HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
INTRODUCTION
1) WHY?
Why is it useful for social scientists to study history?
Class answers:
To not make the same mistakes
To better understand the future (and decisions that are made) assumption: human
behavior is always the same
To understand what is happening in the way it is happening you should take into account
the history of several decades, then you can decide when something started and what
the political implications are; what does it take to understand a conflict and what does
it take to solve a conflict
To understand why certain institutions are formed the way that they did (for example the UN)
You study the past to understand how the world hangs together
Prof answers:
1. Historical legacies
o E.g.: ‘post-communist societies’ = a society that has left communism behind
o Present conduct is being burdened by the past
o Suggests that it is not so easy to shake off that past, it will linger into the present
and into the future; there was a lot of distrust in those societies which lingers into
the post-colonial societies; former colonized has a hard time to shake off their
inferiority and the former colonizer has a hard time to shake off their superiority
important to understand how the past influenced the countries to
understand how they have behaved and are behaving now
2. The politics of historical memories
o E.g.: Kiev and Russian foreign policy claims
o Politics draw attention to some things that have happened
o Historical memories (ways of remembering the past) are mediated, they are the
object of political structure, there are different ways of remembering the past,
political actors shift attention to where they want; different dimensions of the
past way down on a country
E.g. Estonia has been described as a post-communist and post-imperial
country 1 country carries at least 2 historical legacies
• Post-communist because communism was for some time the
political economic system and at the same time it was under
the Russian imperial dominance
o Historical legacy =/= historical memory: memory is (inter)subjective: it has been
created collectively with a lot of agency for political motivating actors
1
, Political memories
- Propagated by ‘memory activists’
o E.g.: Palestinian activists
- Based on ‘selection and exclusion’
o Selective showing of the past
o It is manipulative (talking about the political uses of history), in principal it should
be as factual and objective as possible but it is common and all political actors
do it and it is good for social scientists to understand this
o Past is endless (everything that happened until now), history is a particular story
about the past and is finite (not endless): a selection of the most meaningful
moments formed by the person him/herself, in order to figure out how the world
hangs together that history (that account of the past) is already informed by a
particular understanding of how the world hangs together be aware of this
potentially vicious circle and be truthful about it
- Depends on the ‘efficiency of political pedagogy’
o You have to put a serious systematic resource-heavy effort into it if you want this
thing to be successful, if you want to change the understanding of the past
- Show a high degree of ‘homogeneity’
- Relies on symbols and rites that ‘enhance emotions of empathy and identification’
3. The contingency of moral ideas and social arrangements
o E.g.: ‘gender equality’ or ‘natural slavery’ or ‘sovereignty’
Slavery was natural, it was meant by birth that people are meant to serve
or to dominate it is now denaturalized ; they are not slaves they have
been end slaves it is conductive of how social phenomena have
become a second nature of us
Sovereignty: in the past it was very common to think about the relations
with neighboring countries in an imperial way, now not anymore
o The current way of organizing things is not necessarily the best way or the most
natural way, neither does it means that it is desirable to change things, it only
says that things can be in another way
4. Lessons from history
o It will make you a better political leader, you can avoid making the same mistakes
o Skeptical because it assumes that a successful action in the past will also be
successful now or in the future (successful for whom, from which perspective,
what were the conditions…), explore them critically!
E.g.: the appeasement of Hitler in 1939, seems to be a straightforward
lesson (to not appease a dictator) but there are a lot of particularities to
this situation; is it really the case to globalize this? let’s draw
analogies, analyze it critically but not draw lessons straight away
2
, 2) WHAT?
What do you expect to learn about in this class? What people, events, concepts or processes
do you expect to learn (more) about?
