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The balance of power is considered by many IR scholars as the nearest thing we have to a political theory of international relations for it lets scholars to tackle central questions of the discipline such as what forms of international anarchy, and what level of interaction between actors will develop as a result of balancing behavior. Although the expression „balance of power? itself was first explicitly coined in Renaissance Italy, the conduct of state actors to meet its criteria goes back to ancient times. This paper will argue that Near East of the Late Bronze Age (LBA) constitutes a meaningful research topic for elaborating the balance of power theory. It was during the Amarna Age in particular that we see for the first time the birth of a genuinely cosmopolitan culture where the states became fully integrated in an international system. Despite IR studies - especially in the English School tradition - examining the LBA Near East, systematic analyses of this phase in international history from the premises of power balancing are still somewhat lacking. The paper suggests that by studying the states-system in the ancient Near East we can better understand the great power dynamics of the present-day region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that IR has tended to mischaracterise the 'social' basis of international society. States and other actors orient their behaviour towards shared understandings of cooperation not because of a prior common identity but because the provision of public goods provides a high value pay-off in terms of status. In the early part of the paper, we draw on Wittgenstein's ideas on rule indeterminacy to critique the idea of the causal power of norms, a view which animates a great deal of mainstream constructivism. Working with an alternative sociology of norms, it becomes possible to view the international social system as being produced through 'recognition games' played on many different boards. The goal of international social action is recognition of rightful membership of institutions and alliances, an argument familiar to English school writings in IR. China's struggle for status in contemporary international society provides an illustrative case study, one which avoids the stark choice between managing China's imminent threat (realism) or liberal socialization (constructivism). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper maintains that interdisciplinarity has been a factor in causing fragmentation in International Relations. However, interdisciplinarity is also a positive factor, deserving a place in IR. To make interdisciplinarity an asset in re-integrating IR (and international studies in general) interdisciplinary efforts must be organized in practice more systematically and carefully than usually done. Mere term 'interdisciplinary' does not cause or produce anything, it tends to remain just an empty slogan. If interdisciplinary efforts are really wished to pursue at the level of research programs, interdisciplinarity must be paid serious attention and thought. Instead of a theoretical model for a working interdisciplinary program, the paper suggests that we can learn from earlier and existing interdisciplinary programs. Three cases are discussed in this paper: 1) problem-oriented neodisciplinarity, where certain social and political problem(s) define the 'program or the field'; 2) core discipline-oriented multidisciplinarity, where a sort of active force of gravity of the core science draws separate disciplines together; 3) and research program-oriented multidisciplinarity, where a given research program itself is multidisciplinary. The cases are represented, respectively, by (Galtungian, i.e. Nordic) Peace Research, the interdisciplinary materialism of the Frankfurt School (of the 1930s), and theoretical and methodological pluralism of the English School. In comparison, Peace Research emerges as the weakest case, and the Frankfurt School as the strongest; however the English School is suggested as the best model for inter- and multidisciplinary research program in IR and international studies. It is claimed, finally, that the discussed cases are not contending alternatives but together teach us important insights for building an interdisciplinary program able to deal with important questions (of war and peace etc.), with normative orientation and flexibility in further development of the program along the lines of positive heuristics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the central role that C.A.W. Manning played in the conceptual development of international society. Deriving the term international society from his background in international law, Manning focused on society rather than law as his object of analysis and placed the concept at the centre of his analysis of international relations. For Manning, the ontology of international society required that IR have a special methodology to examine it and a distinct disciplinary institutionalization in order to understand its special complexities. However, curiously, if typically, Manning nowhere actually defines what he means by society. Instead, he deploys a number of different meanings in his analysis of international society. The first is the way it is now commonly understood in IR scholarship, using an analogy to political society, a society which the adjective social applies. Second, society means club or association, as in an international society of academics, or a sports club or any other special interest association. It is interesting that today a search for the words, international society, uncovers many more examples of this meaning than the first, though not in the context of the international relations. Finally, and more implicitly, Manning deploys society in an elite sense, as in high society, high culture, the civilized, and so on. I argue that each of the meanings is important and that while this has the advantage of lending a certain flexibility to his analysis, it also creates conceptual ambiguity.The third part of the paper compares Manning’s notion of international society with the subsequent development of the concept in the English School, as exemplified by the schema provided by Hedley Bull. The paper demonstrates how Bull’s tripartite framework, borrowed from Martin Wight, takes up Manning’s idea of international society, placing it between the realist concept international system and the idealist notion of world society or community. But the relativism inherent in this framework also changes the meaning of international society introducing normative elements that were not the purpose and object of Manning’s analysis.The paper concludes that debates about the membership of an English School of international relations are less important than critical examination of the development of core concepts such as international society. In this, it is suggested, a consideration of the teaching and writing of C.A.W. Manning is unavoidable. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper on how to study international norms. The notion of norms is quite common in the work of the English School, yet only a few scholars offer an explicit definition of an international norm and even fewer an operationalisation. Using English School theory on norms as well as insight from constructivism, this paper offers a theoretical and methodological account of the study of international norms. Hence, the paper answers questions such as "what is an international norm", "do norms matter at all in international politics", "how do international norms work", and finally but equally important "how do one measure international norms" Thus, this paper is a first attempt to make a sound, explicit research design on how to study international norms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper for presentation is a second draft (first draft was presented at BISA 2007) of the theoretical framework chapter for a longer project with the working title 'Consequentialist evaluation of security for cooperative International Society'. This project builds on my existing work where I have argued that security studies must be concerned with the consequences or effects of securitisation and desecuritisation, making a case for the existence of positive and negative securitisation and desecuritisation. Positive and negative hereby are derived from what in moral philosophy is known as a consequentialist ethic whereby an action's moral rightness is to be judged by its consequences, for security thus, the hitherto largely ignored question of securitisation for whom takes centre stage. So far, I have completed this, what I call 'consequentialist evaluation of security' for the environmental sector of security only [Floyd, Rita (2007) 'Towards a consequentialist evaluation of security: Bringing together the Copenhagen School and the Welsh School of Security Studies, Review of International Studies 33(2) & Floyd, Rita (2007) Typologies of Securitisation and Desecuritisation: The case of US environmental security 1993-2006 unpublished doctoral thesis University of Warwick]. My paper for presentation at this conference is the theoretical framework for the consequentialist evaluation of security for the remaining sectors of security, identified by the Copenhagen school of security studies as military, societal, economic and political security [Buzan, Barry et al (1998) Buzan, Barry; Waever, Ole; de Wilde, Jaap (1998) Security: A New Framework for Analysis (London: Lynne Rienner)]. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Hart's conception of law as the union of primary and secondary rules, this paper shows how this can form the basis for a theoretically based definition of international law, thereby demonstrating that Hart was jumping to conclusions when he stated that international law is 'sufficiently analogous' to domestic law to merit the title of law. This is done by analysing the existence of secondary rules at the international level, thereby showing that international law resembles a complex system of rules rather than merely a simple set of rules. Further, the paper briefly discusses the impact of this conclusion for IR theorising about international law's impact on state behaviour, with a focus on the English School's view of international law and its effects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper utilizes three central English school concepts (international society, institution, and world society) to explore the colonization of Africa. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to offer a typology of regional great power involvement. After defining Great Power status as an objectively, subjectively and intersubjectively constituted position within the hierarchy of international society, individual great power penetrations (GPPs) are, similarly, conceptualised according the their material/objectivist aspects (the projection of power), the powers' subjective motivations and their involvements' intersubjective results. These individual GPPs are then combined into 'global-regional interfaces' - structures comprising the great powers that are active in a given region, mediating between the global and regional level in a region-specific manner. A typology of such interfaces is then elaborated, based on their distribution of power and culture of anarchy. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to advertise the existence of the English School structural theory research program, to identify where we currently are in this research program and on the basis of my thesis research suggest how one can apply English School structural theory empirically. In the pursuit of this agenda, I will first discuss some general issues related to the operationalization of concepts and the establishment of measurement validity. Then I will critically engage with the idea of methodological pluralism in the English School tradition and formulate a three-tiered model for the development of the English School structural theory research program. Finally, with reference to my thesis research on Norden as a regional international society, I will advance the idea of two regimes - one international, one domestic - to establish relevant empirical indicators. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, the historiography of the academic discipline of IR, ever since its institutionalization (1919−), has been divided into three great debates. As a legacy of these debates the 'behavioralists', or those who believed in the methods of the natural sciences, left their mark on the field in the 1950s and 1960s. Although the positivistic approach is not anymore prevalent within the discipline, there's a clear indication that the IR theory has, even today, an exaggerated interest in the scientific explanation. This article will argue that the scholarly study should lean more on 1) historical analysis and there should be room for research agenda that is less focused on 'presentism', i.e. on contemporary history and current policy issues. Secondly, too much emphasis is put on Eurocentrism: important research topics outside the Occidental world are hence disregarded. As a result a distorted image emerges of how the modern international system came about. Perhaps more importantly, this state of affairs, to which the 'English school' has paid attention on its part, limits the understanding of classical concepts such as the balance of power, sovereignty, or even diplomacy reducing them exclusively to the domain of European states system. The aim of the paper is thus to examine the mutually beneficial interplay between history and IR theory by analyzing the 2) interstate relations in the Ancient Near East during the Late Bronze Age. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the defining research methods, the main methodological issues researchers grapple with, and the latest methodological developments in studies of international relations? What is the most logical way, taxonomically speaking, to consider ontology, epistemology, and the various methods, approaches and theories that comprise IR? This paper will begin with a discussion of the IR scholar's toolkit, including the distinction between methods, theories and approaches, the pros and cons of quantitative and qualitative approaches, the levels of analysis issue, the agent-structure debate, and the case study method. This will be followed by a discussion of ontology, because it is chronologically and conceptually prior to the next step, epistemology. Ontology will be considered in two forms, foundationalism and anti-foundationalism. Epistemology will then be considered in terms of three primary positions which flow out of one's ontological stance: positivism, scientific realism, and interpretivism. Within these three epistemological positions there are a large variety of methods, theories and approaches, including behavioralism, rational choice, game theory, Realisms, democratic peace theory, and neo-liberal institutionalism within the realm of positivism; the English School, Marxism, World Systems/Dependency Theories, critical theory, Alexander Wendt's social theory of international politics, and social constructivism (generally speaking) within what is called scientific realism; and normative approaches, classical Idealism, feminism (most), and post-modernism/post-structuralism within interpretivism. The paper offers a new taxonomy for considering these ontologies, epistemologies, theories and approaches, as well as an overview of the key and important recent literature in each. