The Historicity of International Politics

Klaus Schlichte is a professor of International Relations and World Society at the University of Bremen. His works, published in English and German leading political science journals, cover theories of political sociology, armed conflict and dynamics of state domination. He has carried out research in Germany, Senegal, Mali, Serbia, France and Uganda, and he has taught in the US, France, Kyrgystan and Germany. Stephan Stetter is a professor of International Politics and Conflict Studies at the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. His research, published in leading journals and with leading book publishers, addresses historical-sociological topics revolving around international politics, violent conflicts with a particular focus on the Middle East as well as EU foreign politics. He has carried out research in Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the EU institutions in Brussels.

• Introduction: 1. The presence of the past: imperialism and modes of historicity in international politics Klaus Schlichte and Stephan Stetter; Part I. The Imperial Past and Present in International Politics and IR: 2. Colonial origins – and legacies – of international organizations George Lawson; 3. Collective hegemony after decolonization: persistence despite delegitimation Thomas Müller; 4. The historicity of state formation: welfare services in Uganda and Cameroon Joël Glasman and Klaus Schlichte; 5. Privateering, colonialism and empires: on the forgotten origins of international order Benjamin de Carvalho and Halvard Leira; 6. Where did the Mongol empire go? The presences of a Eurasian steppe-nomadic past Einar Wigen and Iver B. Neumann; 7. Where would we be without the fog lifting in Austerlitz? Ruminations on the uses of history and sociology in IR Mathias Albert; Part II. Historical Sociology and the Imperial fundaments of international politics: 8. The afterlives of empires: notes toward an investigation George Steinmetz; 9. Divided world: encountering Frantz Fanon in Kabul Teresa Koloma Beck; 10. The Colonial origins of policing: the 'Domestic Effect' in the UK and the US Julian Go; Part III. Global History and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics: 11. Unearthing the coloniality in the international through the genealogy of IR in Japan and beyond Tomoko Akami; 12. Was the rise of the 'Third World' a theory effect? International relations and the historicity of economic expertise Daniel Speich Chassé; 13. The past and its presence in Ottoman and post-Ottoman memory cultures: the battle of Kosovo and the status of Jerusalem Anna Vlachopoulou and Stephan Stetter; Concluding observations: 14. Conclusion: can historicism win over IR? Ayşe Zarakol.

'Scholars of IR tend to treat history as 'one damn thing after another', as a case to be mined, or as happening before 1990. But history is not the past but the present. Citing William Faulkner, Barack Obama observed, 'the past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past.' History is ever present and quite alive. This extraordinary collection of essays by an all-star line-up shines alternative lights on how to 'do' history and the ways history 'matters'.' Michael N. Barnett, University Professor of International Affairs and Political Science, The George Washington University