The English School

The English School

1. What's English about the English School?

   • Term "English School" first used by a fierce opponent (Roy Jones) in 1981
   • Originated out of meetings from the British Committee on the Theory of International Politics in 1959 (Butterfield, Wight, Bull)
   • Influential in other areas of the world as well, mainly East Asia and Australia

2. Elements of English School Theorising

   • Interpretative Methodology
     • Pays attention to ideas and values
     • Focuses on a society and not a system
     • In contrast to a positivistic society
   • Historical Understanding
     • Academic knowledge needs to have historical depth
     • Insufficient to know only facts (are also constituted through human reality)
   • Normative Theory
     • Values are important and need to be subjected to critical scrutiny
     • Inform the selection of topics and guide one's interests (impact on public policy making)
     • Scholarship needs a position of detachment
   • Separation of Theory and Praxis
     • Critical of IR as an American discipline
     • Criticism of scholars who turned practitioners and vice-versa

3. The Three R's of International Relations

   • Martin Wight (1913-1972)
   • Three traditions
     • Hobbesian
       • Realist account
       • Pessimistic worldview
     • Kantian
       • Universalistic, cosmopolitan account
       • World society based on universal beliefs
     • Grotian
       • Linked to the English School
       • Rationalistic approach to accept the political realities but belief that social institutions help to create a better world

4. International Society

   • "A society of states (or international society) exists when a group of states, conscious of certain common interests and common values, form a society in the sense that they conceive themslves to be bound by a common set of rules, in their relations with one another, and share in the working of common institutions".
   • Anarchy is not perpetual nor is the balance of power an inherent consequence of anarchy
     • Rather, a balance of power is contrived
   • Intersubjectivity: States recognise their common values, norms, and interests and realise that they guide their actions

5. Elements of the International Society

   • Membership is restricted to the sovereign state
   • Agents: Diplomatic and foreign policy elites of the states, agents from international organisation, NGO's, and multinational corporations
   • Minimal common interests such as trade, travel, freedom, peace or simply the need for stability

6. Versions of International Societies

   • Pluralist
     • Geared towards the liberty of states and the maintenance of order amongst them
     • Rules are complied with because fidelity to them is relatively cost free but the collective benefits are enormous
   • Solidarist
     • Collective enforcement of international rules and the guardianship of human rights
     • More far reaching than the pluralist version

7. Civilising Process

   • Idea goes back to Norbert Elias, now brought forward amongst others by Andrew Linklater
   • Through increasing interconnectedness towards a civilising process
   • Kant's concept of affectedness
   • Through increasing cooperation and personal interchange, communities established in which people care about each other