"[…] anarchical systems are historical accretions of material, institutional, and cultural constraints and resources whose workings as systems can rarely be reduced to the effects of any single, hierarchically ranked element, whether material or cultural. Scholars and activists who seek to promote change in the anarchical international system need to understand the working of the system as a whole, not just one or another of its individual components, and to identify emerging contradictions in the system as opportunities for transformative action.
This means that the prospects for the transformation of behavior in contemporary anarchical systems should be assessed not only in light of the rise of new ideas and cultural identities, but also in light of the material and situational preconditions needed to sustain these developments. "