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The Study of International Relations in Great Britain: Further Connections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

Gene M. Lyons
Gene M. Lyons
Affiliation:
Dartmouth College
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Abstract

Aside from language, students of international relations in the United States and Great Britain have several things in common: parallel developments in the emergence of international relations as a field of study after World War I, and more recent efforts to broaden the field by drawing security issues and changes in the international political economy under the broad umbrella of “international studies.” But a review of four recent books edited by British scholars demonstrates that there is also a “distance” between British and American scholarship. Compared with dominant trends in the United States, the former, though hardly monolithic and producing a rich and varied literature, is still very much attached to historical analysis and the concept of an “international society” that derives from the period in modern history in which Britain played a more prominent role in international politics. Because trends in scholarship do, in fact, reflect national political experience, the need continues for transnational cooperation among scholars in the quest for strong theories in international relations.

Type
Review Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 38 , Issue 4 , July 1986 , pp. 626 - 645
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1986

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References

1 Lewis F. Richardson, a British mathematician who turned his hand to questions of military strategy, has been cited fairly frequently by American behaviorists, and less often by British scholars. For the attention paid to Richardson by Americans, see Finnegan, Richard B. and Giles, John J., “A Citation Analysis of Patterns of Influence in International Relations Research,” International Studies Notes 1 (Winter 1975), 11–21Google Scholar. For a similar observation on the work of Richardson, see Michael Nicholson, “The Methodology of International Relations: British and American Approaches,” presented to the International Studies Association, March, 1985 (mimeo.), 4.

2 Reynolds, review of The Dynamics of Interdependence by Scott, Andrew M., International Affairs 59 (No. 3, 1983), 475Google Scholar.

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4 See Reynolds, P. A., “International Studies: Retrospect and Prospect,” British journal of International Studies, 1 (No. 1, 1975), 1–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For background on the study of international relations in Britain, another useful source is Porter, Brian, ed., The Aberystwyth Papers (London: Oxford University Press, 1972)Google Scholar.

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