The English School's Contribution to the Study of International Relations

Abstract

This article attempts to sketch the broad parameters of the English school's approach to International Relations. Rather than linking the English school to a via media and, in particular, to the idea of international society, it is argued that the school, from an early stage, has been committed to developing a pluralistic approach to the subject, expressed in both ontological and methodological terms. As a consequence, members of the English school not only distinguished ontologically between international systems, international societies and world societies, but they have also tacitly acknowledged that different methodologies are required to grasp the distinctive features of each of these ontological units. International systems are associated with recurrent patterns of behaviour that can be identified most effectively using positivist tools of analysis. By contrast, international societies need to be explored using interpretivist or hermeneutic methods that focus on the language that lies behind the rules, institutions, interests and values that constitute any society. Finally, world society can only meaningfully be discussed by drawing on critical theory that identifies the direction that the society needs to take in order for human values to be realized. Whereas monists wish to privilege a particular method and ontology, the English school can be seen to favour a pluralist approach that aims to expose the various cross-currents that prevent International Relations from moving in any one direction.