"Through a critical evaluation of the works of Norman Angell and David Mitrany, this book explores the liberal roots of the academic discipline of International Relations (IR). Ashworth argues that, far from being the product of timeless realist truths, IR's origins are rooted in liberal attempts to reform international affairs. Norman Angell's work represents the first attempt to develop a comprehensive 'new liberal' approach to the problem of global governance, while David Mitrany's exploration of the problems of international life led him to apply the left-liberal idea of functional government to global governance. Both writers demonstrated the extent to which early twentieth century liberal writers on international affairs had answered the critics of earlier nineteenth century liberal internationalists. The penultimate chapter argues that the realist-idealist 'Great Debate' never happened, and that liberal scholars such as Angell and Mitrany have been unfairly dismissed as 'idealists.' The final chapter evaluates the writings of Angell and Mitrany and claims that the works of both authors can be criticised for theoretical weaknesses common to the liberal paradigm."--Provided by publisher.
International thought is the product of major political changes over the last few centuries, especially the development of the modern state and the industrialisation of the world economy. While the question of how to deal with strangers from other communities has been a constant throughout human history, it is only in recent centuries that the question of 'foreign relations' (and especially imperialism and war) have become a matter of urgency for all sectors of society throughout the world. This book provides the first comprehensive overview of the evolution of Western international thought.
AbstractThis article explores the international thought of Elisabeth Mann Borgese (1918–2002), a major figure in the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea negotiations and (later in her life) a professor at Dalhousie University. Borgese's analysis of the nature of the Ocean led her to see the emerging system of maritime governance as a template for wider global governance. The fluidity of the Ocean, she argued, blurred terrestrial certainties, while the fundamental interdependence of its ecosystems means that its governance offers a new paradigm that can inform terrestrial governance. The Ocean has always been important, she argued, but that importance is now increasing. Thus, in Borgese's work, the Ocean emerges as more than a passive victim of human exploitation, and becomes a positive influence on humanity's future. Taking her work seriously helps international relations (IR) confront its own failure to engage with global physical realities and would be another step toward rewriting an IR for the Anthropocene.
AbstractJean-Paul Sartre's trilogy Roads to Freedom is written against the backdrop of the crises between 1938 and 1940 that led to war and the Fall of France. In this article I argue that Roads to Freedom can be read as an IR text, and I concentrate on four areas. First, a refocusing on the international relations of the everyday. Second, the anatomy of a crisis from an existentialist viewpoint that can enrich our understanding of crises. Third how the interactions of the main characters reveal the 'mediation of estrangement' at the heart of diplomacy, first explored by Der Derian in his 1987 On Diplomacy. Fourth, it calls into question our emphasis in IR on the centrality of causes to understand a crisis. Rather, Roads to Freedom refocuses our gaze on the diverse effects in everyday IR. The argument of the article is interwoven with my own experiences reading the trilogy for the first time, and how it influenced my decision to study IR.
Before 1914 scholars of international thought frequently relied on racist arguments, yet the ways that race was used varied widely from author to author. This article charts the way that race was used by two groups of Anglophone writers. The warriors used biological arguments to construct views of international affairs that relied on racist analysis. Pacifists might have used racist language that relied more on cultural prejudices, and would often base their more progressive views of international affairs on the idea of a civilizing mission. Using A. T. Mahan and Brooks Adams as exemplars of the warrior approach, and Norman Angell and H. N. Brailsford for the pacifists, I argue that race and racism play an important part in international thought before the First World War. This racism was directed at the colonized in the global South, Indigenous peoples in settler colonial states, and Jews in the global North. This use of race and racism in pre-First World War international thought has implications for how we view the development of International Relations today. It is not just statues and stately homes that require a thorough reassessment of attitudes to race, but also our understanding of the progression of ideas in international thought.
