The Market in Global International Society tracks the idea and practice of the market through both modern and premodern times, and its evolution as a primary institution in international relations over the past two centuries. It develops a new approach to understanding the relationship between the market and other social and political institutions of global international society. Buzan and Falkner view the market as a political ideology in support of a liberal system of governance, and not just as an economic practice or economy-wide structural feature. In doing so, they draw attention to the market's powerful impact on international order.

This historical grounding brings into close contact two areas of study that have for much too long stood back-to-back: the English School of International Relations (ES), and International Political Economy (IPE). For the ES, the book fills in the large economic gap in its understanding and portrayal of the primary institutions of international society. Adding in the economic sector has a major impact on how the other primary institutions of international society both work in themselves, and interact with each other. For IPE, the book opens up a new and usefully detailed view of the constant and wide-ranging interaction of the market with the other social and political institutions of global international society. The approach through primary institutions fills in the middle ground between the big-picture classical approaches to IPE, and the current focus on intergovernmental organisations and regimes.