International Relations and Its Discontents Author(s): Fred Halliday Reviewed work(s): Source: International Affairs (Royal Institute

of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 71, No. 4, Special RIIA 75th Anniversary Issue (Oct., 1995), pp. 733-746 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Royal Institute of International Affairs Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2625095 . Accessed: 29/02/2012 13:42
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International relations and itsdiscontents

FRED

HALLIDAY

In thisreview thehealth prospects thecontemporary ofinternational of and of study the the its relations, author identifies criteria which discipline justify by the may a existence distinguishes and thesefrom invalid standards, notably misconceived appeal to 'scientffic' and procedure goalsora demandfor immediate relevance. asserts He the centrality oftheoretical and ofengagement historical contemporary both work with and the between actuality, with and, Dahrendorf; inevitability desirabilitya tension and of He reflection practice. then and examines response thediscipline twomajor the of to challenges recent of years-thecollapse communism the of and process of notes globalization'-and waysin which mayconstructively both it develop in the of adequacy in responding thechallenges the and to of fulfilling criteria academic contemporary world. Branchesof the social sciencesare like nations: the contemporary to observer, to be given, their reflections natural, of divisions.To theypurport eternal, justify of existence,the social sciences taught in the universities today claim to in correspondto objects of studythatexist objectively the outside world. In to this perspective, academic studyof international the relationscorresponds somethinggiven,undeniablyobjective,in the 'real' world: relationsbetween with and correspondence as states.Yet, with nationsthisappearanceof solidity In is reality deceptive. thefirst place,the social scienceshave not alwaysexisted, any more than nations have: they have come into existence over the past in centuryor two, in response to changes,and in particularto challenges, modern societyand in the world as a whole.The occasion forthe emergence of a branch of the social sciences is not so much thatthereis somethingto a but a study, rather thatthereis a challenge, problem, crisisto be addressed. The subject-matter international of between states, relations-relations war, of the and power,the intersection military economic interests, ethicsof dealing Reflectionson it,of with foreigners has existedforsome thousands years. of to greateror lessercentrality the philosophiesof the epoch, subsumedunder

International Affairs 71,4

(I995)

733-746

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FredHalliday the term'classicaltheory', back a good two millennia, go and not exclusively in theWesternworld.' In SeptemberI995 we celebratedthe two-hundredth of anniversary the publicationof one of the mostinfluential, pithy, and works ImmanuelKant'sthirteen of theory, The emergenceof pages on Perpetual peace. a distinctfield of academic study afterthe FirstWorld War, and of policy institutes such as Chatham House and the Council on Foreign Relations, reflected the discovery the subject, not of but rather sense of concern at the a breakdownof international order, especiallythe long peace of the nineteenth and Westernsocieties, far century, the puzzlementat the factthatindustrialized from making war obsolete, had, it seemed, made war central to their interaction. The analogy with nationsconcernsnot only origin but also demarcation. For, as with nations, what appear to be natural,permanentlyexisting, themselves often boundariesbetweenareasof study are,on closerexamination, where combatants in exhaustion, where officials once fell arbitrary, reflecting drew lines, where movementsof ideas happened to stop. Over time these boundaries change,as do the inhabitants the disciplinesconcerned.Thus of not least inescapable many of the themes of classical political philosophy, on reflections humannature, to be foundin international are politicalthought. Much of what is todaythe concern of international relations-power politics in a broad sense, and to space-was and the relation thisto natural of resources once the prerogative geography. is a matter special discomfort some, of to It of forcreative interaction others, to thatmanya contemporary topic seemsto fall acrossboundaries-nationalism, ecology, migration being obvious examples. The development, past and future, the academic studyof international of relations therefore, of the development social science as a whole,itself is, part of a reflection broaderchallenges of in and shifts our society.What appearsto be a self-contained, on objectivereflection a naturally givensubjectarea is neither as detached,nor as timeless, may appear.We are not dealing with a fixed as as the object or contentmatter: with nations, questionis not whetherchange and commerceis desirable, is occurring, whether boundarychangesor external and how these but rather what aspectsof the pastcan and shouldbe preserved can changes and interactions betterbe managed.Equally the relationof this academic studyto policy issuesin the externalworld is never stable:as Ralf Dahrendorf recently has arguedso well,it is both inevitableand desirablethat of thisrelation, reflection practice, to should be one of tension.2
on much of it intertwined with general reflections historyand For surveysof thisbody of thought, theory: three the traditions, Gabriele see relations political and economic theory, MartinWight,International Press,I99I); Howard Williams, Wight and Brian Porter, eds (London and Leicester:LeicesterUniversity Press,I992); F.J.Hinsley,Power theory (Milton Keynes: Open University International relations political in states (Cambridge: Cambridge and in of between and thepursuit peace:theory practice thehistory relations of UniversityPress,I963); Evan Luard, Basic texts international in relations: evolution ideasabout the of international society (London: Macmillan, I992). and Science 1985-1995(Oxford: Ralf Dahrendorf,LSE: a history theLondonSchoolofEconotnics Political of Oxford University Press,I995). For a range of views on the academic-policy relationssee Christopher Hill and Pamela Beshoff,Ttvo worlds international of relations (London: Routledge, I994).

