i ED IT ED B Y R OB ER T W. MU R R AY System, Society and the World Exploring the English School of International Relations Second Edition Tai Lieu Chat Luong This e-book is provided without charge via free download by E-International Relations (www. It is not permitted to be sold in electronic format under any circumstances. i System, Society and the World Exploring the English School of International Relations Second Edition E D IT E D B Y R OBE RT W.
MU R R AY ii E-International Relations www.info Bristol, England First published 2015 ISBN 978-1-910814-05-5 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-910814-08-6 (e-book) This book is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4. You are free to: • Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format • Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material Under the following terms: • Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. • NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
Any of the above conditions can be waived if you get permission. Please contact info@e-ir.info for any such enquiries. Other than the license terms noted above, there are no restrictions placed on the use and dissemination of this book for student learning materials / scholarly use. Copy Editing: Gill Gairdner Production: Michael Tang Cover image: TonyTaylorstock A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
iii E-IR Edited Collections Series Editors: Stephen McGlinchey, Marianna Karakoulaki and Robert L. Oprisko E-IR’s Edited Collections are open access scholarly books presented in a format that preferences brevity and accessibility while retaining academic conventions. Each book is available in print and e-book, and is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4. As E-International Relations is committed to open access in the fullest sense, free electronic versions of all of our books, including this one, are available on the E-International Relations website.
Find out more at: http://www.info/publications Recent titles Restoring Indigenous Self-Determination (new version) Nations under God: The Geopolitics of Faith in the Twenty-first Century Popular Culture and World Politics: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies Ukraine and Russia: People, Politics, Propaganda and Perspectives Caliphates and Islamic Global Politics (new version) About the E-International Relations website E-International Relations (www.info) is the world’s leading open access website for students and scholars of international politics. E-IR’s daily publications feature expert articles, blogs, reviews and interviews – as well as a range of high quality student contributions. The website was established in November 2007 and now reaches over 200,000 unique visitors a month. E-IR is run by a registered non-profit organisation based in Bristol, England and staffed with an all-volunteer team of students and scholars.
iv Acknowledgements I want to extend my sincerest thanks to E-International Relations for commissioning a second edition of this project. The faith that the entire E-International Relations team, especially Stephen McGlinchey, placed in this volume is unparalleled. I would also like to thank profusely the world-class collection of contributors to this volume, whose promptness and brilliance made the project worthwhile and who will hopefully provide students and scholars of the English School with food for thought. I am eternally grateful for the work and support provided to this project by Brianna Heinrichs, whose continual support is humbling.
Murray is Vice-President of Research at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy and an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He holds a Senior Research Fellowship at the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies and Research Fellowships at the University of Calgary’s Centre for Military and Strategic Studies and University of Alberta’s European Union Centre for Excellence. He is the co-editor of Libya, the Responsibility to Protect, and the Future of Humanitarian Intervention with Aidan Hehir (Palgrave, 2013), Into the Eleventh Hour: R2P, Syria and Humanitarianism in Crisis with Alasdair MacKay (E-International Relations, 2014), and International Relations and the Arctic: Understanding Policy and Governance with Anita Dey Nuttall (Cambria, 2014). v Abstract Since its reorganisation in the early 1990s, the English School of international relations has emerged as a popular theoretical lens through which to examine global events.
Those who use the international society approach promote it as a middle way of theorising due to its ability to incorporate features from both systemic and domestic perspectives into one coherent lens. Succinctly, the English School, or society of states approach of IR, is a threefold method to understanding how the world operates. In its original articulations, the English School was designed to incorporate the two major theories that were trying to explain international outcomes – namely, realism and liberalism. This second edition brings together some of the most important voices on the English School, including new chapters and insights from key English School scholars, to highlight the multifaceted nature of the School’s applications in international relations.
vi System, Society and the World Contents INTRODUCTION Robert W. THE STATE OF THE ART OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL Filippo Costa Buranelli 10 2. WORLD SOCIETY AND ENGLISH SCHOOL METHODS Cornelia Navari 18 3. REASSESSING THE EXPANSION OF INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Richard Little 24 4.
INTERPRETING DIPLOMACY: THE APPROACH OF THE EARLY ENGLISH SCHOOL Ian Hall 34 5. CIVILISATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Andrew Linklater 40 6. TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION: THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND IR THEORY IN CHINA Roger Epp 45 7. AN OVERVIEW OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL’S ENGAGEMENT WITH HUMAN RIGHTS Adrian Gallagher 50 8.
MORAL RESPONSIBILITY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: THE US RESPONSE TO RWANDA Cathinka Vik 54 9. THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION Tim Dunne 60 10. SHIFTING GEARS: FROM GLOBAL TO REGIONAL THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND THE STUDY OF SUB-GLOBAL INTERNATIONAL SOCIETIES Yannis A. Stivachtis 68 Contents vii 11.
