Justice, Order and Anarchy: The International Political Theory of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809— 1865)

Abstract

Despite penning nearly 2000 pages on international politics, the works of the anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon simply do not feature in either the historiography or the study of contemporary IR theory. I argue that this is unjustified by illustrating his compelling and enduring insights into the history and nature of `the international'. Proudhon employed a sociological and psychological theory of justice; he saw war and conflict as the motors of change in society; and he saw order as emergent from the deep anarchy of (global) society. The paper provides a contextualised reading of his works to illustrate its historical importance, and demonstrates its potential to contribute to current IR theory through a comparison with contemporary Critical Theory. `As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy.' `Man's belligerent nature is all that saves him from despotism.'