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International relations itsdiscontents and The functions of social science The disciplineof international relations to be judged by the same criteria has as other social sciences,and its futuredevelopmentset againstthe challenges which the worldposes forit.There are,broadlyspeaking, four justifications for such an academic discipline. the first In place,thereis the training the mind: of to justify existence, studyof thisparticular its the subjectat university level has to contribute a generalintellectual to formation, termsof abilityto think in clearly and conceptually, formulateideas in a concise manner and think independently. This is the criterion traditionally givenfora classicaleducation and transposedto the studyof modern social science. If an undergraduate in relations thinkand write in a training international cannot make students or rigorousmannerbroadly comparableto thosewho study history economics, thenit should not be taught. sociologyor politics, The second criterion thatof the productionand transmission a body of is of theory:factson their own are dumb,and it is the task of social science to organize them into conceptualsystems and of those who teach social science to transmit such theoryto students. The taskis one of producinga coherent and conceptualsystem thatis capable of generating novel explanations, of then makingavailableto an academic audience such a body of ideas and literature, one that they would not conventionally There is plenty of bad encounter. waffleunrelatedto conceptual precision or substantive theory, analysis:but theorycan and should place in a more demandingand precise context the issues that may arise in a contemporary and which would otherwisebe life treatedas if theylacked any conceptualhistory depth.,Such a transmission or but may involve much that is contemporary, must include that part of the classical traditionthat remainsof pertinence. Above all it should challenge that common sense,received opinion that takes as given or straightforward which is neither. Third, academic study should involve trainingin a particulararea of professionalexpertise,a preparing of studentsfor work in, in this case, it internationalorganizationand foreignpolicy. Fourthly, should provide issues-to knowledge that is pertinentto the resolutionof contemporary to this of discussionand formulation public policy.If it is important register as to one of the functions academic study, is equallyimportant point out that of it there is a it cannot be the sole or in many cases the primary justification: to issuesand commentary distinction betweena broadrelevance contemporary on what is of most immediateimportance. Here we need to bear in mind If Dahrendorf's tension. we shouldavoid the conceit of warningon a necessary

relationsexperts. Hence the perennialdispute between the international historians and the international The storygoes of the international historianwho upbraidshis IR colleague: 'If you know so much 'If where are your archives?'The reply: you know so much about about international affairs, where are your ideas?' internationalaffairs,

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FredHalliday fromcontemporary being wholly abstracted eventsand changes, is oftenby it being less involvedin immediatedebate thata social science can contribute mostto the elucidationofpolicyissues. Economistsare not employed primarily to predicttomorrow's stockmarket quotations, any more thansociologists are in the first instancetrainedto commenton the most recentmurder. For IR whetherinvolvedin theoryor in area studies, specialists, the same necessary caution apphles. An interim reporton international relations after three-quarters a century, of with the discipline'sfuturedevelopmentin mind, would presenta mixed In picture.4 termsof university presence, international relations established has itself well in the English-speaking world and is gaininggroundin continental Europe and some areasof theThirdWorld.Studentdemandhas been especially high in the pastdecade.The themesof international relations, notablyrelations between statesand the interaction statepower with othermore 'structural' of social science debate, forms,have become central to much contemporary notablyin the debate on 'globalization'. Within the disciplineitselfthereis a mood of theoretical effervescence,seriesof conceptualdebates, a more or less The issuesin relatedto what is occurringin otherbranchesof social sciences. and dispute within the subject are in many cases of undoubted intellectual policy substance:Can the international systemfunctionwithout a boss, a hegemon?How faris thestate beingovertaken? democracies to warwith Do go What are the implications a world of sovereign and of each other? for states, bound by domesticconstituences, planetary crisis? of governments ecological Yet thereare groundsfor concern on each of the four criteriaenunciated The above. On the more strictly academic criteria thereare severaldifficulties. core components of teaching on international relations-classical and international war contemporary theory, institutions, and peace,plus knowledge in of international law-can provide a training, its historyand international as own terms, rigorousand informative thatof any othersocial science.Yet as as a resultof excessive preoccupationwith contemporary ideas, a lack of adequate groundingin the social sciences in general and a depreciationof intellectualand political,the balance has shiftedaway from such a history, concern with the educationof the mind.Equally,in the realmof theoryitself a the pictureis a verymixed one. Classicaltheoryretains hold in the academic

by is and between 'traddies' 'trendies', given A robust, viewedas a conflict literature, look at this sceptical The in world: bucking trendies', the relations a changing Geoffrey Stern,'International mycolleague see academic discipline A.J.R. of surveys thecontemporary I995. Forgeneral World Today 7,July 5I: I994); Pinter, to (London: a guide theory relations: international eds, Light, Contetnporary GroomandMargot ininterpretation origins tretnds and relations andnow: then International William Olson andA.J.R. Groom, C. relations today theory (Oxford: Smith, International eds, I99I); Ken BoothandSteve (London:Routledge, I994). Contemporary Macmillan, relations (London: international Rethinkitng I995); FredHalliday, Polity, of including ReviewvIntertnational journals, academic in may developments alsobe followed therelevant Studies ofInternational in theUK; Relations Millenniun:Journal and Journal Intertnational of Studies, European internationale in OrganizationtheUSA; Zeitschrftftfr and Studies International Quarterly Internatiotnal Beziehunigen in Germany.