Class answers:
- People
o Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, King Leopold II, Mao Zedong, Deng
Xaoping, Ho Chi Minh, Ashoka, Marco Polo
- Events
o Cuban Misle Crisis, Arab Spring, Congress of Vienna, Perrs Expedition, Start
of UN (C Yalta), French Revolution, Fall of Constantinople, Reconquista,
Division of Germany
- Concepts/processes
o Confucianism, decolonization, Polis (originally Greek city states; polity =
used in historical social science to refer to political communities without
immediately calling them states), feminism, power – balance of power (BOP),
peace negotiations (e.g. WW II), European Federalism 1944, Middle East, Pan
Arabism
- almost everything 19th century and beyond, 75% is Western International History
or the after effects of it
Prof’s expectations:
- IR as a scholarly discipline is ‘presentist’
o If you restrict your focus on politics from 19th century it is too narrow
- IR as a scholarly discipline is ‘Eurocentric’
o Bias
Is it a problem that IR as a discipline betrays a ‘presentist’ and a ‘Eurocentric bias’?
- It would be interesting, you could discuss it in much more detail because it is
narrowed down
- The broader you open scope, the more history you try to cover, the more the
presentation will be superficial, which is inevitable
- This course will be broad
- Non-Western powers are re-asserting themselves
o Historical legacies
o Historical memory
o E.g.: China, Turkey, there is a possibility that their current actions are being
influenced by historical actions, it is good to know which history they are
mobilizing
- What is the logic of the international system?
o Contingency of present arrangements
3
, - What is an ‘international system'? What is ‘the logic’ of the international system?
o Basic unit: state, sovereign state
o Social practices: borders, flags, anthems
o Rules and norms: sovereign equality
o Implication: anarchy, security dilemma, violence
o A comparative history of international societies: assumption is that for each
of these regions of the world some kind of societies have developed, there
were multiple polities, that they were aware of each other existence and that
they were regularly in interaction with each other (trade, cultural exchange,
conflicts) all of these international societies have developed rules, norms,
organizations to organize their common relations…
o The idea that each state is equally sovereign, these are all institutions of society,
it was an idea that informed policy, there should be an even balance of power
o Also the globally institutions of society will be discussed
3) HOW?
Textbook relevant for first 7 lectures (don’t have to study final chapter of book)
+ additional articles
Exam questions:
- Persons, concepts and events
o Situate in historical time and indicate the historical significance
o What, when, why important?
- A set of more substantive questions
o E.g.: what is the role of memory activists in fostering historical memories?
Illustrate with an example.
(from first class)
- An essay question
4
INTRODUCTION
1) WHY?
Why is it useful for social scientists to study history?
Class answers:
To not make the same mistakes
To better understand the future (and decisions that are made) assumption: human
behavior is always the same
To understand what is happening in the way it is happening you should take into account
the history of several decades, then you can decide when something started and what
the political implications are; what does it take to understand a conflict and what does
it take to solve a conflict
To understand why certain institutions are formed the way that they did (for example the UN)
You study the past to understand how the world hangs together
Prof answers:
1. Historical legacies
o E.g.: ‘post-communist societies’ = a society that has left communism behind
o Present conduct is being burdened by the past
o Suggests that it is not so easy to shake off that past, it will linger into the present
and into the future; there was a lot of distrust in those societies which lingers into
the post-colonial societies; former colonized has a hard time to shake off their
inferiority and the former colonizer has a hard time to shake off their superiority
important to understand how the past influenced the countries to
understand how they have behaved and are behaving now
2. The politics of historical memories
o E.g.: Kiev and Russian foreign policy claims
o Politics draw attention to some things that have happened
o Historical memories (ways of remembering the past) are mediated, they are the
object of political structure, there are different ways of remembering the past,
political actors shift attention to where they want; different dimensions of the
past way down on a country
E.g. Estonia has been described as a post-communist and post-imperial
country 1 country carries at least 2 historical legacies
• Post-communist because communism was for some time the
political economic system and at the same time it was under
the Russian imperial dominance
o Historical legacy =/= historical memory: memory is (inter)subjective: it has been
created collectively with a lot of agency for political motivating actors
1
, Political memories
- Propagated by ‘memory activists’
o E.g.: Palestinian activists
- Based on ‘selection and exclusion’
o Selective showing of the past
o It is manipulative (talking about the political uses of history), in principal it should
be as factual and objective as possible but it is common and all political actors
do it and it is good for social scientists to understand this
o Past is endless (everything that happened until now), history is a particular story
about the past and is finite (not endless): a selection of the most meaningful
moments formed by the person him/herself, in order to figure out how the world
hangs together that history (that account of the past) is already informed by a
particular understanding of how the world hangs together be aware of this
potentially vicious circle and be truthful about it
- Depends on the ‘efficiency of political pedagogy’
o You have to put a serious systematic resource-heavy effort into it if you want this
thing to be successful, if you want to change the understanding of the past
- Show a high degree of ‘homogeneity’
- Relies on symbols and rites that ‘enhance emotions of empathy and identification’
3. The contingency of moral ideas and social arrangements
o E.g.: ‘gender equality’ or ‘natural slavery’ or ‘sovereignty’
Slavery was natural, it was meant by birth that people are meant to serve
or to dominate it is now denaturalized ; they are not slaves they have
been end slaves it is conductive of how social phenomena have
become a second nature of us
Sovereignty: in the past it was very common to think about the relations
with neighboring countries in an imperial way, now not anymore
o The current way of organizing things is not necessarily the best way or the most
natural way, neither does it means that it is desirable to change things, it only
says that things can be in another way
4. Lessons from history
o It will make you a better political leader, you can avoid making the same mistakes
o Skeptical because it assumes that a successful action in the past will also be
successful now or in the future (successful for whom, from which perspective,
what were the conditions…), explore them critically!
