Historical Sociology Should Not Become a Subfield in International Relations.

It would be detrimental for both IR and historical sociologists in IR (HSIR) if historical sociology became a subfield in IR. Such a move would serve to “domesticate” historical sociology, leaving it to assume a defensive character more concerned with specialist forms of knowledge rather than with broader, general concerns. Not only this. By looking at the development of subfields in the human sciences, we can see that a narrow HSIR approach would lose its ability to converse with other IR subfields, the core of the discipline, and the broader field of historical sociology itself. The paper thus proposes the establishment of HSIR as a discipline in its own right. While the history of IR is a booming cottage industry, and while the sociology of the field has been the subject of some notable studies, historical sociology promises much more. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]