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International relations itsdiscontents and and is in certainrespects field, makinga comeback:it would seem thatthe end of the Cold War has been good for enquiry into fundamental questions. Nowhere is this more so than in the field of ethical issues in international relations:human rights,obligation,transnational ethics,justice.5Theory is, new areas:the growing moreover, developingin some creative investigations of of the intersection politicswith economics,a revived'international political economy',is one;6 a recognition, long delayed, the importanceof issues of of relations a second;7 the investigation is of genderin the fieldof international and how forms stateorganization ofinterstate of have changedover interaction time,and of the intersection these with domestic changes,is a third;8 of a concern with the implicationsof the ecological issue-in terms of law, interstate cooperationand/orconflict, responsibility a 'global commons'for is a fourth.9 Yet side by side with thesecreative advancesone maynote othertrends that serve to dissipatethese positivedevelopments, confusethe studentand to to obfuscate the theoretician.One is what may,in broad terms,be called 'scientism'-the applicationto the social sciences of a model of 'scientific' analysisthat is inapposite for the social sciences and which may well be irrelevant much of natural science as well.If politicians withthe ideas of to live writers international on long-dead economists, relations seem to do the same with the ideas of long-dead philosophers social science,earlynineteenthof for writers whom the scientific to be equated with the quantifiable, is century

Among a verylarge literature one may note JannaThompson,Justice world and order: philosophical a inquiry (London: Routledge, I992); Charles Beitz, Political theory international relations and (Princeton,NJ: Princeton University Press,I979); Onora O'Neill, Faces ofhutiger (London: Allen & Unwin, i986); Chris Brown, International relations theory: normative new approaches (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, and of Press,i983). I992);Terry Nardin, Morality therelations states(Princeton,NJ: Princeton University 6 The revivalof 'international political economy' reflects convergenceof two initially a disparatetrends: on the one hand, a concern born of frustration with both orthodox politicsand orthodox economics at the separationin theoryof two fieldsclosely interlockedin reality; the other,the application to on international relationsof Marxisttheoriesof interstate and north-southrelations. The work of Robert Gilpin (T7tepolitical economy international of relatiotns, Princeton:Princeton University Press,i987) and Susan Strange (Statesand tnarkets: introductioninternational to London: Pinter,i988) is atn political economy, exemplaryof the first; thatof Stephen Gill (American hegemony theTrilateral and Commission, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,I992) and of Kaes van der Pijl (The makinig an Atlantic of ruling class, London:Verso, i984) of the second. 7 Among a large literature see V Spike Peterson and Anne Sisson Runyan, Globalgender issues(Boulder, CO, Oxford:Westview, I993); Marysia Zalewski,'Well, what is the feminist perspectiveon Bosnia?', International Affairs 2, April I995; Rebecca Grantand Kathleen Newland, eds, Gender 7I: an(dinternational relations (Milton Keynes: Open University Press,i99i). 8 Justin Rosenberg, The etmpire civilsociety of (London:Verso, I994); Richard Little,'International relations and large-scalehistoricalchange', in Groom and Light,eds, Contemnporary international relations. 9 See the issue of International on Affairs 'Ethics,the environment and the changing international order', and 7I: 3,JulyI995; Ian Rowlands and Malory Greene,eds, Global environmnental chatnge international relations (London: Macmillan, I992); OranYoung, International cooperation (Ithaca,NY: Cornell University Press,i989); Caroline Thomas, The environtnentinternational in relations (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1992).

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FredHalliday except the predictable, regular. the Historyis irrelevant such investigations, to when it providesa longitudinaldata set. Enormous amounts of effort, and money,are devoted to projectsthat are,froma substantive point of view, a distraction-correlating quantitative in termsthe causes of war, or alliance or breakdown, nationalist upsurge. Such scientism particularly is strong the in countrythatdominatesthe studyof international relations, United States the of America; from the behavioural revolutionof the 1950S throughto the current social science,to predominanceof rationalchoice theorymainstream of the detriment the United Statesand much of the restof the world,has been This has also confirmed gap, cultural, a dominatedby such methodologies.Io historical and intellectual,between the mainstreamUS and European the fixated such'scientific' on the approaches, former approaches, latterall too it oftenstubbornly traditionalist: is an ironythatthe disciplinedevoted to the and be victimto shouldincreasingly falling studyof international global trends what one may only termintellectual spheresof influence." Anotherprominent trend IR theory in todayis thatwhich is broadlytermed This current, in 'post-modernism'.I2 flourishing severalbranchesof the social sciences,originatedin the widespreadphilosophicalrevoltthatdeveloped in France fromthe I960s onwardsagainstthe claimsof a prevailing modernism, in orthodox rationalist Marxistforms.For post-modernism is it whether or reason itselfthat has to be challenged,as have claims of a single 'grand in or observer. Post-modernism narrative', history, claimsof a single, privileged of welcomes a multiplicity viewpoints,denies the claims of reason, and in meritattention: is right it celebrates relativism ethics. Some of itsarguments of to point to thelinksbetweenwhatis said and theinterests thepersonsaying

