Approaches and theory in international relations

324 Pages·1980·19.467 MB·English

by  Trevor Taylor

north central
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Approaches and theory
in International Relations
Edited by Trevor Taylor
NORTH CENTRAL
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Longman London and New York
Longman Group Limited London
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This Collection © Longman Group Limited 1978
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First published 1978
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Approaches and theory in international relations.
Includes index.
1. International relations—Research—Addresses,
essays, lectures. 1. Taylor, Trevor.
JX129LA67 327.01 77-8093
ISBN 0-582-48539-8
Printed in (ireat Britain by
Richard Clay (The Chaucer Press) Ltd.,
Bungay, Suffolk.
Contents
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction: the nature of International ^
Relations Trevor Taylor
2 Theoretical approaches to International Relations: the
contribution of the Graeco-Romano world Robert 19
Purnell
3 European political philosophy and the theory of
32
International Relations P. Savigear
4 The revolutionary approach: the Marxist
54
perspective Tony Thorndike
5 The ‘peace through law’ approach: a critical examination
100
of its ideas H. Suganami
6 Power Politics Trevor Taylor 122
1 Decision-making analysis B. P. White 141
8 Military strategy Peter Nailor 165
9 A systems approach Richard Little 182
10 Communications theory R.I. Tooze 205
11 Integration theory Michael Hodges 237
12 Peace research David J. Dunn 257
13 Theories of International Relations: the normative and
280
policy dimensions G.L. Goodwin
Index 305
Notes on contributors
David J. Dunn. Lecturer in the Department of International Relations
and Politics, North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Contributor to The
Use of Force in International Relations, ed. Northedge (Faber,
1974), and articles in British Journal of International Studies,
Bulletin of the Conflict Research Society, Millennium and the
RUSI Journal.
G.L. Goodwin. Montague BurtonProfessor of International Relations,
University of London. Author of Britain and the United Nations
(Oxford Univ. Press, 1958), editor of University Teaching of
International Relations (Blackwell, 1952) and joint editor of New
Dimensions of World Politics (croom Helm, 1975). Contributor to
International Organization, International Affairs, Journal of Com¬
mon Market Studies, Government and Opposition.
Michael Hodges Associate Professor in the Department of Interna¬
tional Relations, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Author of Multinational Corporations and National Governments
(Saxon House, 1974), editor of European Integration (Penguin,
1972), contributor to Functionalism and International Relations,
ed. Taylor and Groom (Univ. of London Press, 1975), Policy-
Making in the European Communities, ed. Wallace and Webb
(Wiley, 1977), and articles in Current History.
Richard Little. Lecturer in the Department of Politics, University of
Lancaster. Author of Intervention: External Involvement in Civil
Wars (Martin Robertson, 1975).
Peter Nailor. Professor of History at the Royal Naval College, Green¬
wich. Author of‘Medes and Persians’, Lancaster Inaugrals (Univ.
of Lancaster, 1970) and a contributor to the following volumes:
International Society, ed. Twitchett (Oxford Univ. Press/RIIA,
1971), European Military Institutions (Scotland, Universities Ser¬
vices Study Group, 1971), The Roles of Maritime Eorces in the
Security of Western Europe (Southampton Univ., 1972), Manage¬
ment of Britain s External Relations, ed. Boardman and Groom
(Macmillan, 1973), Britain in the EEC, ed. Evans (Gollancz, 1973)
and War in the Next Decade, ed. Edmonds and Beaumont (Macmil¬
lan, 1975).
Robert Purnell. Senior Lecturer in the Department of International
Politics, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth. Author of The
Society of States (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1973). Contributor to
International Yearbook of Foreign Policy Analysis and other
hournals.
Peter Savigear. Lecturer in the Department of Politics, University of
Leicester. Joint editor. The Theory of International Relations
(Allen and Unwin, 1970) and a contributor to journals in the fields
of International Relations and French government.
H. Suganami. Lecturer in International Relations, University of Keele.
Trevor Taylor. Principal lecturer in the Department of International
Relations and Politics, North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Contribu¬
tor to The Use of Force in International Relations, ed. Northedge
(Faber, 1974) and articles in International Relations, The Year
Book of World Affairs and other journals.
A.E. Thorndike. Head of the Department of International Relations
and Politics, North Staffordshire Polytechnic, and a contributor to
journals on Carribean and Latin American affairs.
R.I. Tooze. Lecturer in the Department of International Relations and
Politics, North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Author of the Progress
of International Functionalism, British Journal of International
Studies, vol 3 no 2, July 1977.
Brian White. Lecturer in the Department of International Relations and
Politics, North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Author of‘The Study of
British Foreign Policy: some comments on Dr. Barber’s review
article; British Journal of International Studies, vol III, no. 3,
October 1977.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the American Academy of Political and Social
Science for permission to produce two diagrams reprinted from ‘Inter¬
national Propaganda and Statecraft’ by Bryant Wedge in volume no.
398 of THE ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, copyright 1971, by the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, all rights reserved.
