Introduction: The Historical Turn of the Theory of International Politics

Abstract

For more than a decade, the origins and developments of the modern International Politics as an academic discipline have been widely researched. Out of these researches, some fruitful debates and findings have emerged. They include the close examination about the question whether and when “the first great debate between the realists and the idealists” took place. The debate on “the first debate” is still going on. We have, however, already reaped wide range of byproducts. It turned out that there were not coherent groups of either the idealists or the realists, and that the configuration of the then emergent study of international politics during the interwar era was quite different from what the dominant image of “the first debate” and the subsequent realist victory have told us.
These research and finding opened up a new sub-field of the study of the history of the theory of international politics. We could safely say that the historical turn of the theory of international politics is taking place. According to the scholar of history of political thought, David Armitage, his own research field is now taking the international turn and the fruitful cooperation and exchange of ideas look quite promising between international politics with the historical turn and political thought with the international turn.
The current issue of International Relations draws on this development and tries to examine the theories of international politics in a variety of historical and social contexts. By putting the theories in their historical contexts and social contexts, or by historicizing the theoretical activities of international politics, very different and unnoticed social and political aspects of the theory building emerge. It means to treat the theory of international politics not as objective tools to analyze the existing power relations but as an active engagement into the interpreting and reconstructing the reality. Then the research into the theory building has to deal with whole range of new issues of social and political contexts in which the theorists situate themselves and actively engage themselves.
Thus the introductory section talks about the relationship between theory building and the historical and social contexts. The first section touches upon the above mentioned development and delineate the rationale for this issue. The second section deals with the development of regional perspectives on international politics and tries to raise the question of inscribed Euro-centrism of the theory of international politics. The third section offers the brief overview of the articles in this special issue and talks about their significance in the current research project. The short concluding section touches upon the further prospects of the historical turn of the theory of international politics.