addressto the I995 Chicago International put '? As Susan Strangecharacteristically it in her presidential Studies Association Convention:'Aping economistswould only be excusable if the resultsof such judgements of highlycomplex and dynamic betterthan qualitative borrowingswere significantly situationsbased on comparativeanalysisacrosstime and space and acrosssectorsof economic activity. Justbecause economistshave enjoyed formost of thiscenturya totallyundeservedreputationfor to reason fortrying imitatethem.'For one critique of the predictivepower is no good intellectual relationssee JamesRichardson,'History strikes to application of concepts of rationality international Science i, March I994, 29: of Journal Political relationstheory',Australian back: the state of international applicable to scientismin IR were made long ago in the classic work pp. I79-87. Many of the criticisms (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1959). science politics of of Bernard Crick, TheAmerican and in discipline: hegetnony diversity international For an earlierwarningon thissee Kal Holsti, The dividing theory (London: Allen & Unwin, I987). In the I96os a battle of methodologies was conducted between and the British'historical' and prediction, the American 'scientific' approach,based on quantification and no intellectualprogresswas one, based on 'judgement': neitherside emerged with much credit, approaches made. The contendingpositionsare given in Klaus Knorr and JamesRosenau, eds, Contending Press,I969). to international politics (Princeton,NJ: Princeton University These theoriesare surveyedin Chris Brown,'Critical theoryand postmodernismin international and relatiotts, "'Turtles all the way down": in relations', Groom and Light,eds, Contetnporary internationial 23: relations', Millenniutn 2, Summer I994.While criticaltheoryand international anti-foundationalism, Brown himselfwarns againsterectinga single school of thoughtthatcan be labelled 'post-modernism', presentedin thisfielddo, as much as any thisis not a sustainabledefence:the authorsconventionally Avoidance of laudatoryselfsimilarbattles. theoreticalschool, presenta set of common themes and fight most evidentvirtues.For a recentarticlethatupholds the idea is reference not one of post-modernism's political theory', ethics and international of a common approach see Molly Cochran,'Postmodernism, Studies2I: 3,JulyI995. Revietv International of

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International relations itsdiscontents and in it; it is creative the waysin which it drawsattention the rolesof symbol, to discourse and meaning in international relations; suggestionof multiple its in identities important.Yet, international is relations elsewherein the social as sciences,it far too oftenleads to confusion, an inflation claims about to of and discourse, to a paralytic relativism. can also,to applya good old-fashioned It Too oftencapturedby verbalconceit,a contrived criterion, explainverylittle. 'heteroglossia', post-modernism in the end a blindalley, is mostof whose valid claimshave been made elsewhereand before.'3 If influencing and informing public debate,and policy formation, also a is if criterion, not the only one, thenit has to be said thatformuch of its history the academic studyof international relations failed.This truenot onlyfor has is but or policy studiesinstitutes, also forthemoregeneralrecognition, rather lack of of In approachitself. the thereof, the strengths the academic,and theoretical, relevantareas of public life,most practitioners the average reader of the or or Times Literary Supplement the New YorkReviewof Books are aware of the contributions say, or economics,but fewbelieve thisis so in the fieldof of, law internationalrelations.For most of those who make foreignpolicy, the world of IR is an alien,and irrelevant, theoretical field,if not indeed one of whose veryexistencetheyare unaware. After more thana decade teachingIR in a university I department, have come to the sorryconclusionthatvirtually believesthatthe everyoneone meetsin the world beyond, academic or other, academic studyof international relations a sub-field news commentary. of It is of is easy here to place major responsibility the abstruseness theory:yet on in to theory has, of necessity, be removed from immediate practicality, relationsas much as in economics or law.The disciplineis not international substantive and short of a classical corpus of theory or of contemporary, and of relevantdebates.What is more worrying that a misuse of theory, is academic distance,and an indulgence in second-ratemusings to generate or has bodies of writingthatlack eithertheoretical discipline practical import, world been compounded by an enduringsuspicionwithinthe policy-making The world of of any but the most subaltern ideas and theoretical perspective. Yet affairs a carnivalof the bluff is and philistine. if the greatest international is of function an academic discipline to enable theindividualto challengesuch in common sense, the case of IR thiswould appearto be an even more forlorn taskthanelsewhere.
13

and its'methodological hypochondria',is Ernest Perhaps the best of many ripostesto thiscurrent, (London: Routledge, I992). One of the most common claims reason Gellner,Postmodernistn, and religiotn today is thatwe need to listento hithertomarginalizedand 'non-Western'voices in international ignore such voices.This is a point and thatthe conventionalcurriculaofWesternuniversities relations, thereis no reason to assume thatthose who caveats:first, well worth making,but with threesignificant countrywithin it,are any more representative speak 'for' the non-Westernworld,or forone particular of what people as a whole in thatcountrythink;second, listeningto such voices does not entail automatic acceptance of what theysay-there is much spurious invocationof the indigenous,and thirdly, content of much of what passes the in conspiracytheory, what passes for'non-Western'analysis; Westernideas-Mao, discourse is, on closer examination,recycled for alternative views in international these three Khomeini and Gandhi, let alone Castro and Guevara,would bear thisout. Nothing illustrates revoltitself, namely nationalism. points more than the core concept of anti-Western