E.g.: the appeasement of Hitler in 1939, seems to be a straightforward
lesson (to not appease a dictator) but there are a lot of particularities to
this situation; is it really the case to globalize this? let’s draw
analogies, analyze it critically but not draw lessons straight away
2
, 2) WHAT?
What do you expect to learn about in this class? What people, events, concepts or processes
do you expect to learn (more) about?
Class answers:
- People
o Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, King Leopold II, Mao Zedong, Deng
Xaoping, Ho Chi Minh, Ashoka, Marco Polo
- Events
o Cuban Misle Crisis, Arab Spring, Congress of Vienna, Perrs Expedition, Start
of UN (C Yalta), French Revolution, Fall of Constantinople, Reconquista,
Division of Germany
- Concepts/processes
o Confucianism, decolonization, Polis (originally Greek city states; polity =
used in historical social science to refer to political communities without
immediately calling them states), feminism, power – balance of power (BOP),
peace negotiations (e.g. WW II), European Federalism 1944, Middle East, Pan
Arabism
- almost everything 19th century and beyond, 75% is Western International History
or the after effects of it
Prof’s expectations:
- IR as a scholarly discipline is ‘presentist’
o If you restrict your focus on politics from 19th century it is too narrow
- IR as a scholarly discipline is ‘Eurocentric’
o Bias
Is it a problem that IR as a discipline betrays a ‘presentist’ and a ‘Eurocentric bias’?
- It would be interesting, you could discuss it in much more detail because it is
narrowed down
- The broader you open scope, the more history you try to cover, the more the
presentation will be superficial, which is inevitable
- This course will be broad
- Non-Western powers are re-asserting themselves
o Historical legacies
o Historical memory
o E.g.: China, Turkey, there is a possibility that their current actions are being
influenced by historical actions, it is good to know which history they are
mobilizing
- What is the logic of the international system?
o Contingency of present arrangements
3
, - What is an ‘international system'? What is ‘the logic’ of the international system?
o Basic unit: state, sovereign state
o Social practices: borders, flags, anthems
o Rules and norms: sovereign equality
o Implication: anarchy, security dilemma, violence
o A comparative history of international societies: assumption is that for each
of these regions of the world some kind of societies have developed, there
were multiple polities, that they were aware of each other existence and that
they were regularly in interaction with each other (trade, cultural exchange,
conflicts) all of these international societies have developed rules, norms,
organizations to organize their common relations…
o The idea that each state is equally sovereign, these are all institutions of society,
it was an idea that informed policy, there should be an even balance of power
o Also the globally institutions of society will be discussed
3) HOW?
Textbook relevant for first 7 lectures (don’t have to study final chapter of book)
+ additional articles
Exam questions:
- Persons, concepts and events
o Situate in historical time and indicate the historical significance
o What, when, why important?
- A set of more substantive questions
o E.g.: what is the role of memory activists in fostering historical memories?
Illustrate with an example.
(from first class)
- An essay question
4
