In this series, the idea is to engage with the work of EUI Scholars researching classical themes of IR (international orders, foreign policy, and so on) but enjoying less exposure in the SPS department, being because they approach their topic from a slightly different angle or simply because they belong to another structure inside the EUI. Starting with the presentation of Dr. Or Rosenboim, this new event will enable us to interrogate how the history of political thought and IR approaches combine, contrast, and support each other, both empirically and theoretically.
In recent years, historical scholarship has gained growing attention in the discipline of International Relations (IR). History came to be seen as more than a 'pool' of examples for theoretical arguments, as IR scholars have engaged in more sophisticated and innovative ways with the work of historians and with historical sources directly. In this context, I argue that the history of political thought can be particularly fruitful for scholars of IR, to elucidate and sharpen frequently used concepts by reconstructing their changing meanings through historical genealogical investigations. The history of political thought shows that key concepts - such as the 'international' and the 'global' - are not rigid, eternal or consensual.
The talk will addresses aspects of the intellectual histories of two meaningful spatial and conceptual notions in IR: the international and the global. While the international has often been interpreted as more limited in scope and scale than the global, both reflect domains of political knowledge and structure extending beyond the state. These domains have important political stakes grounded in issues of war and peace, the world’s growing interconnectedness and major transformations in world order. Yet, as the history of political thought shows, the global and the international remain in flux, undergoing continuous theoretical scrutiny and embodying ever-changing interpretations. In her talk, Dr. Rosenboim analyse different meanings of the global and the international in three distinct periods: the years around the two world wars, 1960-1980s, and in twenty-first century theorisations. Focusing on European and American perspectives, she traces continuities and changes in international and global thinking and highlights some of historical features of these locales that continue to shape our understanding of world politics today. This reflection will, hopefully, become a starting point for debate about the uses and significance of the history of political thought for IR scholarship now.
Dr Or Rosenboim is a Senior Lecturer at the department of International Politics at City, University of London and a Jean Monnet Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre of the EUI. She has written extensively for both IR and History of Political Thought publications, including the International Political Thought and Historical International Relations. chapter in the Routledge Handbook of Historical International Relations (2021).
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