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FredHalliday The end of the Cold War of in To thesechallenges theory have, recent years, been added thoseof the real world itself, in particular two: the collapse of communism and the and acrossseveral consequencesthereof; thegrowing conviction, social sciences and in public debateitself, the hitherto that established bedrockof analysis, the is nation-state, now being eroded. If neither of these need, on closer examination, entail the consequences sometimesassociatedwith them,they nonetheless present significant ideas. challenges established to The ColdWar was,at first relations: thefailure if sight,'good' international for of the League of Nations and the Second World War had done much to establishthe 'realism'of an E. H. Carr and a MartinWight as the dominant approach within the academic field,the Cold War, a conflictin which all societiesappearedto be overshadowed the dangerof interstate by nuclearwar, the withinuniversities.Yet reinforced importance the'international' certainly of therewas a sense in which the discipline not flourished so much by engaging with the Cold War as by denying peculiarquality: in realist its for the thought, Cold War was but anotherchapterin the gloomysaga of greatpower rivalry, a distrustand perfidy, continuationof a historicalpattern going back to Thucydides and hence requiringno distinctive analysisat all. One can look almostin vain through standard the of textbooks and discussions international relations of duringthe 195os and Ig6os forany discussion what the Cold War itself was about.The sub-field strategic of marked studiesapart-itselfa pursuit more by spuriousextrapolations supposedly of rational behaviourthanby any silenton this, with the knowledge of history-the disciplineremainedrather notableexceptionof RaymondAron.Since it was all in Machiavelli, therewas else to say. was therefore It that nothing significant theman who,more thanany should have combinedan academicinterest the subjectwith practical in other, should have ended by writing book thatmerelyrestated, involvement a albeit in elegantvein, the veritiesof balance of power theory14: aphorismin form in concealed stasis ideas. The sudden collapse of communism posed a rangeof practical issueson has which students international of relations asked to comment-nationalism, are secession among them. But there are other,more migration, proliferation, as we theoretical, challenges well.One is thatofprediction: surely all made fools of ourselvesby failingto see what would happen in I989 and 9ggi? One answerto thishas been thatof the historians, who arguethattheseeventshave shown how littlecan be producedby theorizing, thatwe should return and to This is, however, narrative.'5 anotherexample of a misformulated debate:here we are,once again,in the gripsof a falseidea of science.The argument that

' '5

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (London: Simon & Schuster,1993). John Lewis Gaddis,'Internationalrelationstheoryand the end of the Cold War', International Security
I7: 2, I992-3.

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International relations itsdiscontents and social science shouldpredict, because ifit does not it failsto meet the criterion of 'science', is doubly unfounded.On the one hand, thereis no reason why social science should imitatenaturalscience in everyrespect;on the other, has naturalscience itself increasingly moved away fromthe testof prediction, and some branches(evolutionary biologybeing an obvious example) make no pretenceto do so.'6The argumentthatscience should explain,not predict, is relevant much of both social and natural to science.If some social sciencescan predict, demography being a case in point,mostcannotand should not.'7 If the proper goal is explanation,not prediction,then another, more pertinent, challenge emerges,that of explainingwhy the Soviet systemfell no when it did. Obviously, explanation be purely can but international, nor can even withinthe analysisconfineitself solelyto what happenswithincountries, decisive countryin the whole story, the formerUSSR. For the failureof an in communismwas in severalrespects international one: first, the failureto spread world-wide and in the attendant loss of optimismand legitimacythat to to followed;thenin thefailure build up an effective alliancesystem rivalthat of the West; then the gradual, and increasingly visible, erosion of civilianand military, with theWest."8 the end communism In competitiveness, collapsed not because it failedin any absolute sense-its peoples were in the main neitherin revoltnor starving-but because of the perceivedfailureto compete,and to have any long-termprospectof successfully competing, with An theWest. explanation thatcollapsewould have to look both at thegeneral of and entropy the Soviet system, at theperceptions decisionsof itsleaders, of and but also at the way in which a rangeof international affected them. factors Whetheror not the Cold War was a distinctive kind of conflict, manywould now argue thatwith the collapse of communismthe world is returning a to on Much has been written the ways pre-Cold War,if not pre-i914, condition. in which the world has 'gone backwards' with the end of the Cold War,in the at case of one writer leastback to themiddleages.Thereare at leastsome senses in which the collapse of communismhas,if not takenus back to an anterior age, then in addition to revivinghistoricalclaims and symbolsposed very

