International Society and the Academic Study of International Relations

Abstract

Bull’s importance in the academic study of international relations has long been recognized, but precisely where and how his work fits in is more contested. There is no doubt that he is a central figure in what has come to be called the English School of international relations — in terms of both his core focus on the idea of international society and of his view of the appropriate methods by which the subject should be studied.1 His reception in the United States, however, is more complex. Although his work on strategic studies won him very broad acclaim, and his attack on behaviouralism achieved widespread notice, The Anarchical Society and his broader ideas about international society have always fitted somewhat uneasily into the debates and academic categories of US international relations.