Britain’s response to the Spanish Civil War

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511862373.011

7 - Britain’s response to the Spanish Civil War

investigating the implications of foregrounding practice for English School thinking

from Part III - The evolution of practices

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Richard Little

Edited by

Emanuel Adler and

Vincent Pouliot

Show author details

Richard Little: Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Emanuel Adler: Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Vincent Pouliot: Affiliation:
McGill University, Montréal

Book contents

Get access

Summary

At first sight, it might seem that taking practices seriously has little that is new to offer members of the English School because they have habitually acknowledged the centrality of practice in International Relations (IR) and attacked any attempt to establish a categorical distinction between theory and practice. Instead, they have worked on the hermeneutic assumption that to develop a theoretical understanding of IR it is necessary to start from the premise that we need to explore “the thought already embodied and at work in practice.” Not only has the English School always acknowledged the centrality of institutional practices in the constitution of international society, but there is now also a growing interest in how the specific practices that constitute the international society have formed and evolved over time. At the same time, however, there is now an emerging recognition that the foregrounding of practices in IR is drawing attention to an expanding body of theoretical literature on the nature of practice that reveals how much the English School has tended to take the idea of practice for granted. By drawing more explicitly on this literature, the English School can clarify the distinctive nature of its approach as well as rendering its theoretical underpinnings more robust. Although English School thinking can be viewed as part of the turn to practice that is now taking place in IR, as Adler and Pouliot argue in Chapter 1 in this volume, it is possible and indeed perhaps even essential to view this notion from a much wider and more ambitious perspective. The aim of this volume is to show that taking international practices seriously can be used to provide an interparadigmatic framework that can then be drawn upon by all the disparate approaches that have developed across the multidimensional field of IR. However, from Adler and Pouliot’s perspective, the intention is not thereby to eliminate the differences generated by these competing approaches but rather to find a way of ensuring that their adherents can all engage in a common and meaningful conversation.

Type: Chapter
Information: International Practices , pp. 174 - 199

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511862373.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alexandrowicz, C. H 1958 The Theory of Recognition The British Year Book of International Law 34 176Google Scholar

Alpert, Michael 1997 A New International History of the Spanish Civil WarBasingstokeMacmillanGoogle Scholar

Bain, William 2003 Between Anarchy and Society: Trusteeship and the Obligation of PowerOxfordOxford University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Berridge, Geoffrey 1980 The Political Theory and Institutional History of States SystemsBritish Journal of International Studies 6 82CrossRef Google Scholar

Brauer, Kinley J. 1972 British Mediation and the American Civil War: A ReconsiderationThe Journal of Southern History 38 49CrossRef Google Scholar

Bull, Hedley 1984 Intervention in World PoliticsOxfordClarendon PressGoogle Scholar

Bull, Hedley 2002 The Anarchical Society: A Study of Order in World PoliticsNew YorkColumbia University PressGoogle Scholar

Bull, HedleyWatson, Adam 1984 The Expansion of International SocietyOxfordClarendon Press

Buzan, Barry 2004 From International to World Society? English School Theory and the Social Structure of GlobalizationCambridgeCambridge University PressGoogle Scholar

Buzan, BarryLittle, Richard 2000 International Systems in World History: Remaking the Study of International RelationsOxfordOxford University PressGoogle Scholar

Carlton, David 1971 Eden, Blum and the Origins of Non-InterventionJournal of Contemporary History 6 40CrossRef Google Scholar

Carr, E. H 1984 The Comintern and the Spanish Civil WarLondonMacmillanCrossRef Google Scholar

Deutscher, Tamara 1984 IntroductionThe Comintern and the Spanish Civil WarCarr, E. H.Deutscher, TamaraLondonMacmillanGoogle Scholar

Dunne, Tim 2005 System, State and Society: How Does it All Hang Together?Millennium 34 157CrossRef Google Scholar

Fabry, Mikulas 2010 Recognizing States: International Society and the Establishment of New States Since 1776OxfordOxford University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Finney, Patrick 1997 The Origins of the Second World WarLondonArnold

Gallagher, M. D 1971 Leon Blum and the Spanish Civil WarJournal of Contemporary History 6 56CrossRef Google Scholar

Goda, Norman J. W 1993 The Riddle of the Rock: A Reassessment of German Motives for the Capture of Gibraltar in the Second World WarJournal of Contemporary History 28 297CrossRef Google Scholar

Graham, Helen 2005 The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short IntroductionOxfordOxford University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

1997 5

Jackson, Robert 2000 The Global Covenant: Human Conduct in a World of StatesOxfordOxford University PressGoogle Scholar

