Imperialism and Internationalism in the Discipline of International Relations

Extract

Imperialism and Internationalism in the Discipline of International Relations, David Long and Brian C. Schmidt, eds., SUNY series in Global Politics,; Albany NY; State University of New York Press, 2005, pp. x, 212.

Scholars from both sides of the Atlantic with similar academic interests have produced a trailblazing book on international relations (IR). Each author represented in this edited book voices his or her dissent to the standard interpretation that IR came about through the so-called realist-idealist debate in the interwar period. They aim to provide a revisionist account of the emergence of IR by challenging the foundational myth that the realist paradigm of the struggle for power among nations eclipsed the preceding idealists' benign vision of a peaceful world order. The writings of such luminaries as E.H. Carr and Hans Morgenthau helped to propagate and cement a rather inaccurate picture, derived from the Anglo-Saxon experience and applied to other parts of the world. The challenging revisionists doubt that the debate ever took place in the way conventional IR scholars suppose. They reckon that the corps of IR academicians, mostly liberal in their outlook, was too heterogeneous for any paradigm-shifting to be recognized at any point.