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Why is there no philosophy of International Relations? Why, despite the significant intellectual and institutional development of International Relations after World War II, has IR failed to generate any 'grand ideas' that would influence the broadly understood humanities? None of the theories of international relations indicates the exceptional features of interna- tionality as its foundation. None of these theories formulates a fundamental claim to its subject matter in International Relations the way geography, history or sociology do. This leads to the conviction that international relations do not have to be formed by aspects of the social world that are specific to them, and can be interpreted in terms of ideas imported from the disciplines that deal with examining aspects relevant to them. The basic disadvantage of this openness of International Relations to other disciplines is the lack of reflection on its own 'deep ontology.' This seems to be the most important reason for the lack of a philosophy of International Rela- tions. The author accomplishes two basic goals in his text. Firstly, he undermines the legitimacy of the three attitudes prevailing in IR on understanding internationality, which he calls internal- ism, externalism and correlationism. Secondly, he presents the essence and consequences of the negative character of IR, which involves the absence of the philosophy of IR and studying internationality in the same manner as political science does. The author argues that understanding this 'strange orthodoxy' can be a means to overcom- ing it, thereby opening up the possibility of conceiving the ontology of IR, or outlining the path leading to the philosophy of International Relations. Finally, the author refers to the proposal of Justin Rosenberg, to then present an idea for an ontology on which the philosophy of Interna- tional Relations could be founded.

Meaning and international relations: some thoughts / Andrew Williams -- Surfing the Zeitgeist / Christopher Coker -- The delocalisation of meaning / Zaki Laïdi -- Meaning and social transformations: ideology in a post-ideological age / Gerard Delanty -- Eurosomnia: Europe's 'spiritual vitality' and the debate on the European idea / Stefan Elbe -- Whose meaning(s)?!: a feminist perspective on the crisis of meaning in international relations / Annick T.R. Wibben -- The search for meaning in global conjunctions: from ethnographic truth to ethnopolitical agency / Tarja Väyrynen -- When meaning travels: Muslim translocality and the politics of 'authenticity' / Peter Mandaville -- Messianic moments and the religious (re)turn in international relations / Andrea den Boer -- Reliving the Boxer Uprising, or, The restricted meaning of civilisation / Stephen Chan -- On the danger of premature conclusion(s) / Peter Mandaville

Classical political theorists such as Thucydides, Kant, Rousseau, Smith, Hegel, Grotius, Mill, Locke and Clausewitz are often employed to explain and justify contemporary international politics and are seen to constitute the different schools of thought in the discipline. However, traditional interpretations frequently ignore the intellectual and historical context in which these thinkers were writing as well as the lineages through which they came to be appropriated in International Relations. This 2006 collection of essays provides alternative interpretations sensitive to these political and intellectual contexts and to the trajectory of their appropriation. The political, sociological, anthropological, legal, economic, philosophical and normative dimensions are shown to be constitutive, not just of classical theories, but of international thought and practice in the contemporary world. Moreover, they challenge traditional accounts of timeless debates and schools of thought and provide new conceptions of core issues such as sovereignty, morality, law, property, imperialism and agency

The article of record as published may be located at http://www.jstor.org/stable/2625234 ; The recently published lectures by Martin Wight (1913-72) on the history thought regarding international politics are of exceptional importance. points out, the lectures answer a number of questions about what Wight 'traditions' and what his own position was with regard to their validity. analysis and organizing framework capture and clarify a complex historical greater justice and lucidity than many others that have been proposed. lectures place in perspective what has been the most indisputable criticism approach-his 'Eurocentrism' and neglect of non-Western traditions-opportunitiesforfurther research building on these foundations.