1 - The idea of ‘the English School’ as a historical construct

Summary

The idea of the English School, or the view that such an entity exists, is now firmly established in the community of scholars specializing in International Relations across the world, especially since Barry Buzan's call, at the 1999 annual conference of the British International Studies Association, to ‘reconvene the English School’. This has resulted in a dramatic rise in the volume of conference papers and published works on a wide variety of themes associated with the School's key texts and its research agenda (Buzan, 2001; www.leeds.ac.uk/polis/englishschool/). But the idea of the English School is itself only about twenty years old. The purpose of this chapter is to trace the formation of this idea in the specialized academic discourse of International Relations. It is in this branch of knowledge that the idea can be said to find its home, even though the tradition of international thought which the School represents in broad outline is arguably as old as the Westphalian states-system itself.

The need to trace the emergence and evolution of the idea of the English School stems from the fact that, during the twenty years or so since the first reference was made to the School's presence (Jones, 1981), there has been some deep discrepancy, as well as convergence, among the chief commentators' views on the School's existence, identity and contributions.