The English School and the practices of world society

Abstract

For someone who (albeit temporarily) left his partner and country to go to school in England with the English School, it is easy to agree with Barry Buzan: the English School remains an underexploited framework in IR. Buzan highlights one major reason for this. The methodological and epistemological pluralism of the English School makes it possible to reach out to adjacent literatures in and out of IR in such a manner that holism is secured and scientific certainty postponed. Andrew Linklater's relation to the English School over the last twenty years may serve as a sociological illustration of this. He has gone from being the official dissident of the School to becoming the principal advocate of its Kantian wing. Comparisons with American IR, where scholars of similar persuasion have been exiled to the margins of the discipline, testify to the relative pluralism and openness of the English School.