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First establishment
After WW1 we have the institutionalisation of the discipline with the establishment of a Chair of IRs at the University of Wales. The International society is destroyed by the Great War and is worried that another one may broke out. The main objectiveis to avoid war, which is now considered an ineffective instrument for foreign policy. A path of international cooperation is therefore initiated through new legislative principles and justice procedures that create a new diplomatic and legal order. -
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Era of Liberalism: Wilson adn Angell
Main current of thought in this period. The first objective is to institutionalise liberal principles as a reaction to war to achieve peace and security. The pioneers of liberalism, such as Woodrow Wilson, argue that it is necessary to have a fair distribution of power so that no state can prevail over the other and overcome secret diplomacy. Example of such vision is the birth of the League of Nations. Central is the idea of initiating a process of democratisation. -
League of Nations
Embryo of the United Nations. First attempt to create a collective security system. -
Permanent Court of International Justice
An organ which is recognized as an international jurisdictional power -
The twenty years'crisis
It's a Carr's book. Carr's analysis begins with the optimism that followed World War I that links to the League of Nations declarations and various international treaties. He tries to demonstrate how rational ideas of peace and cooperation among States were undermined in short order by the realities of chaos and insecurity in the international society. The condition sine qua non of his analysis is that in the study of IRs the relative balance of power must be acknowledged as a starting point. -
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Era of Modern Realism: Carr and Morgenthau
Carr and Morgenthau are the pioneers of this new current of thought. They argue that liberalism is nothing more than a utopia in that it has not taken into account a fundamental aspect of international relations in its analyses: the struggle for power and the interests of the States. Realism therefore rejects Machiavelli's hypothesis and the new subject of study is no longer what reality should be but what the reality is. Only thanks is this you can have a deep understanding of the real. -
Second establishment
Disicipline update in according to the new current of thought of Realism -
The "First Great Debate"
Clash between the two main strands of thought of the time. This is an ontological debate: Liberalism focuses on implementing rules to create a social order; Realism focuses on the study of the distribution of power among State actors. -
Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace
It is a book of political science of Hans Morgenthau published.
The book introduces the concept of political realism, presenting a realist vision of the power policy born in the USA and which has established itself during the Cold War. -
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The "Second Great Debate"
This is an epistemological debate between two types of scholars: those of first generation, or the "traditionalists", with a humanistic and historical academic background and an analytical approach characterised by an explicit faith in the exercise of the " Reason, "therefore with a normative character; And those of new generation, the "behaviourists", with a completely different background and a purely scientific approach. -
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Era of Neoliberalism: Deutsch, Keohane, Nye and Doyle
New attempt to formulate an alternative theory. Trying to avoid being utopian, they reject idealism and assume a more scientific approach. The development of mass consumption in Europe and in Japan has initiated international trade cooperation. There is a complete interdependence between States, therefore an absence of hierarchy and therefore military security is no longer fundamental, facilitating peaceful relations. This is also demonstrated by the emergence of IGO and the democratic process. -
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Era of Neomarxism: Cox and Wallerstein
They revalue the importance of trans-national relations by adopting a position different from neoliberals and Neorealists. They support the importance of the relative power of States to understand their relationships but confer a dual nature to them: they're "State of strength" and "rule of law" at the same time. Anarchy exists but it is a social factor and the struggle for power causes a social imbalance at international level, causing a dependence and underdevelopment in the south of the world -
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The "Third Great Debate" or interparadigm debate
It's an ontological debate and sees on the one hand the neo-realism and neoliberalism, on the other neomarxism. It is a neo-marxist criticism of the world political economy. -
Theory of International Politics
It is a Waltz's book. It offers a new theory, the neorealistic theory of IRs. Waltz argued that the fundamental "principle of ordering" of the international political system is Anarchy, which is defined by the presence of "functionally undifferentiated". Individual State actors lacking a supranational authority that stand out only for their "relative capacity". It's one of the most influential books in IRs, causing a radical transformation and bringing the concept of anarchy to the forefront. -
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Era of Neorealism/structural realism: Kenneth Waltz
It is a realist theory substantially different from the classical one. It focuses on the "structure" of the international system, defined as an anarchist society, in which states are similar units differing only by their "relative power". The great powers will always tend to be balanced and the smaller ones are allied with them to preserve their autonomy. Such power policies are adopted because of the nature of the system and not for the rational and selfish human nature. -
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The "Fourth Great Debate" or post-psotivist debate
It's an epistemological debate. A series of criticisms of positivists theory from alternative approaches post-positivists. The clash between these theories is also due to a radical change of the international context: following the end of the Cold War in fact the system has transformed from bipolar to multipolar, and several questions have become central in the agenda setting. Moreover, according to social Constructivism, the previous theories are excessively materialistic and conservative.