Women’s international thought: a new field?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
International Thought

Frieden durch Recht und Öffentlichkeit: Die Hoffnungen und Verwirrungen der ersten Utilitaristen

2020 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 228-252
Author(s):  
Frédéric Rimoux
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
International Relations ◽  
World Peace ◽  
Individual Freedom ◽  
Jeremy Bentham ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
War And Peace ◽  
Political Realism ◽  
International Thought

The international thought of the early utilitarian thinkers Jeremy Bentham and James Mill remains little known and largely misunderstood. Most commentators give them a superficial appreciation or criticize their supposed naivety, in both cases mostly assuming that Mill borrowed his thoughts from Bentham's writings alone. This questionable reception overlooks some essential aspects of Bentham's and Mill's extensive reflections on war and peace, in particular their constant effort to overcome the tension between individual freedom and collective security. In reality, the fertile dialogue between the two thinkers gradually crystallized into an independent utilitarian peace theory centered on law and public opinion as instruments of an ambitious reform of international relations according to the principle of utility. They managed to elaborate a fragile synthesis between liberal principles and considerations of political realism, which grants their utilitarian peace theory a singular place in the historical efforts to systematically define the conditions of world peace.

scholarly journals The radical Right, realism, and the politics of conservatism in postwar international thought

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jean-François Drolet ◽  
Michael C. Williams
Keyword(s):  
World Politics ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Contemporary World ◽  
Conceptual Innovation ◽  
Intellectual Origins ◽  
International Thought

Abstract The rise of the radical Right over the last decade has created a situation that demands engagement with the intellectual origins, achievements, and changing worldviews of radical conservative forces. Yet, conservative thought seems to have no distinct place in the theoretical field that has structured debates within the discipline of IR since 1945. This article seeks to explain some of the reasons for this absence. In the first part, we argue that there was in fact a clear strand of radical conservative thought in the early years of the field's development and recover some of these forgotten positions. In the second part, we argue that the near disappearance of those ideas can be traced in part to a process of ‘conceptual innovation’ through which postwar realist thinkers sought to craft a ‘conservative liberalism’ that defined the emerging field's theoretical alternatives in ways that excluded radical right-wing positions. Recovering this history challenges some of IR's most enduring narratives about its development, identity, and commitments – particularly the continuing tendency to find its origins in a defining battle between realism and liberalism. It also draws attention to overlooked resources to reflect upon the challenge of the radical Right in contemporary world politics.

THE FIRST MODERN REALIST: FELIX GILBERT'S MACHIAVELLI AND THE REALIST TRADITION IN INTERNATIONAL THOUGHT

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-711 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICOLAS GUILHOT
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Political Science ◽  
International Relations Theory ◽  
Security Studies ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Global Power ◽  
The Us ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
International Thought

In the disciplines of political science and international relations, Machiavelli is unanimously considered to be “the first modern realist.” This essay argues that the idea of a realist tradition going from the Renaissance to postwar realism founders when one considers the disrepute of Machiavelli among early international relations theorists. It suggests that the transformation of Machiavelli into a realist thinker took place subsequently, when new historical scholarship, informed by strategic and political considerations related to the transformation of the US into a global power, generated a new picture of the Renaissance. Focusing on the work of Felix Gilbert, and in particular hisMachiavelli and Guicciardini, the essay shows how this new interpretation of Machiavelli was shaped by the crisis of the 1930s, the emergence of security studies, and the philanthropic sponsorship of international relations theory.

American diplomatic history and international thought: a constitutional perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 322-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C Hendrickson
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
World Order ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Diplomatic History ◽  
American Founding ◽  
History Of ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
International Thought

This essay offers a constitutional perspective on the American encounter with the problem of international order. Its point of departure is the American Founding, a subject often invisible in both the history of international thought and contemporary International Relations theory. Although usually considered as an incident within the domestic politics of the United States, the Founding displays many key ideas that have subsequently played a vital role in both international political thought and IR theory. The purpose of this essay is to explore these ideas and to take account of their passage through time, up to and including the present day. Those ideas shine a light not only on how we organize our scholarly enterprises but also on the contemporary direction of US foreign policy and the larger question of world order.

“The Conscience of the Civilized World”

2021 ◽  
pp. 77-112
Author(s):  
Sinja Graf
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
International Theory ◽  
Civilized World ◽  
International Thought

This chapter assesses the role of universal crime in nineteenth-century European arguments on the legitimacy of imperial rule. British abolitionist arguments redeployed the concept by overlaying “humanity” with the discourse of civilizationalism. Abolitionist uses of universal crime hence targeted imperial Britain rather than colonized societies. Refracting “humanity” through the lens of civilizational distinction indicates nineteenth-century changes in European international thought that lessened the popularity of the concept of universal crime. Overall, the chapter argues that a turn from an “inclusionary Eurocentrism” to an “exclusionary Eurocentrism” subtends these changes. Analyzing John Stuart Mill’s and Tocqueville’s evaluations of European imperialism shows that they discussed the legitimate conduct of colonial rule not in terms of humanity’s laws, but in terms of national identity and reputation. The chapter further assesses in detail those features of nineteenth-century international theory that engendered a normatively fractured vision of humanity that was inimical to its imagination as universally injured.

Carl Schmitt’s International Thought and the State

2021 ◽  
pp. 131-159
Author(s):  
Armin von Bogdandy ◽  
Adeel Hussain
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
International Thought
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