The missing tradition of the ES : including Nietzschean relativism and world imagination in extranational studies

Summary, in English

Starting from Barry Buzan and Richard Little’s recent assertion in Millennium that ‘international relations has failed as an intellectual project’, I argue that if the study of international political theory is to learn anything from this failure, it is the need for a conversation that encourages heterologue. If such a conversation is to be of any value at all then it needs to escape the binary dualisms or ‘debates’ that are too often said to characterise the discipline of International Relations (IR). Instead, I argue that a reformulated English School (ES) could serve as a medium for such a conversation, providing that the missing tradition of Nietzschean Relativism is included in the heterologue. The inclusion of postmodern insights encourages us to acknowledge that states (and therefore also the idea of ‘international’) are important fictions which rest on a world imagination. Finally, I argue that if we seek to overcome the failure of IR and engage in a conversation about international political theory that includes the missing tradition, then we will also have to acknowledge that a reformulated ES should better be understood as ‘Extranational Studies’.

• Author: Ian Manners
• Publishing year: 2003
• Language: English
• Pages: 241-264
• Publication/Series: Millennium: Journal of International Studies
• Volume: 32
• Issue: 2
• Links: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/03058298030320020101
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: Millennium Publishing Group
• Topic: Political Science
• Keywords: International Relations; English School; World Imagination; Extranantional Studies
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 0305-8298