History and International Relations From the Ancient World to the 21st Century

by Malchow, Howard LeRoy

• ISBN13: 9781441115744
• ISBN10: 1441115749
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2015-11-19
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

History and International Relations examines, from a historian's perspective, the evolution of international relations as a discipline and charts its engagement with the history of war, peace, and foreign relations from the ancient world to the present day. In three parts, it looks at the field's development, its contribution to historical narrative, and its contemporary practice:

Part I: 'The History of a Discipline' locates the development of IR scholarship in its own historical contexts, examining the origin of dominant IR theories, their use of historical evidence, and their relation to other social science disciplines.

Part II: 'IR and International History' explores key moments in the history of war and peace, from the Peloponnesian War to the Cold War and beyond, and the role they played in constructing the discipline.

Part III: 'Contemporary IR and the Uses of History' reflects on the current ferment in IR over its Eurocentric theory and practice, its key concepts of state and sovereignty, the impact of non-state actors and human rights, and 'the return of history.'

Author Biography

Howard LeRoy Malchow is Walter S. Dickson Professor of English and American History, Tufts University, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: History and the Discipline(s) of International Relations
I. The History of a Discipline: Origins, Theory, and Tools
1. From the First World War to the Early Cold War
2. After Morgenthau: Scientific Realism and Its Critics
3. IR, the Other Social Sciences, and the State
II. IR and International History
4. The Ancient World: Thucydides and the Search for Origins
5. Toward the Machiavellian Moment: IR’s Middle Ages
6. The Sovereign State and the “Westphalian System” in Early- Modern Europe
7. Nation, State, and Empire in the Long Nineteenth Century
8. The Failure of the New (and Old) Diplomacy and the End of European Hegemony
9. Cold War and Post-Cold War
III. Contemporary IR and the Uses of History
10. Civilizations, the Myth of Sovereignty, and the Democratic Peace: The End of IR (As We Know It)?
Afterword: Description, Prediction, Policy: Does History Matter?