Chapter 1
Introduction: the nature of
International Relations
Trevor Taylor
This collection of writings is about the development of the discipline of
International Relations, a subject which began to be studied formally on
any scale only after 1919 but which since has grown much, both in terms
of scholars involved and literature produced. By way of introduction to
the analyses which follow of how International Relations has been
studied and of the concepts and propositions which have been put
forward, there follows a brief survey of what International Relations is,
why it has been studied more and more during the course of this century
and what particular problems it faces.
International Relations is the discipline which tries to explain politi¬
cal activities across state boundaries and, to date, it has been chiefly
concerned with the political relations between governments, the official
representatives of states. These political relations are seen as having a
unique nature, and thus their study forms a separate branch of political
science, because they are conducted in a ‘political system’, in a ‘society’,
where there is no final, central authority: power, the ability to influence
others, is not centralized but is spread among various human organiza¬
tions, in particular, states, which recognize no superior political author¬
ity. They are ‘sovereign’ and, if they so wish, they may pursue their goals
by using their military forces in war. Raymond Aron and George
Quester are two scholars who have emphasized that international
politics gains many of its unique characteristics from the constant
possibility of war, which is in itself a special kind of human activity:
War is much more than simple violence, the violence which occurs in
many cities, in many societies. War is violence co-ordinated and
organised to a colossal degree, harnessing ‘economies of scale’ to make
possible destruction which would be unimaginable otherwise (Quester
1974, 2).
Why study International Relations?
If the above paragraph tells something about the nature of International
Relations, it tells little about why it is studied. Four arguments stand out
as to why scholars should and do pay great attention to international
political activity and attempt to draw up generalizations and theories as
to the nature of that activity. These arguments are listed below, but in no
special order of importance.
First, man’s behaviour in any of its aspects constitutes an interesting
1
2 Approaches and theory in International Relations
and worthwhile study. This applies as much to activities in the interna¬
tional political arena as to economic and social matters. All aspects of
social science share a fundamental concern with the same questions of
why man acts as he does and what choices are open to him. In the
centuries before the study of mankind was compartmentalized into the
modern social sciences so as to allow specialization, philosophers
intellectually roamed free, producing varied hypotheses about human
behaviour, with many referring to the political activities of individuals
and groups of people with regard to the world outside their own
particular social organization. For centuries thinkers have been con¬
cerned with the reconciliation of order, justice and change, both within
and between communities. In that political philosophers discussed the
politics of an environment where there was no central authority, they
were the first scholars of international politics and, in writing about the
relations between the Greek city-states or between the European states
of the eighteenth century, they left behind a great variety of hypotheses
to stimulate the imaginations and research of contemporary scholars.
Therefore, three chapters of this book endeavour to summarize the most
important aspects of this mass of thinking in an attempt to rectify a sin
of omission, the tendency of International Relations scholars since 1945
perhaps to neglect the contribution of political philosophers to their
subject. The chapters serve as a reminder that political thinkers had
much to say which was of relevance to international politics.
International Relations, then, represents part of man’s effort to
understand himself, but there is a second and essentially practical reason
for studying it, that the findings of scholars can contribute to the
formulation of foreign policy. For centuries, foreign policy steadily
became a more difficult and complex task for governments and more
and more personnel were allocated to it. In 1821, when Castlereagh was
the British Foreign Minister, the Foreign Office had a staff of twenty-
eight (Woodward 1962, 196). In 1973 the staff of the British Foreign and
Commonwealth Office totalled 10,400.' In addition, to get an accurate
idea of the number of personnel involved in Britain’s foreign policy
effort, it would also be necessary to take account of the civil servants in
other ministries having daily concern with Britain’s external affairs.
These could well total a further 10,000. In 1815, according to the
calculations of Small and Singer (1966), the international system
consisted of just twenty-three states, about half of which were small
units later integrated to become Germany and Italy. By 1973 the
international system comprised over 140 states, the great majority of
which were situated outside Europe.^ In the nineteenth century, foreign
policy was concerned largely with trade and security matters, but in the
twentieth it spread to embrace technology, communications, culture,
ideology and a whole range of economic matters with political aspects.
The problem of the growing complexity of foreign policy each year
grows more intense. From 1973, for example, governments in the West
had to give much greater attention to the problem of securing adequate