Along the Road to International Theory

A retrospective on the development of international theory over the past quarter-century will emphasize elements of continuity and change, vigorous debates about both the appropriate subjects and methodologies for research, and a substantial advancement and cumulation of knowledge. As we would expect in any field that inevitably reflects innovations in social sciences, as well as the day-to-day changes and longer trends in international life, false starts, disappointments, intellectual faddism, and parochialism are also evident. Overall, however, one cannot fail to be impressed. A graduate course in international theory in the late 1950s would have in its reading list a selection quite deep historically and philosophically, going back to Hobbes, Rousseau, and Kant, but theoretically rather narrow in its range of problems and perspectives. The prevailing wisdom would be concisely summarized in the great works by E.H. Carr, Hans Morgenthau, Georg Schwarzenberger, and a few others. The year's readings would be organized within a single paradigm (unless Kant were emphasized) or intellectual tradition, describing and explaining the behaviour of states within a states system or 'society of states.' Today, it would be impossible to organize a similar course for one or two semesters and call it comprehensive. The outpouring of literature, much of it of high quality, has been so profuse in the intervening quarter-century that today we would be justified in claiming a special status for international theory as the core of