IR00 International Relations: Theories, Concepts and
Debates (Compulsory Module)
WEEK 1
Essential Reading:
n/a – no classes in the first week
WEEK 2
Essential Reading: x3
1) Buzan, B., & Lawson, G. (2013). The Global Transformation: The Nineteenth Century and
the Making of Modern International Relations. International Studies Quarterly, 57(3), 620–
634. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24017929# * V IMPORTANT TEXT*
Chapter 2: The Rise of Modern International order
When did modern international order emerge?
To what extent was the emergence of modern international order shaped by the experience of the
West?
Is history important to understanding contemporary world politics?
This chapter explores the rise of modern international order. It begins by surveying international
orders before the modern period, examining how trade and transport helped to tie together
diverse parts of the world. The chapter then examines debates about the 1648 Peace of Westphalia,
which is often said to mark the origins of modern international order. Next it turns to nineteenth-
century developments, ranging from industrialization to imperialism, which played a major role in
the formation of modern international order. Particular attention is paid to the main ideas that
underpinned modern international order, the ‘shrinking of the planet’ that arose from the advent of
new technologies, and the emergence of a radically unequal international order. The chapter closes
by assessing the significance of nineteenth-century developments for twentieth- and twenty-first-
century international relations.
- the discipline of International Relations is fundamentally concerned with the issue of ‘political
multiplicity’ (Rosenberg 2010). Its guiding question is how order can be created in an environment
that is fragmented rather than unified.
- Western ideas (such as human rights) and Western culture (particularly music) are well known
around the world. But why is this the case? Some people argue that Western power has arisen
because of its innate strengths: liberal ideas, democratic practices, and free markets (Landes 1998).
These people tend to see Western power as both natural and enduring. Others see Western
domination as rooted in specific historical circumstances, many of them the product of practices of
exploitation and subjugation (Hobson 2004). For these people, Western power in the contemporary
world is unusual and likely to be temporary. This debate is discussed in Opposing Opinions 2.1.
- First, the ‘rise of the West’ has occurred only relatively recently: over the past two or three
centuries. Second, many aspects of its rise can be traced to international processes, such as
imperialism and the global expansion of the market.
,- International orders are regularized practices of exchange among discrete political units that
recognize each other to be independent.
• It is possible to speak of multiple international orders in world history, perhaps even as far back as
ancient Sumer.
• In International Relations, the 1648 Peace of Westphalia is often considered to be the benchmark
date from which ‘modern’ international order emerged.
• More recently, scholars have viewed the emergence of modern international order as the product
of the last two centuries, as this is when various regional systems were forged into a deeply
interdependent, global international order.
The Nineteenth century saw the birth of international relations as we know it today. (Osterhammel
2014: 393)
During the nineteenth century, ‘social relations were assembled, dismantled and reassembled’.
(Wolf 1997: 391)
Nothing, it seemed, could stand in the way of a few western gunboats or regiments bringing with
them trade and bibles. (Hobsbawm 1962: 365
1789/1791: The French and Haitian revolutions begin a long ‘wave’ of ‘Atlantic Revolutions’ that lasts
until the 1820s. These revolutions introduced new ideas such as republicanism and popular
sovereignty and challenged the central place of slavery in the Atlantic economy.
• 1842: In the First Opium War the British defeat China, perhaps the greatest classical Asian power.
• 1857: The Indian Revolt prompts Britain to assume formal control of the Indian subcontinent,
while serving as a forerunner to later anti-colonial movements.
• 1862: The British Companies Act marks a shift to limited liability firms, opening the way to the
formation of transnational corporations as significant international actors.
• 1865: The International Telecommunications Union becomes the first standing intergovernmental
organization, symbolizing the rise of permanent institutions of global governance.
• 1866: The opening of the first transatlantic telegraph cable begins the wiring together of the planet
with instantaneous communication.
• 1884: The Prime Meridian Conference establishes world standard time, easing the integration of
trade, diplomacy, and communication.
• 1905: Japan defeats Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, becoming the first non-Western, non-white
great power
After 1800, there was a ‘great divergence’ between select Western states and much of the rest of
the world.
• There were three main sources of the ‘great divergence’: industrialization, the ‘rational’ state,
and imperialism.
• These three dynamics served as the mutually reinforcing foundations of modern international
order.
,• These dynamics were deeply intertwined with international processes, most notably
industrialization with deindustrialization, and rational states with imperialism.
A major consequence of the global transformation was the ‘shrinking of the planet’ via steamships,
railways, and the telegraph.