,6

,8

Press,I972); A. F. Chalmers, 14iat ofscience (London: Cambridge University Rom Harre, The phiilosophiies Press,I982). (Milton Keynes: Open University is thistihing calledscience? The position thatthe taskof social science is to explain has come under challenge fromanother given the participationof the position,namely thatwhich claims thatexplanationas such is impossible, This approach,broadly confineourselvesto understanding. human subject,and thatwe must therefore any claim to objectivityin an may however carryits own dangers,surrendering known as hermeneutics, For in of exaggerateddeferenceto the subjectivity interpretation. arguments favoursee Steve Smith and relations (Oxford: Clarendon, I99I), Ch.4, and Martin Hollis, Explainitig anad understanditng international relationstheory',Ititerntatiotial problem,in international AlexanderWendt,'The agent-structure of'understanding'in Organization 3, Summer I987. One ironyof thisapproach is thatthe father 4I: relationsan advocate of a remorseless social sciences,Max Weber,was in regardto international the origins of nationalism There may be room forcompeting theoriesof, say, rationality and objectivity. of or the causes of war,but thismay have littleto do with the participation the theoristinvolved in these activities. I have gone into thisin greaterdetail in Chs. 8-iO of Rethinkitig relatiotns. international

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FredHalliday sharplysome classicalquestionsin international relations. One is that of the rightof nations to self-determination, the conditionsunder which the and international community recognizessuch a right: despitethe commitment to thatprinciplein the UN Charter, map of theworldcorresponds to any the less of of of pattern self-determination (already existing) peoples thanto the effects accident, war-wearinessand the ability of states to create nations within so frontiers arrivedat.A second classicalissue thatis verymuch on the agenda betweengreatpowers: are in a situation we is thatof conflict where, thefirst for conflict timein a century, betweengreatpowersis neither military takingplace nor being preparedfor,yet it is uncertainwhetherthis is a phase that can as endure. There are thosewho,arguing from history much as from logic,assert can thatno such abstention last,and thatthe disputesover tradeand influence thatwe alreadysee will lead to a revivalof all-out military competitionand blocs.'9 Others would point to the abilityof developed democraticstatesto thereof.20 is It withoutrecourseto war,or the threat manage theirdifferences which of thesetwo eventualities prevail.Two will fartoo earlyto be confident this hundredyearssince Kant'spages on Perpetual peacewere published, remains a vital question. Debates on the state: globalization and individual rights In contrast claims thatwe are returning the past,thereare otherswho to to above all claim that we are now in a distinctly new international system, because of what is termed'globalization'and the growthof'global' problems, 2' on especiallyecological ones. This coincideswith a greater interest, the part of analysts international of relations, the politicaleconomyand sociologyof in international relations-in how the politicalunit,the state, interacts with the structures economic power,and with the social trends, of includingthose of and the problemsof the 'global commons' thatare developingat the culture, level. The argumentfor globalizationis often put: changes in international world trade, communications media mean thatthe statehas lostits and finance, in its while old identities terms power to manage,and to insulate own societies, of theseseparatenation-states being eroded. are We live in a world of growing

Affairs 2, Spring 1992;John Mearscheimer, 71: '9 Richard Rosecrance, 'A new concert of powers?',Foreign Security i, Summer I990; 'Back to the future: instability Europe afterthe Cold War', International in 15: include Alain Robert Harvey,The return thestrong of (London: Macmillan, 1995). Other pessimisms 'The clash of Minc, Le nouveauMoyen Age (Paris: Gallimard,1993) and Samuel Huntington, civilisations?', Foreign Affairs 3, Summer 1993. 72: 20 Political Science Review80: 4, December I986; for Michael Doyle,'Liberalism and world politics',American liberal argumentsagainstsee Robert Latham,'Democracy and war-making:locating the international context', Millennium 2, Summer 1993, and Raymond Cohen,'Pacific unions: a reappraisalof the 22: Studies20: 3, 1994. theorythat"democracies do not go to war with each other"', ReviewofInternational 2' For representative (Aldershot: discussionssee Joseph Camilleri and Jim Falk, The end ofsovereignty? (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Edward Elgar, 1992) and Leslie Sklair,Sociology theglobalsystem of

Wheatsheaf, I99I).

