Classical approaches to international relations often focus on the problem of order, which is defined as a problem of under-supply. From Immanuel Kant to Hedley Bull to Anne-Marie Slaughter, the classical tradition focuses on understanding why there isn’t enough order in world politics and how to make more of it. The first project of international relations, it is said, is to create a foundation of order upon which other projects can be built.
In this tradition, ‘world order’ is understood to be an objective condition that is universally desirable. A closer look at the concept, however, makes it clear that it is politically contested, and every ordering project involves tradeoffs among interests and produces both losers and winners. This is equally true of the American ‘rules-based order’ after 1945 as it is of realist spheres of influence, and of British imperial ordering in the 19th century.
In his public talk Ian Hurd reframes the debate on world order for IR around a concept of order that acknowledges its political content. It considers various definitions of order in International Relations and shows how these deploy distinct relations with historical facts, scientific models, and policy goals. A political understanding of the idea of world order leads IR scholarship away from causal models and objectivist ontology, and as a result makes it easier to understand the long history of contestation around how world order should be made and who gets to make it.
Ian Hurd is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Weinberg College Center for International and Area Studies at Northwestern University (Evanston, USA).
This event is a joint event with the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at Universität Hamburg. It is part of the Hamburg Empirical Political Science Seminar Series - HPS³. Please find further information on the event and the seminar program on the HPS³ Website.
This is a public event and no registration is required.