Historical IR and the promise of renewed dialogue between IR and history

Abstract

While International Relation (IR) has long relied on historical cases and data, in recent years the Historical IR subfield has moved beyond banal recognition of this relationship to help overcome IR’s presentism and encourage reflexivity on the historical foundations of IR theory. Yet, despite its successes, Historical IR has primarily distinguished itself via its contributions to IR, rather than as an interdisciplinary bridge between IR and History. This article sketches a path for Historical IR to cultivate new dialogue between IR and History. This bridge would not only benefit IR by bringing historians’ insights to IR in a more sustained manner but also facilitate opportunities for IR to contribute to History. Although this bridge necessarily implicates historians, our argument focuses on moves the Historical IR subfield could make to become more attractive to History. To foster deeper dialogue, we argue that Historical IR should both work to synthesize the historical elements it brings to IR to make itself more recognizable to historians and engage historiography to target IR’s contributions to historical debates. Doing so, we argue, will not only enhance Historical IR’s contributions to IR, but also make it a more suitable interdisciplinary bridge.