ANOTHER REVOLT AGAINST THE WEST? Jason Ralph 87 12. FROM CINDERELLA TO BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: (DE)HUMANISING WORLD SOCIETY Matthew S. PLURALISM AND INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY Tom Keating 98 14. PLURALISM, THE ENGLISH SCHOOL AND THE CHALLENGE OF NORMATIVE THEORY John Williams 105 15.
GREAT POWER MANAGEMENT: ENGLISH SCHOOL MEETS GOVERNMENTALITY? Alexander Astrov 111 16. THE NEED FOR AN ENGLISH SCHOOL RESEARCH PROGRAMME Robert W. Murray 116 CONTRIBUTORS 126 NOTE ON INDEXING 129 viii System, Society and the World This project is dedicated to all of those students and observers of international relations, past, present and future, seeking a middle way through the thicket of self-proclaimed truths. 1 System, Society and the World Introduction R OB ERT W.
MU R R AY FR O NT I E R CE N T R E F OR PU BL IC POL IC Y A N D U N IV E R S ITY OF A L BE RTA, C AN AD A Most theories that examine the global arena focus on either one, or a small number of, issues or units of analysis to make their case about the nature or character of the global realm. While some theorists may desire alterations or a decline in the power of the state, states have not declined so far as to be removed from their place as the central actors in international relations. Even those efforts that aim at changing politics above the state level to focus more on humanity than purely state concerns often rely on states to implement new doctrines. The changes to interstate relations and the new issues facing the world at present require new ways of approaching international relations, without abandoning rational preferences completely.
One often overlooked theoretical lens which could allow for the type of theorising required to encompass a more accurate evaluation of contemporary international relations is referred to as the English School.1 Succinctly, the English School, or society of states approach, is a threefold method for understanding how the world operates. In its original articulations, the English School was designed to incorporate the two major theories that were trying to explain international outcomes – namely, realism and liberalism. In order to come to a better, more complete understanding of IR, English School theorists sought to answer an essential question: ‘How is one to incorporate the co-operative aspect of international relations into the realist conception of the conflictual nature of the international system.’2 According to English School logic, there are three distinct spheres at play in international politics, and these three elements always operate simultaneously. They are, first, the international system; second, international society; and third, world society.
Barry Buzan provides an explanation of each sphere: 1. International System (Hobbes/Machiavelli) is about power politics amongst states, and Realism puts the structure and process of international anarchy at the centre of IR theory. This position is broadly parallel to mainstream realism and structural realism and is thus well developed and clearly understood. International Society (Grotius) is about the institutionalisation of shared interest and identity amongst states, and Rationalism puts the creation and maintenance of shared norms, rules and institutions at the centre of IR theory.
This position has some parallels to regime theory, but is much deeper, having constitutive rather than merely instrumental implications. International society has been the main focus of English School thinking, and the concept is quite well developed and relatively clear. World Society (Kant) takes individuals, non-state organisations and ultimately the global population as a whole as the focus of global societal identities and arrangements, and Revolutionism puts transcendence of the state system at the centre of IR theory. Revolutionism is mostly about forms of universalist cosmopolitanism.
It could include communism but, as Wæver notes, these days it is usually taken to mean liberalism. This position has some parallels to transnationalism but carries a much more foundational link to normative political theory. It is the least well developed of the English School concepts and has not yet been clearly or systematically articulated.3 The English School incorporates realist postulates, such as an emphasis on the primacy of states interacting in an anarchic system, but combines that realist understanding with the notion of a human element emerging from the domestic sphere. Kai Alderson and Andrew Hurrell claim that ‘international relations cannot be understood simply in terms of anarchy or a Hobbesian state of war’.4 The most important element of the English School, international society, therefore operates based on the influence of both the international system (realism) and world society (revolutionism).
Within the English School itself there are two distinct divisions, which interpret the conduct and goals of international society very differently. The first is the pluralist account, which adheres to a more traditional conception of IR by placing its emphasis on a more Hobbesian or realist understanding of the field. Pluralists, according to Andrew Linklater and Hidemi Suganami, stress the conduct of states within anarchy but are still sure to note that states cooperate, despite the existence of self-interest. A pluralist framework places constraints on violence, but it does not outlaw the use of force and is, in any case, powerless to eradicate it ….
War is not only an instrument of realist foreign policy but is also a crucial mechanism for resisting challenges to the balance of power and violent assaults on international society.5 3 System, Society and the World The pluralist version of international society is founded upon minimalist rules, the protection of national sovereignty, and the quest to create and maintain international order. The constraints imposed on international society by the system of states and the condition of anarchy are thought to be the most important factors in explaining and understanding the conduct of a pluralist society of states, and such a close relationship to realist theory is what keeps the pluralist conception of the English School within a traditional IR framework. The second interpretation of international society is referred to as the solidarist account. Solidarist conceptions of international society are interpreted in various ways, and can incorporate a variety of IR theories.
Solidarists typically place their emphasis on the relationship between world society, or third level, and international society.