A MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN REALISM AND LIBERALISM?

30 A MIDDLE WAY BETWEEN REALISM AND LIBERALISM?

2 One of the biggest problems with the debate between realists and

3 liberals is the tendency for there either to be a strict polarization of

4 positions or for the neo-realists and neo-liberals to work within

5 a shared intellectual paradigm. The reason this is a problem is

6 because it seems fairly obvious that a full understanding of world

7 politics requires insights from realism and liberalism. The polarization

of IR into realist and liberal camps is a product of at least two of IR into realist and liberal camps is a product of at least two

The ‘international society’ approach to IR theory, often referred to as the ‘English school’ (Jones 1981) or the Grotian School (Wight 1991), exists outside the mainstream social science debates that dominate US international studies. Its own rich history is charac- terized by its attempts to avoid the polarization seen in the debates between realists and liberals and by its commitment to the study of what Hedley Bull, one of the school’s most important contributors, called ‘the anarchical society’ (Bull 1995: 74–94). As this term suggests the English school approach recognizes that anarchy is a structural feature of international relations but also recognizes that sovereign states form a society that uses conceptions of order and justice in its rhetoric and its calculations. The approach thus looks at balance of power and international law, great power politics and the spread of cosmopolitan values. The great strength of the approach is its refusal to engage with the positivist methodological turn in IR. Rather than adopt a positivist social science approach to the study of world affairs it offers a ‘methodologically pluralist’ approach to IR drawing

L IBERALISM : 78 THE BASICS

L IBERALISM : THE BASICS

1 on the study of history, philosophy and law (Buzan 2001: 472). This

2 open approach to IR is also, some argue, its greatest weakness as it

3 does not set up a straightforward research model which can be tested

4 against the world in a scientific manner (Finnemore 2001).

5 The international society theorists do not reject the insights of

6 Hobbes or Kant. Rather they work with them, seeking ways to link

their insights (rejecting claims to have exclusive insight into the ‘real

8 world’ of IR) and incorporating the work of classical international

9 lawyers such as Hugo Grotius and Emmerich Vattel. As with the

10 other approaches to IR there is diversity within the tradition. Bull

1 traced this diversity back to these intellectual forebears of the English

2 school. Grotius is associated with the ‘solidarist’ wing of the school

3 which has a significant optimism about the solidarity of states as the

4 authors of international law. Contemporary writers on this side of

5 the approach include Nicholas Wheeler whose Saving Strangers

6 argues for an emerging norm of humanitarian intervention in

7 contemporary international society (Bull 1969; Wheeler 2000).

Grotian solidarism is distinct from Kant’s cosmopolitanism. Indeed

9 Kant referred to Grotius, along with other international jurists, as

20 a ‘miserable comforter’ in his Perpetual Peace because of the way 1222 they accommodate the use of war under certain conditions. Vattel

2 (another of the miserable comforters) is associated with the more

3 conservative ‘pluralist’ side of the approach. The pluralists in the

4 English school argue that while states can agree on certain aspects

5 of international society the very character of international law limits

6 the ability of state to develop it beyond establishing the essentials

7 for a functioning international society. These debates are becoming

8 increasingly important to the study of IR. As the international

9 community responds to genocide in Kosovo and Rwanda, to the ‘war

30 on terror’, to the trial of former heads of state charged with war

1 crimes and crimes against humanity, the ideas of humanitarian

2 intervention and the progressive development of international law

3 are essential. In Chapter 8 we will return to the issue.