states are the ultimate authorities within their borders and that external actors should refrain from meddling in domestic matters. This sovereignty-centered framework treats states as among equals in the international system and prioritizes non-intervention as a defining principle of how states relate to one another. That makes it the best fit for the prompt, because it names the ordering principle—sovereignty and non-interference—that structures interstate relations. International law, by contrast, is a set of rules about how states interact but doesn’t by itself define a system centered on sovereignty; globalization refers to increasing interconnectedness, which can occur within or beyond a Westphalian order; and hegemony describes dominance by a leading power, not the peaceful, equal-sovereignty framework the question points to.