• These technologies increased the ‘regularized exchanges’ that serve as the foundations of
international order.
• These exchanges were increasingly managed by IGOs and INGOs.
• The modern international order that emerged during the nineteenth century was profoundly
unequal. The sources of this inequality included racism and economic exploitation.
2) Buzan, B., & Lawson, G. (2013). The Global Transformation: The Nineteenth Century and the
Making of Modern International Relations. International Studies Quarterly, 57(3), 620–634.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/24017929
- The Global Transformation narrates the transition of world politics to a Euro-dominated
international order IR: (i) the emergence and institutionalisation of a core-periphery international
order which was first established during the global transformation.
(ii) the ways in which global modernity has served to intensify inter-societal interactions, but also
amplify differences between societies.
(iii) the closeness of the relationship between war, industrialisation, rational state-building, and
standards of civilisation.
(iv) the central role played by ideologies of progress in legitimating policies ranging from scientific
advances to coercive interventions.
(v) the centrality of dynamics of empire and resistance to the formation of contemporary
international order through what Lawson and Buzan dub the ‘Long Nineteenth Century.’
Key dates that act as turning points in world order are:
• 1789: The French revolution unleashes republicanism and popular sovereignty against dynasticism
and aristocratic rule, while making use of novel organizing vehicles such as the levee en masse. (mass
national conscription, contributes to the 19 thC phenomenon of Nationalism, wherein states seek to
consolidate authority and consensus via framing imperialism as a facet of patriotism towards the
values of a citizen’s culture.
• 1840: This date signifies when the cloth trade between India and Britain was reversed, illustrating
the turnaround of trade relations between Europe and Asia, and the establishment of an unequal
relationship between an industrial core and a commodity supplying periphery.
• 1842: The First Opium War sees the British defeat the greatest classical Asian power, helping to
establish a substantial inequality in military power between core and periphery.
• 1857: The 1857 Indian Mutiny – lead the British to reconsolidate authority in the subcontinent,
transitioning from a mercantile presence to an official colonial authority.
, • 1859: The launching of the French ironclad warship La Gloire opens the era of industrial arms
racing in which permanent technological improvement becomes a crucial factor in great power
military relations.
• 1862: The British Companies Act marks a shift to limited liability firms, opening the way to
the formation of transnational corporations as significant actors in international society.
• 1865: The International Telecommunications Union becomes the first standing intergovern
mental organization, symbolizing the emergence of permanent institutions of global
governance.
• 1866: The opening of the first transatlantic telegraph cable begins the wiring together of the
planet with instantaneous communication.
• 1870: The unification of Germany serves as an indication of the standing of nationalism as an
institution of international society, as well as highlighting a central change in the distribution of
power.
• 1884: The Prime Meridian Conference establishes world standard time, serving to unite
the integration of trade, communication, and economic activity under a European format.
3) Document: Cecil Rhodes, "Confession of Faith" (1877) https://sites.pitt.edu/~syd/rhod.html
Source: John E. Flint, Cecil Rhodes (Boston: Little Brown, 1974), pp. 248-52.
Chosen Excerpts: To myself thinking over the same question the wish came to render myself useful to my country.
I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the
human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most despicable specimens of human beings what
an alteration there would be if they were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence, look again at the extra employment a new
country added to our dominions gives. I contend that every acre added to our territory means in the future birth to some
more of the English race who otherwise would not be brought into existence. Added to this the absorption of the greater
portion of the world under our rule simply means the end of all wars and the bringing of the whole uncivilized world
under British rule for the recovery of the United States for the making the Anglo-Saxon race but one Empire.
Africa is still lying ready for us it is our duty to take it - that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race
more of the best the most human, most honourable race the world possesses. To forward such a scheme what a splendid
help a secret society would be a society not openly acknowledged but who would work in secret for such an object.
What has been the main cause of the success of the Romish Church? The fact that every enthusiast, call it if you like every
madman finds employment in it. Let us form the same kind of society a Church for the extension of the British Empire. A
society which should have its members in every part of the British Empire working with one object and one idea.
- Here we see two out of the three key assertions from Dr Sinja Graf’s lectures: 2) the
advancement of the European administrative state and 3) a philosophy of progress
- Rhodes characterises the most exceptional culture and people as being Anglo-Saxon. By
arguing that it is Saxon, and by extension British, culture that is the most evolved he ascribes
to the idea that Britain has experienced positive linear progression at a faster rate than any
other nation/region.
- From a modern perspective this a clear example of unsubstantial racial science and critical
race theorists, such as Edward Said, would be quick to point out the flawed nature of any
