Challenging Realism by Returning to History: The British Committee's Contribution to IR 40 Years On

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show how the English School rejected the realist conception of international anarchy, and how as a result its members developed the notion of international society. I challenge both the position that includes the English School in the realist paradigm tout court and its variation that sees the English School as a form of `normative realism', distinct from Kenneth Waltz's neorealism, but quite close to Morgenthau's classical realism. My argument also goes further than the views of those who see the English School or, alternatively, the work of its key members, as occupying a kind of middle ground, with close affinities in many respects to the realist theory. Normally, such a view is presented in terms of an evolution of thought from an early `realist' phase to a later `rationalist' or `solidarist' period. To show the nature of the English School's reaction against realism, the article focuses, in the first part, on the early work of the British Committee, in particular on Wight's inaugural presentation, which later became the chapter entitled `Why Is There No International Theory?'. The second part discusses how Wight and Bull developed the rationalist tradition, giving origin to two distinct approaches: Wight's liberal rationalism and Bull's pluralism.