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a conceptual framework for thinking about international hierarchy based on Weberian ideas about social stratification and mechanisms of social closure. The model allows us to categorise hierarchical international systems in terms of three dimensions: the primary axis of stratification (class, status or authority); the basis for the legitimation of the distribution of authority (charismatic, traditional or rational-legal); and the form of closure through which the hierarchy is maintained (collectivist or individualist). This framework is then used to analyse the changing nature of diplomacy in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, from a charismatic status hierarchy based on a collectivist method of exclusion, to a rational-legal bureaucratic hierarchy based on a more individualist form of closure in the form of credentialism. The conclusion discusses how this perspective opens up new research questions in the comparative-historical analysis of international order and the normative analysis of international justice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that terrorism, even domestic terrorism, has always been a systemic phenomenon, accompanying and responding to waves of international society expansion. The current wave of terrorism is symptomatic of a clash within the international system itself. This clash cannot be attributed to economic or cultural differences alone. The limited room for upward status mobility within the international system is increasingly leading actors from “the South”/“the Third World”/“the Developing Countries” to conclude that it is the system that needs to be challenged, rather than any particular power within it. To support this thesis, I reanalyze waves of modern terrorism from an English School “society of states” perspective. A discussion of the world-status hierarchy is offered. In addition to Al-Qaeda operations, recent events, such as the French ghetto riots and the skirmishes over the Danish cartoons, are also explained within the framework of this model. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legacy of the United Nation's secretary-general Dag Hammarskjöld can be seen as the search for a political philosophy of the world organisation UN. The practical mystical Hammarskjöld, whose spiritual set of beliefs influenced his political activity, was always searching for universality and solidarity, just as it is written down in the charter of the UN. Like no one before him, Hammarskjöld was able to unite personal belief and political ratio in his office. This is the main reason why he became a respected and true international civil servant. Hammarskjöld was neither a pure idealist nor a pure realist. For Hammarskjöld, mystical belief always was characterized by practical political engagement. Due to his unconditional engagement in political crises during the Cold War he caused rejections in the East and in the West. The article examines the moral but not moralistic life and legacy of Hammarskjöld who united mystics and realistic political engagement. In doing so it draws on the "lessons learned" from a "practical mystical" and international civil servant. This is chiefly done in using the English School approach of international relations theory-which always had a great emphasis upon diplomacy-while at same time pointing out the impact of positive mimesis. Only in devoting his private life to God, Hammarskjöld was able to devote his official and political life to the UN. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how the contemporary global international society came about as a result of the expansion to planetary scale of a novel type of a society that emerged in Europe. A global international society may emerged from various civilizational cores of the ancient and classical world and from the takeover of the whole system by one of the civilizational cores. It outlines the classical expansion story in English school literature, as well as how the expansion literature is evolving.

The English School concept of practice is what Stephen Turner in The Social Theory of Practices would call a telic notion. A telic practice is 'an activity seeking a goal which is conceived as a result of following certain general principles of procedure'. Practices set standards which should be followed if the practice is to be accomplished. Practices are also normatised; a practice can be carred out badly. The English School considers diplomacy to be a practice, as well as war, recognition etc. Part of the agenda of the English School is to identify and evaluate contemporary and emerging practices. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is widely regarded as the founding textbook of International Relations. This should suffice to demonstrate the close, if not inextricable, link between the disciplines of International Relations and History, although each of them is an independent discipline on its own right, of course.However, although the historical approach to International Relations does have a glorious past, it is open to question whether it continues to retain its validity in view of the cascading changes that have been taking place in contemporary international politics. The present contribution to this roundtable discussion will seek to explore the current position and the future trends as regards the use of History in the study of International Relations. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract - The American Civil War is an important test case for offensive realism because it was the last occasion when offshore balancing by Britain could have prevented the United States from becoming a regional hegemon. Instead, Britain drew on the norm of nonintervention to justify a policy of neutrality. Offensive realists reject the idea that Britain was constrained by normative considerations but disagree about why Britain failed to operate as an offshore balancer. I acknowledge the importance of the offensive realistÂ’s regionalized approach to the international system, but use English school thinking to argue that the normative framework that Britain and the United States subscribed to must be taken into account to provide a coherent explanation of BritainÂ’s response to the civil war. Detailed archival research demonstrates that despite concern about US regional hegemony, Britain was unequivocally constrained by normative considerations. The case study suggests, therefore, that societal constraints were stronger than systemic ones. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]