English School pluralism does not deserve its current reputation as a statist, conservative and declining facet of the English School project.
Does it still make sense to speak of a global international society? And what methodological challenges does this pose to the English School?
World society as humanity is both beauty and beast; the concept thus ought to capture the complexity of ways human beings manage the very plurality of the human condition
The most powerful societies have not come under sustained pressure to construct an international society that does justice to different cultures or civilisations.
Until practitioners begin to define precisely what an ES research programme would look like, the School’s impact on international theory remains outside the mainstream.
A post-Iraq United States suggests a weakening of the West’s willingness to maintain dominance; and the rise of China promises the return of a general balance of power.
The expansion of the international society as articulated by the English School has come under increasing criticism for its putatively pronounced Eurocentric bias.
The English School in IR theory has an under-theorised understanding of humanity which in turn fails to explain why ‘we’ should act to save ‘them’.
Contrary to the billiard-ball metaphor of international politics, states are not just individual elements in a system. They form a ‘world society’.
This volume, now in its 2nd edition, brings together some of the most important voices on the English School to highlight the multifaceted nature of the School’s applications in IR. Edited by Robert W. Murray.
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