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and relations itsdiscontents International that structures escape but or global structures, of transnational, not state-related, maybe benign(theEurodollarmarket); Some of thisactivity orthodoxcontrol. some trafficking); (pollutionand theerosionof the ozone some is not (narcotics Such ideas are not a productof the end our layer)maythreaten veryway oflife. has of of the Cold War,even ifthebreakdown thatconflict added to them:from has the I970S at least,if not since the i 840s, the theme of 'interdependence' been much debated, with the suggestion that growing contact between developed countriesat least reducesthe riskof war,lowersthe importanceof of Awareness the crisesof the the issuesand diminishes power of states. military world's ecology dates fromthe mid-i980s,but this had nothingto do with lost have, changesin theUSSR. The counter-arguments however, none of their tradedhigher noveltyof all thisis overstated-states force:thatthe historical WorldWar than now,and people percentagesof theirGNP beforethe First and are powers, considerable still ago; thatstates retain morea century migrated whether formal(EU) to developingnew ones; thatthe shift coalitionsof states, or informal(BIS, Group of Seven, etc.), should not be confusedwith the do thatas formsof globalization develop the responseof dissolutionof states; their but structures, to reassert manyis not to identify with new,cosmopolitan is partof peace,intone and own interests identities-fence-building a necessary but the realists. Ecological issuespose global problems, theyare not necessarily in by ones thatcan, or will,be resolved thinking termsof a global community, at or even global interest: best,it is above all stateswhich mustagree on, and or at to agreements counterthe ecologicalcrisis; worst, somewherethis enforce, as side of worst,policies on ecology will reflect much competitionbetween on states consensuson theglobal commons.Theargument the disappearance as not a can therefore seen to re-present be and on 'globalization', of the state, but an explorationof the system, shared assertionof a new international and globalization, a rangeof contradictory processesinvolvedin such selective and ethical, what is involved.22 of analytic different evaluations, be has relations alwayshad an ethicaldimension, it in debates International or and on the ethicsofwar,on the rights wrongsof intervention the conflicting than the claims of statesand human rights.Nothing is more prescriptive What we have seen in the past amoral'nationalinterest'. supposedlyobjective, as of few years is a strengthening this ethical interest, a responseto several has as issue, become Human rights, a legal and philosophical factors. convergent in debate over the past twentyyears,and the more prominent international by has issue of intervention been posed sharply a numberof post-Cold War Debates on these crises,notablyin Iraq, Somalia,Haiti and formerYugoslavia.

2' Among many critiquessee the first, in KennethWaltz,'The mythof nationalinterdependence', Charles (Cambridge,MA: MIT Press,1971) and one of the most corporatiotn ed., The internatiotial Kindelberger, economic international recent,Paul Hirst and GrahameThompson,'The problem of globalisation: 21: atid blocs', Ecotiomy Society 4, of national economic managementand the formation trading relations, should cast doubt on the claim thatsomethingcalled November I992. If nothingelse these arguments once existed and is now being lost. Isovereignty'

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FredHalliday matters foundedon a contraposition the morality states, are of of accordingto which it is stateswhich are the prime ethicalreferent source of orderand and justice,and a morality individuals, of accordingto which statesmustyield to the claims of individualsand to the implicit, egalitarian, redistributive claims arising from such individuals.23 This discussion has now intersectedwith another, older but now equallyvibrant discussion, the moralfoundation on of ethics itself-a debate in which defendersof universal,rationallybased principleshave increasingly been challengedby those who claim that ethics inhere only in specifichuman groups,communities.24 The state/individual, communitarian/universalist debatesare conceptually distinct, overlap: but those who hold to the primacyof individuals would tend to supportthe argument claimsthattranscend broaderentity, it nation, thatthereare universalist be any thosewho defendthe rights statescould well do so on stateor community; of universalist but in a world where nationalism, and its supposed principles, correlatestate sovereignty, have become such widespread-indeed, virtually universal-principles,the recourse to national 'tradition'and moral claims framedin national or 'traditional'terms is hard to resist:there are many governments, no means all in theThirdWorld,who have done so. by Expectations Against this background, any anticipation of where the discipline of is international relations going in the next quartercenturymustbe phrased with great caution, and must recognize the role of all three formative dimensionsof the subject-the evolutionof the discipline itself, developments in the other social sciences,and the course of world history. That said,some on classicaland pessimistic themesseem destinedto remainveryfirmly the the Otherswill attract attention commercial conflict. agenda-war, nationalism, nuclearproliferation. terrorism, of thoseat thepolicy end-ecology, migration, one As already suggested, overarching questionleft the end of the Cold War, by for between major states, allows of thatof the prospects peacefulcollaboration can envisage a future both a pessimisticand an optimisticresponse.We with for dominatedby new armsraces and competition spheresof influence, on in master's universities a couple of decades or lessproviding programmes the of blocs and theremilitarization developedsocieties. break-upof trading Rising ecological problems may lead to growing conflictbetween states,at the

23

24

relatiotns and For the critique of the moralityof statessee Beitz, Political tlheory itntertnatiotial atnd of for see atnd Thompson, Justice tvorld order, counter-arguments Nardin, Morality therelatiotis states, atnd society (Oxford: Oxford University of and the ever-pertinent arguments Hedley Bull in The atnarchical Press, 1977), Chs. 10-14. a of For statements the communitarianposition see Michael Walzer,Spheres of ofjustice: defetise pluralistm After tvirtue (London: Duckworth, equality (New York: Basic Books, 1983) and AlasdairMacIntyre, atnd
1981).