James, Alan 1993 System or Society?Review of International Studies 19 269CrossRef Google Scholar

Keens-Soper, Maurice 1978 The Practice of a States-SystemThe Reason of States: A Study in International Political TheoryDonelan, Michael D.25LondonAllen & UnwinGoogle Scholar

Keohane, Robert O. 1988 International Institutions: Two ApproachesInternational Studies Quarterly 32 379CrossRef Google Scholar

Kleine-Ahlbrandt, William L. 1962 The Policy of Simmering: A Study of British Policy During the Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939The HagueMartinus NijhoffGoogle Scholar

Koivisto, Marjo 2010

Krasner, Stephen D 1999 Sovereignty: Organized HypocrisyPrincetonPrinceton University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Little, Douglas 1985 Malevolent Neutrality: The United States, Great Britain, and the Origins of the Spanish Civil WarIthacaCornell University PressGoogle Scholar

Little, Douglas 1988 Red Scare, 1936: Anti-Bolshevism and the Origins of British Non-Intervention in the Spanish Civil WarJournal of Contemporary History 23 291CrossRef Google Scholar

Little, Richard 1987 Revisiting Intervention: A Survey of Recent DevelopmentsReview of International Studies 13 49CrossRef Google Scholar

Little, Richard 1993 Recent Literature on Intervention and Non-InterventionPolitical Theory, International Relations, and the Ethics of InterventionForbes, IanHoffman, Mark13BasingstokeMacmillanCrossRef Google Scholar

Little, Richard 2007 The Balance of Power in International Relations: Metaphors, Myths and ModelsCambridgeCambridge University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Little, Richard 2007 British Neutrality versus Offshore Balancing in the American Civil War: The English School Strikes BackSecurity Studies 16 68CrossRef Google Scholar

March, James G.Olsen, Johan P. 1998 The Institutional Dynamics of International Political OrdersInternational Organization 52 943CrossRef Google Scholar

Morgenthau, Hans J 1973 Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and PeaceNew YorkAlfred A. KnopfGoogle Scholar

Nalbandov, Robert 2009 Battle of Two Logics: Appropriateness and Consequentiality in Russian Interventions in GeorgiaCaucasian Review of International Affairs 3 20Google Scholar

Navari, Cornelia 2008

Navari, Cornelia

Northedge, Frederick S 1966 The Troubled Giant: Britain Among the Great Powers, 1916–1939LondonBellGoogle Scholar

Osiander, Andreas 1994 The States System of Europe, 1640–1990: Peacemaking and the Conditions of International StabilityOxfordOxford University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Rees, Tim 2003 Between the Rock and a Hard Place: Spain’s International Relations in the Twentieth and Twenty-First CenturiesJournal of Contemporary History 38 633CrossRef Google Scholar

Rosenau, James N. 1964 International Aspects of Civil StrifePrincetonPrinceton University PressCrossRef

Schatzki, Theodore R 1996 Social Practices: A Wittgensteinian Approach to Human Activity and the SocialNew YorkCambridge University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Schroeder, Paul W 1976 Munich and the British TraditionThe Historical Journal 19 223CrossRef Google Scholar

Schroeder, Paul W 1994 The Transformation of European Politics: 1763–1848OxfordClarendon PressGoogle Scholar

Smyth, Denis 1986 Diplomacy and Strategy of Survival: British Policy and Franco’s Spain, 1940–41CambridgeCambridge University PressCrossRef Google Scholar

Stapleton, Edward J. 1887 Some Official Correspondence of George CanningLondonLongmans, Green & Co

Stone, Glyn 2005 Spain, Portugal and the Great Powers 1931–1941BasingstokePalgrave MacmillanGoogle Scholar

Teschke, Benno 2003 The Myth of 1648: Class, Geopolitics and the Making of Modern International RelationsLondonVersoGoogle Scholar

Vigezzi, Brunello 2005 The British Committee on the Theory of International Politics (1954–1985): The Rediscovery of HistoryMilanEdizioli UnicopoliGoogle Scholar

Waltz, Kenneth N 1979 Theory of International PoliticsReading, MAAddison-WesleyGoogle Scholar

Warner, Geoffrey 1962 France and Non-Intervention in Spain, July–August 1936International Affairs 38 203CrossRef Google Scholar

Wheeler, Nicholas J 2000 Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International SocietyOxfordOxford University PressGoogle Scholar

Wilcox, Francis O 1938 The Localization of the Spanish WarThe American Political Science Review 32 237CrossRef Google Scholar