ABSTRACT International relations (IR) has been criticized for its poor response to the challenges of the Anthropocene. Since the 1950s, IR, especially in its US form, was driven by immediate Cold War concerns of security and relations between great powers. Yet, this IR of the later twentieth century superseded a more materialist IR that had flourished in the first half of the century. Derwent Whittlesey's political geography, which was one aspect of this material international thought, had directly explored the relationship between global politics and the environment. This article explores Derwent Whittlesey's international environmental thought, showing how it emerged from a more environmentally determinist tradition, but came to understand the relationship between human society and the environment as fungible and complex. Prioritizing time and profound changes linked to the machine age, Whittlesey warned about the damage that human society inflicted on its habitat. Yet, despite his contacts with early IR scholars at Yale, Whittlesey and his work would come to be forgotten in IR. Consequently, his work represents a path not taken, and his marginalization helps to explain why IR was so ill-equipped to understand the new global politics of the Anthropocene. Las Relaciones Internacionales (international relations, IR) han sido criticadas por su pobre respuesta ante los desafíos del Antropoceno. Desde la década de 1950, las IR, especialmente en su forma estadounidense, fueron impulsadas por inquietudes inmediatas de la Guerra Fría en cuanto a la seguridad y las relaciones entre las grandes potencias. Sin embargo, estas IR de finales del siglo XX reemplazaron a las IR más materialistas que habían prosperado en la primera mitad del siglo. La geografía política de Derwent Whittlesey, que era un aspecto de este pensamiento internacional pertinente, había explorado de manera directa la relación entre la política global y el medioambiente. Este artículo explora el pensamiento ambiental internacional de Derwent Whittlesey y explica cómo surgió de una tradición más determinista a nivel ambiental, pero llegó a comprender la relación entre la sociedad humana y el medioambiente como fungible y compleja. Al priorizar el tiempo y los cambios profundos vinculados a la era de las máquinas, Whittlesey advirtió sobre el daño que la sociedad humana infligió a su hábitat. Sin embargo, a pesar de sus contactos con los primeros académicos en IR en Yale, Whittlesey y su trabajo serían olvidados en el campo de las IR. En consecuencia, su trabajo representa un camino aún no recorrido y su marginación ayuda a explicar por qué las IR estaban tan mal preparadas para comprender la nueva política global del Antropoceno. Les relations internationales (RI) ont été critiquées pour leur mauvaise réponse à l'anthropocène. Depuis les années 50, les RI, tout particulièrement dans leur forme américaine, ont été déterminées par les préoccupations immédiates de la guerre froide en matière de sécurités et de relations entre grandes puissances. Ces RI de la fin du vingtième siècle ont toutefois supplanté des RI plus matérialistes qui s'étaient développées durant la première moitié du siècle. La géographie politique de Derwent Whittlesey, qui constituait l'un des aspects de cette pensée internationale matérielle, avait directement exploré la relation entre politique mondiale et environnement. Cet article étudie la pensée environnementale internationale de Derwent Whittlesey en montrant comment elle a émergé d'une tradition plus déterministe sur le plan environnemental mais en est venue à comprendre la relation entre société humaine et environnement comme étant fongible et complexe. Priorisant le temps et les profonds changements liés à l'ère de la mécanisation, Whittlesey avait mis en garde contre les dommages que la société humaine infligeait à son habitat. Pourtant, malgré ses contacts avec les premiers chercheurs en RI à Yale, Whittlesey et son travail ont fini par être oubliés en RI. Par conséquent, son travail représente une voie qui n'est pas empruntée et sa marginalisation contribue à expliquer pourquoi les RI sont si mal équipées pour comprendre la nouvelle politique mondiale de l'anthropocène.
Reinhold Niebuhr's The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness is one of the key English-language texts in the post-war settlement literature of the early 1940s. This article analyses the book on three interconnected levels: the nature of the argument made by Niebuhr in the book, its place in the broader post-war settlement literature of the early 1940s, and its relevance to the current problems of right-wing populism and the climate crisis. While the main theme of the book is the necessity and impossibility of democracy, it shares with the work of Isaiah Bowman and David Mitrany a concern for the tension between the state and interdependence. The deepening of this tension since has helped keep Niebuhr relevant, although his initial distinction between the children of light and the children of darkness has been complicated by both populism and the climate crisis.
Although David Mitrany's international thought is not usually associated with the concept of the international anarchy, I argue that his analysis actually compares two forms of anarchical order. The first form is the order associated with the relations between states, while the second is his functional alternative to this order. The functional approach is anarchical in the sense that it remains an order without an orderer. In first analysing the dynamics and failings of the inter-state order, and then suggesting pragmatic process-orientated solutions to those failings, I argue that Mitrany follows a similar approach to his classical realist contemporaries.