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International relations itsdiscontents and extremeinvolvingsanctionsagainstcountriesthat defyinternational norms, states. theselatter reflecting too brazenly interests the richer,stronger all the of Alternatively, may see the consolidationand expansion of the region of we where developed,demilitarized states, zone ofpeace or 'Lockean heartland', the previouspatterns competitive of interstate behaviouryield to new formsof Even were thelatter prevail one partof theworld, to in however, cooperation.25 with the other, it would leave open the question of how to conductrelations presumably non-Lockean, regions:we would stillbe a long way fromthat which FrancisFukuyama, situation citingKojeve,was to term'the realignment centralrelevancehere is the issue which Marxistand Of of the provinces'.26 writers above all have put on the agenda:the continuedexistence 'structuralist' in for of economic inequalities a worldofincreasing prosperity some.Whatever the inherentabilityof liberaleconomies to generalizetheirprosperity across the world,somethingthe last two centuriesof growthhave failedto do, any of because of the such generalization OECD levelsis now all themore difficult consumerism and ecological costsof industrialization the spreadof car-owning in theThirdWorld. is If the taskof the academic studyof international relations not to anticipate it respondto these these events, can nonetheless, a greater lesserextent, to or of and to the shifting perspectives social changes in the international system science itself.Here there are four broad guidelineswhich might serve to orientatethe disciplineand to meet the criteria which were outlinedabove.27 In the firstplace, IR should not lose sight of the requirementthat it be i.e. substantive, thatwhile theoryis a prerequisite, giventhatfactson theirown it which are capable of analysing are of limitedutility, should producetheories historical processesand specificissueswithinthem:a pursuitof methodology will forits own sake,divorcedfromthe analysis actual or historical of events, servelittlepurpose,except further isolate the subjectfroma wider public. to for Issues of methodologyand 'metatheory' important social sciences,IR are included: but they should be discussedwhere they belong, in philosophy For it departments. theoryto avoid thispitfall would do well to meet a second on desideratum, namelyforwriters IR to be more aware of,and forstudents to be more literate the philosophy the social sciencesin general.Part of of in, the claim to be able to trainthe mind restson the degree to which IR as a in can serveto educatestudents thoseissuesofmethod-fact and topic of study causation-which are common to the value, explanationand generalization,

(Chatham,NJ: of zones ofpeace/zones turmoil order: The realworld 2s Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky,
26

27

Chatham House Publishers,I993). and Francis Fukuyama,The end ofhistory thelastman (London: Hamish Hamilton, I992). Among the Posthistoire: history has interest: Lutz Niethammer's, many discussionsof Fukuyama two are of particular in cometo an end? (London:Verso, I992) and PerryAnderson,ed., 'The end of history', A zone of (London:Verso, I992). engagement An agenda thatin some measure parallelsthisone, and which seeks to link IR to broad conceptions of imagination:IR theoryand "classic social is Rosenberg,'The international social theory, thatofJustin Millenniumn i, Spring I994. 23: analysis"',

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FredHalliday exceptionalism, wherebyissues of social science social sciences: a factitious servesneither methodologyare debatedas if theywere peculiarto the subject, the teachingnor methodological precision. Thirdly, subjectneeds to maintain, withhistory: hitherto perhapstoo concernedto indeed develop, relationship its fromthe diplomatichistory emerged, distanceitself fromwhich it originally A IR needs now to have a more engaged relationwith history. groundingin in history a preconditionfor a propertheorizing IR. Equally,an attentive is to studyof history may serve,paradoxically, rescue IR fromthe assertionof continuities where none exists.If one of the most interesting transhistorical in of has system not developments IR is the examination how theinternational the for been continuously same since the Pelopponesianwars,the arguments a itself. The or againstthiscan only be made through criticalstudyof history to about how 'new' or perennialpatterns of same applies,a fortiori, arguments interstate relations are. contemporary the already evident trend towards Finally,the discipline can strengthen If of relations.-8 one of the most examination the ethicalissuesin international of evidentfeatures the contemporary public as well as academic debate is the emphasis on such ethical questions,it is equally strikinghow lacking in precisionthesedebatesusuallyare: nearlyall of historicaldepth or theoretical the the commentary say, Iraqi invasionof Kuwait or the Bosnian crisishas on, as aware terms, in the invocationof been conductedin apparently historically 'appeasement'; the debate on the moralissuesinvolved-when and how to yet whetherto accept one evil to preventanother, our obligationsto intervene, help other peoples-has been conducted in a moral discoursedevoid of any This is not,of course,to saythatsuch a dimensionwould dimension. historical serveto inform it providethe answersto all moral dilemmas: would however, debate and to sharpenthe choices thatpoliticiansand and enlightenpublic votershave to make. the Here, felicitously, worldsof classicaltheoryand of public policy debate on interaction. would certainly It could meetin creative appear, thebasisof the in of and pastthree-quarters a century, not leastat thistimeof much confusion each otheras much as and thattheyneed the international intellectual spheres, relationsexistsas an academic subject because of, and in ever. International permanent tension with, the world of historyand events.This, the most is enduring source of discontent, the one that should above all others be welcomed.

28

Affairs iJanuary I995, relations', Itnternational See Ken Booth,'Human wrongs and international 7I:
pp. I03-26.

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